The Two Fleets Close for Battle

As, amid light and rather baffling winds, the American squadron approached the enemy, Perry’s straggling line formed an angle of about fifteen degrees with the more compact one of his foes.

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

At daylight on September 10th Barclay’s squadron was discovered in the northwest, and Perry at once got under way; the wind soon shifted to the northeast, giving us the weather gage, the breeze being very light. Barclay lay to in a close column, heading to the southwest, in the following order: Chippeway, Master’s Mate J. Campbell; Detroit, Captain R. H. Barclay; Hunter, Lieutenant G. Bignell; Queen Charlotte, Captain R. Linnis; Lady Prevost, Lieutenant Edward Buchan; and Little Belt, by whom commanded is not said. Perry came down with the wind on his port beam, and made the attack in column ahead, obliquely. First in order came the Ariel, Lieutenant John H. Packet; and Scorpion, Sailing-Master Stephen Champlin, both being on the weather bow of the Lawrence, Captain 0. H. Perry; next came the Caledonia, Lieutenant Daniel Turner; Niagara, Captain Jesse D. Elliott; Somers, Lieutenant A. H. M. Conklin; Porcupine, Acting Master George Serrat; Tigress, Sailing-Master Thomas C. Almy, and Trippe, Lieutenant Thomas Holdup. *

[* 1 The accounts of the two commanders tally almost exactly. Barclay’s letter is a model of its kind for candor and generosity. Letters of Capt. R. H. Barclay to Sir James Yeo, September 2, 1813; of Lieut. Inglis to Captain Barclay, September 1oth; of Captain Perry to the Secretary of the Navy, September 10th and September 13th, and to General Harrison, September 11th and September 13th. I have relied mainly on Lossing’s Field Book of the War of 1812; on Commander Ward’s Naval Tactics, page 76, and on Cooper’s Naval History.]

As, amid light and rather baffling winds, the American squadron approached the enemy, Perry’s straggling line formed an angle of about fifteen degrees with the more compact one of his foes. At 11.45 the Detroit opened the action by a shot from her long 24, which fell short; at 11.50 she fired a second, which went crashing through the Lawrence, and was replied to by the Scorpion’s long 32. At 11.55 the Lawrence, having shifted her port bow – chaser, opened with both the long 12’s, and at meridian began with her carronades, but the shot from the latter all fell short. At the same time the action became general on both sides, though the rearmost American vessels were almost beyond the range of their own guns, and quite out of their antagonists. Meanwhile the Lawrence was already suffering considerably as she bore down on the enemy. It was twenty minutes before she succeeded in getting within good carronade range, and during that time the action at the head of the line was between the long guns of the Chippeway and Detroit, throwing 123 pounds, and those of the Scorpion, Ariel, and Lawrence, throwing 104 pounds. As the enemy’s fire was directed almost exclusively at the Lawrence, she suffered a range of the guns great deal.

The Caledonia, Niagara, and Somers were meanwhile engaging, at long range, the Hunter and Queen Charlotte, opposing from their long guns 96 pounds to the 39 pounds of their antagonists, while from a distance the three other American gun-vessels engaged the Prevost and Little Belt. By 12.20 the Lawrence had worked down to close quarters, and at 12.30 the action was going on with great fury between her and her antagonists, within canister range. The raw and inexperienced American crews committed the same fault the British so often fell into on the ocean, and overloaded their carronades. In consequence, that of the Scorpion upset down the hatchway in the middle of the action, and the sides of the Detroit were dotted with marks from shot that did not penetrate. One of the Ariel’s long 12’s also burst. Barclay fought the Detroit exceedingly well, her guns being most excellently aimed, though they actually had to be discharged by flashing pistols at the touchholes, so deficient was the ship’s equipment.

Meanwhile the Caledonia came down too, but the Niagara was wretchedly handled, Elliott keeping at a distance which prevented the use either of his carronades or of those of the Queen Charlotte, his antagonist; the latter, however, suffered greatly from the long guns of the opposing schooners, and lost her gallant commander, Captain Linnis, and first lieutenant, Mr. Stokes, who were killed early in the action. Her next in command, Provincial Lieutenant Irvine, perceiving that he could do no good, passed the Hunter and joined in the attack on the Lawrence, at close quarters. The Niagara, the most efficient and best manned of the American vessels, was thus almost kept out of the action by her captain’s misconduct. At the end of the line, the fight went on at long range between the Somers, Tigress, Porcupine, and Trippe on one side, and Little Belt and Lady Prevost on the other; the Lady Prevost making a very noble fight, although her 12-pound carronades rendered her almost helpless against the long guns of the Americans. She was greatly cut up, her commander, Lieutenant Buchan, was dangerously, and her acting first lieutenant, Mr. Roulette, severely, wounded, and she began falling gradually to leeward.

The fighting at the head of the line was fierce and bloody to an extraordinary degree. The Scorpion, Ariel, Lawrence, and Caledonia, all of them handled with the most determined courage, were opposed to the Chippeway, Detroit, Queen Charlotte, and Hunter, which were fought to the full as bravely. At such close quarters the two sides engaged on about equal terms, the Americans being superior in weight of metal and inferior in number of men. But the Lawrence had received such damage in working down as to make the odds against Perry.

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