McGowan’s Raid
12-19 NOVEMBER 1814
McGOWAN’S RAID
The British and American naval fleets on Lake Ontario contested that region throughout the War of 1812. In fact, the British began the 1814 fighting season by chasing American Commodore CAPT Isaac Chauncey’s squadron from its base at Oswego and blockading him at Sackets Harbor, New York, on the southern shore near the origin of the ST. LAWRENCE River. In August, Chauncey lifted the blockade and chased the British back to their base at Kingston, 15 miles down the ST. LAWRENCE. Here the enemy was just completing the impressive 112-gun ship-of-the-line HMS ST. LAWRENCE, whose firepower would tip the balance to His Majesty in the coming 1815 season. Winter closed the 1814 campaigning season with Chauncey retired to Sackets Harbor, stewing over what to do about this new British warship.
Midshipman James McGowan from the brig USS SYLPH, 18, had one bold suggestion. At 1800 on Saturday evening 12 November, he pushed off from Sackets Harbor in an open whaleboat. With nine sailors and Mr. Johnson, a local pilot from the frigate USS MOHAWK, 42, he rowed five hours until squalls forced an encampment on the New York shore opposite Fox Island. Not until Monday did the weather moderate, and about 1300 the eleven were underway again. McGowan’s plan was to enter the ST. LAWRENCE and course along the south shore of Long Island (modern Wolfe Island) 12 more miles downriver. Rounding the island, he would circle back eight miles to the British anchorage at Kingston. He would attach enough explosive charges, known in that day as “torpedoes,” to ST. LAWRENCE to sink her. That evening they camped seven miles into the river at Tibbets Bay, and Tuesday night they penetrated farther. But the bright moonlight Tuesday night risked their discovery, and they camped at Mill Creek. Storms again on Wednesday stalled any progress, and despite continued rain on this Thursday afternoon they got underway again.
But at Long Island’s tip they were spotted by two British rowboats on a plundering mission. McGowan’s men pulled hard at their oars and rushed the British boats, capturing both at 1630 without firing a shot. Several British gunboats lay a short distance away, and all hoped the twilight commotion had not triggered an alarm. Worse, McGowan was now saddled with a dozen prisoners. He could not let the prisoners go and guarding them would tie-up sailors critical to his mission. Having no reasonable alternative, a disappointed McGowan slid his torpedoes into the river between himself and the gunboats, then turned back toward Sackets Harbor. The mission had failed, but the War of 1812 ended a month later, before Commodore Chauncey could stage another attempt.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 24 NOV 25
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Cooper, James Fenimore. History of the Navy of the United States of America, Vol. II. Philadelphia, PA: Lea & Blanchard, 1840, pp. 338.
Crawford, Michael J. The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History Vol III, 1814-1815 Chesapeake Bay, Northern Lakes, and Pacific Ocean. Washington, DC: GPO, 2002, pp. 665-66.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 704.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3rd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, pp. 30-33.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: The Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812 was signed 24 December 1814.
HMS ST. LAWRENCE was launched in September 1814 and made a cruise around Lake Ontario in October. Her construction cannibalized three other warships and drained British resources in Lower Canada. She never fired her guns in anger. After the war she remained in Kingston, her deep draft preventing her movement down river. She was sold in deteriorating condition in 1832 for a mere £25. Used for storage at the end of a brewery’s pier, she rotted there and sank. Her wreck is a Canadian National Historic Site.
Wolfe Island is the largest of about 1000 islands in the Canadian waters of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. It was originally named “Ganounkovesnot” by the Indians, meaning “Long Island Standing Up.” It was renamed by the British in 1792, after Royal Army General James Wolfe of Revolutionary War fame, but the former name persisted on American charts.
Three Navy destroyers have been named in honor of Isaac Chauncey, DD-3, DD-296 and DD-667. Midshipman McGowan is not remembered today. The WWII Fletcher-class destroyer McGOWAN (DD-678) commemorates WWI RADM Samuel McGowan.
