looking out, beheld the Philadelphia in flames, and the little ketch bearing Decatur and his men fading rapidly away through the darkness toward the harbor mouth.  Six months later, they watched the American assault upon the harbor, but their hearts fell when the American squadron finally gave up the attempt and withdrew.  It was not until the following year that peace was made, and Bainbridge and his men released, after a captivity of nineteen months.  Never since that time has the United States paid tribute to any nation.

When the second war with England began, President Madison and his advisers thought it foolhardy to attempt to oppose Great Britain on the ocean, for she had the strongest fleet of any nation in the world, and so decided to confine the war entirely to land.  It was Bainbridge who brought about a change of this unwise policy by impassioned pleading, to the everlasting glory of the American navy.  Hull resigned the Constitution to him, after his victory over the Guerriere—­it was really for fear that Bainbridge would get command of the ship that Hull had sailed from Boston without orders—­and Bainbridge sailed for the South Atlantic, and captured the British frigate Java, after a terrific fight, in which he was himself seriously wounded.  This was his last fight, though the years which followed saw him in many important commands.  For sheer romance and adventure, his career has seldom been excelled.

Another hero of the war of 1812, whose name is associated with a deed of imperishable gallantry, was James Lawrence.  He had entered the navy as midshipman in 1798, at the age of eighteen, and served in the war against Tripoli, first under Hull and then under Decatur, and accompanied the latter on the expedition which destroyed the Philadelphia.  But the deed by which he is best remembered is his fight with the British frigate Shannon.  In the spring of 1813, he was assigned to the command of the frigate Chesapeake, a vessel hated by the whole navy because of the bad luck which seemed to pursue her.  Lawrence accepted the command reluctantly, and proceeded to Boston, where she was lying, to prepare her for a voyage.

A crew was secured with great difficulty, most of them being foreigners, and his officers were all young and inexperienced.  What the crew and officers alike needed was a practice cruise to put them in shape to meet the enemy, and Lawrence knew this better than anybody, but when the British frigate Shannon appeared outside the harbor with a challenge for a battle, Lawrence, feeling that to refuse would be dishonorable, hoisted anchor and sailed out to meet her.

The Shannon was one of the finest frigates in the English navy, manned by an experienced crew, and commanded by Philip Broke, one of the best officers serving under the Union Jack.  The ships ranged up together and broadsides were delivered with terrible effect.  Lawrence was wounded in the leg, but kept the deck.  Then the ships fouled, and Lawrence called for boarders, but his crew, frightened at the desperate nature of the conflict, did not respond, and a moment later he fell, shot through the body.  As he was borne below, he kept shouting, “Don’t give up the ship!  Fight her till she strikes or sinks!  Don’t give up the ship!” his voice growing weaker and weaker as his life ebbed away.