The
thing always happens
that you really believe in;
and the beliefs in a thing
makes it happen.
~ Frank Lloyd Wright
This morning signaled a change in the weather again. There
was a heavy mist clinging to the bay, and there it was, The Flagship Niagara, right
outside of the my kitchen window. I know it doesn't mean much to some people
because they don't know the basic story, but I stop and go quiet every time I
see her. Here's my version of the basic story of the Niagara.
I hope You get to see her sometime.I think I have promised in the past not to give history
lessons. I have to break that promise because there are times
in our lives when pieces of our history
are staring right at us can't be ignored.
In 1813, the war
of 1812 was going strong between the Americans and the British. Some thought
the war was going to be determined by control of the Great
lakes. The U.S.
sent Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry(then 27 years old) off to Erie, PA. to
build a few warships for the fight. Perry and his men worked day and night to
build the ships. They built six boats but for the condensed version of the
story, the focus is on the two large brigs of the U.S.
fleet which were the Niagara and the Lawrence.
A few months
before the ships were done, an event occurred which was to have a huge
influence on Perry's life. James Lawrence, another commander of a U.S. ship named the Chesapeake
lay dying. He had sailed from Boston
and lost a battle with a British warship. Ad he lay on the deck of his doomed
ship, mortally wounded, he kept repeating to his crew the same phrase over and
over until he took his last breath,,, "Don't give up the ship"
So touched and
inspired by this courage, Perry named his battleship the Lawrence
and had his flag handmade to read "Don't give up the ship" To Perry this meant you never quit, ever! The
ships were almost done but they were landlocked in Presque
Isle Bay
in Erie. The
only route to the lake was extremely shallow and low water levels had prevented the Americans from getting out, or
the British from getting in. Nevertheless, the British were right outside of
the bay, creating a blockade.
For reasons
unknown (local rumor says the British captain had a girlfriend 26 miles away in
Canada)
the British ships disappeared for a couple of days giving Perry the chance he
needed to get his ships out of the bay. Perry's second-in-command, Jesse Elliott,
was given command of the Niagara,
while Perry stood ready in the Lawrence. Now
the tides had literally turned, and Perry sailed his fleet to the Bass Islands
in Ohio to
set up his own Blockade of the British.
On the Morning of
September the 10th, 1813 the British warships came. Perry fed his crew and gave
them double shots of booze. The decks of the ships were covered with sand for
footing and to soak up any blood. The battle flags were raised.
Perry flew
straight at the British with the Lawrence
taking heavy fire and casualties. The Niagara for reasons that are still argued about almost
200 years later held back from the battle firing it's long guns on occasion.
Meanwhile, the Lawrence was almost done in. Her masts
were broken, ninety percent of her crew were dead or injured. She fired her
guns until there was no-one left to fire, inflicting heavy damage on the
British brigs, but, it wasn't enough. Throughout the battle, Perry paced back
and forth through the carnage shouting orders and watching. Certainly more than
once he peered back at his own sister ship the Niagara as it held itself out of harms way at the rear of the
battle. More than once a wounded soldier screamed "Where is the Niagara?" Again
and again, Perry escaped the splinters, explosions and shrapnel that decimated
his ship and crew. In only two hours 83 of 103 men on board the Lawrence
were dead or wounded
Perry ordered his
rowboat lowered and draped his flag "Don't give up the ship" over his
shoulders. He stood tall in the boat as his crewmen rowed him toward the Niagara. Snipers could not resist this easy target and
soon shot was flying through the air as his own soldiers begged him to sit
down. Reaching the Niagara,
Perry flew up the ropes, relieved Elliott of his command and banished him to
the row-boat to go command the smaller ships. He turned toward the British and
with guns blazing drove straight toward them with all the power that he had.
It was to be Perry's
day, and the Niagara's. As he bore down on them, one of the
British brigs made a steering error and a gust of wind blew it into the other
brig. Their rigging entangled and they were trapped to one another and dead in
the water. Perry sprayed them with lead as he flew by sideways and turned the Niagara back
for more. One by one, the British ships threw up the white flag of surrender
and in fifteen minutes the Niagara, and Perry,
had won the Battle of Lake Erie.
If You made it this far, thanks for hanging in there. Now
that You know the basic story, I encourage anyone to read the long detailed
version. But,,,, I really had to tell you the story so you could see this photo
that I took this morning. The Niagara pauses in front of the house, and fires a
cannon in the mist. I get to see a flashback into the history of my bay, my
city, our country. We haven't forgotten You Oliver Hazard Perry. Your flag
still flies on the Niagara
and we won't give up!
"We have met the enemy and they are ours–two ships, two
brigs, one schooner and one sloop."
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry
Recent Comments