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 Saratoga
Saratoga was laid down on 7 March 1814, launched on 11
April 1814 and she was christened on the day that Napoleon
abdicated. She was a Corvette weighing 734 tons, 143' long with a
beam of 36'6" and a depth of hold 12'6". She had a complement of
212 with an armament of eight long 24-pounders, six 42-pounder
carronades and twelve 32-pounder carronades. The Saratoga
began her service on Lake Champlain during the War of 1812 as
England was turning her attention and resources from the European
continent to North America. British strategy envisaged a series of
amphibious raids along the American coast as a diversion to cover a
lethal thrust south from Canada down the strategic and already
historic Lake Champlain-Hudson River corridor.
However, the completion of Saratoga put the United States
ahead in the naval construction race on Lake Champlain; and Sir
George Prévost, the Governor General of Canada and top British
military commander in America, felt that supremacy afloat was a
prerequisite to a successful invasion of the United States through
the state of New York. He, therefore, delayed the start of his
campaign until new naval construction had tipped the balance back
in his favor.
Meanwhile, Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough, commander of
American naval forces on the lake, took advantage of the edge which
Saratoga had given him and sailed to the mouth of the
Richelieu River. He proceeded to blockade the Richelieu for most of
the following summer. Up the river at Ile aux Noix, the little
British fleet, protected by shore batteries and by the river's
narrow and tricky channel, waited while English shipwrights worked
feverishly to complete HMS Confiance. The British launched
the Confiance on 25 August 1814. She was a 36-gun frigate
hastily fitted out for battle and the largest warship ever to sail
on Lake Champlain.
Battle of Lake Champlain
Naval Battle on Lake Champlain
Master Commandant Macdonough, commanding officer of
Saratoga as well as of the other American forces on the
lake, had sailed back south. He had proceeded around Cumberland
Head, New York; and entered Plattsburg Bay. There, he deployed his
ships across the mouth of the harbor in a strong defensive position
so that when the British fleet attacked them, they would suffer the
disadvantage of having to slowly and laboriously approach the line
of American ships broadside, against the wind and unable to bring
most of their guns to bear.
As Master Commandant MacDonough awaited the arrival of the
enemy, he dropped kedge anchors (small anchors that allow very
tight turns) and arranged spring lines, which afforded his ships
maximum maneuverability. He then had the crews practice turning
their ships so that alternately starboard and port guns would face
south.
During the construction race, crack British troops, veterans
hardened in Wellington's bloody Peninsular Campaign, had been
rushed from Spain to the St. Lawrence for the impending offensive.
Before the end of August, the British Army had begun to march south
along the western shore of Lake Champlain. Badly outnumbered,
American ground forces withdrew before the English advance, crossed
the Saranac River, and took prepared positions on the bluffs which
overlook Plattsburg Bay. On the morning of 11 September, when
Commodore George Downie led the British squadron around Cumberland
Head, Macdonough was ready. As the British brig Linnet
approached firing range, she opened the action with a salvo toward
Saratoga. All but one of the projectiles fell short; and
that solid shot was all but spent as it landed on the American
corvette, bounced across her deck, and smashed a wooden poultry
cage, freeing a gamecock. The indignant rooster took to his wings
and landed in the rigging. Facing the British warships, the cock
defiantly called out challenge to battle.
Macdonough, himself, aimed a long 24-pounder at the bow of
Confiance, pulled the lanyard firing Saratoga's first
round, and gave the signal, "close action." The shot cut the
British flagship's anchor cable, ripped up her deck, and smashed
her helm. Then, all the American ships opened fire.
Confiance's first broadside struck Saratoga from
point blank range, and the American flagship reeled from the blow.
However, Confiance's inexperienced gunners failed to reset
the elevation of their barrels, so that each of her subsequent
volleys tended to be higher than its predecessor and, while
shredding Saratoga's rigging, did little structural damage
to the ship.
After almost two hours' fighting, Saratoga's last
serviceable starboard gun, a carronade, broke loose from its
carriage and hurtled down the main hatch. Macdonough then dropped a
stern anchor; cut his bow cable; and, with the help of tars hauling
on lines to kedge anchors, swung the ship around bringing her
fresh, port, broadside guns to bear on the enemy.
The badly battered British flagship, with Downie and her first
lieutenant dead, also attempted to wind ship but was unable to do
so. Helpless to do further harm to her adversary, Confiance
struck her colors.
Then, by pulling on her starboard kedge line, Saratoga's
sailors turned the corvette's guns toward Linnet and opened
fire. The British brig, although severely damaged and unable to
move, gallantly kept up the fight for about an hour before
surrendering. At that time, Finch and Chub, the other
two relatively large warships in the British squadron, were already
in American hands; so the surviving English gunboats fled toward
Canada.
Macdonough's victory in Plattsburg Bay left the United States
unchallenged on Lake Champlain and forced Prevost to retreat to
Canada. This weakened the British position in negotiations at Ghent
and enabled American commissioners to secure a favorable rather
than a humiliating peace. It also helped to restore American morale
after the recent burning of Washington, D.C.
After the war, Saratoga was laid up until sold at Whitehall,
New York, in 1825.