James Lawrence died of his wounds on 4 June, while Chesapeake was being taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, by her captors.
However, his crew was overwhelmed by British boarders shortly afterwards. Captain Lawrence, mortally wounded by small arms fire, ordered "Don't give up the ship" as he was carried below. She left port on 1 June 1813 and immediately engaged the Royal Navy frigate Shannon in a fierce battle. Two months later he took command of the frigate Chesapeake, then preparing for sea at Boston, Massachusetts. Upon his return to the United States in March, Lawrence learned of his promotion to Captain.
Later in the year Hornet blockaded the British sloop Bonne Citoyenne at Bahia, Brazil, and on 24 February 1813 captured HMS Peacock. From the beginning of the War of 1812, Lawrence and Hornet cruised actively, capturing the privateer Dolphin in July 1812. Promoted to the rank of Master Commandant in November 1810, he took command of the sloop of war Hornet a year later and sailed her to Europe on a diplomatic mission. In 1810 he also took part in trials of an experimental spar-torpedo. Subsequently, Lieutenant Lawrence commanded the warships Vixen, Wasp and Argus. He was also First Lieutenant of the frigate John Adams and, in 1805, commanded the small Gunboat Number 6 during a voyage across the Atlantic to Italy.
Later in the conflict he commanded the Enterprise and a gunboat in battles with the Tripolitans. In February 1804 he was second in command during the daring expedition to destroy the captured frigate Philadelphia. Commissioned in the rank of Lieutenant in 1802, he served in the schooner Enterprise during the War with Tripoli, taking part in a successful attack on enemy craft on 2 June 1803. Though educated in the field of law, he joined the infant United States Navy in September 1798 as a Midshipman and served in the ship Ganges and frigate Adams during the undeclared war with France. James Lawrence was born in Burlington, New Jersey, on 1 October 1781.
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