During the first part of 1807, the British had problems with men deserting from their warships whenever they could seize the opportunity. In one such incident in February 1807, five seamen deserted the frigate Melampus, moored in Hampton Roads, while its officers were entertaining guests. They then enlisted with the American frigate Chesapeake, which was fitting out at the Washington Navy Yard. The men included William Ware, Daniel Martin, and John Strachan. A report described what happened: “While the Officers were engaged and all the Ship’s boat except the captain’s gig hoisted in, they and two other men availed themselves of the opportunity to seize the gig and row off. That as soon as they got into the boat, they were hailed to know what they were going to do: they replied they were going ashore. A brisk fire of musketry instantly commenced from the ship; but in defiance of the danger and at the hazard of their lives, they continued to row and finally effected their escape to Sewell’s point.”

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In another incident the following month, five more sailors deserted, this time from the sloop HMS Halifax. Under cover of thick fog, they seized control of the sloop’s jolly boat and threatened to murder the midshipman in charge. When they reached shore, the sailors, one of whom was Jenkin Ratford, joined the U.S. Navy under assumed names. Complaining about all the deserters, the British exchanged considerable correspondence with various American authorities.

To make matters worse, British officers frequently saw the five deserters in Norfolk, which increased their irritation at being unable to recover them. On one occasion, the captain of Halifax met two deserters, including Ratford, on a Norfolk street and asked them to return. The captain wrote that Ratford retorted “with abuse and oaths, that he was in the land of liberty and would do as he liked.”

When nothing was done to return any of the seamen, the matter was taken up with Vice-Admiral Sir George Cranfield Berkeley, commander of the British squadron, who was based at Halifax, Nova Scotia. At the beginning of June 1807, he issued an order to his captains to search Chesapeake for deserters if the American frigate was met “at sea, and without the limits of the United States.” In turn, Berkeley ordered, if the Americans made a similar demand, they should be allowed to search for any deserters, “according to the usages of civilized nations on terms of peace and amity with each other.”

Chesapeake was supposed to head for the Mediterranean to relieve the frigate Constitution, which had been away since August 1803—nearly four years. Constitution’s crew should have already returned home and been paid their wages, so its men were disgruntled over the delays in fitting out its sister frigate. In early June, Chesapeake was at long last ready to sail down the Potomac River to Norfolk, where it still needed to be provisioned. This included fitting further guns and loading stores and water, all of which was completed on June 19. Three days later, on the 22nd, Chesapeake sailed into the Atlantic under the command of Commodore James Barron, with Captain Charles Gordon in charge of the ship. It carried a crew of nearly four hundred men and boys, as well as several passengers. They sailed past two of the anchored British warships, Bellona and Melampus. As the United States was not at war, it was of no concern that Chesapeake’s decks were strewn with stores and lumber, that little had been stowed away, and that the crew had never practiced firing the guns. 

The British frigate Leopard, under Captain Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, had moved farther out to sea, well beyond American waters, and in midafternoon it approached Chesapeake, signaling that it had dispatches. Although a boat from Leopard—a foreign warship—was allowed alongside, Commodore Barron did not call his men to quarters, a common practice if there was no obvious threat.

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