Brig.
L/B/D:
109.8 × 30 × 4.7 dph (33.5m × 9.1m × 1.4m). Tons:
493 bm. Hull:
wood. Comp.:
142. Arm.:
2 × 12pdr, 18 × 32pdr. Built:
Adam & Noah Brown, Presque Isle, Pa.; 1813.
USS Niagara was one of two sister ships built under the supervision of Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry, who was given responsibility for the all but nonexistent Lake Erie fleet during the War of 1812. Chief credit for giving shape to this ad hoc fleet fell to the New York shipbuilders Adam and Noah Brown, who would later have a hand in the building of
Fulton Steam Frigate and
Walk-in-the-Water, the first Great Lakes steamboat. Noah Brown had been sent to Lake Erie by the Navy Department. Wood was abundant, but skilled labor, naval stores, and guns all had to come overland. Nonetheless, by July 1813 Brown had built the brigs Niagara and Lawrence, and the schooners Ariel and Ohio, and had helped in the building or reconstruction of a handful of other vessels. In the words of Howard Chapelle,
The amount of work that Brown accomplished with about 200 men, without power tools, and in a wilderness during the worst winter months, makes some of the modern [World War II] wartime production feats something less than impressive.
Perry's function was to contain the British advance along the northern frontier from Canada. His fleet was initially blockaded at Presque Isle (now Erie), Pennsylvania, by Captain Robert Barclay, who lifted the blockade on July 30. Three days later, Perry sailed to the western end of Lake Erie where he established a base at Put-in Bay in the Bass Islands north of present-day Sandusky, Ohio. His fleet comprised nine ships: USS Lawrence, Niagara (20 guns), Ariel (6), Caledonia (3), Somers (2), Scorpion, Porcupine, Trippe, and Tigress (1). With his supply lines from Lake Ontario cut, Barclay—a veteran of Trafalgar—was forced to bring the Americans to battle, and on September 10, he sailed from Fort Malden, Ontario, with his fleet of six ships: HMS Detroit (20), Queen Charlotte (16), Lady Prevost (13), Hunter (10), Little Belt (2), and Chippewa (2).
Approaching each other in parallel battle lines—the engagement was the only traditional fleet action of the war—the two squadrons engaged each other at 1145. Perry's flagship was Lawrence, named for his good friend Captain James Lawrence, who had died on June 1 in the battle between
USS Chesapeake and HMS Shannon, and whose dying words—"Don't give up the ship"—were emblazoned on a pennant flying from the masthead. Lawrence took the brunt of the fighting from Detroit and Queen Charlotte, and by about 1430 had suffered 84 dead and wounded. With 19 of his crew, Perry transferred his flag to Niagara, whose captain, Jesse D. Elliott, had kept her out of the fray. Perry immediately sailed through the center of the British line, crossing the "T" and sending raking broadsides the length of Barclay's two biggest ships. Barclay, who had lost an arm in the battle, was forced to strike, thus becoming the first British commander in history to surrender an entire squadron.
That afternoon, Perry wrote to General William Henry Harrison, "We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two Ships, two Brigs one Schooner & one Sloop." The battle at Put-in Bay was a turning point in the War of 1812, for in securing control of Lake Erie, Perry removed the British threat to the Northwest Territory. On September 23, Niagara sailed in support of Harrison's attack on Fort Malden, and then covered the Army's recapture of Detroit before going back to Presque Isle for the winter. The following year she captured four British ships on Lake Erie before returning again to her homeport, where she remained as a receiving ship until 1820. The same year her hull was intentionally sunk in Misery Bay, whose cold, fresh water acted as a preservative.
Raised in 1913, she was restored and put on exhibit at various ports along the middle lakes for the Battle of Lake Erie centennial. Kept on permanent exhibit at Erie, she was restored again in 1939 and 1963. A replica of the brig built by Melbourne Smith for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission was launched in 1988.
Chapelle, History of the American Sailing Navy. Roosevelt, Naval War of 1812. U.S. Navy, DANFS.
