The Anchors Aweigh series was placed in honor of the men of the
US Navy who have served in the defense of our country. Each cache
is dedicated to one of the warships involved in battle. If you find
all the caches in the series, you’ll reveal some nice GeoArt
on your cache map. These are not difficult caches to find. If you
cannot find a cache easily, it’s probably missing. Send me a
picture (by email, not in your log) of where you think the cache
should be, and I’ll accept the find and replace the
cache.
Because of the difficulty in finding suitable locations for some
of the caches, some puzzle caches were used (not this one) so that
the find icon could be in a location separate from the cache. You
should be able to solve the puzzles with information on this cache
page. I suggest you solve the puzzles before you make your cache
run, to help optimize the route.
USS Niagara
The US Brig Niagara or the Flagship Niagara, is a
wooden-hulled brig that served as the relief flagship for Oliver
Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. It
is one of last remaining ships from the War of 1812. The
Niagara is usually docked behind the Erie Maritime Museum in
downtown Erie in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania as an outdoor
exhibit for the museum, but travels the Great Lakes during the
summer, serving as an ambassador of Pennsylvania when not docked.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973
and was designated the official state ship of Pennsylvania by the
Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1988.
The Niagara was constructed from 1812 to 1813 to protect
the vulnerable American coastline on Lake Erie from the British and
played a pivotal role in the battle for the lake. Along with most
of warships that served in the war, the Niagara was sunk for
preservation on Presque Isle in 1820. Raised in 1913, it was
rebuilt for the centennial of the Battle of Lake Erie. After
deteriorating, restoration of the Niagara was started again
in the 1930s, but was hampered by the lack of funds caused by the
Great Depression and remained uncompleted until 1963. A more
extensive restoration was carried out in 1988 in which much of the
original ship was largely destroyed. The incorporation of new
materials and modern equipment makes it ambiguous as to whether it
is or is not a replica.
Battle of Lake Erie
USS Niagara in 2009
The Battle of Lake Erie, sometimes called the Battle of
Put-in-Bay, was fought on 10 September 1813, in Lake Erie off the
coast of Ohio during the War of 1812. Nine vessels of the United
States Navy defeated and captured six vessels of Great Britain's
Royal Navy. This ensured American control of the lake for the rest
of the war, which in turn allowed the Americans to recover Detroit
and win the Battle of the Thames to break the Indian confederation
of Tecumseh. It was one of the biggest naval battles of the War of
1812.
On the morning of 10 September, the Americans saw British
vessels heading for them, and got under way from their anchorage at
Put-in-Bay. The wind was light. The British Commander, Barclay,
initially held the weather gauge, but the wind shifted and allowed
US Master Commandant Perry to close and attack. Both squadrons were
in line of battle, with their heaviest vessels near the centre of
the line. Perry hoped to get his two brigs, his flagship
Lawrence and Niagara, into carronade range quickly,
but in the light wind his vessels were making very little speed and
the Lawrence was battered by the assortment of long guns
mounted in the Detroit for at least 20 minutes before being
able to reply effectively. When Lawrence was finally within
carronade range at 12:45, her fire was not as effective as Perry
hoped, her gunners apparently having overloaded the carronades with
shot.
Astern of the Lawrence, the Niagara, under Elliot,
was slow to come into action and remained far out of effective
carronade range. It is possible that Elliott was under orders to
engage his opposite number, the Queen Charlotte, and that
the Niagara was obstructed by the Caledonia, but
Elliot's actions would become a matter of dispute between him and
Perry for many years. Aboard the Queen Charlotte, the
British ship opposed to the Niagara, the commander (Robert
Finnis) and First Lieutenant were both killed. The next most senior
officer, Lieutenant Irvine of the Provincial Marine, found that
both the Niagara and the American gunboats were far out of
range, and passed the brig General Hunter to engage
Lawrence at close range.
Although the American gunboats at the rear of the American line
of battle steadily pounded the British ships in the centre of the
action with raking shots from their long guns from a distance,
Lawrence was reduced by the two British ships to a wreck.
Four-fifths of the Lawrence's crew were killed or wounded.
Both of the fleet's surgeons were sick with lake fever, so the
wounded were taken care of by the assistant, Usher Parsons. When
the last gun on the Lawrence became unusable, Perry decided
to transfer his flag. He was rowed a half mile through heavy
gunfire to the Niagara while the Lawrence was
surrendered. (It was later alleged that he left the Lawrence
after the surrender; but Perry had actually taken down only his
personal pennant, in blue bearing the motto, "Don't give up the
ship", the last reported words of Captain James Lawrence of the
frigate USS Chesapeake.)
When the Lawrence surrendered, firing died away briefly.
The Detroit collided with Queen Charlotte, both ships
being almost unmanageable with damaged rigging and almost every
officer killed or severely wounded. Barclay was severely wounded
and his first Lieutenant was killed, leaving Lieutenant Inglis in
command. Most of the smaller British vessels were also disabled and
drifting to leeward. The British nevertheless expected the
Niagara to lead the American schooners away in retreat.
Instead, once aboard Niagara, Perry dispatched Elliot to
bring the schooners into closer action, while he steered
Niagara at Barclay's damaged ships, helped by the
strengthening wind.
Niagara broke through the British line ahead of the
Detroit and Queen Charlotte and luffed up to fire
raking broadsides from ahead of them, while the Caledonia
and the American gunboats fired from astern. Although the crews of
Detroit and Queen Charlotte managed to untangle the
two ships they could no longer offer any effective resistance. Both
ships surrendered at about 3:00 pm. The smaller British vessels
tried to flee but were overtaken and also surrendered.
Although Perry won the battle on the Niagara, he received
the British surrender on the deck of the recaptured Lawrence
to allow the British to see the terrible price his men had
paid.