HMS Shannon defeated and captured USS Chesapeake off Boston, Massachusetts, on 1 June 1813 during the War of 1812. The brief action caused severe casualties on both ships, including the deaths of the American commander James Lawrence and the Shannon's first lieutenant. Chesapeake was taken into Halifax as a prize.

The battle generated British, Canadian and American poems, songs and broadside ballads, often presenting sharply opposed versions of the same combat. Lawrence's command to persevere became poetic shorthand for American courage, while British verse celebrated Shannon's disciplined gunnery.