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Cornell University Library 1993.HULL QF PERRY’S FL,AQSH|P, THE LAWRENCE, AS IT WAS RAISED IN MISERY BAY, ERIE, PA., SEPT. 17, 1875. See Page 403WHAT BECAME OF PERRY'S FLEET
It has been shown in preceding pages that several of the vessels
captured by Perry again fell into British hands. It may be well to
make record, as far as possible, of the ultimate fate of the prizes and
of Perry's own vessels.
As has been stated (p. 374), the Somers and the Ohio were re-
captured by the British while anchored off Fort Erie, the fort being
then held by the Americans. The Porcupine escaped capture by being
anchored close in shore. After the war the Porcupine was taken to
Detroit; it is said she was used, in 1817 and 1818, by the commission-
ers for determining the international boundary line. In 1830, at De-
troit, her upper works were rebuilt and her name changed to the
Caroline—not to be confused with the steamboat Caroline that fur-
nished a spectacular incident on the Niagara in 1837. The old Por-
cupine was taken to Grand Haven, and sailed for some years by
Captain Harry Miller. In the early ’5o’s she was set adrift in Grand
River, near the mouth. The current carried her out into Lake Michi-
gan, but a west wind blew her back after a day or two. She was
afterwards refitted, and sailed a season or two. Finally, about 1855,
she was allowed to sink, head on, at Ferrysburg, Mich. A few years
ago a portion of her hull was raised; it was probably dispersed in
relics.
The Scorpion and Tigress were captured by the British on Lake
Huron. The Trippe, Little Belt and Ariel were burned by the Brit-
ish at Black Rock. The Chippewa was disabled and beached at Buf-
falo where she was destroyed when the British burned the town,
Dec. 30-31, 1813. The Caledonia was sold to John Dickson and re-
named the General Wayne. The Hunter was sold to traders at Black
Rock, the Lady Prevost to merchants at Fort Erie, and both vessels
sailed the lakes for some years.
The Niagara was used by the Government as a receiving ship at
Erie until 1818, when she was abandoned and sunk in Misery Bay,
where she still lies. In 1882 Capt. Douglass Ottinger, then senior
officer of the U. S. Marine Service on the lakes, Philip Osborne, su-
perintendent of the marine hospital at Erie, and Frank Henry, keeper
fS
401402
FATE OF PERRY’S SHIPS.
of the beacon light at the Erie harbor entrance, made a thorough ex-
amination of the remains of the Niagara, with the aid of expert
divers, and made the following report on her condition:
“We found the Niagara in Misery Bay, in a depth of about thir-
teen feet of water. The vessel was careened to one side, and the
ribs on the upper side were plainly visible about three feet under
water. We were accompanied by an expert diver, one of the crew of
the revenue cutter Perry, who made a careful examination of the
hull, which was found to be in a comparatively good state of preser-
vation. As the vessel is in deep water, but little pirating has been
done, as was the case with the flagship Lawrence, which was in shoal
water. The Niagara is in a much better state of preservation than
was the Lawrence at the time she was raised. The remains of the
cabin and other parts of the vessel that have fallen are in the hold.
One of the skylights, in a very good state of preservation, was after-
wards brought up with the aid of a boat-hook, and is now in a col-
lection in this vicinity. Owing to the small size of the Niagara, her
nearness to the mainland, and the fact that she is in the sheltered
waters of a land-locked bay, she could be raised and placed on Gar-
rison Hill, at a small expense.”
Since this report was made, there have been numerous projects
for raising the Niagara, especially at the time of the Columbian Ex-
position ; but her hull still rests undisturbed.
The Lawrence, the Detroit and the Queen Charlotte were sunk
by order of the United States Government, in Misery Bay, in July,
1815. In 1825 they and the Niagara were sold by the Government, as
they lay at the bottom of the bay, to Commander Budd of the Navy;
and by him sold, Aug. 9, 1825, to Benjamin H. Brown of Rochester,
for $325. Brown appears to have sold them, or a part interest, to
A. Q. D. Leech of Erie. It is stated in a letter from Thomas Forster,
Collector at Erie, to the Hon. Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the
Navy, April 7, 1835, that Brown sold the vessels to Leech, that the
Queen Charlotte had been raised, and that the Detroit and Lawrence
soon would be raised and would require papers. There exists among
the Dobbins papers a sworn statement of Benjamin H. Brown to the
effect that on June 11, 1835, he sold the four boats “as they now are
or were sunk at the date of purchase by A. Q. D. Leech” to Capt.
