USS LYNX

In modern times, the unexplained disappearance of a vessel at sea would raise much interest, concern, news coverage, and even sensationalist speculation.  Witness the loss of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in 2014.  In the 19^th century, however, losses due to act of God were a known risk of oceanic enterprise. 

When President James Madison received from Congress a declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812, he found the US Navy woefully inadequate to the task.  Part of the subsequent build-up for that war included the creation two squadrons that could raid British shipping.  A contract was let to Mr. James Owner of Georgetown, DC, for the construction of a Baltimore Clipper-rigged schooner of 150 tons displacement and six guns.  Construction delays prevented her completion prior to the summer of 1815, six months after the end of the fighting.  Nevertheless, on 3 July 1815 she was commissioned into our Navy as USS LYNX, manned with 50 crewmen, and sent with Commodore William Bainbridge’s nine-ship squadron to the Mediterranean to police Barbary piracy.

Here, LYNX arrived too late for combat again.  Bainbridge took over command of our Mediterranean Squadron, and LYNX remained in the area for a year, showing the flag to insure Barbary peace.  Upon her return to the United States, her new skipper LT George W. Storer surveyed the northeastern coast, until piracy, that had started before the turn of the century. surfaced again along our Gulf coast.  LYNX was sent south to address this.

By 1819 LYNX had yet a new captain, LT John R. Madison, and experienced her first brush with combat.  On 24 October she overhauled and engaged two pirate schooners and two smaller boats loaded with booty off Louisiana.  LYNX departed subsequently for the coast of Texas, then part of Mexico.  Here, in Galveston Bay, she captured another pirate boat also loaded with stolen booty.

By early 1820, LYNX was operating out of St. Mary’s on Georgia’s Atlantic coast, from whence she received orders to Kingston, Jamaica.  Piracy had become rampant in the Caribbean, as newly independent former Spanish colonies such as Venezuela and Colombia commissioned privateers against Spanish shipping.  These privateers too often placed profit above patriotism and attacked ships of any nation.  American traders were falling victim, and LYNX was to be part of our Navy’s efforts against this affront.

On this day LYNX disappeared over the horizon, heading south.  Neither she nor Madison nor any of her crew were ever seen again.  The mythical Bermuda Triangle notwithstanding, a search by USS Nonsuch, 14, turned up nothing.  Months later some unidentifiable wreckage was found on Craysons Reef, off Florida, that is believed today to have been the remains of USS Lynx.  In the days before accurate weather forecasting, losses at sea were not uncommon.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  15 JAN 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cooney, David M.  A Chronology of the U.S. Navy:  1775-1965.  New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1965, p. 48.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 172-73.

Silverstone, Paul H.  The Sailing Navy, 1775-1854.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2001, p. 55.

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                                              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, 3^rd 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.

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                                                31 AUGUST 1812

                                         THE MISSING HUSBAND

Not even three months had passed since war was declared against England in 1812.  Both the US Army and the US Navy were filling their ranks for the fight.  A military draft would not exist for another 50 years, and to their credit, American recruiters refrained from conscription’s lesser cousin, impressment.  But that is not to say that to procure sailors and Marines, recruiters weren’t above taking advantage of those whose discretion was temporarily compromised.

On this date Mrs. Jane Stringer, the loving wife of Daniel Stringer, a baker of Philadelphia, wrote to Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton about a matter that distressed her greatly.  Referring to herself in the third person as “your Petitioner,” Mrs. Stringer admits that her husband enlisted in the Marines six days earlier, though she is not specific as to how she learned of his actions.  She goes on to state her conviction however, that, “at the time he enlisted he was so much under the influence of liquor as to be incapable of knowing what he did.”  She condemns the enlisting officer who “took advantage of [Stringer’s] intoxication when he persuaded him to enlist,” so much so that Stringer, “had not recovered from the effects of the liquor when he took the Oath before the magistrate.”  Mrs. Stringer goes on to say that this unfortunate circumstance has left her without the means to support her two small children, and that such comes at an absolutely inopportune time, as she is struggling to pay the onerous medical expenses incurred as a result of a recent illness from which her husband recovered.

