In a final twist, when George Watt, Shannon’s first lieutenant, attempted to run up the British colours on the Chesapeake, he hoisted them below the stars and stripes in the confusion. The timbers that once reverberated to the sound of gunfire now echo to the chink of china and slurping of soy lattes. Some have carpenter’s marks while others bear the scars of battle.Ĭhesapeake Mill, as it’s known, finally stopped operating in the 1970s and now houses an antiques emporium and vegan café. Many were used for the interior of a new watermill at Wickham, Hampshire, where they can still be seen today.

The Royal Navy repaired the captured ship and briefly took her into service but, in July 1819, the Chesapeake was broken up in Portsmouth and her timbers sold off for building material. Before it could even be delivered, he had sailed out of Boston that very day with the express intention of taking on Shannon. Lawrence, who became captain in May 1813 after he had achieved a victory over HMS Peacock, never received the letter, but it made no difference. The border controversy rumbled on until 1846, when the 49th parallel was finally accepted as the boundary line between Canada and the US. At the end of the year, a peace treaty was signed at Ghent, but before news of it reached North America the British mounted another attack, this time a doomed assault on New Orleans.Īlthough naval issues became less pressing, the treaty settled very little.

The British marched on Washington and burned the White House. US commerce was strangled and, in August 1814, an amphibious force landed in Maryland. While the war at sea began badly for the Royal Navy, Britain soon flexed its maritime muscles.

Two attempts to invade Canada were made in 1812 the following year, the US captured and burned York (Toronto).Īnother American incursion in 1814 was stopped at Lundy’s Lane, near Niagara, but British plans to advance south were also scuppered by an American naval victory on Lake Champlain. The US declared war on Britain in June 1812, the root cause was the Royal Navy’s pressing of allegedly British seamen from US ships, and the seizure of merchant vessels attempting to break the British blockade of France during the Napoleonic Wars.ĭisputes over the border with Canada heightened tensions, as some Americans saw Britain’s ongoing war with France as an opportunity to extend territory northwards. A conflict between the US and Britain that confusingly – given this war's name – lasted from mid 1812 until early 1815.

Britains navy war of 1812