OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Building the Fleet - Part 15
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
September 15, 1999
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Historical Collections of Ohio
The Kelley Family Collections
Newspaper article, Plains Dealer
compiled by S.J. Kelley-- 1925
And Then They Went West
by Darlene E. Kelley  1998
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Building the Fleet-- In
the war of 1812-- Part 15--

From U S N military records--Secretary of the Navy

As with so much military history, logistics had more to do with the
outcome of the Battle of Lake Erie than did the bleeding and death of
the sailors and soldiers. The key was the building of the squadrons, and
in that activity the Americans held a decisive advantage. In the Autumn
of 1812, six keels were laid down on Presque Isle. The town of Erie had
been settled only 18 years earlier and boasted a population of 400.
Workers were brought in to construct housing on the islands and then
build the ships. One hundred men cut timber, and another 200 men worked
on the ships as carpenters, blacksmiths, shipjoiners, caulkers and
sawyers.
Noah Brown, in charge of construction, declared he wanted no extras,
just plain work was all he wanted, They were required for only one
battle and if we win, that is all that will be wanted of them. If the
enemy are victorious, the work must be good enough to be captured. By
mid June, all Americn vessels were completed, with only the rigging and
the outfitting was left to do.
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry arrived in March 1813, and oversaw the
outftting of the ships. Only three days after arriving, Perry set off
for Pittsburgh, 130 miles away. Already the air above the three rivers
was dirty with the effluence of Industry. Perry obtained rope, cables,
iron fittings, anchors and shot for his cannons there. The sails came
from Philadelphia, and 65 cannons of various calibers were shipped in
from the Washington Navy Yard, New York and Sackett's Harbor. Perry had
his choice of cannons and deliberately concentrated on ship-killing
power. Of the 25 long guns at Presque Isle, he put only 16 aboard his
ships.
The building project received so much iron that the workmen were
deliberately wasteful in its use. As one blacksmith explained, " Our
orders from headquarters are to make all the scraps we can. They will be
sewed up in leather bags of proper size and used to cut the rigging of
the British vessels when we come to close quarters."
The British navel base, Amherstburg, was a small town of about 100
buildings, most of them built of logs and lumber. As a  provincial
marine naval base, the town possessed some rudimentary facilities. The
keel of DETROIT, their strongest brig, was laid down in January of 1813,
and work dragged on through September due to the lack of materials.
Except for rope and wood, all materials had to be brought from lower
Canada or imported from England.
The British suffered a severe blow in April 1813 when American forces
landed near York on Lake Ontario and assaulted the town. York was a
major supply depot for the British, and, after the battle, a magazine
store of several hundred barrels of powder exploded, killing many
Americans. Angered by their losses and the discovery of an American
scalp, the Americans looted the town and burned the government
buildings. The British later used that incident as their excuse for
burning Washinton, D.C. For Capt Robert H Barclay's squadron, the
importance of that defeat was the loss of ordinance, ammunition and
other stores meant for use on Lake Erie.
Unlike the Americans, the British were severely hampered by the lack of
iron and other materials. By scavenging from some derelicts lying in
Amherstburg harbor, DETROIT obtained iron fittings. The spare set of
sails from QUEEN CHARLOTTE was given to DETROIT, cables, anchors, and
even the pistols to fire off the cannons taken from Fort Malden were
also taken from QUEEN CHAROLOTTE. Amherstburg was so short of powder
that most of the gunnery drills that raw British engaged in were acted
out in pantomine only.
In the race to build their lake squadrons, the British built one ship
and the Americans six. Given their ships, number of cannon and the
quality of thir crews, for the British to have won the Battle of Lake
Erie would have been a truly extraordinary feat.
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Continued in part 16-- The battle of Lake Erie.