Thirty-one-year-old Master Commander James Lawrence, from Burlington, N.J., had served with distinction as a junior naval officer in the Barbary wars; now on Feb. 24, 1812, he was in command of the sloop of war Hornet off the coast of British Guiana and was about to do battle. Lawrence had seen a ship that turned out to be the British brig of war Espiegle, commanded by Capt. John Taylor, at anchor in the mouth of the Demerara River.

As Lawrence maneuvered the Hornet into position, he later reported, “at half past three P.M.