did the us have navy ships in the chesapeake bay during the war of 1812

Moments later, the captain of the Leopard responded with a barrage of broadsides, killing three Americans and wounding eighteen.

When the British commander requested permission to search the ship for deserters, the American commodore James Barron refused to muster his crew for inspection.

Its decks scattered with cargo and its guns unwisely stowed, the vessel made an appealing target for the crew of a British vessel, the HMS Leopard, who intercepted it off the coast of Norfolk and aimed to take revenge. In June 1807, the Chesapeake set sail from Norfolk for the Mediterranean. They vowed to make an example of the brazen Englishman, who joined the crew of an American frigate, the USS Chesapeake. Ratford later boasted of his escape to the “land of liberty” in Norfolk’s streets, where his contempt incurred the ire of British authorities. CozzensĪs his Royal Navy vessel patrolled off the coast of Virginia, Londoner and former tailor Jenkin Ratford and four other crewmen decided to steal a boat and desert to the shores of Norfolk. An 1897 drawing of the HMS Leopard firing upon the USS Chesapeake, by Fred S.

Did the us have navy ships in the chesapeake bay during the war of 1812