Don’t give up the ship!
James Lawrence
Tradition has it that Capt. James Lawrence said these heroic words after being mortally wounded in the engagement between his ship, the U.S. frigate Chesapeake, and H.M.S. Shannon on 1 June 1813. As the wounded Lawrence was carried below, he ordered ‘Tell the men to fire faster! Don’t give up the ship!’ Although the Chesapeake was forced to surrender, Captain Lawrence’s words lived on as a rallying cry during the war. Oliver Hazard Perry honored his dead friend Lawrence when he had the motto sewn onto the private battle flag flown during the Battle of Lake Erie, 10 September 1813. (William S. Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History [Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1992] 2: 559)