186 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
was in charge of the navy yard, gave orders to set fire to the buildings 
and ships at the docks. These instructions were carried out and he 
retreated across the river with his men. After the retirement of the 
assailants he returned and made energetic. efforts to quench the flames. 
The ship on the stocks and the prize schooner Gloucester were saved 
with little damage but the barracks and storehouses with their con- 
tents were totally destroyed. Among these were the sails and cordage 
for these vessels with many valuable stores including almost every- 
thing captured at York. ‘‘The loss of the canvas is a serious incon- 
venience,’’ Chauncey wrote, ‘‘as the sail-makers must remain idle 
until I can replace it from New York.” Altogether the value of build- 
ings and stores thus destroyed was estimated at five hundred thousand 
dollars.! 
A head wind delayed the return of the squadron to Kingston 
and during the afternoon the Governor-General became so anxious 
that he decided to embark in a canoe with his staff and thus arrived 
there the same evening, twenty-four hours in advance of the ships. 
He then received official information of the capture of Fort George by 
the enemy which seemed to place the entire province in a most critical 
position. Much must depend on the effective action of the squadron. 
Yeo’s first step was to recommend the immediate construction of 
another ship and the purchase of the schooner Simcoe. Prevost 
approved and Captain Richard O’Conor was appointed naval com- 
missioner to prevent delays and misunderstandings which had in the 
past proved so injurious. 
On the evening of May 50, Chauncey had received an alarming 
message that on the morning of the 28th the whole British squadron 
had been seen approaching Sackett’s Harbour. Early on the following 
day he got under sail, stood over toward York and thence ran eastward 
along the north shore in the expectation, he stated, of meeting Yeo 
on his way up the lake with reinforcements of troops. Failing in this 
he passed Kingston at one o’clock on the afternoon of June 1 and ar- 
rived at Sackett’s Harbour three hours later. He then first received 
information of the attack on that place and the damage that had 
been sustained. 
The Beresford, cruising as a lookout outside Kingston, saw and 
reported the movement of his squadron. ‘‘I am therefore after them,”’ 
Yeo wrote in haste to Lieut. Colonel Evans of the 8th, “I will thank 
you to send me this evening all the bread you can procure and as the 

1 Baynes to Prevost, May 30; Brenton to Freer, May 30; Captain Robert 
McDouall to Freer, May 29; Yeo to Croker, May 31; Brown to Tompkins, May 29 
and June 1; Chauncey to the Secretary of the Navy, Sackett’s Harbour, No. 30, 
June 2. 
