90 Naval War of 1812 



tainly not such as British commanders had been pre 

 viously accustomed to pay much regard to. Chauncy 

 would have acted exactly as his opponent did, had 

 he been similarly placed. The odds against the 

 British commodore were too great to be overcome, 

 where the combatants were otherwise on a par, al 

 though the refusal to do battle against them would 

 certainly preclude Yeo from advancing any claims to 

 superiority in skill or courage. The Princess Char 

 lotte and Niagara were just about equal to the 

 Mohawk and Madison, and so were the Charwell 

 and Netly to the Oneida and Sylph; but both the 

 Star and Magnet together could hardly have 

 matched either the Jones or the Jefferson, while the 

 maindeck 32's of the Superior gave her a great ad 

 vantage over the Prince Regent's 24*8, where the 

 crews were so equal; and the Pike was certainly 

 too heavy for the Montreal. A decided superiority 

 in the effectiveness of both crews and captains could 

 alone have warranted Sir James Lucas Yeo engag 

 ing, and this superiority he certainly did not possess. 

 This year the British architects outstripped ours 

 in the race for supremacy, and Commodore Yeo put 

 out of port with his eight vessels long before the 

 Americans were ready. His first attempt was a suc 

 cessful attack on Oswego. This town is situated 

 some 60 miles distant from Sackett's Harbor, and is 

 the first port on the lake which the stores, sent from 



