Back to Lawrence Rousseau-- Part 1: War of 1812 on the USS Erie

On Friday's post, March 18, 2016, I wrote about Lawrence Rousseau of the U.S. Navy, who fought in the War of 1812 as well as the Civil War in the Confederate Navy.

One of the ships he was stationed on during the War of 1812 was the sloop-of-war USS Erie in Baltimore.

Wikipedia.

The USS Erie was a three-masted, wooden-hulled sailing sloop-of-war launched 3 November 1813, in Baltimore and put to sea 20 March 1814 under Commander Charles G. Ridgely.  Unable to reach open sea because of the British blockade of the Chesapeake Bay, she returned to Baltimore 7 April 1814, and remained there without a crew until early 1815.  Lawrence Rousseau was stationed on this ship until after its return to Baltimore.

With the end of hostilities and the British blockade, the USS Erie sailed to Boston on 5 May 1815, and joined Bainbridge's squadron sailing to the Mediterranean to check the Barbary Pirates who had used the U.S. involvement in the War of 1812, to return to their old ways.

The USS Erie mounted two 18-pdr cannons, twenty 32-pdr. carronades, was 117 feet long with a 31.6 foot beam and had a crew of 140 enlisted and officers.

--Brock-Perry