Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 134, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1913 — PERRY'S FLAGSHIP TO SAIL AGAIN ON LAKE ERIE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PERRY'S FLAGSHIP TO SAIL AGAIN ON LAKE ERIE

4 . , ;:■ ■■ •; ■■ . L ■ ■ _ - JKMk HE famous ship Niagara, the vessel which turned defeat into victory for n Oliver Hazard Perry in the battle of ESI Lake Erie on September 13, 1818, will sdll again this summer the waters where she conquered a British fleet A The raising of the Niagara is the most •‘/rlAwk striking feature of the impending celeyYy bration of Perry’s victory which stayed S . the fortunes of the United States a hundred years ago. This engineering feat seems to have no exact parallel, and in sentimental and patriotic interest it is the most notable phase of the coming centennial celebration. To attempt to lift the hulk from the mud of Erie harbor was a daring idea from the start. To make the project fact required courage and perseverance of a high order. Many were the scoffers. It was said, to the very last, that the contractor had hold of an old canal boat, and not till the gun ports of the Niagara appeared above the surface of the lake did the great crowds ashore concede that

Perry’s ship was actually being raised. When the gun ports came tn sight a throng of_ half frozen curio seekers was held back with difficulty. Once it became evident that the battered • hulk was actually that of the Niagara the scoffers were eager to rush upon the wreck and tear her to pieces for souvenirs. Blind-

Ing snow ani cracking Ice seemed no deterrent to their frenzy. ~ \ Within a few days the battered craft had been raised higher above the water and propelled to ehore on pontoons. She is soon to be hauled to a shipbuilding yard near by, where ahe will be partly rebuilt and put into shape for her last splendid cruise on Lake Erie this summer. On this cruise the Niagara will visit all the principal ports of the great lakes, decked with flags and varl-colored bunting, and wallowing splendidly as befits a ship of her size, entour and noble achievement. She Is 110 feet long, has a 30-foot beam and Is about 10 feet deep. There is nothing of the clipper ship about her, but there is a stanchness that kept her steady while she emptied broadsides at a whole English fleet. In her prime, at the time of the decisive battle of Lake Erie, she was a brig of the old-fashioned sort, with an enormous spread of sail for those days. She had single topgallantsalls and, what was more characteristic of the time, single topsails. Thus the number of her sails was not apparently great, but her actual spread of canvas was very large for her day. Her rigging was all of the old-style sort. Her main, fore and mizzen tops were really fenced in for lookouts and she had a spanker to aid her In maneuvering better than her natural square rig would. Capt. W. L. Morrison of the United States training ship Wolverine, who Is an official of the Petry centennial celebration and an authority on historical facts relating to the Niagara, has made the prediction that in the vessel’s hold will be discovered many old buckles and revolvers; and In a short time the world will know if he Is right. Raising the Niagara was the hardest kind of Iwork. It ip a big feather In' the cap of the local contractor, who succeeded In lifting the bulk from the mud of the lake bottom, where she had lain for a hundred years. The task had to be done In winter In order to use spring to get tho vessel in shape. Winter on the great lakes is such as to make a naturally delicate job of this sort well nigh impossible. The interstate board of the centennial celebra-

tlon had official charge of the work. To raise the hulk took just three months. The original contract called for the task to be done tn thirty days, but bad weather knocked this schedule skyhigh. It was planned at first to sink pontoons alongside the Niagara and pump them out, bringing the ship to the surface with them. Had the weather permitted this the salvage of the hulk would hive been accomplished In contract time. Storms, however, threatened the undertaking al- ' most every day and the contractor dared not sink his pontoons lest he lose them. Therefore four pontoons were anchored on either side of where the ship would lie when raised vertically to the lake's surface. Other pontoons were stationed over her bow and stern. Chains were made fast to the wreck, by divers and she was simply pulled up to the water's edge. Ice piled up six feet high about the pontoons, workmen were In constant danger of losing their lives In the black and Icy water. Several fell Into airholes in thawing Ice but were rescued. The Niagara had to be raised' through twenty feet of water. And now for something about the' Niagara's historic day. . , The Niagara and Commodore Perry's flagship, the Lawrence, were the only two vessels tn the American fleet of six ships that, even in 1813. could have been called men-of-war. They were SOO toM burden each, and each carried twenty

guns. It was almost as much of a feat for Oliver Hazard Perry to build the vessels as to win the battle of Lake Erie. The commodore had been\ln the American navy for some time, and tn 1811 as a lieutenant in command of the schooner Revenge he ran the vessel ashore at Watch Hill, R. 1., and wrecked it in a storm. He was tried by court martial for this, but acquitted. He failed to get a command when the War of 1812 started. Then he applied to Commodore Chauncey and was ordered to report at Lake Erie. On March 27, 1812, he arrived at Lake Erie and found a force of fifty shipwrights. The squadron had to

be built from the forests near by. A fleet of nine vessels was built by him and.his men. A regment of Pennsylvania militia covered the shlpbuilders while they were at work. The battle against a superior British squadron lasted all day, and the Lawrence was dismantled, so that Perry had to row through a hail of shot to the Niagara, where he hoisted his flag again. At 3 o’clock he was able to send his famous dispatch: “We have met the enemy and they are ours.’’ Commodore Perry was then twenty-seven years old. Perry -was a Rhode Islander by birth. The son of a naval officer and the daughter of an Irishwoman of unusual attainments, he had the most careful early training, so that after Lake Erie some who knew the family spoke of It as “Mrs. Perry’s-victory.” Young Oliver Hazard Perry was fond of Plutarch’s Lives, Shakespeare and Addison. He was a pupil of Count Rochambeau. At fourteen he was commissioned a midshipman. When the war with England began there was probably no better ordnance officer In the American navy, and in the training of his crews he was unwearying In personal attention to details. By assembling his gunboats occasionally he gained actual knowledge of the evolutions of a fleet. He also practiced sham battles, which taught him much.

