268 Naval War of 1812 



them for the lakes at all was by inducing portions 

 of crews to volunteer to follow their officers thither. 1 

 However, the work went on in spite of interruptions. 

 Fresh gangs of shipwrights arrived, and, largely 

 owing to the energy and capacity of the head builder, 

 Mr. Henry Eckford (who did as much as any naval 

 officer in giving us an effective force on Ontario) 

 the Madison was equipped, a small despatch sloop, 

 The Lady of the Lake, prepared, and a large new 

 ship, the General Pike, 28, begun, to mount 13 guns 

 in each broadside and 2 on pivots. 



Meanwhile Sir George Prevost, the British com- 

 mander in Canada, had ordered two 24-gun ships 

 to be built and they were begun; but he committed 

 the mistake of having one laid down in Kingston 

 and the other in York, at the opposite end of the 

 lake. Earle, the Canadian commodore, having proved 

 himself so incompetent, was removed; and in the 

 beginning of May Captain Sir James Lucas Yeo 

 arrived, to act as commander-in-chief of the naval 

 forces, together with four captains, eight lieutenants, 

 twenty-four midshipmen, and about 450 picked sea- 



1 Cooper, ii, 357. One of James* most comical misstate- 

 ments is that on the lakes the American sailors were all 

 "picked men." On p. 367, for example, in speaking of the 

 battle of Lake Erie he says: "Commodore Perry had picked 

 crews to all his vessels." As a matter of fact Perry had 

 once sent in his resignation solely on account of the very 

 poor quality of his crews, and had with difficulty been in- 

 duced to withdraw it. Perry's crews were of hardly average 

 excellence, but then the average American sailor was a very 

 good specimen. 



