Captain Sir Philip Bowes Vere Broke of HMS Shannon, in Royal Navy captain's full dress uniform (over three years' seniority), pattern 1812-1835. Painting by Samuel Lane (NMM). Meaningfully, he is posed by one of Shannon's guns.
The guns on Shannon's main deck were spaced at roughly ten-foot centres, and as the carriage axles and wheels were about five feet wide, there was only five feet of space between adjacent guns. Allowing a few inches' margin, each man had a channel no more than two feet wide in which to work; heaving on tackles, passing side arms, cartridge shot and wad, using handspikes, standing clear of the recoil—step six inches too far and he could lose his toes under a truck or his eye on the end of a wad hook. Gun drill had to be as exact as a choreographed ballet with every hand, foot and bodily movement synchronised precisely with every other member of the crew—and all this in the thick of the smoke, deafening noise and horrendous carnage of battle whilst stupid with fatigue from the physical effort involved.
—Martin Bibbings, "A Gunnery Zealot: Broke's Scientific Contribution to Naval Warfare", in Broke of the Shannon and the War of 1812, edited by Tim Voelcker.
'The Brilliant Achievement of the SHANNON Frigate Capt. BROKE in boarding and capturing the United States Frigate CHESAPEAKE off Boston, June 1st 1813 in Fifteen Minutes': print by William Elmes, 1813.