Within twenty-four hours after receipt of Commodore Chauncey’s order to go to Lake Erie he had sent off a detachment of fifty men, and five days later he set out himself with his younger brother, Alexander. Traveling chiefly In sleighs he reached Erie on March 27. There he found Noah Brown, shipwright, and Sailing Master Dobbins awaiting fifty carpenters from Philadelphia. The carpenters were more than five weeks making the wintry journey.

The keels of two twenty gun brigs and three gunboats had already been laid. Incredible toll In the wilderness enabled Perry to collect nine vessels of 1,671 tons with 54 guns capable of throwing a broadside of 936 pounds of metal, of which 288 pounds could be fired at long range. Puny figures these seem in this day of dreadnaughts. but in 1813 they were respectable if not exactly Impressive. The Lawrence and the Niagara, which were the two twenty gun ships, carried two long twelve pounders and eighteen thirty-two pounder carronades. The long range guns were the chief dependents of the Americans. .To make hts carronade fire effective Perry relied on grape and canister shot and favorite American ammunition, langrage, which was made out of scraps of iron sewed up In leather bags. ’'

Perry's force of men consisted of about 500 landsmen and sailors, many of wbom bad never seen salt water. On the British side Captain Barclay had six vessels of 1.460 tons, manned by nearly 500 men, but he had slxty-thrqe cannon. Barclay was one of Nelson’s veterans. As the fleets approached each other at about 11 o'clock the bugle sounded from the flagship. The men of the whole British line gave three cheers and the long guns of the Detroit opened on the Lawrence at a distance of a mile and a half. By noon the battle began in earnest In tbe form of a duel, the heaviest vessel in each fleet confronting the other. Barclay had sit first a manifest advantage. Tbe gunners of the Lawrence, depending too much on their carronades. fired too fast, and overshotting their stumpy guns were able only to pit and dent the sides of the Detroit. So the Lawrence was reduced to a hulk by a steady British fire. After two hours only one gun was left mounted, the cockpit was crowded with wounded and only eighteen un-

harmed men, including' commander and surgeon, were left on board. The Niagara for some reason had remained in the rear. The smaller American vessels seemed unable to do anything to prevent a British victory. With the audacity of genius Perry called four sailors to man the boats, and with his brother Alexander, the flag of the Lawrence wrapped round his arm, he left the ship. At first he was shielded by the battle smoke. Then he was rowed through the enemy’s fire for fifteen minutes, at last reaching the Niagara unharmed. The breeze now freshened, speeding the Niagara and the American schooners into action. The Queen Charlotte of the British fleet was disabled while getting into position for a broadside. She fell foul of the Detroit. The American schooners took raking positions. The full battery <£f the Niagara, joining in the steady and rapid fire, swept the British decks. Kentucky riflemen tn the tops acting as marines picked off every enemy visible. At 3 o’clock the British flag was hauled down. It was the first time In Britain’s history that she had lost a whole squadron. Then it was that on the deck of the Niagara Perry dispatched to the secretary of the navy the brief account of his victory and shortly afterward sent to Gen. William H. Harrison the line: "We have met the enemy and they are ours.” Congress voted Perry thanks, a medal and the rank of captain. The city of Boston presented him with a set of silver, and other cities voted him thanks. He assisted tn the defense of Baltimore, and in the squadron that was sent to the Mediterranean tn 1815 he commanded the frigate Java. In June, 1819, while in command of the John Adams and other United States vessels in the West Indies, he contracted yellow fever in the Orinoco and died.

The United States has appropriated $250,000 for a Perry memorial to be erected at Put-in-Bay on Bass Island. The great shaft will stand In the midst of a park. Individual states have brought the total up to $700,000. New York gave $50,000; Ohio, $83,000; Pennsylvania, $75,000; Wisconsin. $50,000. Other states that interested themselves were Michigan, Illinois, Rhode. Island, Kentucky and Minnesota. About a year ago the national commissioners of- fine arts accepted a design for the memorial submitted by J. H. Freedlander and A. D. Seymour, Jr. The design provides for a plaza 1,000 feet long and about 200 feet deep. On the plaza will be a Doris column 320 feet high. The Island oq which the column will rise is one of a group at the western end of Lake Erie. The fourteen acres have been acquired to provide a reservation around the memorial. The Doric column will serve as a lighthouse. Other features are a statue typifying peace flanked by a colonnade. In the museum will be panels arranged for mural paintings descriptive of historical events connected with the battle of Lake Eriq. The plan calls for a crypt under the shaft in which will be placed the bodies of American and British sailors who perished in ths battle, which were buried on the Island. The stfm of SIOO,OOO has been set aside for harmonizing the landscape with the general scene. * The members of the commission having charge of the Perry celebration will try to secure a brief suspension of that convention between the United States and Canada by which warships may not enter the Great Lakes. The idea Is to have British and American battleships at the ceremony of dedicating the column to Perry’s victory and possibly a warship or two of Canada’s new navy. The national commission of fine arts which selected the design for the Perry memorial consists of Daniel H. Burnham, chairman; Daniel C. French. Thomas Hastings; Frederick Law Olmsted. Charles Moore. Cass Gilbert and Francis D. Millet. They were unanimous In their choice of a design. Commander George H. Worthington. Gen. Nelson A. Mlles and Col. Henry Watterson are on the Interstate board In charge of the celebration.

THE NIAGARA GOING INTO ACTION

PERY AT THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE