382 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL VI. 
squadron. Then the flagship fired her long twenty-four at the Lawrence 
but the shot fell short. Five minutes later she found the range with the 
same gun and struck Perry’s ship fair on the bow. Scorpion hove to at 
once and replied with her long gun but the Lawrvence kept silently on 
her course until five minutes to twelve when both her twelve pounders 
were fired simultaneously from the two forward starboard ports. Then 
at noon precisely several shots were fired from her carronades which fell 
far short. The Detrozt and Chippewa continued to direct their fire solely 
upon her but owing to the want of even the rude appliances for dis- 
charging the guns generally in use at that time it was necessarily slow, 
and only the three heaviest guns on the first named vessel could have 
had any material effect although the smoothness of the water favoured 
precision in gunnery. In fifteen minutes the Lawrence gained a position 
within canister distance, that is to say about three hundred yards from 
the Detrozt, where she hove to and fired her entire broadside. By that 
time the Caledonia, Niagara and Somers had engaged the Hunter and 
Queen Charlotte, at first opposing a long thirty-two, two twenty-fours 
and two twelves to a single twelve, two nines, and two sixes and later on 
the Vzagara firing all her broadside guns at such a distance that they 
did little or no damage. After continuing this rather unequal contest 
for about a quarter of an hour and observing that his assailants dis 
played no inclination to come any nearer until they had disabled his 
ship, Captain Finnis directed the master’s mate to bear up, pass the 
Hunter and lay the Queen Charlotte on the uarter of Lawrence where 
his carronades would become effective. But ust as this change of posi- 
tion was on the point of being successfully accomplished and before a 
man had been hurt on the Queen Charlotte a round shot from one of the 
American schooners instantly killed both Capt. Finnis and Lieut. S. J. 
Garden of the Newfoundland Regiment who commanded the troops. 
This was an irreparable loss and Sir James Yeo did not hesitate to say 
that if Finnis had lived the result of the battle would have been different; 
a few minutes later the first lieutenant, John Stokes, was struck sense- 
less by a splinter. The command then fell to Lieut. Robert Irvine of 
the Provincial Marine, a gallant young officer, who as Barclay reported 
“behaved with great courage but his experience was much too limited 
to supply the place of such an officer as Captain Finnis.” The only of- 
ficers then remaining to assist him were a master’s mate of the Royal 
Navy, two boy midshipmen of the Provincial Marine, a gunner anda 
boatswain. Of tenseamen belonging to the Dover who had been assigned 
to this ship one had been killed and four wounded. The remainder of 
the crew had suffered in proportion and nearly all this loss had been in- 
flicted by the raking fire of the Caledonia and two other schooners which 
