We chanced to meet;
Our admiral thought he would them greet
With a welcome on Lake Erie.
Goaded by an impending lack of provisions into trying to open communications with Long Point, where the British had their supplies both for the Malden army and the fleet, Captain Barclay had determined to sail down the lake and meet Perry if he must. It was for this that Perry had been hoping, and “’twixt sunrise and the break of day the lookout at the mast-head of the Lawrence, peering into the mists at the north and west, saw the white canvas of the British fleet and bawled in voice heard throughout the fleet,”
“Sail ho!”
It was a cry that brought the officers of the squadron quickly to the decks of their vessels. A moment later signals were fluttering from the mast-head of the flag-ship saying “Enemy in sight,” and then others arose which said literally “Under way to get.”
The shrill whistle of the boatswains and the hoarse cry of “All hands up anchor” followed.
At this time a gentle southwest wind was blowing from over the Ohio wilderness, bringing a light rain-squall, but the rain quickly passed away and the breeze shifted to northerly. And so the little squadron had to resort to oars as well as sails in beating its way out of the island-locked harbor. There had been no need of a conference among the officers of the squadron this morning, for they had gathered on the Lawrence the night before for that purpose and had heard their young leader end his instructions with the famous words of Nelson, “If you lay your enemy close alongside you cannot be out of your place.”
Perry and his Officers on Board the Flag-ship Lawrence, Preparing for the Engagement.