362 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VI. 
eight petty officers, eight able and eight ordinary seamen, six landsmen, 
two boys and nine marines. The /funter had two petty officers, one 
able and two ordinary seamen, one volunteer and seventeen marines. 
Her complement was one officer, seven petty officers, six able and six 
ordinary seamen, two boys and nine marines.* 
Vessels so weakly manned were scarcely capable of defence when 
boldly attacked, even by row boats, and the Detroz¢t in company with 
the merchant brig Ca/edonza, while lying at anchor off Fort Erie, was 
actually surprised and taken on the morning of October 9th, by a party 
of 124 American seamen and soldiers, in three boats which silently 
approached under cover of an intensely dark night. The Detrozt was 
subsequently destroyed to prevent her recapture, but the Caledonza was 
triumphantly carried off to the Black Rock navy yard, where she was 
added to the other vessels lying there, which were already being con- 
verted into gunboats. 
This was, however, the only loss sustained by the British on Lake 
Erie during 1812, while the advantages secured from the control of the 
lake cannot easily be overestimated. While the armies of Generals Hull 
and Harrison were painfully struggling through the swamps and thickets 
of Ohio and Michigan, with their pack-horses dying by hundreds along 
the road, their opponents were enabled to transport troops and artillery 
from place to place with comparative ease and rapidity. The British 
commanders were accordingly enabled to strengthen the garrison of 
Amherstburg by troops from the Niagara River, and when danger had 
passed in that quarter, to take them back in time to repel an attack on 
the latter line. A part of the 41st Regiment was sent in this way from 
Niagara to Amherstburg, and was present at the surrender of Detroit. 
This detachment then returned and took part in the battle of Queens- 
ton. During the winter it marched overland to Amherstburg, and par- 
ticipated in the seige of Fort Meigs and the battle of Miami, in May, 
1813. The ruinous fortifications of Amherstburg on General Hull’s 
approach were hastily armed with cannon from Fort George at Niagara, 
and a few weeks later the batteries along the Niagara river were 
tnounted with the artillery captured at Detroit. The command of the 
lake alone made this practicable. The movements of British armed 
vessels along the south shore of the lake, and the occasional landing of 
small foraging parties, created indescribable alarm, and considerable 
bodies of militia were called out from time to time, and maintained 
under arms at Sandusky, Cleveland, Erie, Chautauqua and Cattar- 
*** Canadian Archives, Provincial Marine.” 
