Historic Significance

H.M.S. Detroit is a vessel of major historic significance on several levels:

Internationally, she was at the centre of a bloody American naval victory that quickly became part of the folklore of the country.

Nationally, she was Canada's flagship in a major theatre of war in which Canadians discovered a stubborn nationhood that successfully repulsed invasion.

Provincially, she was a gallant though ill-equipped and under-manned front line of Upper Canada's defence, the loss of which led to an American occupation of the southwest, and a thereat to the whole of what is now southern Ontario.

Regionally, she bears the name of what had been a British fort but is today a major American city.

Locally, she is the last product of Amherstburg's shipyard, the largest ship on Lake Erie to that date, and her loss led to the subsequent occupation of the Town by U.S. forces.

H.M.S. Detroit was the last warship built in the King's Navy Yard at Amherstburg during the War of 1812-14. Under Captain R. H. Barclay, she was the largest vessel ever seen on the Upper lakes to that date, and served as Upper Canada's flagship on Lake Erie in U.S. Commodore Perry's famous victory over Barclay at Put-in-Bay on September 10, 1813. Flags from Detroit are in the collection of the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Md.

The War of 1812-14 was a war of importance to the national development of two nations:

United States: It confirmed the independence of the United States of America, obliging the British to desist from seizing and impressing American sailors, and demonstrating the young Republic's ability to defend its trade and territory.

Canada: Even more dramatically (and somewhat surprisingly), it revealed the equal determination of Canadians to defend our territory. American warhawks' boasts in the U.S. Senate that "the occupation of the Canadas would be a mere matter of marching" were proved utterly wrong, as U.S. Troops met sharp resistance not only from British regulars but also from both natives and settlers, most of whom had only arrived within the quarter-century before the War, and many of whom had come from the U.S.

With roads on both sides in very tentative condition throughout much of the contested territory, the naval campaigns of the Great Lakes were the decisive struggles of the War of 1812-14. No less an authority than the Duke of Wellington, reporting on the war the British Cabinet advised:

"That which appears to me to be wanting in America is not a General, or general officers and troops, but a naval superiority on the Lakes."

Without a Welland Canal, Lake Ontario was obviously the key theatre of Great Lakes naval operations , offering access not only to much of Upper Canada, but more important to the St. Lawrence. But certainly only second to it was Lake Erie, from which control could be exercised over the whole of what was then other northwest frontier. British-inspired Indian raids from Detroit reached south to Kentucky and the Mississippi, while American control of the Lake meant potential U.S. access to the Thames Valley and thereby to central Upper Canada.

Since both side was well prepared for the War, shipbuilding and the conversion of merchant shipping for battle was of the utmost importance. Moreover, for this purpose, a defendable harbour and shipyard was essential.

"The fort of Amherstburg is placed in the township of Malden, opposite the isle au Bois Blanc : The anchorage near the main shore is safe, and wharfs have been constructed, and storehouses and dwellings erected."

So wrote Canada's Deputy Postmaster George Heriot in his Travels through the Canada, originally published in 1807. In 1797, following on the Jay Treaty that fixed the border along the Detroit River, the existence of only one deep channel within shot of the shore had suggested the location of a fort at Amherstburg. The Naval Yard here was to be Canada's naval base for the Lake Erie theatre. The capture of Detroit from the Americans only magnified the town's importance.

Meanwhile American shipbuilding, captures, and refitting had established U.S. dominance over Lake Ontario by the end of 1812, which facilitated the burning of York, the capture of Fort George, a land campaign up the Niagara Peninsula, and a threatened attack on Kingston in the first six months of 1813. The temporary U.S. dominance on the Niagara River meant that the usual portage around the Falls was not possible, so that supplies to the west had to be carried overland from Burlington Bay.

By the end of August, however, U.S. Navy losses and a strengthening of the fleet based at Kingston had produced a stalemate on the Lake. Nevertheless, the necessary dedication of men and materials to recover control of Lake Ontario had impeded the supply of either to Amherstburg, where Captain Robert Barclay, a 28-year-old one-armed veteran of the European campaigns, had ordered the construction of several gunboats and a 3-masted flagship, Detroit. All had to be built of green, local lumber.

"The Detroit will be ready to launch," wrote Barclay in July, 1813, ": but there is neither a sufficient quantity of ordnance ammunition or other stores and not a man to put in her."

