The British Navy's Role in the War of 1812

From the November 10, 2012, National Post "British Navy played a central role in the War of 1812" by James Carelese.

 The Royal Navy was primarily involved in fighting France's Napoleon during the first years of the War of 1812 and, consequentially, the ships sent to the United Staes were "not the best ones and not manned by their most experienced crews, many of whom had been forced or impressed into service," according to Victor Suthren, a Canadian naval historian. In other words, we were essentially a backwater as far as British efforts.

American frigates won singular battles versus outgunned and smaller British frigates. But on June 1, 1813, the frigate HMS Shannon defeated the USS Chesapeake and then towed the American ship to Halifax Harbor in Canada.

Small American and British fleets on the Great Lakes were expanded. Eventually, even a ship-of-the-line, the HMS St. Lawrence was built on Lake Ontario with 112 guns, making it larger and better armed than Lord Nelson's HMS Victory.

A Short History. --Brock-Perry