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The age of fighting sail is primarily seen as a contest on the oceans, but there was also a huge, if neglected, naval shipbuilding effort on both sides of the Canadian Great Lakes. For eighty years between 1754 and 1834, these great expanses of fresh water saw the construction of warships that ranged from simple rowing gunboats to gigantic three-deckers that could have held their own in Nelson's line of battle. This book presents the history of the freshwater navies developed by the French, British and Americans as they struggled to control a wilderness frontier. It concentrates on the ships themselves, pointing up both the similarities and the differences compared with deep-water vessels. As many as possible are illustrated with original draughts and contemporary paintings and prints.… (more)
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Both “warships” and “Great Lakes” are interpreted liberally, with the former including miscellaneous merchant vessels with spare cannon stuffed in here and there and the later including Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Lake St. Clair. Lake Champlain, of course, figured heavily in both the American Revolution (the Battle of Valcour Bay in 1776) and the War of 1812 (the Battle of Plattsburg in 1814); during the American Revolution the Royal Navy operated more vessels on Lake Champlain than all of the Great Lakes combined.
The War of 1812 occupies about two-thirds of the book. Lake Ontario was the scene of an interesting arms race between American Commodore Isaac Chauncey and British Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo. Control of the lake repeated changed hands as new ships came off the stocks, with the weaker side prudently retiring to the shelter of fortified bases at Sackett’s Harbor or Kingston until they could launch more or better vessels. The war ended with the British in control, having launched the 104 St. Lawrence before the Americans could counter with the 100s New Orleans and Chippewa. (The New Orleans remained on her custom-built stocks until 1884 before she was finally broken up – the lumber was salvaged and a cane made out of New Orleans oak was presented to Franklin Roosevelt in 1929).
The situation on Lake Erie was dramatically different; both sides risked their entire and approximately equal fleets in an engagement at Put-In-Bay in 1813, won by the Americans under Oliver Hazard Perry.
Heavily and well illustrated, with a nice glossary of naval terms and an extensive bibliography. Author Robert Malcomson is Canadian and slightly, but not obnoxiously, favors the Royal Navy and Provincial Maritime in his accounts.
The biggest flaw of the book is the missing information on boats that never seen any action. The Adams (Detroit), Isaac Brock, Duke of Gloucester (York), and the two American
The writing is well done, and Malcolmson shows how firm a grasp he has the naval aspect of 1812 having literally written the book about the war in Lake Ontario).