Background
John Templer Shubrick was born on September 12, 1788 on Bull's Island, near Charleston, South Carolina, son of Col. Thomas Shubrick, a veteran of the American Revolution, and his wife Mary, daughter of Ezekiel Branford of Charleston.
John Templer Shubrick was born on September 12, 1788 on Bull's Island, near Charleston, South Carolina, son of Col. Thomas Shubrick, a veteran of the American Revolution, and his wife Mary, daughter of Ezekiel Branford of Charleston.
After attending school at Charleston and at Dedham, Massachussets, he began law study at Charleston under Col. William Drayton.
He soon felt a stronger call for the navy, in which he was commissioned midshipman on June 20, 1806. It was typical of his extraordinarily eventful service career that his first cruise brought him under fire in the surrender of the Chesapeake under Capt. James Barron to the British frigate Leopard, June 22, 1807.
He served subsequently under Stephen Decatur, the younger, in the Chesapeake and the Argus, and after challenging a fellow midshipman to a duel underwent the obviously lenient punishment of transfer to the brig Viper, where he became at once acting lieutenant (1810).
In 1811 in the Siren he lost both thumbs by a single pistol shot fired by a New Orleans ropewalk superintendent whom he was about to strike with a stick for insults to himself and his men.
These affairs apparently reflect merely the temper of his period and profession, for he was reputed to be of quiet, even melancholy spirit, so mild as to give a false impression of weakness. Commissioned lieutenant in May 1812, he was in the Constitution in her celebrated escape from Broke's squadron, July 17-20, and in her victory over the Guerrière, August 19; he commanded the quarter-deck guns and was in the thick of the mêlée when his ship's stern fouled the enemy.
He was third lieutenant in the Constitution's defeat of the Java, December 29, off Bahia. Sailing homeward in the Hornet under James Lawrence, he was acting first lieutenant in a third famous victory on Feburary 24, 1813, the capture of the Peacock, which he boarded upon her surrender. Lawrence commended him highly, remarking that previous commanders could also testify to "his coolness and good conduct". After a relatively inactive period in the United States at New London, he shifted with Decatur to the President, and was captured in her, January 15, 1815, when she was attacked off New York by the British blockading squadron.
After the death of his next superior early in the battle, Shubrick had become second in command. Through all these actions he came unscathed but with the reputation of bringing fighting to any ship in which he served.
As first lieutenant in Decatur's flagship Guerrière against Algiers, he participated in the capture of the Algerian frigate Mashuda, June 17, 1815.
After the peace he was given command of the Epervier to carry home the treaty. His ship passed Gibraltar early in July but was never again seen; it is believed to have gone down in a gale off the American coast.
He is described by Cooper as being five feet eleven in height, of strong frame, with grey eyes and brown hair, a man of intelligence and culture beyond the ordinary in his profession.
In 1814 he married to Elizabeth Matilda Ludlow of New York. His son, Edward Templer Shubrick, rose to lieutenant in the navy, resigning in 1852.
