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 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

Macdonough Monument in Plattsburgh, N.Y.-- Part 1

From HMdb  "THOMAS MACDONOUGH MEMORIAL MONUMENT"

Commemorates the American naval victory at the Battle of Plattsburgh in 1814 and was designed by John Pope.  It commands the park which is opposite of the Plattsburgh City Hall, which was also designed by John Pope.

Inscribed at the base are Macdonough's four primary vessels:  Ticonderoga, Saratoga, Eagle and Preble.

The monument is 14 feet square at its base.  The bronze eagle at the top has a twenty-foot wingspan.  Pope also designed the National Archives and Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C..  He used Indiana  limestone for the Macdonough Monument and City Hall.  Pope's firm, established in New York City in 1900, consistently produced  dignified architecture of classical inspiration.

The formal dedication of the monument took place on August 18, 1926, "an ideal summer day."  Secretary of State Frank Kellogg spoke to the vast throng.  It was reported that an estimated 7,000 people attended the ceremony in front of City Hall.

--Brock-Perry

The Battle of Plattsburgh/Lake Champlain-- Part 3: John Russell Pope

John Russell Pope (1874-1937) designed the obelisk in downtown Plattsburgh as well as the 1917 City Hall across the street from it.

But, he is better known for designing the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.  The Jefferson memorial and City Hall share some stylistic similarities with the dome and columns.

The Plattsburgh obelisk was erected in 1926 and features the name of each of the major American ships in the battle on each side:  Eagle, Saratoga, Preble and Ticonderoga.  The names are accompanied by intricate reliefs and BOP-contemporary  uniforms.  (Not sure what BOP stands for.)

HOWEVER, in keeping with the current climate of destroying and defacing public monuments in the United States, the obelisk was recently vandalized on some of the reliefs.  The one for the Saratoga had anti-police sentiments painted on it, but since have been removed.

The eagle atop the monument has a twenty-foot wingspan is associated with local, college-town lore and nearly matches the length of the monument's base.

Even in Plattsburgh.  Hey, That Wasn't Even a Confederate Monument.  --Brock-Perry

Wrecks of HMS Linnet and USS Eagle Found in 1981

In 1981, underwater exploration found the wrecks of the HMS Linnet, a row galley, and the USS Eagle.  The USS Allen was discovered near the Eagle.  It and five other row galleys were built in Vergennes, Vermont in the spring of 1814.

In 1815, after the war, the U.S. Navy tried to sell them, but only received low bids and the sale was cancelled.  They were sunk in the cold waters for preservation.

Only the USS Allen was kept in service for patrol and survey, which lasted until 1825 when it was laid up at the mouth of the Poultney River with other War of 1812 vessels.

Only the ship bottoms remain.

--Brock-Perry

200 Years Ago: Chauncey Finally Arrives, USS Eagle Launched

AUGUST 10TH, 1814:  Commodore Isaac Chauncey's squadron arrives off British naval base at Kingston, Upper Canada, on Lake Ontario, and hopes to provoke Commodore Sir James Yeo into battle.  The Americans hold the superiority.  Chauncey loosely blockades Kingston for the remainder of the month, but Yeo will not offer battle until the completion of the HMS St. Lawrence.

AUGUST 11TH, 1814:  The USS Surprise, renamed the USS Eagle (20 guns) is launched on Lake Champlain at Vergennes, Vermont.

--Brock-Perry

Underwater Archaeologists Discover Wrecks of USS Linnet, Allen and Eagle

The Poultney River runs through New York and Vermont and enters the south end of Lake Champlain.

In 1981, divers in the lower Poultney River found the wrecks of War of 1812 warships USS Eagle and USS Linnet (formerly HMS Linnet)  Then the wreck of the row galley USS Allen was discovered near the Eagle.  The Allen was one of five row galleys built at Vergennes, Vermont,  in the spring of 1814.

At the conclusion of the war, the Navy tried to sell the row galleys, but kept possession of them because of low bids.  The rest were sunk in the lake for preservation, but the Allen was kept in service for patrol and survey duties until 1825 when it was laid up in ordinary at the mouth of the Poultney River with other War of 1812 vessels.

Essentially, only the bottoms of the ships remain.

--Brock-Perry

Vergennes, Vermont, Involved in War of 1812

From the Jan. 3, 2014, Telegraph, AP "Vt. museum celebrating 200 years since War of 1812" by Wilson Ring, AP.

Two hundred years ago, the land around Otter Creek in what is now Vergennes, Vermont, had thousands of shipwrights from New York and elsewhere spending the winter and building an American fleet which would later in the year meet the British fleet on Lake Champlain in what is called the Battle of Plattsburgh.

In the winter of 1813-1814, they built this fleet seven miles upstream from Lake Champlain and just below the falls which helped power the Monkton Iron Works which provided metal fittings for the 26-gun USS Saratoga, 20-gun Eagle, 14-gun Ticonderoga and some smaller gunboats.

Meeting the British Next. --Brock-Perry