Engagements on Lake Ontario
Engagements on Lake Ontario
Part of the War of 1812
Date
1812 - 1815
Location
Lake Ontario
Result
Indecisive
Belligerents
Great Britain
United States
Commanders
James Lucas Yeo
Isaac Chauncey
Strength
1 first rate ship of the
line
2 frigates
6 sloops and brigs
4 schooners and
gunboats
2 frigates
6 sloops and brigs
12 schooners and
gunboats
Casualties and losses
1 sloop destroyed
2 brigs destroyed
1 brig captured[1]
1 brig destroyed
2 schooners sunk
2 schooners
captured[1]
The Engagements on Lake Ontario encom-
pass the prolonged naval contest for control
of the lake during the War of 1812. Few ac-
tions were fought, none of which had decisive
results, and the contest essentially became a
naval building race, sometimes referred to
sarcastically
as
the
"Battle
of
the
Carpenters".
Operations in 1812
When war was first declared, the British had
an early advantage on the Great Lakes in that
they possessed a quasi-naval body, the Pro-
vincial Marine. Although not particularly
well-manned or efficient, its ships were ini-
tially unopposed on Lake Erie and Lake Hur-
on, and made possible the decisive early vic-
tories of Major General Isaac Brock.
On Lake Ontario, they possessed the ships
Royal George and Prince Regent, and the
brigs Earl of Moira and Duke of Gloucester.
The schooners Seneca and Simcoe were also
taken into service. The British ships were
based at Kingston. The chief officer was Com-
modore John Steel, who was seventy-five
years old, or even older. He was retired and
replaced by Commander Hugh Earle.[2] The
Americans possessed only one brig,
the
Oneida under Lieutenant Melancthon Taylor
Woolsey, and a small navy yard at Sackets
Harbor, New York. On 19 July, five vessels of
the Provincial Marine attacked Oneida in the
First Battle of Sackett’s Harbor but were
beaten off.
To redress matters, on 3 September, the
United States Navy appointed Commodore
Isaac Chauncey, then commanding the navy
yard in New York, to command on the lakes.
Although Chauncey was nominally in charge
of the