Two recent articles on this blog introduced us to the
real-life naval hero Sir James Lucas Yeo (1782 – 1818), a handsome and dashing
officer who might seem overdone were he to step from the pages of a Jane Austen
novel. The first two articles (which can be read below, dated 15th
July 2016 and 29th July 2016) saw Yeo knighted in 1810, still under
thirty, for his capture of the French colony of Cayenne by a British-Portuguese
task force under his command. His “lead from the front” character, whether at
sea or in attacks on land fortifications, made him an ideal frigate captain,
command of the 32-gun HMS Southampton
being his reward for Cayenne. In her, in 1811, he captured the French privateer,
the Amethyste, a prize which is likely
to have benefitted him and his crew financially.
 |
| HMS Pomone (1805) typical frigate of this era |
When war broke out with the United States in 1812, Yeo was
stationed in the Bahamas and in the course of the year captured another French
privateer, the Heureuse Réunion. This
was followed by his taking an American brig-of-war, the USS Vixen, in November 1812. Yeo was not to
profit from the Vixen however – both
she and the Southampton were wrecked
five days later on Conception Island in the Bahamas. Yeo was duly court-martialled
for the loss of these ships but had his sword returned to him on the grounds
that an uncharted reef was the cause of the accident. (It is hard to imagine
today just how limited charts were in this period – it was only later in the nineteenth
century that a massive international hydrographic effort, largely driven by the
Royal Navy, led to most of the world’s coastlines being surveyed and charted
for the first time.)
The War of 1812 between Britain and the United States was by
now in full swing, the Canadian border representing a major – and possibly decisive
– front. Critical to this was naval control of the Great Lakes, most especially
Lake Ontario, the southern and south-eastern shores of which could provide the British
with access to New York State and threaten the Hudson Valley. A “Lakes
Service" command was accordingly established by the Royal Navy, with headquarters
at Kingston, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario’s Canadian shore – and almost
directly across from the United States base and shipyard – at Sacket’s Harbor
on the opposite shore. Situated close to the point of exit of the St. Lawrence
river, the nation that managed to occupy both these locations would be well
situated to dominate the lake.
 |
| Sir George Prévost |
Command of the Lakes Service was entrusted to Yeo and he
arrived, as a Commodore, in 1813. The skill he had demonstrated in previous amphibious
operations was probably a strong influence on the Navy choosing him as capture
of Sacket’s Harbor would demand an opposed landing. The American shipyards were
a major objective – they were to build no less than eleven warships in the course
of the conflict – and a British attempt at capture had been repulsed before Yeo’s
arrival. In early 1813 the balance of naval forces on the lake were in favour
of the Americans and Yeo concentrated on getting a sloop, HMS Wolfe, completed and some smaller
vessels refitted as warships. The major threat was however the intelligence that
the Americans were building a similarly-sized sloop, the General Pike, at Sacket’s Harbor. Pre-emption of this was possibly
a major factor in the British decision to mount an amphibious assault. Had Yeo
been in sole command – and indeed had he stronger forces – this might have been
successful. In this era of intense inter-service rivalries (a situation that sometimes
seems to occur even today!) it was however inconceivable that overall command
would not be taken by the senior army officer present, Lieutenant Sir George Prévost,,
who also happened to be Governor General of Canada.
 |
| Contemporary view of British ships off Sacket's Harbor |
The second battle of Sacket’s Harbor, on May 28th
and 29th 1813, resulted in a second repulse, despite the British
force arriving there when much of the American naval force was at the other end
of the lake. Yeo’s larger, deep- draught, vessels could not come close inshore
to provide covering fire and the shallower gunboats that could were armed only
with carronades, weapons only effective at very short range. Only the 16-gun
brig Beresford, could be taken close
enough inshore – by use of sweeps – to deliver the necessary bombardment
capability. This was enough to disable one of the American gun emplacements and
rounds from Beresford also fell in the
dockyard where the General Pike was
under construction. Believing a British victory imminent, American orders were
given to burn the General Pike and large
quantities of stores. Despite this limited success the landing itself did not
go well – Yeo, characteristically, had gone ashore with the assault force – and
it was beaten back. The blame of the failure was largely attributed to Prévost,
the army commander, who failed to push what advantages he had.
The following year, 1814, was dominated by a building race
between the British and Americans. Yeo pulled ahead in this contest and with
two frigates now at his disposal, each more powerful than the brigs and sloops
that constituted the American force, he was able to blockade Sacket’s Harbor.
He was simultaneously building a 112-gun First Rate ship-of-the line, the HMS St. Lawrence. When this was completed
at the year’s end Yeo now had effective command of the lake, and he had two
more similar ships also under construction. The Americans were not idle and
also had two equally large warships on the stocks. Neither was completed. Had this
unnecessary war not ended in 1815, a major naval battle might have been fought
between line-of-battle ships on Lake Ontario.
 |
| The never-completed American line-of-battle ship USS New Orleans. Laid down at Sacket's Harbor in 1814, she was not broken up until 1883 |
Yeo’s subsequent career was short and tragic. He was awarded
important commands on both the West African and West Indian stations – both notoriously
unhealthy, and he was to die in 1818. Had he lived he wold almost certainly
have reached the highest ranks in the Royal Navy. This daring, handsome,
capable man had however packed more into his 35 years than many other officers
achieved in an entire lifetime.
Britannia’s Wolf is available as an audio book
– listen to a sample
To listen to as sample go to the links below and click on the small arrow beneath the cover image there:
I'd never have thought of such powerful ships being built on the Great Lakes, much less of a naval battle there. Good article.
ReplyDeleteI agree - it would have been bizarre!
ReplyDelete