Shipbuilding on Lake Ontario “Both commanders suffered from a common naval malady, fearing defeat more than they desired victory,” James L. Mooney Further Reading The British on Lake Ontario The Americans on Lake Ontario Winfield Scott, American Officer

Shipbuilding on Lake Ontario When the United States of America declared war on Great Britain, the Royal Navy had six small ships on Lake Ontario. The American Navy had one. This imbalance did not last long: American sailors and marines under Captain Melanchton Woolsey promptly captured three of the British ships. Throughout the war, both sides sought to achieve supremacy on the lake. In April and May of 1813, the Americans under Commodore Isaac Chauncey and General Henry Dearborn attacked and burned York, and seized Fort George. With Chauncey away form his base, the British under Commodore James Lucas Yeo and Sir George Prevost attacked his Sacket’s Harbour base. Each side burned the other’s ships under construction on those raids. The fact that their bases, and especially their ships were vulnerable to enemy attack seemed to wake a latent insecurity in both leaders who thereafter became engaged in an absurd shipbuilding contest. Both built larger and larger ships, but no matter how many they built, neither ever became quite confident he could outgun the other. They continued to cruise Lake Ontario, but both avoided each other rather than chance their precious ships coming to harm. On the day the Treaty of Ghent was ratified, each side still had two great ships under construction at their respective shipyards. All of them were larger and designed to carry more guns than Admiral Nelson’s flagship, the Victory. None of them would ever be launched. Lake Ontario