USS Somers-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

This was one of the two American ships captured near Fort Erie by the British on August 12, 1814.  The other was the USS Ohio.

A schooner, formerly the Catherine, purchased by the U.S. Navy in 1812 for $5,500 from Jacob Townsend, a pioneer and one of the first settlers of Lewiston, New York.

When it was purchased, it found itself penned up in the Niagara River by British guns at Fort Erie on the Canadian bank in the spring of 1813 until a joint Army-Navy force captured Fort George and Oliver Hazard Perry was able to get the Somers, Ohio, brig Caledonia and two other schooners out to the open Lake Erie waters.

The American vessels, however, drew too much water to get over the bar into the base at Presque Isle, Erie, Pennsylvania and the place was also blockaded by the British fleet under Commodore Robert Barclay.

More to Come.  --Brock-Perry