Shipwrights in Vergennes Were Key to Battle of Champlain-- Part 5: A Naval Arms Race on the Lake

Learning of the new larger threat of the HMS Confiance, Macdonough pleaded with the Navy to build another large ship.  Navy Secretary William Jones rejected this request saying there was not enough money.  However, President James Madison intervened.

This time, the Navy hired Adam Brown, Noah Brown's brother, who brought along with him about 200 shipwrights.  In just 19 days, they built the Eagle, a 120-foot long, 20-gun brig and launched it on August 11,  two weeks before the Confiance was launched.

The Browns and their bands of shipwrights were invaluable to the American cause, as was proven on September  11, 1814.

At the time, the British had troops invading south along the New York side of Lake Champlain and many of those troops were in the Plattsburgh area.  The British commander wanted to wait for the Royal Navy to defeat Macdonough's ships before storming Plattsburgh. (Plattsburgh with an "h" at the end of it because  that's the most common way the Battle of Plattsburgh is described.)

--Brock-Perry

Shipwrights in Vergennes Were Key to Battle of Lake Champlain-- Part 3:

In a mere 40 days, for example, they built a 143-foot-long, 26-gun frigate named the USS Saratoga, to serve as Macdonough's flagship.

To give Noah Brown and his men a head start on a second vessel, Macdonough purchased  the completed hull of a merchant steamship under construction in the yard.  Macdonough decided to convert it into a sailing vessel.  It was a safer  course of action as  steam power was notoriously  unreliable and never used in battle at the time.

Macdonough had Brown use the steamer's hull as part of a 120-foot sailing  schooner which was armed with 17 guns and christened the USS Ticonderoga.

The shipwrights also built  six 70-ton row galleys, each measuring about 75 feet in length.  These each were armed with two large cannons.

The galleys were named the Viper, Nettle, Allen, Borer, Burrow and Centipede (the latter perhaps because of its appearance when using the oars).

Once work was completed, Brown and his workers returned to New York.

Shipwrights in Vergennes Were Key to Battle of Lake Champlain-- Part 2: On to Noah Brown and Otter Creek

The two American sloops lost to the British on July 3, 1813, were the USS Growler and USS Eagle, each with 11 guns.

Subtracting those two sloops from the American side and adding them to the British essentially gave them control of Lake Champlain.

The U.S. Navy authorized Thomas Macdonough to spend the money needed to bolster  his Lake Champlain fleet.  When winter came in 1813, he moved his ships six miles up Otter Creek from its delta on Lake Champlain, where they would be safer from naval attack from the British.

There, below the falls of Vergennes, Macdonough took over and expanded an existing commercial shipyard.  The location was ideal.  It was near forests that could provide plenty of lumber, and furnaces and forges that produced iron.

The Navy hired shipbuilder Noah Brown of New York City to supervise the shipyard.  The work accomplished in just a few months by Brown and the more than 100 workers he brought with him is staggering.

--Brock-Perry

USS Tigress-- Part 1: At the Battle of Lake Erie

I've been writing about Stephen Champlin in the past several posts and he later commanded this ship.

From Wikipedia.

Schooner at the Battle of Lake Erie on the American side.  In September 1814, it was captured by the British, taken into their service and renamed the HMS Surprise.

Commissioned in 1813 and built in Erie, Pennsylvania, by Adam and Noah Brown. It was 50 feet long ans had a 17 foot beam, crew of 27 and mounted one 32-pounder gun.  Originally named Amelia, but renamed USS Tigress.

Commanded by Lt. Augustus H,M. Conkling at the Battle of Lake Erie 10 September 1813.

--Vrock-Perry

Henry Eckford-- Part 5: Building Ships--Fast

The USS Madison, actually listed as a corvette, took only nine weeks from the cutting of the timber and 45 days from the laying of its keel to launch on November 26, 1812.  In November 1814, it took only five weeks to launch the frigate USS Mohawk and the schooner USS Sylph took just 21 days from keel to launch.

That Eckford could sure slap them together fast.

On May 1, 1814, U.S. Army troops on sentry duty at Sackets Harbor shot and killed a carpenter after the launch of the USS Superior.  An ensuing confrontation between them and shipyard workers  led to a threatened strike.  Eckford joined Commodore Chauncey of the Navy and Major General Jacob brown in diffusing the situation.

Eckford's efforts, along with Adam and Noah Brown were a big reason for American success on the Great Lakes.

--Brock-Perry

Henry Eckford-- Part 4: Warships and Shipbuilding Race

Henry Eckford and the Browns, Adam and Noah, were responsible for all American ships built on the Great Lakes during the War of 1812.  At Sackets Harbor, some merchant ships were converted into warships with the addition of cannons.

Other warships built were the 89-ton USS Lady of the Lake in 1813 and the never-finished 3,200-ton, 106-gun ship-of-the-line USS New Orleans, the corvette USS General Pike in 1813 and the frigate USS Superior in 1814.

Eckford and others knew that the key to defeating the British Navy on the Great Lakes was to build more ships than them.  Some of the ships were partially built in New York and the pre-fabricated pieces sent to Sackets Harbor for completion.

--Brock-Perry

The USS Niagara After the War-- Part 3

The Niagara was then transferred to the Pennsylvania Historical Commission and it became a project for the New Deal Works Project Administration.  The commission contacted Howard I. Chapelle to draw up plans for another restoration.  He based them on other period ships that were also built by Noah Brown, like the USS Saratoga.

By this time, very little of the USS Niagara remained, especially after pieces of it had been sold as souvenirs.. In addition, te 1913 restoration was highly inaccurate.

The hull of the Niagara was launched during World War II, in October 1943 and it was placed in a concrete cradle in 1951.

Then, they discovered dry rot on the whole ship, not surprisingly.  It became evident that a complete restoration would be needed.

Funds were raised to make it "presentable" for the Battle of Lake Erie's sesquicentennial in 1963.  Rigging and cannons were added.

It was listed on the NRHP 11 April 1973.

--Brock-Perry