“Shall I hoist it?” said Perry to his men, and with one voice they shouted:
“Aye, Aye, Sir!”
A minute later it was run up fluttering to the main truck, and there it remained until one of the most remarkable events known to the history of naval warfare demanded that it be lowered.
By the time this flag was set 10 o’clock had come, and the enemy was still a long way off, for the wind was very light. So Perry, thoughtful for the comfort of his men, ordered food and the usual allowance of grog served to all hands. This done, the mess kits were cleared away, and then men drew water in buckets from over the rail and thoroughly wet down the decks fore and aft, so that powder scattered in the haste of battle might be made harmless. And when these were wet other men went to and fro sprinkling clean sand, gathered from the lake shore, thickly over the deck. It was to give the men at the guns a good foothold, even when the deck should be flooded with blood.
Meantime Barclay hove to and was awaiting the American squadron, with his ships in line as close together as possible without interfering with each other. As Perry drew near he saw that he would have to change the arrangement of his line in order to place his largest vessels against the largest of the enemy. Barclay had stretched his squadron in a line square across the wind with the big Detroit at the head of it, save that the little schooner Chippeway was under the Detroit’s bows. To meet these two came Perry with the Lawrence, supported by the little schooners Ariel and Scorpion. Astern of the Detroit were the Hunter of ten guns and the Queen Charlotte of seventeen. Perry sent the little brig Caledonia of three guns against the Hunter, but she was to be supported by the Niagara, carrying two long twelves and eighteen short thirty-twos, that was primarily to engage the Queen Charlotte. Last of all in the British line were the fine schooner Lady Prevost with thirteen guns, and the Little Belt sloop of three. The four remaining vessels of Perry’s squadron, the Somers, Porcupine, igress and Trippe, carrying five heavy guns between them, were assigned to the task of whipping these two that carried sixteen smaller guns.
This disposition made, the American ships drifted on steadily and in silence toward the enemy. It was a trying wait, but Perry paced the full length of his deck, stopping here and there to speak cheerfully to the men. At one gun the crew were all from Old Ironsides—the Constitution. The most of them were stripped to the waist and had tied long handkerchiefs around their heads to keep their hair from falling across their faces. Perry gave them one look.
“I need not say anything to you,” he said; “you know how to beat those fellows.”
At another place he recognized men he had worked with at Newport, and said:
“Ah, here are the Newport boys; they will do their duty, I warrant.”
Wherever he addressed the men he was cheered heartily, and that was an omen worth keeping in mind.