IN THE WAKE OF THE EIGHTEEN-TWELVERS IN THE WAKE OF THE EIGHTEEN-TWELVERS Fights 6- Flights of Frigates 6- Fore-'n'-afters in the War of 1812-1815 on the Great Lakes BY dTH. J. SNIDER LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY TORONTO : BELL & COCKBURN MCMXIII THE ANCHOR PBESS, LTD., TIPIBEE, ESSEX TO THE TRUE HELPMEET WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED Bow Wave brimming basins, measured by the FIVEhundred mile, plumbed by the hun- dred fathom, pass down the clear cold waters of eastern North America to the mighty arms of the St. Lawrence. He in turn bears them to the all-receiving sea. These are the Great Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario. They are connected by smaller lakes, by rivers, by straits. Cataracts which once prevented in- tercourse between Ontario and Erie, between Huron and Superior, have been conquered by canals. The five brimming basins give direct access from the Atlantic Ocean to the heart of the continent. Forty million people live in the states of the American Union and the province of the Dominion of Canada for which the lakes are a frontier highway. Ten- thousand-ton monsters of steel traverse the mighty watercourse, bearing a commerce six times as great as that which passes Suez. The international highway is as much devoted vii BOW WAVE to the purposes of peace as Broadway or the Strand. But a hundred years ago, pike and cutlass heroes who fought the Battle of the Baltic and triumphed at Trafalgar, the same pig- tailed bluejackets who fill the pages of Marryat with glee and glory, these same dare- devil tars ploughed the Great Lakes with plentiful furrows. They locked yardarms and gave broadside for broadside with the Tom Coffins and Barnstaples of Fenimore Cooper's fancy. Despite the cataracts which then isolated Ontario and Superior the Great Lakes were, even in those days, the highway to the heart of North America. With no railways and few roads hewn through the wilderness the waterways of the continent were the all-important means of communication. Thus it came that in the three-year struggle between Great Britain and the United States, known as the War of 1812, these inland seas were the scene of continuous conflict. In the earlier stages of the war the ships which fought the fresh water fights were often cockleshells of fore-and-aft rig cutters, sloops and schooners which had been converted from the peaceful pursuits of lake commerce to the purposes of war. Even the largest craft were less formidable than the salt water vessels BOW WAVE " " classed at that time as sloops-of-war a rating below that of frigates. The rapids of the St. Lawrence prevented the ascent to the lakes of vessels of the regular navies of both nations, but their crews were marched up by sparing handfuls to man such craft as could be bought or built to float guns. Ere the war closed Ontario, lowest of the five Great Lakes, floated frigates more powerful than any on the ocean, and boasted line-of- battleships rivalling Nelson's Victory. Fol- lowing the treaty of Ghent, which closed the war, came a mutual and wise disarmament agreement, which, taking effect in 1818, banished battle from the Great Lakes for a let us forever. hundred years ; hope, But ere the warships went, they left a rocket trail of glory, more brilliant, if less enduring, than the paler paths of peace. This is a story book. It is not a history of all that occurred in the last war on the Great Lakes. That would be a large contract. But it tries to tell truly things which hap- the war in such a as to pened during ; way give some idea of the part fresh water played in a conflict which was only a detail in the wars of an empire, but a detail affecting the destinies of a continent. Lake Champlain is not one of the Great BOW WAVE Lakes. It is a side-reservoir, feeding the St. Lawrence by the Richelieu river. Although apart from the main fresh water highway in the War of 1812, Champlain floated battle craft of the same style as the greater lakes. These were manned by seamen who also fought on the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. Pring, of the fighting Linnet, was one of Yeo's captains at the second attack on Sackett's Harbour. Downie himself was commander of the Montreal on Lake Ontario before hoist- ing his pennant over the fatal flagship Con- fiance. The tragedy at Plattsburg on Lake Champlain is not a grateful topic for a British writer, but it is not one which may be fairly passed over in an account of the fresh water fighting of the war. The pious valour of young Macdonough, the American champion in that