We wake up with Jack the morning after their escape — he echoes Diana’s final comment from the chapter before “Clear away: we have got clear away”, and we can enjoy his languid comfort in hammock swung in Broke’s cabin. Somewhere between waking and doze, he contemplates his luck — he forgives old Herapath for his lapses, blaming them on old age, rather than some sort of innate lack of character.
There’s an interesting bit about Broke and his rejection of prize money — 24 captures in a row, Broke had scuttled them rather than try to send them into Halifax, all for the sake of maintaining his ship’s readiness. There are numerous web pages that talk about the prize system — these have proved helpful:
https://www.hmspsyche.ca/library/seamanship
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014498306000143
As the morning progresses, we see Stephen, given cocoa, but longing for coffee, and hoping that Broke will be able to marry him and Diana ASAP. Eventually, Captain Broke’s intimidating clerk, Mr. Dunn, finds the requisite elements within the Printed Instructions and has the relevant areas marked in the Book of Common Prayer — but I myself could find nothing online about shipboard marriage except that the idea that ship’s captains could marry people is a pretty common myth. In fact, ships captains in both the American and British navies are expressly forbidden, these days, to do so. However, for this bit of the plot, Broke is all set to marry Stephen and Diana, but the ensuing battle intervenes.
I’m not going to go into detail about the battle that takes up most of this chapter. There are far, far better people than I to do this. I would like to just point out a couple of ‘behind the scenes’ sort of things: Jack’s farewell letter to Sophie is only 4 heartbreaking sentences long. Stephen, who had begun to believe that he no longer loved Diana, is forcibly reminded of her strength and beauty as he gifts her a small pistol with which to shoot rats during the battle (as a way of occupying her mind, for all love).
As for the battle itself, read the chapter slowly — it’s well worth the effort, highly visual, well researched, and extremely engrossing. If anything seems unclear, refer to these below for any extra background:
FOR A QUICK PRECIS:
FROM THE BRITISH PERSPECTIVE:
https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-12095
https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/1215
https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/shannon-chesapeake-battle-boston-harbor/
FROM THE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE:
https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2013/05/29/chesapeake-shannon-and-constitutions/
Below are portraits of Broke (on the left) and Lawrence, captain of the Chesapeake, on the right:
There were quite a few popular illustrations and/or woodcuts of the action. In England, the battle was viewed as a much-needed victory:
The final paragraph of this book is shockingly low-key, which makes it that much more effective. Broke, horribly wounded (he never really recovered), takes dazed stock of the situation, finally understands that he’s won, and then focuses his dazed eyes on Jack’s face and says, with a sweet smile “Thank you, Jack.”
Press Gang 
I’m re-reading the series and have been following your blog posts along the way. Thanks for the excellent background, color, and observations—they’ve been a great companion.