In 1812 it was possible to obtain an early release from military service if one could find a substitute to serve the remainder of his term.  Mrs. Stringer goes on to offer the sacrifice of “a part of her furniture with which to procure the means of providing a substitute in the place of her husband.”  She ends with her commitment to continue ever prayerful in the matter and requests that the Secretary, “will be pleased to direct the commanding officer on the station to discharge her Husband from the term of his enlistment upon her procuring a substitute.”  Her petition encloses an affidavit of veracity by three Philadelphians of presumed virtue.

History records neither the fate of PVT Daniel Stringer, USMC, nor the response of the Secretary to Mrs. Stringer’s petition.  Today enlisting into military service while under the influence of drugs or alcohol constitutes a “fraudulent enlistment,” and modern recruiters eschew such practices.  One can only hope this story had a happy ending!

Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 3 SEP 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Petition of Jane Stringer to Secretary of the Navy Hamilton, dtd. 31 August 1812.  IN:  Dudley, William S. (ed).  The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History  Vol I.  Department of the Navy, Navy Historical Center, Washington DC: GPO, 1985, p. 261.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The production, distribution, and consumption of distilled spirits were quite prevalent in 19^th century America, more common even than today.  Many farmers ran their own stills as a routine part of their farming operation.  It has been argued that distilling whiskey from grain was an effective means of preserving the caloric content for indefinite periods of time.  So ubiquitous was liquor that when the US government was in need of a source of revenue in 1791 it was suggested that alcohol be taxed.  This tax brought about the three-year-long “Whiskey Rebellion” in western Pennsylvania. 

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                               USS ASP vs. OVERWHELMING ODDS

In February of 1813 our nation was struggling once again against the naval superpower of the day, Britain, and fears of a British incursion into the Chesapeake were real.  Our Navy was no match for His Majesty’s, but we nevertheless purchased the 79-ton bay schooner Adeline in Alexandria and outfitted her at the Washington Navy Yard as the 3-gun sloop-of-war USS ASP.  This day found her cruising with the 4-gun sloop USS SCORPION in the Yeocomico River, a tributary of the Potomac.  Exiting the tributary to the Potomac proper, the pair were sighted by the British cruisers HMS CONTEST, 14, and HMS MOHAWK, 18, about 1000 this morning.  ASP, being a bit ungainly, ducked back into the Yeocomico and anchored up one of her creeks.  Her skipper, Midshipman James B. Sigourney, correctly surmised that the British cruisers drew too much water to enter the creek.  But the British launched three small boats that were shortly seen rowing toward ASP, led by LT Curry of CONTEST and LT Hutchinson of MOHAWK.

ASP beat to quarters, and without time to raise her anchors, she cut her cables and turned further up the creek.  But shallowing water halted the Sigourney’s escape with the enemy still in relentless pursuit.  The Midshipman ordered his 21-man crew to the guns, and three 18-pounders flashed in anger.  These, and muskets, kept up a steady fire against the advancing enemy boats.  For moments it looked like the British would prevail despite the intense fire–until American iron and lead took its toll.  The cruel volleys that tore through their ranks convinced LT Curry to opt for discretion.

About an hour later, the enemy was reinforced with two more boatloads of attackers.  This time the American fire could not turn them back.  They swarmed aboard ASP with a vengeance, cutting down ten of the American crewmen including Midshipman Sigourney.  Upwards of 50 British possessed the deck, and against those odds the eleven surviving Americans scattered into the Virginia woods.  Here, second in command Midshipman Henry M. McLintock rallied the men.  The British set fire to ASP and quit both her and the creek–too soon, it would prove.  McLintock regained the deck and after a difficult struggle, stemmed the fires aboard the schooner.  ASP was able to get underway and return to Washington.  She was repaired and continued in service in the defense of Baltimore for the remainder of the War of 1812.  She finally left naval service over a decade later, in 1826.

In modern times two destroyers, the WWI Wickes-class SIGOURNEY (DD-81) and the WWII Fletcher-class DD-643, remember Midshipman James B. Sigourney.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  19 JUL 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. 186-87.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1991, p. 430.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 502.

Letter of Midshipman Henry McLintock to Secretary of the Navy, dtd. 19 July 1813.  IN:  Dudley, William S. (ed).  The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History  Vol II.  Department of the Navy, Navy Historical Center, Washington, DC: GPO, 1992, p. 368.

