Miller Worsley, RN-- Part 3: A Big Victory and "Lake Fever"

The Americans landed a superior force on infantry and attacked the HMS Nancy which resulted in the ship being burned.  Then Miller Worsley had his small command row 360 miles to Mackinac Island where he organized an attack against the two American ships blockading the place, the USS Tigress and USS Scorpion.

With the capture of both ships, as you can read about in my USS Tigress entries, this gave the British superiority  on Lake Huron for the remainder of the war.

Miller Worsley fell ill with "Lake Fever," a malady that struck many serving on the Great Lakes.  Worsley was able to perform no further naval service and was appointed commander with half-pay on 13 July 1815.

He returned to the Isle of Wright after the war.  From 1832-1834, he served as Commander of the Coastguard.  He died in 1835.

--Brock-Perry

Miller Worsley, RN-- Part 2: Defending the HMS Nancy

After the Raid on Fort Oswego, Worsley was appointed to head up the British naval detachment on Lake Huron, which actually only consisted of a small ship named the Nancy.  Worsley made his way overland to the base at Nottawasago Bay in July and took command of the only British naval vessel on the lake, the Nancy.

Conditions of the British garrison at Fort Mackinac were getting serious and Worsley needed to go to its aid with supplies and munitions.  But, there was a larger American force lying off the coast.  Knowing that the Americans would try to destroy the Nancy, Worsley tried to hide the ship by towing it upriver.

To protect the ship, he had a force of 22 sailors, 9 French voyageurs and 23 Indians.

--Brock-Perry

HMS Swiftsure (1804)

From Wikipedia.

Ten ships have served in the British Royal Navy with the name Swiftsure, all the way from a galleon in 1573 to a submarine in the 1990s.

Miller Worsley served on the sixth HMS Swiftsure at the Battle of Trafalgar.  His ship was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line launched 23 July 1804, 173 feet long, 47.6 beam.  It fought at the Battle of Trafalgar.  One of the French ships it fought was the former HMS Swiftsure (1787).  (See next post for information on this ship.)

It became a receiving ship in 1819 and was broken up in 1845.

--Brock-Perry

Miller Worsley, Royal Navy-- Part 1: At Trafalgar, Transferred to Canada

From Wikipedia.

8 July 1791 to 2 May 1835

Volunteered for the Royal Navy in 1803, became midshipman in 1805.  He was at the Battle of Trafalgar serving aboard the HMS Swiftsure (See next post)

Drafted to serve in Canada along with Robert Heriot Barclay (Battle of Lake Erie) and Daniel Pring.  Evidently many British officers, both Army and Navy, regarded service in Canada as not too promising for their careers.  Much more action and advancement opportunity against the French in Europe.

Promoted to lieutenant 12 July 1813 and in 1814 was 1st lt. on frigate HMS Princess Charlotte on Lake Ontario and participated in the Raid on Fort Oswego.

--Brock-Perry

USS Tigress-- Part 4: The USS Scorpion Captured As Well

The survivors of the USS Tigress were sent ashore as prisoners of war.  The majority of the British stayed on board the Tigress and kept the American flag flying in hopes of luring the other American ship, the Scorpion close enough to capture.

The Scorpion arrived September 6 and anchored two miles away from the Tigress.  British Lt. Worsley got the Tigress under way and ran it alongside the Scorpion and captured her as well.

Both ships and their captured crews were taken to Mackinac Island where the ships were renamed the HMS Surpise (Tigress) and HMS Confiance (Scorpion).

--Brock-Perry

USS Tigress-- Part 3: Captured In a Surprise Attack

The Tigress was under the command of Stephen Champlin at this time.

Four boatloads of British sailors and Indians secretly left Mackinac Island on the night of 3 September 1814.  They slipped alongside the Tigress, boarded and after a brief and bloody battle "warmly received" by the Tigress' crew, captured it in five minutes.  The Tigress only had a crew of 27.

"The defense of this vessel, wrote Lt. Miller Worsley, commander of the British, "did credit to her officers, who were all seriously wounded."

One of those seriously wounded was Acting Master Stephen Champlin.

--Brock-Perry

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