HEROIC SHIP COMING: Brig Niagara Played Key Role Saving Nation from Brits
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Replica of USS Brig Niagara in full sail at Tall Ship event in Port Colbourne, Ontario.
A modern version of the Brig Niagara is headed here for the Tall Ship Celebration July 10-14.
The original Niagara may be recalled as the linchpin in the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813.
On September 10, 1813, nine small U.S. ships defeated a British squadron of six vessels in the Battle of Lake Erie. This pivotal event in the War of 1812 secured the Northwest Territory, opened supply lines and lifted the nation's morale, recalls the National Park Service.
That battle was the deciding event in the War of 1812 since it forced the British to pull their troops out of this nation because without ships they couldn't be resupplied.
The battle created an everlasting American hero, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who rode a fortunate shift of the wind to glory as the savior of his country.
Who can forget his undying words reporting results of the battle: "We have met the enemy and they are ours."
Several historical sources place Bay City founder Dr. Daniel H. Fitzhugh, a 19-year-old surgeon, in the battle but none specify which of the American ships he served on.
Dr. Fitzhugh was born in Virginia in 1794 and lived at Groveland in the town of Hampton, Livingston County, New York. Those names, as well as relatives the Carrolls and Birneys, are perpetuated here.
A little more than 20 years after the battle, Dr. Fitzhugh, by then a member of the New York Legislature more interested in land speculating than in medical practice, came to mid-Michigan.
Purchasing large tracts of land here, Dr. Fitzhugh in 1841 also convinced his new brother-in-law, James G. Birney, who had married his sister Elizabeth, of the potential of a virtually abandoned speculation village on the Saginaw River -- Lower Saginaw.
The rest is, as they say, history. Birney partnered with James Frazer in taking over the Saginaw Bay Company, moved into a house built in 1837, drew a plat map and helped the town grow into Bay City.
Dr. Fitzhugh, meanwhile, platted the village of Salzburg and moved on to help other towns like Midland and Mt. Pleasant emerge from the woods.
The U.S. Brig Niagara, the reconstructed vessel that will arrive here July 10 from Erie, Pennsylvania, was one of nine ships on which Dr. Fitzhugh may have served.
As a junior officer he most likely was on a vessel other than Commodore Perry's flagship, the Lawrence, a 20-gun brig and sister ship to the similarly armed Niagara.
The National Park Service's historical website explains how fate saved the infant United States:
"With Perry's fleet on Lake Erie the British supply route from Fort Malden to Port Dover had been severed. The British had to either fight, or abandon Fort Malden. The British squadron consisted of six ships with sixty-three cannons, while the American flotilla comprised nine vessels and fifty-four guns.
"The British were armed with long guns that could throw a cannonball approximately one mile, accurately to about one-half mile. The American ships primarily armed with carronades had less than half the range of a long gun. The carronades could inflict much more damage at close range. Perry needed the wind to his back to close within carronade range.
"When the squadron sailed from Put-in-Bay harbor at 7 a.m. the American vessels were steering west-northwest; the wind was blowing from the west-southwest. For more than two hours Perry repeatedly tacks his ships in an effort to put the wind to his back, but with no success. The frustrated Perry, conceded to mother nature at 10 a.m., issuing orders to turn his fleet in the opposite direction. But before the order could be executed the wind suddenly shifted and blew from the southeast, placing the wind directly behind the Americans."
The drama of the day is further documented: "By 2:30 p.m. the flagship (Lawrence) was a floating wreck; every gun on her engaged side was disabled and four of every five men fit for duty were either killed or wounded. Perry was facing the dismal prospect of surrender.
"Then, as he gazed across to the Niagara, still out of range and relatively undamaged, the commodore made a fateful decision. Collecting four unwounded men Perry manned the flagship's first cutter and rowed through a hail of shot to the Niagara. Miraculously Perry and his boat crew reached the Niagara unscathed.
"Perry steered the Niagara through the jumbled British battle line. Unleashing both broadsides, the American commodore ravaged the vulnerable British ships.
"A few minutes after 3 p.m. the British bowed to the inevitable, the four largest vessels surrendering one by one. The entire British fleet had been captured."
Perry composed his now famous message to William Henry Harrison. Scrawled in pencil on the back of an old envelope, Perry wrote, "Dear General: We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop. Yours with great respect and esteem, O.H. Perry".
Six vessels in Perry's Fleet, including Niagara were constructed in Erie. Building of the American squadron was a remarkable feat, given Erie's mere five hundred inhabitants and remote location.
Shipwrights, blockmakers, blacksmiths, caulkers, boat builders, and laborers were recruited from Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. Materials to construct the vessels were imported from other regions of Pennsylvania including iron from Meadville and Pittsburgh; canvas for sails from Philadelphia; rigging, cannon shot and anchors crafted in Pittsburgh. The cannon were brought from Washington, D.C. and Sacketts Harbor N.Y. Because there were no sawmills, the lumber had to be cut, hewed, and squared by hand.
After the war, Niagara served as a station ship in Erie until 1820, then was scuttled there in Misery Bay. To celebrate the centennial of the battle in 1913, Erie citizens raised the hulk and rebuilt her, using many of the old timbers. Niagara, towed by the USS Wolverine, visited Great Lakes ports and participated in ceremonies at Put-in-Bay on September 10, 1913.
Following the commemoration, Niagara returned to Erie. In 1931, the state took custody of her and began a major restoration that was delayed by the Great Depression. Her hull was completed in 1943; masts and rigging were finally installed in 1963.
By the early 1980s the Niagara was again severely decayed. The International Historic Watercraft Society was contracted to reconstruct the Niagara. The present ship is a new vessel, incorporating both known and conjectural design features. Some original timber is installed in non-structural places.
On September 10, 1988, the Niagara was launched in Erie ceremonies marking 175th anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie and the ensuing peace between the United Kingdom and the United States.
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