On the Lakes 181 



number and too untrained to be made use of, and 

 the seamen had to come from the coast. But the 

 Canadian shores had been settled longer, the inhabi 

 tants were more numerous, and by means of the St. 

 Lawrence the country was easy of access to Great 

 Britain; so that the seat of war, as regards getting 

 naval supplies, and even men, was nearer to Great 

 Britain than to us. Our enemies also possessed in 

 addition to the squadron on Lake Ontario another 

 on Lake Erie, consisting of the Queen Charlotte, 17, 

 Lady Prevost, 13, Hunter, 10, Caledonia, 2, Little 

 Belt, 2, and Chippeway, 2. These two squadrons 

 furnished training schools for some five hundred 

 Canadian seamen, whom a short course of disci 

 pline under experienced officers sufficed to render 

 as good men as their British friends or American 

 foes. Very few British seamen ever reached Lake 

 Erie (according to James, not over fifty) ; but on 

 Lake Ontario, and afterward on Lake Champlain, 

 they formed the bulk of the crews, "picked seamen, 

 sent out by government expressly for service on the 

 Canada lakes." 1 As the contrary has sometimes 

 been asserted it may be as well to mention that Ad 

 miral Codrington states that no want of seamen con 

 tributed to the British disasters on the lakes, as their 

 sea-ships at Quebec had men drafted from them 

 for that service till their crews were utterly de 

 pleted. 2 I am bound to state that while I think that 



1 James vi, 353. 



* Memoirs, i, 322, referring especially to battle of Lake 

 Champlain. 



