The Origin of Don't Give Up the Ship Day

"Don't Give Up the Ship Day" isn't a federal holiday. No one gets the day off, and the banks aren't closed. But it is a way for the U.S. Navy to honor one of its most legendary heroes, a commander who embodied the Navy's fighting spirit and inspired it in sailors for generations to come. 

Captain James Lawrence became a midshipman as a teenager and, within a decade, was commander of his own ship. His star was already on the rise when the United States declared war on Great Britain during the War of 1812. The immortal words he shouted at his men during that war would be among his last, but they became a rallying cry for the U.S. Navy for centuries to come.

Lawrence had a long career as a fighting officer before being promoted to Captain and taking command of the USS Chesapeake in 1813. During the Quasi-War (an undeclared conflict with France), he saw action aboard the USS Ganges and the USS Adams, which earned him his promotion to Lieutenant. During the Barbary War, he joined the raid to burn the captured USS Philadelphia in Tripoli Harbor. As commander of the USS Hornet during the War of 1812, he captured the HMS Peacock off the coast of South America.

In March 1813, he came home to the United States, where he was made a Captain and given command of the USS Chesapeake, a three-masted, 38-gun heavy frigate. At this phase in the war, Britain's Royal Navy had a highly effective blockade in place, crippling the U.S. economy by bottling ships up in their home ports. Lawrence the Chesapeake's first mission was to fight its way out of Boston Harbor. 

Almost immediately after leaving port, the Chesapeake met the HMS Shannon, a smaller 38-gun frigate but one with highly-trained and capable gun crews: the Shannon's commander, Capt. Philip Broke had been burning American ships in front of the port for nearly two months, issuing a challenge to the Chesapeake to meet him in single-ship combat. Lawrence never received the challenge, but he was determined to fight the British. The Chesapeake set sail on June 1, 1813. 

The two ships were fairly evenly matched. The Chesapeake had a larger crew, but they were relatively new to the ship. The Shannon's crew, while smaller, had been trained to fire into an enemy's hull to kill its gun crews. They met at around 5:30 in the evening but fired the first shots at 6 o'clock. Shannon struck first, hitting Chesapeake's gun ports and sweeping the American decks with cannonades. Chesapeake's helm and fore-topsail halyards were destroyed, leaving it unable to maneuver. It then became lodged against its British foe. 

The British continued to rake the decks of the Chesapeake until a gunpowder store exploded, causing Capt. Broke to order his men to board the American frigate. Lawrence, mortally wounded, ordered his men: "Don't give up the ship. Fight her till she sinks." He was carried below decks as the British boarding party took control of the Chesapeake. Some 72 Americans were killed in all.

The capture of the Chesapeake was big news in the ongoing war, as was the death of Capt. James Lawrence. He was commended for gallantry in combat by both Americans and British alike, and his remains were buried with full military honors in Halifax, Nova Scotia (he would later be moved to Trinity Church Cemetery in New York). But the story doesn't end there.

Lawrence's friend, Oliver Hazard Perry, got the news while fighting the British on Lake Erie. He commissioned a new battle flag with white letters on a field of blue that read "DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP." He flew this flag aboard his ship, the USS Lawrence, as he defeated British and Indian forces, cutting off their supply lines in the region. 

The flag is now immortalized forever in the halls of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Today, "Don't Give Up the Ship Day" is celebrated by those familiar with it on June 1. The words Lawrence uttered on the deck of the Chesapeake are words the Navy and its sailors live by, reminding them of the Navy's core values and to never, ever give up.