Roosevelt, Theodore.  The Naval War of 1812.  New York, NY: Da Capo, 1999, pp. 196-97.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  USS SCORPION escaped up the Chesapeake Bay toward Harve de Grace, Maryland.  SCORPION would be burned 14 months later in the Patuxent River to prevent her capture by a British force advancing on Washington, DC.

One of the curiosities in our early Navy was the coexistence of two warships named, USS ASP.  Communications being what they were during the War of 1812, the name given to one of the warships operating on Great Lakes was not known in Washington DC at the time the small schooner above was commissioned.

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                                                   25 JUNE 1813

                                              BOMBSHIP EAGLE

Smarting from the British blockade of American seaports during the War of 1812, Congress turned for help to our private citizens.  Legislation was passed in March 1813 allowing a bounty equal to one-half the value of any British warship, its armament, and rigging, to be paid to any citizen who destroyed the ship.  It was called the “Torpedo Act,” a reference to the contemporary word for a static bomb.  It was hoped the Act would transform His Majesty’s blockading ships into targets for enterprising entrepreneurs.

Three months later, New York businessman John Scudder, Jr. completed a project in keeping with Congress’ Act.  Scudder gutted the civilian schooner Eagle, then re-constructed a large cask below decks.  This he filled with 40 ten-pound kegs of gunpowder packed in sulfur.  Large stones were piled loosely over the cask, and for extra measure, containers of turpentine were laid amongst the rocks.  Two musket flintlocks were rigged as triggers, with lines running through the deck to two innocent looking flour kegs topside.  Any movement of the kegs would trip the flintlocks.  New spools of line and other valuable ships stores were stacked about the deck as bait.  Scudder then hired a man history records only as “Captain Riker,” (probably a false name) to sail Eagle toward the British squadron at the mouth of Long Island Sound.

Riker knew well that the British made a habit of seizing any sizeable vessel operating in the Sound.  And as expected, on this morning a British officer and twenty sailors set out after Riker in a barge from the flagship HMS RAMILLIES, 74.  But instead of running, Riker and his crew dropped Eagle’s anchor and fled to shore.  As the British boarded the schooner, Riker and his men opened musket fire so intense the redcoats had to cut her anchor cable to move away.  Exactly according to Riker’s plan, Eagle was taken into the warship anchorage, where, lacking an anchor, she had to be tied off to another vessel.  But alas the tide and wind carried her far down range, where she was secured to another American sloop that had been captured a few days earlier.  A British detail began relieving the tempting “bait,” until about 1430, when some unlucky tar hoisted one of the flour barrels.  Eagle, the captured sloop, and eleven British sailors disappeared in a 900-foot column of smoke and flame.  Pitch and splinters rained onto RAMILLIES a mile away.

The British immediately suspected Stephen Decatur was behind this plot, another of his efforts to break out from New London where the British had him bottled-up.  But in truth, it was a bold act by private citizens for personal profit.  Had Ramillies been destroyed, Scudder stood to earn over $150,000.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  29 JUN 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

De Kay, James Tertius.  The Battle of Stonington: Torpedoes Submarines, and Rockets in the War of 1812.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1990, pp. 34-37.

Warren, ADM Sir John B.  letter to 1st Secretary of the Admiralty, dtd 22 July 1813.  IN:  Dudley, William S. (ed).  The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History  Vol II.  Washington, DC: Department of the Navy, Navy Historical Center, 1992, pp. 163-64.

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                                             11 SEPTEMBER 1814

