i8o Naval War of 1812 



navy, the sailors being undisciplined, and the offi 

 cers totally without experience, never having been 

 really trained in the British service. From these 

 causes it resulted that the struggle on the lakes 

 was to be a work as much of creating as of using a 

 navy. On the seaboard success came to those who 

 made best use of the ships that had already been 

 built; on the lakes the real contest lay in the build 

 ing. And building an inland navy was no easy task. 

 The country around the lakes, especially on the 

 south side, was still very sparsely settled, and all the 

 American naval supplies had to be brought from the 

 seaboard cities through the valley of the Mohawk. 

 There was no canal or other means of communica 

 tion, except very poor roads intermittently relieved 

 by transportation on the Mohawk and on Oneida 

 Lake, when they were navigable. Supplies were 

 thus brought up at an enormous cost, with tedious 

 delays and great difficulty; and bad weather put a 

 stop to all travel. Very little indeed, beyond tim 

 ber, could be procured at the stations on the lakes. 

 Still a few scattered villages and small towns had 

 grown up on the shores, whose inhabitants were 

 largely engaged in the carrying trade; the ves 

 sels used for the purpose were generally small 

 sloops or schooners, swift and fairly good sailers, 

 but very shallow and not fitted for rough weather. 

 The frontiersmen themselves,- whether Canadian or 

 American, were bold, hardy seamen, and when prop 

 erly trained and led made excellent man-of-war's- 

 men ; but on the American side they were too few in 