fray, and the bulldog bravery of the goaded Downie, alike challenge the admira- tion of the world. The tales here told come from the logs and letters of the captains and commodores whose broad-pennants waved from Kingston to Michillimackinac a century ago. The dry bones of record have been clothed with the flesh and blood of fancy, but from the price of pork to the colour of fighting flags the ancient chronicles have been faithfully followed. The BOW WAVE men and the ships named here are the men and the ships named there, and what befell them is told as there recorded. Only in the why of things falling as they did has allowed and then imagination been any play ; only when the records have been dumb. Some of these tales are now printed for the first time. The story of the escape of the Slippery Six, the taking of Oswego, the tragedy of Plattsburg, the Battle of Lake Erie, the capture of York these, or parts of them, have appeared in serial form in the Canadian Collier's Weekly. There too have been printed some of the relations of Malachi Malone. They are used by kind permission of P. F. Collier and Son. Malachi's tale of the miracle which followed the name of Brock, and the adventures of the captain's gig which went glove-hunting have appeared in Maclean's Magazine, and take their place with their fellow-stories through the courtesy of Lieut.-Col. J. B. Maclean. And while upon the pleasant duty of making acknowledgments, may the writer be per- mitted to express a heartfelt debt of gratitude " to the Landmarks of Toronto," and their author, John Ross Robertson. The Land- marks and their illustrations have developed into the magnificent collection of Canadian BOW WAVE historical pictures in the Toronto Public Library which is such an educational asset for the people of Toronto. The many volumes of Landmarks six to date are a Golden Treasury of history and romance, prized alike by the student and man of affairs, even as the historian, philanthropist and journalist who collected them is dear to the people of his country and city, and dearest of all to suffering little children. TORONTO, 1913. CONTENTS IAPTKR PAGE i. AN ANCHOR IN A GRAVE YARD THE MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM OF A TRADING SKIPPER AS THE CENTURY CLOCK WAS STRIKING I ii. WHEN CHAUNCEY CAME TO KINGSTON HOW THE ROYAL GEORGE WAS CHASED BY THE WATER-SPIDERS, AND THE SIMCOE RAN THE GAUNTLET, AND A DEAD HERO'S NAME PROVED A PASSPORT FOR HIS SWORD 19 in. THE BURLINGTON RACES A DRAWN BATTLE ON LAKE ON- TARIO IN 1813 - 39 iv. THE NIAGARA SWEEP- STAKES NINETEEN SHIPS PLAY HIDE-AND- SEEK UPON AN INLAND SEA 55 xiii CONTENTS CHAPTER FiOt v. THE ESCAPE OF THE " SLIPPERY SIX " A SEQUEL TO THE BURLINGTON RACES LEFT UNTOLD BY THE ANCIENT YARNER - 79 vi. THE BOY COMMANDER AND THE WIDOW WHY THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE BATTLE OF PUT-IN BAY, WAS LOST AND WON - - 91 vii. A RESURRECTION ON THE SHORES OF GRAVEYARD POND - 115 vni. HOW WE TOOK OSWEGO WHEN THE LARGEST AMERICAN PORT ON LAKE ONTARIO TO-DAY FELL INTO BRITISH HANDS - 131 ix. THE CAPTAIN'S GIG GOES GLOVE-HUNTING - - 147 x. YARNS O' YORK BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE MARVELLOUS REAPPEARANCE OF MALACHI MALONE UPON A CENTENARY-EVE IN THE SECOND CITY OF CANADA - l6l xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XL APPLES OF ASHES GIVING SOME OF THE REASONS WHY THE TAKING OF TORONTO WAS NOT A FAMOUS AMERICAN VIC- TORY - - 183 xii. CHAMPIONS OF CHAMPLAIN THE BITTEREST CHAPTER OF ALL FRESH WATER FIGHTING THE BATTLE OF PLATTSBURG, SEPTEMBER II, 1814 - 205 xin. THE SPOILING OF THE SPOILERS - 225 xiv. THE SILENT ST. LA WRENCE STORY OF THE SHIP WHICH ENDED THE WAR WITHOUT FIRING A SHOT - - 263 xv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO FACE P.VU1; THE " ROYAL GEORGE " AND THE WATER- SPIDERS. " Our three-master came bowling down with her sails so full of shot-holes they looked like a cook's colander. On her track crept like water-spiders, five Yankee schooners, with long sweeps through their " ports - Frontispiece NORTH-EAST CORNER OF LAKE ONTARIO. Scene of much hard fighting and hard sailing in 1812-14 - 22 ONE OF THE ROUND STORE MARTELLO TOWERS GUARDING THE HARBOUR OF KINGSTON, ONTARIO - - 26 THE"SIMCOE" RUNNING THE GAUNTLET. " Richardson squared her away before the wind and drove straight for Seven- " Acre Shoal - 30 " " THE " PIKE AND THE "WOLFE COM- MENCING THE ACTION. From a print in the Toronto Public Library, issued in 1813. The picture appears in an excellent account of the Lake Ontario navies of the War of 1812, written by ILLUSTRATIONS IO l ACJ: PAGE Mr.