Walter P. Rybka

The author, Walter P. Rybka, has been commander of the replica brig Niagara at the Erie Maritime Museum for 20 years, and is therefore uniquely suited to write this book. Rybka starts with an overall account of the War of 1812, then gets into details of the naval campaign on Lake Erie. One if his insights is that the British and Canadian supply chain in the continental interior was entirely dependent on the St. Lawrence river and the Great Lakes; if the Americans had taken Montreal or Quebec City, it wouldn’t have mattered what happened upstream, and so on with lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior. The Americans, on the other hand, did have overland supply routes (pretty difficult supply routes to be sure, but still there) to the Lakes. The two sides staged an arms race on Lake Ontario, with each building larger and larger vessels but never engaging in a decisive action; nevertheless the mere presence of American warships in Sacketts Harbor on Lake Ontario interdicted supplies getting to the British/Canadian fleet on Lake Erie. The British/Canadians were able to keep the Americans blockaded at Erie for some time – there was a harbor bar that made it impossible to get ships in the face of an opposing force – but eventually British commander Barclay had to withdraw to refit and the Americans under Perry were able to float their ships over the bar with camels.

Once at sea – at lake – the Americans were aggressive, figuring that time was on their side. The British/Canadians sortied in the face of a superior force. Even then, the battle was a near-run thing. There were several controversies. Perry’s second-in-command, Jesse Duncan Elliot, was very late getting into the fight, allowing Perry’s flagship Lawrence to be hammered to pieces. Elliot claimed contrary winds, which is plausible; the winds were very light and it’s possible Elliot had contrary winds at the same time Perry had favorable ones. The second controversy was Perry’s decision to abandon the Lawrence and use a small boat to get to Elliot and the Niagara. The Lawrence struck shortly after Perry left, and British/Canadian maritime authors have sometimes argued that the surrender of the flagship should have meant the surrender of the entire American fleet. Perry wasn’t having any of that and lead the Niagara, assisted by smaller American vessels, in systematically raking each British/Canadian vessel – leading to the famous message “We have met the enemy and they are ours”. With Lake Erie firmly in American hands, the British/Canadian forces on the upper lakes had no supply.

As befits the commander of the replica Niagara, Rybka goes into considerable detail on how the ships maneuvered; this includes getting across the Erie bar with camels, getting underway when at anchor, and how maneuvers in the actual battle went. This was enlightening to me, because most accounts of the battle I’ve read previously didn’t go into such detail. There are extensive illustrations, maps, and ship tracks. Alas, there are no footnotes or bibliography, although sources are mentioned in the text. For more about the war on the Great Lakes, see Warships of the Great Lakes and The American Sailing Navy.… (plus d'informations)