Perry’s appeal for men became at this time stirring: “For God’s sake and yours, and mine, send me men and officers, and I will have them all in a day or two,” he wrote to Commodore Chauncey. He got some men—“a motley set, blacks, soldiers, and boys.” The British historians with one accord say that Perry’s men were all “picked men.” An American can well afford to excuse them for thinking so when the result of the fight this “motley set” made is considered; but it was a “scrub” crew.
However, by the end of July, having recruited among the landsmen of the region a few men, Perry found that he had about three hundred “effective officers and men, with which to man two twenty-gun brigs and eight smaller vessels.”
Although an utterly inadequate force, Perry could no longer restrain his anxiety to try the mettle of the enemy, and on Sunday, August 1, 1813, moved his vessels down to the bar that lies across the bay. He found but four feet of water where six had previously existed, the trend of the wind on this shoal-lake making such variations of depth common. Perry had already provided means for lifting his new brigs over the bar when the water was six feet deep, for they drew at least eight feet, but now found the task greater than he had supposed. However, after getting the smaller vessels over the bar and posting them where they could make a good fight should the expected enemy arrive, he set to work to lift the brigs over.
One of these brigs had been named the Lawrence. It was on June 1st of this year that Captain Lawrence sailed out of Boston in the ill-fated Chesapeake to meet the well-found Shannon, and was lost. To commemorate the magnificent bravery of this officer, the Secretary of the Navy had named one of the brigs the Lawrence. Perry chose that one as his flagship. The other was called the Niagara. The crews of the fleet set to work on the flag-ship first. Big scows built on a model that would let them lie close alongside the Lawrence from stem to stern were filled with water until their decks were awash. Then they were secured to the Lawrence in such a way that they could not rise without lifting her. Meantime the guns and all heavy weights had been removed from the Lawrence, and the next task was to pump the water out of the scows so that they would lift the man-of-war. When this was done the Lawrence was hauled forward on the bar until hard aground, when the scows were once more filled and lowered and secured to the ship, and a second lift taken, which fortunately carried her clean over. The repetition of this work carried the Niagara over as well, and Perry at last had his fleet in deep water. It is easy to tell how the work was done, but it was a job that kept the crews busy day and night from Sunday the 1st until Thursday the 5th of August, 1813.
As good luck would have it, this time passed without a glimpse of the enemy. The people of Port Dover, Canada, had felt the great honor which the presence along-shore of a real British captain who had fought under Nelson conferred upon them. Colonial people are stirred so to this day. To show their appreciation of the honor, the Doverites must needs give a banquet. And Captain Barclay was as fond of festivities as Burgoyne was. Like Burgoyne, he missed an opportunity by attending to festivities instead of to duty. While Perry’s men lifted and hauled and strained to get the Lawrence across the bar at Erie, Barclay was standing, gorgeous with gold lace, before the much-honored people of Dover and saying:
“I expect to find the Yankee brigs hard and fast on the bar when I return, in which predicament it will be but a small job to destroy them.”
He arrived one day too late, however. The Niagara was over the worst of the bar, and her crew were at the capstan heaving her afloat when the bold skipper from Trafalgar and Dover appeared. The Ariel, a schooner carrying four twelve-pounders and thirty-six men, and the Scorpion, a gun-boat that carried thirty-five men and two guns, a long thirty-two and a short one, were sent to meet the squadron and hold it in check until the other ships could be made ready. But they did not have a chance to hold anything except the wind, for Barclay, seeing the Yankees all outside the bar, squared away for Malden, where the new Detroit was lying.
For several days Perry cruised to and fro across the lake looking for the enemy, and then, on August 10th, came Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott with one hundred officers and superior men. There is no doubt about the quality of these men, for some of them were from the Constitution. They had seen the wreck of the Guerrière rolling its guns under water after they had finished shooting at her. Elliott was placed in command of the Niagara, and the squadron was now in fair condition to offer fight to the enemy, even though they had added their new brig Detroit to their forces. So Perry determined to sail up the lake and join forces with General Harrison.
In that day Put-in Bay, lying a little north and west of what is now the city of Sandusky, Ohio, was counted one of the best harbors of refuge on the lake. Properly speaking, it was no bay at all, but it was in summer, as it is now, a lovely breadth of water surrounded by a chain of islands, large and small. Here was a good anchorage in a gale, and the main channel would admit easily the largest ship then afloat on the lake. To Put-in Bay came Perry and his squadron on August 15th. Nothing was seen of the enemy, but near evening on the next day a strange sail was seen dodging around what is now called Kelly’s Island, and the Scorpion, that was out scouting, gave chase. A thunder-squall came on about that time, and the schooner escaped among the islands.