                                 ACTION AT THE NORTHERN END

The heavyweights concentrated at the northern end of the battle line.  Here the headforemost approach of CAPT George Downie in the British flagship CONFIANCE, 37, allowed SARATOGA and EAGLE to repeatedly rake his bows.  His starboard anchors were cut away and his port anchor fouled, turning his flagship broadside to Commodore MacDonough in SARATOGA.  But once so positioned at half-musket range, CONFIANCE loosed a terrible double-shotted broadside that heeled SARATOGA with its impact.  Forty men fell dead or bleeding in the tempest of splinters and shot that burst through MacDonough’s bulwarks.  Then only 15 minutes into the fight, an American shot struck the muzzle of a gun on CONFIANCE’s quarterdeck.  The 3-ton tube pitched up and back, crushing CAPT Downie against the deck.  He died, his waistcoat pocket watch frozen at the second he was struck.  Against the storm of American fire only British CAPT Daniel Pring in HMS LINNET, 16, reached his assigned station across the top of the American line.  Command aboard CONFIANCE devolved to LT James Robertson who joined Pring in booming away at EAGLE and SARATOGA.  In the smoke and confusion HMS CHUB, 11, approached.  But 32-pounder carronades from EAGLE literally drove CHUB backward.  Her jib boom was shot away, her bowsprit shattered, her main boom fractured, halyards and stays were cut, and her sails were shredded.  On fire and unmanageable, she drifted through the American line and was quickly captured.

Brits and Yanks battered on.  MacDonough himself pointed a 24-pounder on SARATOGA until an enemy shot splintered a yard over his head, and he was knocked unconscious.  EAGLE, at the head of the American line, suffered severely from the raking by LINNET and broadsides from CONFIANCE.  Then in a move that nearly ruined the American day, EAGLE’s skipper cut her lines and passed behind SARATOGA.  He eventually rejoined the action from a new position behind and below his commodore, but his ill-advised move opened the American flank and exposed his commander to intensified fire.  

The two-way storm of shot dismounted guns, one by one, and decimated British and American crews.  After two and a half hours of pounding, SARATOGA was left with only one working gun on her exposed side–with British shot still flying.  At this point, MacDonough’s masterful seamanship played out–his crewmen hauled the spring lines so carefully rigged before the battle.  SARATOGA slowly warped, inching around by the stern, until her undamaged port guns opened a murderous broadside.  CONFIANCE’s fouled anchors would not allow a similar move, and she reeled from the renewed American onslaught.  To avoid a further bloodbath, the British struck their colors.

Watch the POD for more “Today in Naval History”

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Rehabilitation Medicine

Dunne, W.M.P.  “The Battle of Lake Champlain.”  IN: Sweetman, Jack.  Great American Naval Battles.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998, pp. 85-106.

Fitz-Enz, David G. and John R. Elting, et al.  The Final Invasion:  Plattsburgh, the War of 1812’s Most Decisive Battle. Lanham, MD: Cooper Square Press, 2001.

Site visit.  Plattsburgh and Plattsburgh Bay, New York, 26 August 2004.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  This pitched battle ended with nearly all the combatant warships battered and sinking.  Upon seeing their flagship strike, the British gunboats that had held themselves off to the south scurried back toward Canada.  American gunboats set off in pursuit but were called back by MacDonough, who needed the manpower to keep his prizes afloat. 

In the week before, outnumbered American land forces in Plattsburgh had given fits to Prevost’s army in a series of engagements in and around the town.  The defeat of British naval support by McDonough on the 11^th broke British will and started them back towards Canada.  As such, this victory is touted in American military history as one of great significance, in a league with such battles as Saratoga, Gettysburg, or Midway.  British efforts to stall the Ghent peace talks while their vaunted Army captured valuable American territory went for naught, and in December 1814 those talks concluded a treaty that accepted the status quo ante.  GEN Andrew Jackson’s later triumph over the British at New Orleans actually occurred after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.  By managing a “draw” in her war with the global superpower of the day, the upstart United States of America had effectively gained a victory and earned international respect.  The modern Ticonderoga-class cruiser LAKE CHAMPLAIN (CG-57) remembers this battle.  Thomas MacDonough is remembered with four American warships, TB-9, DD-331, DD-351, and DDG-39.

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                                             11 SEPTEMBER 1814

                                 ACTION AT THE SOUTHERN END

As MacDonough had correctly anticipated, HMS FINCH, 11, could not sail close enough to the wind to approach the southern American line.  In falling to leeward however, she engaged both PREBLE and TICONDEROGA.  But when five British gunboats followed in her wake, PREBLE inexplicably cut her cables and abandoned the American line!  Royal Navy LT William Hicks then turned FINCH’s guns in force upon TICONDEROGA and a furious cannonade ensued.  Both ships battered away until time allowed the practiced American gunners to take their toll.  FINCH’s rigging was shredded, her hull was holed and three feet of water collected in her bilges.  She drifted toward the shoal and bumped aground.  Hicks jettisoned four cannon to lighten his ship, all the while taking more fire, but could not budge his sloop.  She was captured by American gunboats.