George Miles of Erie. In 1837 the Detroit and Queen Charlotte were
raised by Capt. Miles, and were refitted into merchant vessels, but
did not long prove serviceable, and were soon laid up. The Detroit
lay at Buffalo, dismantled, in 1841, when she was bought by hotel
proprietors and others of Niagara Falls, the design being to send her
over the falls, thus making a spectacle which in theory at least would
draw visitors and make business. It was at first proposed to send her
to destruction on September 10th; but either because public senti-FATE OF PERRY'S SHIPS.
408
ment did not deem it a suitable celebration of Perry’s victory, or for
other cause, the exhibition was postponed until September 15th. The
Buffalo Commercial Advertiser and Journal of the following day
said:
v “At the appointed hour, 3 p. m., the vessel was towed from the
foot of Grand Island into the stream to the very verge of the rapids,
and then cut adrift. She took the first plunge gallantly, head on, and
for a moment seemed completely engulfed, but almost instantly the
hull shot upward from the ‘hell of waters,’ her main and foremasts
went by the board, and on she went. The next descent was passed
safely. At the third her mizzen mast gave way, and a few rods fur-
ther she grounded by the head. Her stern swung slowly round and
grounded also. When we left Goat Island she was lying broadside to
the current, in its shallowest part, nearly midway between the island
and the Canadian shore.”
A part of her hull remained there for more than a year. Lossing,
in a note on this incident, says that a bear and other animals were
aboard. The contemporary accounts do not say so; the historian
evidently confused the destruction of the Detroit with a similar fate
to which the schooner Michigan was sent in 1827, she having a num-
ber of birds and animals aboard.
On Dec. 9, 1857, Capt. Miles sold his interest in the Lawrence and
Niagara to Leander Dobbins of Erie for “two hundred dollars to me
in hand paid,” though this may have been a partial payment. For
some years the Lawrence was the easy prey of relic-hunters. In
i860, at the time of the dedication of the Perry monument in Cleve-
land, several timbers were taken from the wreck of the Lawrence.
Handsome armchairs were made from them, one being sent to Dr.
Usher Parsons, who had served as surgeon on board the Lawrence
in the great battle; one was sent to the president of the Perry Monu-
ment Association, in Cleveland; and another became the property of
Capt. Stephen Champlin at his home in Buffalo. Several large frag-
ments, taken from the hull at this time, are now in the museum of
the Buffalo Historical Society. For several years, the making of
“Lawrence canes” was a profitable industry in Erie.
In 1875 Mr. Dobbins placed the Lawrence in the hands of John
Dunlap, Thomas J. Viers and Rush Warner, for exhibition at the
Centennial, and ultimate dispersal in souvenirs, but the speculation
was unsuccessful. The hull of the old flagship was raised from its
long resting-place, Sept. 17, 1875, towed across the bay to the city
and again sunk. In the spring of 1876 it was raised, put on the
cars and sent to Philadelphia. In subsequent litigation it was alleged
that the Lawrence was badly placed at the exposition, and not suffi-
ciently advertised. At any rate, the public practically ignored it, so404
FATE OF PERRY’S SHIPS.
that the receipts from admissions to view it, and from the sale of
canes made from its wood, were trifling. Mr. Dobbins received,
when the hull was raised, a cash payment of $250, by Viers and
Dunlap. A one-fifth interest, stated at $1,000, was bought by Mrs.
Anna C. Morrison of Lockport, her husband acting as her agent.
The agreement was that as soon as the vessel reached Philadelphia a
second payment of $250 was to be made; but the management of
Viers, who had it in charge there, was so disastrous, that in August
over $300 rent for exhibition space was due, and to satisfy the land-
lord’s claim the boat was sold by the sheriff for about $600. The
owners valued it at $15,000, basing their calculations on what thev
thought they were going to realize from admissions and the sale of
canes, etc. It was bid in by Michael Price; Rush Warner and a Mr.
Adams subsequently took the remains off his hands; and in a gradual
and ignominious dispersal in fragments, possibly without even the
dignity of identified relics, Perry’s gallant flagship passed out of ex-
istence.HULL QF PERRY'S FLAQSH|P, THE LAWRENCE, AS IT WAS RAISED IN MISERY BAY, ERIE, PA., SEPT. 17, 1875,