It’s part inspiration– which I’m sure I’ll need during the swim– and part play on words.

As the story goes, in the War of 1812, a naval battle took place off the coast of Scituate, Massachusetts, the town where I live. Though the Americans got crushed that day by the Brits, Captain Lawrence of the losing ship the USS Chesapeake was said to have uttered among his last dying words, “Don’t give up the ship!”

Turns out Captain Lawrence was a fool to go into battle that day, BUT, a few months later, Commodore Oliver Perry, who was friends with Lawrence, took the motto and had it put on a flag on the back of his ship, which he had renamed the USS Lawrence. That ship then proceeded to kick ass in the Battle of Lake Erie, a significant win for the Americans.

Another connection to the phrase is that the USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”), the Chesapeake’s sister ship, is docked in Charlestown, MA, where we lived before moving down to Scituate. And yes, for you locals, you’ll realize as we did after the fact, that we went from being one kind of Townie to another. But I digress…

In 2013, when Scituate commemorated the 200th anniversary of the battle, they had replica flags made up which you can still purchase (see below; apparently stencils weren’t invented until 1814+). We’ve got one of these flags in the house and I very well may need to bring it on board in September for a little extra motivation.