From a painting at the Naval Academy, Annapolis.
Thus Commander Woolsey added five small schooners to his fleet; later in the autumn he added four more. Meantime, Commodore Isaac Chauncey was appointed to command the forces on the Great Lakes; he brought a gang of ship-carpenters to Sackett’s Harbor, and one hundred experienced officers and seamen, besides guns, etc. The Commodore arrived on October 6th. On November 26th he launched a ship built of timber that stood in the forest when he arrived, and she was able to carry twenty-four short thirty-twos. And that was neither the first nor the last time that Yankee carpenters showed the world how to build a ship in a hurry.
But while the carpenters worked, the Commodore went afloat with the Oneida and six armed schooners on October 8th. And then there was a fight over at Kingston. Finding the Royal George out at the False Duck Islands the Commodore chased her into Kingston Harbor, and then at 3 o’clock he decided to run in and see what sort of defences the port had. Two of his schooners were off chasing merchantmen, but the remaining four, carrying a long thirty-two each, went in ahead of the Oneida. One, the Pert, had the misfortune to burst her big gun. Her commander, Sailing-master Arundel, was badly hurt and four others slightly. Arundel refused to leave the deck, but by accident fell overboard and was drowned. The other schooners kept up a brisk fire on the five batteries about the harbor, while the Oneida, which carried only sixteen short twenty-fours, holding her fire, ranged up beside the Royal George and then gave it to her. In twenty minutes the British had had enough of it, and chopping their rope cables they ran their ship to the shore where the water was so shoal that the holes in her hull couldn’t sink her and a big body of troops could defend her. Then finding the shore batteries too heavy and the wind rising against his course out of the harbor, Chauncey retreated. The Royal George had been well beaten and the schooner Simeo sunk. And thereafter four schooners sufficed to blockade the port of Kingston until the ice relieved them of the task.
The expedition under General Wilkinson that left Sackett’s Harbor at the beginning of October, 1813, to attack Montreal, is worth a paragraph, because it shows how utterly futile it usually was and is to give a sailor’s work to a landsman. Everything was ready on October 4th, but the order to start was not issued until the 12th, and the order was not obeyed until the 17th. When they did finally get away the huge flotilla of boats was not only overloaded, but the start was made at night when one of the long, fierce storms of the region was coming on. Fifteen large boats were lost that night, while every soul afloat endured the greatest hardships from wind and sleet. After waiting along-shore and among the islands for the storm to end, the expedition pushed on and reached Grenadier Island on the 20th. They went on eventually, beginning on the 29th, but the delays had given the enemy every opportunity to gather to oppose the expedition. They passed Prescott on the night of the 6th, but they came to grief when on the 11th they met the enemy at Chrysler’s farm, below Williamsburg. Instead of capturing Montreal they built winter-quarters on Salmon River.
Wilkinson’s Flotilla.
From an old wood-cut.
Along with Commodore Chauncey came Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott. He had the confidence of the Commodore and was at once sent forward to Buffalo, where he was “to purchase any number of merchant vessels or boats that might be converted into vessels of war or gun-boats” and, further, “to take measures for the construction of two vessels of three hundred tons each, six boats of considerable size, and quarters for three hundred men.”
In those days Black Rock was a village about two miles from Buffalo on the road toward Niagara Falls, Main Street being then, as now, the chief thoroughfare of Buffalo, while Black Rock was a settlement at the head of Niagara River. It was at Black Rock that Elliott decided to establish the navy-yard. At first thought this might seem to have been a hazardous undertaking, because almost directly across the river was a strong British post—Fort Erie, which is now chiefly celebrated for having a fine beach, where Buffalo people go when overheated, as New York people go to Coney Island. However, if the British might be expected to try crossing to interfere with Elliott’s ship-building, it was also possible for Elliott to keep a good watch on British movements; and this he did.