Now the gunboats accompanying FINCH, most mounting either two 18-pounders or one 32-pounder carronade, fell upon TICONDEROGA.  Cowardice, it seems, was not limited to PREBLE’s skipper.  Royal Navy LT Mark Raynham led the gunboats toward TICONDEROGA making a signal to board.  But minutes later he hauled down his signal and turned away from the action.  Though unhurt, he ordered himself rowed to a hospital tender and jumped aboard, leaving the crewmen of his gunboat to their own fates.  He later went AWOL rather than face court martial.

Meanwhile, LT James Bell in the British gunboat MURRAY rallied those remaining around TICONDEROGA, sensing correctly that if the American could be driven off, the flank could be turned.  The gunboats stormed and circled; each in turn slid close aboard, only to be beaten off with heavy musket and cannon fire.  LT Stephen Cassin on TICONDEROGA proved a firebrand in his own right.  Pacing up and down the quarterdeck amid a hail of musket balls and grapeshot, he barked commands to his gunners.  American men fell all around and those standing barely had time to reload and depress their barrels before the next gunboat approached.  On Bell’s next attempt to board an American shot took off his leg above the knee, and he was rowed to the medical tender.  The American row-galleys joined the fight, and minutes later the approach of another British gunboat sent American Midshipman Thomas Conover in the row-galley BORER driving forward to engage.  His bravado diverted British attention momentarily but brought fire upon BORER that killed three men and wrecked his boat.  The pause allowed Cassin to loose such a hail of grape and musket that French-Canadian militia manning the British boats deserted their posts.  Through the smoke and the roar Cassin held TICONDEROGA!  With Raynham and Bell out of action, the remaining British gunboats gave up and stood off.

TICONDEROGA’s remarkable stand might well have turned the battle, had not another American captain at the northern end of the line faltered…

Continued tomorrow…

Dunne, W.M.P.  “The Battle of Lake Champlain.”  IN: Sweetman, Jack.  Great American Naval Battles.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998, pp. 85-106.

Fitz-Enz, David G. and John R. Elting, et al.  The Final Invasion:  Plattsburgh, the War of 1812’s Most Decisive Battle. Lanham, MD: Cooper Square Press, 2001.

Site visit.  Plattsburgh and Plattsburgh Bay, New York, 26 August 2004.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Two 20^th century destroyers remember Stephen Cassin above, CASSIN (DD-48), and the WWII-era Mahan-class DD-372.

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                                             11 SEPTEMBER 1814

                                   BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN

To the British, our War of 1812 was only a distant theater of a more global war against Napoleonic France.  And the defeat of Napoleon at Toulouse and his abdication in April 1814 allowed Britain to redeploy her crack continental regiments to the North American theater.  His Majesty’s negotiators then stonewalled the Ghent peace talks hoping that their revitalized Army in North America might capture valuable real estate before a treaty was concluded.  Part of the British plan was a push south from Canada into upstate New York and Vermont to threaten the Hudson River valley and Albany.  In preparation for the march of Royal Governor GEN George Prevost’s army south from Quebec, British naval forces set about constructing warships in the Richelieu River, which drains from Lake Champlain into the St. Lawrence.  British control of Lake Champlain would compliment their overland invasion.

Our Navy had sent LT Thomas MacDonough to Lake Champlain in 1812 with instructions to build and deploy a fleet.  By this date, his shipwrights had completed a 26-gun sloop SARATOGA, a brig, EAGLE, 20, and a schooner, TICONDEROGA, 17.  A civilian vessel was also converted to carry 7 guns and renamed COMMODORE PREBLE.  Ten row galleys, each mounting 1-2 guns, completed the flotilla.

