How would you work to get a six-foot vessel over a four-foot sand bar? Well, that doesn't matter; all we care for is the way Captain Perry did it. He took two big scows and put one on each side of the Lawrence. Then he filled them with water till the waves washed over their decks. When they had sunk so far they were tied fast to the brig and the water was pumped out of them. As the water went out they rose and lifted the Lawrence between them until there were several feet of water below her keel. Now the brig was hauled on the bar until she touched the bottom; then she was lifted again in the same way. This second time took her out to deep water. Next, the Niagara was lifted over the bar in the same manner.
The next day the British, who had been taking things very easily, came sailing down to destroy Perry's ships. But they opened their eyes wide when they saw them afloat on the lake. They had lost their chance by wasting their time.
Perry picked up men for his vessels wherever he could get them. The most of those to be had were landsmen. But he had his fifty good men from Newport and a hundred were sent him from the coast. Some of these had been on the Constitution in her great fight with the Guerriere.
Oliver H. Perry.
Early in August all was ready, and he set sail. Early in September he was in Put-in Bay, at the west end of Lake Erie, and here the British came looking for him and his ships.
Perry was now the commodore of a fleet of nine vessels,—the brigs Lawrence, Niagara and Caledonia, five schooners, and one sloop. Captain Barclay, the British commander, had only six vessels, but some of them were larger than Perry's. They were the ships Detroit and Queen Charlotte, a large brig, two schooners, and a sloop. Such were the fleets with which the great battle of Lake Erie was fought.
I know you are getting tired of all this description, and want to get on to the fighting. You don't like to be kept sailing in quiet waters when there is a fine storm ahead. Very well, we will go on. But one has to get his bricks ready before he can build his house.
Well, then, on the 10th of September, 1813, it being a fine summer day, with the sun shining brightly, Perry and his men sailed out from Put-in Bay and came in sight of the British fleet over the waters of the lake.