James Lawrence
American naval officer
James Lawrence (October 1, 1781 – June 4, 1813) was an officer of the United States Navy. During the War of 1812, he commanded USS Chesapeake in a single-ship action against HMS Shannon, commanded by Philip Broke. He is probably best known today for his last words, "Don't give up the ship!", uttered during the capture of the Chesapeake. The quotation is still a popular naval battle cry, and was invoked in Oliver Hazard Perry's personal battle flag, adopted to commemorate his dead friend.
Biography
Lawrence was born on October 1, 1781, the son of John and Martha (Tallman) Lawrence, in Burlington, New Jersey, but raised in Woodbury. His mother died when he was an infant, and his Loyalist father fled to Canada during the American Revolution, leaving his half-sister to care for the young Lawrence. He attended Woodbury Academy. Though Lawrence studied law, he entered the United States Navy as a midshipman in 1798. Lawrence hailed from a New England family of English descent, as his first ancestor to the American Colonies was William Lawrence, sailing from Hertfordshire, England.
During the Quasi-War with France, he served on USS Ganges and the frigate USS Adams in the Caribbean.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1680697. VIAF identifies the subject as 50665455. The Library of Congress control number is n85189176. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1781, 1813, 1812 and 1798.
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This entry incorporates text from “James Lawrence” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.