Stephen Champlin-- Part 20: Capture of the Scorpion

Just after dark, the now-captured Tigress anchored about two miles from the Scorpion.  Shortly before sun rise the next day the Tigress raised anchor and moved toward the Scorpion.  When they got within ten yards, the disguised British opened fire with their muskets then swarmed aboard the Scorpion.

The battle only lasted a few minutes.  Champlin was severely wounded by a canister shot through the thigh which shattered the bone, crippling him for life.

He was taken prisoner and held at Mackinac for 38 days before being paroled and being sent first to Erie and later back to Connecticut to die which didn't happen until 1870.

The captured American vessels were renamed.  The Scorpion became the Confidence (do not get it confused with the HMS Confiance which I have seen happen) and the Tigress became the Surprise (which it sure did to the Scorpion).  They remained in British service until 1817 when the Rush-Bagot Treaty was signed banning armed warships on the Great Lakes.

The two ships were then scuttled in Pentantaguishene Harbor.

Like I said, Sneaky British.  --Brock-Perry

HMS Prince Regent-- Part 3: More Action, Then Peace

Yeo again used his superiority in naval strength to sail to Niagara with his fleet.  On the way, the Prince Regent was hit by lightning.  With the approach of the British fleet, the U.S. fleet withdrew to Sackets Harbor.

November 1, the Prince Regent escorted a convoy with reinforcements for Fort George.

It was renamed the Kingston after the war.  In 1817, its crew was paid off and the ship put in ordinary as per the Rush-Bagot Treaty.  It was ordered sold in 1832, but no buyers were found and the ship was sunk in Deadman's Bay in the 1830s.

In 2015, the HMS Prince Regent, HMS St. Lawrence and HMS Princess Charlotte were designated as a National Historic Site of Canada.

--Brock-Perry

200 Years Ago: End of the "Shipbuilders' War"

I would have written about this yesterday, but we had no internet after the storms of Thursday.

American Commodore Isaac Chauncey and General Jacob Brown visit Kingston, Upper Canada.  They visit Commodore Sir Edward Campbell Rich Owen at the site of Britain's main naval establishment on the Great Lakes and home port of the Lake Ontario Squadron.

The trip cumulated with a social gathering aboard the British flagship, the ship-of-the-line HMS St. Lawrence after which Chauncey was honored with a 13-gun salute.

The event symbolized the end of the "Shipbuilders' War" on Lake Ontario and presaged the demilitarization of the Great Lakes formalized by the 1817 Rush-Bagot Agreement which continues to this day.

--Brock-Perry

Launch of HMS Psyche-- Part 2: Completed Too Late

Like the construction of the HMS St. Lawrence, this undertaking demonstrated the logistical challenges of constructing heavily-gunned warships on the Great Lakes and the importance of naval supremacy during the war.

Launching a warship does not mean that it is ready to fight and the HMS Psyche was not finished until after the war and never saw conflict.  Under the Rush-Bagot Treaty, it was disarmed and laid up in Kingston.  The hulk was sold in 1837.

--Brock-Perry

The Treaty of Ghent-- Part 3: How the Treaty Affected Upper and Lower Canada

At the close of 1814, the British occupied considerable American territory including posts on the Pacific coast, in Wisconsin Territory and the District of Maine and in the Great Lakes region while the U.S. controlled Fort Amherstburg and southwestern Upper Canada.

During peace negotiations, British officials adamantly argued retaining captured territory but, upon the Duke of Wellington's advise, settled for restoring territorial status quo (the prewar situation).

Upper and Lower Canada were also affected by later agreements including boundary commissions resolving disputes over islands in the upper St. Lawrence and Niagara rivers, the 1817 Rush-Bagot Agreement limiting warships on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain and the Convention of 1818 establishing the 49th parallel as the international boundary to the Rocky Mountains.

--Brock-Perry

Royal Navy Dockyard at Kingston-- Part 6

The Rush-Bagot Agreement in April 1817 limited the number of warships on the Great Lakes between England and the United States to one warship on Lake Ontario, one on Lake Champlain and two on the other Great Lakes.

The Dockyard was then reduced to a skeleton staff and eventually closed in 1837.

The largest warship during the Age of Sail to ever sail on the Great Lakes, the HMS St. Lawrence was decommissioned in 1815 and its hull used for storage for a local brewery.  It later sank in shallow water off Morton Street in Kingston.

--Brock-Perry

U.S. Row Galley Launched at Vergennes, Vermont

In late April 1814, the row galley Allen was launched on Otter Creek below the falls at Vergennes, Vermont.  It was one of six row galleys ordered by Macdonough.  Others were the Borer, Burrows, Centipede, Nettle and Viper.

The Allen protected Fort Cassin, a makeshift battery at the outlet into Lake Champlain.    It was manned by 40 officers and men under sailing master William Robbins.

During the spring and summer of 1814, the Allen cruised Lake Champlaon looking for smugglers and it was at the American victory over the British in Plattsburgh Bay on September 11th.

After the war, it was put into ordinary at Whitehall.  Ot was recommissioned three years later for patrol duties under the provisions of the Rush-Bagot Agreement.  The Navy department closed Whitehall Station 1825-1826 and the Allen was sold.

--Brock-Perry

Rush-Bagot Agreement

In 1817, the United States and United Kingdom signed the Rush-Bagot Agreement which provided for the permanent demilitarization of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. After the fighting along the lakes in the War of 1812, it seemed like the right thing to do.

A Big Step Indeed. ---Brock-Perry