Composition of the Opposing Fleets

The superiority of the Americans in long-gun metal was nearly as three is to two, and in carronade metal greater than two to one.

Continuing Battle of Lake Erie,
our selection from The Naval War of 1812 by Theodore Roosevelt published in 1882. The selection is presented in five easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Battle of Lake Erie.

Time: 1813
Place: Lake Erie of the Great Lakes

It is more difficult to give the strength of the respective crews. James says the Americans had 580, all “picked men.” They were just as much picked men as Barclay’s were, and no more; that is, the ships had “scratch” crews. Lieutenant Emmons gives Perry 490 men; and Lossing says he “had upon his muster-roll 490 names. ” In Volume XIV, page 566, of the American State Papers, is a list of the prize moneys owing to each man (or to the survivors of the killed), which gives a grand total of 532 men, including 136 on the Lawrence and 155 on the Niagara, 45 of whom were volunteers —- frontiersmen. Deducting these we get 487 men, which is pretty near Lieutenant Emmons’s 490. Possibly Lieutenant Emmons did not include these volunteers; and it may be that some of the men whose names were down on the prize list had been so sick that they were left on shore. Thus Lieutenant Yarnall testified before a court of inquiry in 1815 that there were but 131 men and boys of every de scription on board the Lawrence in the action; and the Niagara was said to have had but 140.

Lieutenant Yarnall also said that “but 103 men on board the Lawrence were fit for duty”; as Captain Perry in his letter said that 31 were unfit for duty, this would make a total of 134. So I shall follow the prize-money list; at any rate the difference in number is so slight as to be immaterial. Of the 532 men whose names the list gives, 45 were volunteers, or landsmen from among the surrounding inhabitants; 158 were marines, or soldiers (I do not know which, as the list gives marines, soldiers, and privates, and it is impossible to tell which of the two former heads includes the last); and 329 were officers, seamen, cooks, pursers, chaplains, and supernumeraries. Of the total number there were on the day of action, according to Perry’s report, 116 men unfit for duty, including 31 on board the Lawrence, 28 on board the Niagara, and 57 on the small vessels.

All the later American writers put the number of men in Barclay’s fleet precisely at 502, but I have not been able to find the original authority. James (Naval Occurrences, page 289) says the British had but 345, consisting of 50 seamen, 85 Canadians, and 210 soldiers. But the letter of Adjutant-General E. Bayne, November 24, 1813, states that there were 250 soldiers aboard Barclay’s squadron, of whom 23 were killed, 49 wounded, and the remainder (178) captured; and James himself on a previous page (284) states that there were 102 Canadians on Barclay’s vessels, not counting the Detroit, and we know that Barclay originally joined the squadron with 19 sailors from the Ontario fleet, and that subsequently 50 sailors came up from the Dover. James gives at the end of his Naval Occurrences some extracts from the court-martial held on Captain Barclay. Lieutenant Thomas Stokes, of the Queen Charlotte, there testified that he had on board “between 120 and 130 men, officers and all together,” of whom “16 came up from the Dover three days before.” James (on page 284) says her crew already consisted of 110 men; adding these 16 gives us 126 —- almost exactly “ between 120 and 130. ” Lieutenant Stokes also testified that the Detroit had more men on account of being a larger and heavier vessel; to give her 150 is perfectly safe, as her heavier guns and larger size would at least need 24 men more than the Queen Charlotte. James gives the Lady Prevost 76, Hunter 39, Little Belt 15, and Chippeway 13 men, Canadians and soldiers, a total of 143; supposing that the number of British sailors placed on them was proportional to the amount placed on board the Queen Charlotte, we could add 21. This would make a grand total of 440 men, which must certainly be near the truth. This number is corroborated otherwise: General Bayne, as already quoted, says that there were aboard 250 soldiers, of whom 72 were killed or wounded. Barclay reports a total loss of 135, of whom 63 must therefore have been sailors or Canadians, and if the loss suffered by these bore the same proportion to their whole number as in the case of the soldiers, there ought to have been 219 sailors and Canadians, making in all 469 men. It can thus be said with certainty that there were between 440 and 490 men aboard, and I shall take the former number, though I have no doubt that this is too small. But it is not a point of very much importance, as the battle was fought largely at long range, where the number of men, provided there were plenty to handle the sails and guns, did not much matter.

The superiority of the Americans in long-gun metal was nearly as three is to two, and in carronade metal greater than two to one. The chief fault to be found in the various American accounts is that they sedulously conceal the comparative weight of metal, while carefully specifying the number of guns. Thus, Lossing says, “Barclay had 35 long guns to Perry’s 15, and possessed greatly the advantage in action at a distance”; which he certainly did not. The tonnage of the fleets is not so very important. It is, I suppose, impossible to tell exactly the number of men in the two crews. Barclay almost certainly had more than the 440 men I have given him, but in all likelihood some of them were unfit for duty, and the number of his effectives was most probably somewhat less than Perry’s. As the battle was fought in such smooth water, and part of the time at long range, this, as already said, does not much matter. The Niagara might be considered a match for the Detroit, and the Lawrence and Caledonia for the five other British vessels; so the Americans were certainly very greatly superior in force.

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