Re: Fir-Built Frigates

Just had a look see at: http://www.maritime-scotland.com/shannon.html ,
all
but one of my books on the subject somewhere's down the basement.

It would seem that Chesapeake and Shannon were almost identically armed
with
28-29 18 pounder long guns and another 16-20 32 pound carronades and
assorted smaller weapons. Shannon mounted 53 guns and Chesapeake 49,
certainly close enough.

"The Commodores" maintains that Chesapeake was a hard luck ship. Her
crew
suffering from low morale and of whom "...Many were foreigners, to whom
appeals for allegiance were meaningless." It's a pity the author does
not go
on to break the crew down by nationality ;) Her three ranking officers,
although experienced, had only recently been assigned to the ship.

It would seem that her loss was due mainly to her captain's belief,
based on
previous actions, that any American frigate could be expected to
overcome
any British ship(s) not of the line.

Imagine the arrogance and victory disease that would lead to such an
unreasonable state of mind...Automatically assuming that your force is
superior to an enemy's is a recipe for disaster that RN frigate captains
of
the time had been made all to well aware of.

Derek as I've only consulted two sources would you please clarify your
declaration that Chesapeake had the long range advantage? The difference
in
18 pounders could not have been more than one or two in either ship's
favor
it would seem.

Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: "Derek Fulton" <derekfulton@bigpond.com>
To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2002 11:46 PM
Subject: Re: Fir-Built Frigates

>
> The Chesapeake had the long range advantage ...
>
> Cheers
>
> Derek