An oil painting of only moderate quality (and in poor condition) showing the 'Chesapeake' on the left and 'Shannon' to her right, both in starboard bow view, closely engaged off Boston on 1 June 1813 during the Anglo-American War of 1812. No land is in sight but local craft appear in the background to the left. 'Shannon' flies a Union flag at the fore and a blue pennant at the main. 'Chesapeake' is shown with early American flags: at the mizzen, a naval ensign consisting of US red-and-white horizontal stripes with a white anchor diagonally set in a blue upper quadrant at the hoist; at the main a pennant with a red fly and, at the hoist, 13 white stars in a row on a blue field, set above a plain blue flag with 17 visible stars at random; and at the fore a white flag with the blue legend 'Sailors Rights / and / Free Trade' (in capitals). These were the ostensible causes of the war.

'Shannon' was one of the best frigates in the Royal Navy, her captain being Captain Philip Broke. He and 'Shannon' had already had a successful career by this time and he regularly engaged in gunnery practice and other drills which brought his crew to such a high pitch of efficiency that ships sent out to the American station were instructed to exchange a number of men with him, so that others could benefit and his example be spread. He was at this point off Boston watching the 'Chesapeake', a slightly larger American frigate, then in harbour there under command of Captain Richard Lawrence. The latter unwisely decided to challenge Broke and in a short, sharp action of only fifteen minutes the 'Chesapeake' was captured with heavy loss. Broke led about 50 men in a boarding party to the cry 'Follow me who can': Lawrence was mortally wounded, his famous last words - or at least last message - being 'Don't give up the ship'. Broke too was so seriously wounded by a cutlass blow to the head that it ended his active career but he became a national hero overnight after a string of American successes against British ships, and was made a baronet. Throughout the 19th century, as 'Broke of the Shannon', he remained a talisman of patriotic courage and the virtues of naval training.

A damaged press cutting, dated in manuscript 'April 1890' (probably 1 or 2 April), has been stuck on the bottom left corner of the canvas, recording the start of the hundredth year of Sir Provo Wallis (b. 1 April 1791), who was second-lieutenant in 'Shannon' and took the 'Chesapeake's' surrender, given that Broke was out of the fight through wounds and the first lieutenant was also killed. This left Wallis in command for a few days with the result that he benefited from a provision made in the 1870 Admiralty retirement scheme that any surviving officer who had commanded a ship in the French wars of 1793-1815 be retained on the active list for life as a courtesy. Wallis in fact retired ashore as a vice-admiral in 1857 and in 1877 became Admiral of the Fleet, but thereby remained formally at the head of the active list, increasingly celebrated by sheer longevity and mentally alert almost to the end, until his death aged well over 100 in February 1892. The artist of this picture was previously wrongly recorded as 'J. Jordan' but the canvas is unlined with 'Shannon & Chesapeake / 1813 / Painted by T. Jordan' clearly inscribed on the back. This appears to be original or at least very early. [PvdM 9/11]