On July 28 Barclay was obliged to abandon his blockade of Presque' Isle Harbour (at today's Erie, Pa.), allowing the U.S. Commander Perry to take the lake with his squadron, while Barclay returned to Amherstburg to ready Detroit for action. By September 1, Perry off Amherstburg noted that Detroit was now fully rigged. Barclay meanwhile learned that some 50 seamen and 12 24-pounder carronades intended to arm Detroit were en route, but before they got past Burlington, he had to sail. He hoped to reach the nearest provisions at Long Point, to relieve a starving Amherstburg and Sandwich.

On September 9, with only a single day's flour in store, all other rations at half, and only enough spirits for the day of battle itself, Barclay entered Lake Erie with six vessels, led by his flagship Detroit, outfitted with sails, cables, blocks and anchors borrowed from other vessels. Very few experienced seamen were on board -- Barclay claimed that there were no more than 50 British seamen in the entire squadron, while the later American estimate stood a 150. The rest were reported by the Americans as 240 soldiers of the 41st. and Royal Newfoundland Regiments, with about 80 Provincial Marine sailors, 13 landsmen and some Indians - about 500 men on all 6 vessels.

Detroit was armed with ordnance taken for the ramparts of the Fort, which could only be fired by snapping pistols over the touchhole. "A more curiously composite battery probably never was mounted," wrote the famous maritime historian, Admiral Hahan. The guns were:

2 long 24-pounders
1 18-pounder on a pivot
6 12-punders
8 9-pounders
1 24-pound carronade
1 18-pound carronade

At dawn on September 10 Barclay sighted the American squadron of 9 vessels among the Bass Islands, near Put-IN-Bay. Just before noon, a bugle sounded on board Detroit, the signal for three cheers from the six vessels, and the action began. Detroit duelled with Perry's flagship Lawrence for two hours, hampered by her slow-firing and ineffectual guns, especially after the silencing of the support vessel Queen Charlotte, who's Commander and two lieutenants were killed. Nevertheless, forced to abandon Lawrence, and transferred to Niagara. From that vessel, he fired a shot, which shattered the shoulder of Barclay's remaining arm, and sent him below.

Since First-Lieutenant Garland had also been mortally wounded, Second-Lieutenant George Inglis was obliged to take Barclay's place. However, Detroit fell foul of Queen Charlotte, and the two ships were cut off, and practically surrounded by the American squadron. By the time, Inglis disentangled them, Queen Charlotte and to strike its colours, and Detroit was exposed to the entire American fleet. With only 2 out of 10 of his experienced seamen alive and bale, more than half of his crew out of action, mizzen topmast and gaff gone, stays and braces disabled, hull shattered and masts broken, Inglis surrendered, followed by the rest of the squadron. An American eyewitness related:

"The sides of the Detroit and Queen Charlotte were shattered from bow to stern; there was scarcely room to place one's hand on their larboard sides without touching the impression of a shot, a great many shot canister and grape were found lodged in their bulwarks, which were to thick to be penetrated by our carronades unless within pistol shot distance. Their masts were some much shattered that they fell overboard soon after they got into the bay."

Every commanding officer and second-in-command of the six vessels had been killed or wounded -- in all, 41 killed and 94 wounded. On the American side, 27 were killed and 96 wounded.

On September 13th, a storm brought down the remaining masts on Detroit, and she was converted to a hospital ship, and taken to what is now Erie, Pa. Sunk in Misery Bay, she was raised in 1835, re-rigged as a barque and sailed for some years as a merchant vessel by one Captain Miles. Eventually purchased by a hotel keeper in Niagara Falls, who sent her adrift with a live bear and some other animals aboard on the Niagara River, where she was wrecked and broken up on the rocks.

News of Perry's victory in 1813 was of great moral support to the Americans in the War, especially after prints, ballads and stories had widely publicized it. Detroit and the west were now theirs. It also gave them access to Amherstburg, which General Procter soon abandoned, allowing the U.S. forces to advance up the Thames to Moraviantown, where Chief Tecumseh was killed, snuffing out a major Indian alliance. One side effect was the increased use of the portage route to Georgian Bay via Lake Simcoe, in order to maintain control of the Upper Lakes. Fortunately, for Canada, Michilimackinac was held, and resistance on the Niagara frontier contained the impact of the Battle of Lake Erie and southwest Upper Canada.