American ground forces were dug in around Plattsburgh, on the northwestern shore of Lake Champlain, where Plattsburgh Bay opened to the south.  MacDonough reasoned that the northerly wind upon which the stronger British squadron sailed south would stymie their turn to the north to enter Plattsburgh Bay.  As such he anchored his ships in a northeast-southwest line across the mouth of the bay–EAGLE, 20, at the Cumberland Head, followed in a southerly direction by SARATOGA, TICONDEROGA, and PREBLE.  Below PREBLE shoal water stretched to Crab Island near the opposite shore.  On Crab, MacDonough mounted a 6-pounder cannon served by invalids from his sick bay.  His gunboats guarded his flanks.  MacDonough ordered spring lines to the anchor hawsers, with extra stern anchors and kedge anchors in a complex design that would allow the ships to be turned 180 degrees in position without sails.           

When CAPT George Downie, RN, observed this deployment he ordered HMS LINNET, 16, and CHUB, 11, to squeeze between EAGLE and the shore of Cumberland Head.  His flagship, CONFIANCE, 37, would penetrate the American line and anchor between EAGLE and SARATOGA, raking both.  HMS FINCH, 11, and 11 gunboats would attack the southern end of the American line.

At 0900 a broadside from EAGLE broke the calm Fall day.  LINNET answered, but her shot fell short–excepting a single British ball that glanced off the water and rolled onto SARATOGA’s deck.  Here it smashed the gamecock’s cage, whereupon the offended rooster flapped to the starboard fore yard and boldly crowed an apparent challenge at the advancing British.

Continued tomorrow…

Dunne, W.M.P.  “The Battle of Lake Champlain.”  IN: Sweetman, Jack.  Great American Naval Battles.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998, pp. 85-106.

Fitz-Enz, David G. and John R. Elting, et al.  The Final Invasion:  Plattsburgh, the War of 1812’s Most Decisive Battle. Lanham, MD: Cooper Square Press, 2001.

Site visit.  Plattsburgh and Plattsburgh Bay, New York, 26 August 2004.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The overall British plan against the United States called for a three-pronged attack.  As Prevost moved south from Canada, a second British army would move up the Chesapeake to take Washington DC, then re-deploy to New Orleans to threaten the Mississippi.  The middle assault was successful when Washington was burned and Baltimore threatened in August-September 1814.  But GEN Andrew Jackson thwarted the Mississippi assault at the Battle of New Orleans.

The modern aircraft carrier SARATOGA (CV-60), now decommissioned, had a gamecock on its coat of arms, reminiscent of the gamecock above.

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                                   PRELUDE TO THE WAR OF 1812

At the turn of the 19^th century the territory that is now Florida was Spanish.  This fact was of no reassurance to the administration of President James Madison in 1811.  Spain was in decline as a colonial power and worse, British influence was strong in the region, having themselves briefly possessed Florida before our Revolution.  With Anglo-American tensions heating up in the early 19^th century, little did Madison want the British in Florida, to say nothing of a rumored Royal Navy base in St. Augustine!  Thus, on 15 January 1811, Congress secretly resolved to acquire the Spanish territory, by force if necessary.  Revolutionary War veteran and former Georgia governor George Mathews was quietly commissioned to carry out a seizure of East Florida, supported by several US Navy gunboats, each mounting 2-3 guns, under the command of CAPT Hugh G. Campbell.  In May of 1812 Mathews and his band captured Amelia Island, just a mile from the Georgia/Florida border.  The next day a naval engagement unfolded that foreshadowed the coming War of 1812.

The British had been encouraging violation of the Embargo and Non-Importation Acts the US Congress created to counter Continental harassment of American trade.  Indeed, on this morning in Amelia Island’s Fernandina harbor, HMS SAPPHO, 18, let fall her foretop sail and fired a gun.  This signaled the Spanish-flagged Fernandeno to make for the bar.  Fernandeno had arrived earlier as the American merchantman Amelia, and the US Navy GUNBOAT NO. 168 standing by was not fooled.  Sailing Master John Hulburd hove the trader to about a mile from the harbor.  At this SAPPHO got underway claiming she protected the neutral-flagged freighter.  An exchange of hails only entrenched the positions of both captains.  When Fernandeno again attempted to make sail at 1045 Hulburd fired 6-pound shot and canister–first across her bows, then into her quarter and rigging.  This only incensed the Briton further, and for the next several hours Hulburd chased the trader while SAPPHO chased Hulburd.  Twenty miles to sea, the American fired several more times, striking Fernandeno yet again.  CDR Hayes O’Grady, RN, would tolerate no more!  He opened his 32-pounder carronades and grape which passed through Hulburd’s rigging.  The heavily outgunned American turned to leeward with SAPPHO in hot pursuit.  Hulburd escaped, but so did Fernandeno.

