[CRUIKSHANK] COMMAND OF LAKE ONTARIO, 1812-1813 215 
St. Lawrence, which was now considered a post of greatimportance. 
On October 11, one of these gunboats, commanded by Lieut. Lamont 
of the Royal Scots, having indiscreetly effected a landing at Gravelly 
Point, was surprised and taken by a party of riflemen lying in ambush.! 
The Governor-General had already sanctioned the construction 
of a corvette to carry twenty-eight guns and a brig to carry twenty. 
In consequence of Yeo’s urgent recommendation the brig was altered 
to a ship of the same dimensions as the other, for he declared that any 
number of brigs would not be of the least service when opposed to 
ships armed with heavy guns. Casualties had then reduced the num- 
ber of seamen who had accompanied him from England to three 
hundred and ten effectives. Five officers and fifty seamen from the 
troop ship Dover and about an equal number of volunteers from trans- 
ports lying in the river at Quebec had since joined him. The volun- 
teers had been recently ordered to return to their ships. To replace 
them, four officers and one hundred and ten men, drafted from the 
Marlborough, were sent on from Halifax by Admiral Griffith in the 
sloop Indian, which was laid up at Quebec and a detachment from her 
crew also despatched to Kingston, making in all a party of six 
officers and 145 seamen. On inspection Yeo was greatly disappointed. 
‘‘There are Americans who have been taken this war, a number of 
old, infirm men and boys,” he wrote, ‘‘and in short as improper a set 
of men for the service they were selected for as could have been pitched 
upon. I have therefore been under the necessity of taking out of the 
ships our good men for the gunboats and replacing them with this 
rabble.””? 
To demonstrate his inferiority to his opponent he submitted 
a comparative statement of the force of the squadrons on Lake On- 
tario, showing that he had six vessels, armed with nineteen long 
guns, throwing 330 pounds of shot, and seventy-two carronades, 
throwing 2,312 pounds of shot, and manned by 688 seamen to oppose 
eleven vessels, armed with sixty-one long guns, throwing 1,337 pounds 
of shot, and fifty carronades, throwing 1,124 pounds of shot and 
manned by 1,360 men.® 
A recent letter from the Governor-General having indicated 
some disposition to censure his conduct, evoked a modest remon- 
strance from Yeo to which Prevost replied: 
“T cannot too strongly impress upon you that it is necessary 
for the salvation of Upper Canada that a hearty and cordial co- 
operation should exist on all occasions between the army and navy. 

1 Memorandum by Lamont, Oct. 11. 
2 Yeo to Prevost, Oct. 11. 
3 Memorandum, Oct. 8. 
Sec. I & II, Sig. 7 
