Battle of New Orleans.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

200 Years Ago: Seizure of the USS Tigress and Then the USS Scorpion

SEPTEMBER 3 and 4, 1814:  After the destruction of the British post on the Nottawasaga River and the schooner Nancy (during Sinclair's Expedition), Royal Navy Lt. Miller Worsley and his sailors escaped to Fort Mackinac which was blockaded by the Americans with two ships, the USS Tigress and USS Scorpion.

The Tigress was commanded by Stephen Champlin.

Worsley devised and executed a plan to capture the two armed vessels.  On Sept. 3, 1814, under the cover of darkness, he successfully boarded the Tigress with a contingent of seamen, soldiers and First Nations warriors.

Three days later, On Sept. 6th, he used the Tigress to seize the Scorpion.

Having lost the only British ship on the upper Great Lakes when the Nancy was destroyed, these two ships gave the British a small fleet on Lake Huron and reconnected Fort Mackinac with the upper Great Lakes supply route.

--Brock-Perry

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