A month later, on 18 June, the US declared the War of 1812.  Now facing simultaneous Spanish ire, Madison officially disavowed the secret East Florida actions.  Mathews and Campbell were painted as over-zealous reactionaries, the careers of both being sacrificed for the greater good.  Florida would remain Spanish until 1819.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  20 MAY 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cusick, James G.  The Other War of 1812: The Patriot War and the American Invasion of Spanish East Florida.  Athens, GA: Univ. of Georgia Press, 2003, pp. 172-73.

Dudley, William S. (ed).  The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History  Vol I.  Department of the Navy, Navy Historical Center, Washington DC: GPO, 1985, pp. 112-15.

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                                             SHIPS-OF-THE-LINE

Until the 16^th century, navies, like land forces, relied mostly on hand-to-hand fighting to defeat an enemy.  Tactics required warships to ram or grapple each other, then send across assault troops to attack the enemy’s crew.  Fighting galleys carried large complements of marine soldiers, later called simply “marines,” for this purpose.  Battling fleets sought engagement in wild, intermingled melees that provided each warship a reasonable chance to close and grapple an enemy.   Unless ships caught fire they rarely sank, rather they tended to change hands between rival navies.

The development of the gun in the 1500s revolutionized fleet tactics.  Early guns were not powerful enough to destroy whole ships, but they did allow the first “stand-off” ability to attack the enemy crew.  Melee tactics proved inefficient as half the time your guns would be bearing on friendly ships.  The British solved this problem by aligning their ships into a single-file column, the line-ahead.  By sailing past your enemy thusly, one could bring each broadside sequentially to the action.  However, like a chain, this “line-ahead” could be broken by a determined foe at the weakest ship, and a melee would ensue.  Therefore, only the heaviest men-of-war were allowed to be ships-of-the-line, manned by the best crews, line sailors.  By the 18^th century ships mounting less than 70 guns were not considered worthy of the line.  Smaller ships were assigned to patrol or escort duties.  Our most famous early sailing warships such as the frigates CONSTITUTION, 44, and BONHOMME RICHARD, 40, would have been only minor vessels in the Royal, French, or Spanish navies of that day.

On three occasions Congress authorized capital ships of sail for our Navy.  The construction of three ships of 74 guns was approved in 1776, only one of which was built, AMERICA.  But the Revolutionary War was nearly over when she sailed, and shortly after her launch in 1782 AMERICA was donated to France in recognition of that nation’s aid.  On this date, Congress authorized the construction of nine ships of “greater than 74 guns.”  Eight were completed, the 136-gun PENNSYLVANIA becoming the largest ship of sail ever commissioned into our Navy.  But these eight were fitted-out during peacetime and spent the bulk of their careers “in ordinary.”  Perhaps the most useful of these ships-of-the-line proved to be INDEPENDENCE.  She was originally holed for 90 guns, but the weight of that armament burdened her so that water shipped through the lower gun ports.  She was “razeed” (lightened by cutting away gunwales and framing) and re-rated at 54 guns, serving in the Mexican and Civil Wars as a frigate.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”   5 MAY 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1991, p. 240.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 424-25.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 610, 625-27.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, p. 250.

Potter, E.B.  Sea Power: A Naval History, 2nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1981, pp. 18, 22.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Roman galleys mounted a gangway called a corvus projecting from the bow, that was hinged in the vertical position during cruising.  During battle a galley would ram an enemy, and the corvus would be dropped to allow troops to swarm across.

Interestingly, credit for the line-ahead idea goes to the British Army.  When Oliver Cromwell seized power in England in 1653, he radically re-vamped the British military.  He abolished the aristocratic admiralty, placing Army general officers in charge of the Navy.  These “Generals of the Sea” as Cromwell called them developed line-ahead formation.

“Ordinary” is an old English word meaning an inn or place of temporary rest.  Warships placed “in ordinary” were left floating but were stripped of guns, equipment, and running rigging.  They were manned with less intensively trained “ordinary seamen” to keep up routine maintenance.  Operational vessels were crewed by more capable “able seamen.”

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