On the Lakes .303 



LAKE ERIE 



Captain Oliver Hazard Perry had assumed com- 

 mand of Erie and the upper lakes, acting under 

 Commodore Chauncy. With intense energy he at 

 once began creating a naval force which should be 

 able to contend successfully with the foe. As al- 

 ready said, the latter in the beginning had exclusive 

 control of Lake Erie; but the Americans had cap- 

 tured the Caledonia, brig, and purchased three 

 schooners, afterward named the Sowers, Tigress, 

 and Ohio, and a sloop, the Trippc. These at first 

 were blockaded in the Niagara, but after the fall 

 of Fort George and retreat of the British forces, 

 Captain Perry was enabled to get them out, tracking 

 them up against the current by the most arduous 

 labor. They ran up to Presque Isle (now called 

 Erie), where two 2O-gun brigs were being con- 

 structed under the directions of the indefatigable 

 captain. Three other schooners, the Arid, Scorpion, 

 and Porcupine, were also built. 



The harbor of Erie was good and spacious, but 

 had a bar on which there was less than seven feet 

 of water. Hitherto this had prevented the enemy 

 from getting in; now it prevented the two brigs 

 from getting out. Captain Robert Heriot Barclay 

 had been appointed commander of the British forces 

 on Lake Erie ; and he was having built at Amherst- 

 burg a 2O-gun ship. Meanwhile he blockaded 

 Perry's force, and as the brigs could not cross the 

 bar with their guns in, or except in smooth water, 

 they of course could not do so in his presence. He 



