U.S. Brig Niagara gives a glimpse into the age of sail

By Jamie Kelly

Eagle Correspondent

November 14, 2023 Last Updated: November 13, 2023 08:18 PM America 250

The replica of the U.S. Brig Niagara on Lake Erie. National Parks Service Photo

The battle that made the U.S. Brig Niagara’s reputation also gave the world one of the most famous lines ever to summarize a battle.

“We have met the enemy and they are ours,” Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry wrote after turning the tide of the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813. His note, to Gen. William Henry Harrison — the future president was leading the Army of the Northwest during the War of 1812 — would eventually become nearly as famous as Julius Caesar’s “I came, I saw, I conquered” and other pithy summaries of victory.

Perry wrote those words on the U.S. Brig Lawrence, a nearly 500-ton, two-masted ship built as his flagship. But the battle was won aboard the Niagara, which became Perry’s relief flagship after the Lawrence was disabled.

Now, more than 210 years after the battle, a replica of the Niagara still sails the Great Lakes, giving visitors a chance to learn the very old art of square-rig sailing, as well as a chance to get up close with a key part of U.S. naval history.

William Henry Powell originally painted the Battle of Lake Erie in 1865, followed by a larger version, shown here, that now hangs in the U.S. Capitol. Library of Congress

Protecting the coastline

It might not occur to most people today, but the shore of the Great Lakes is a northern coastline for part of the United States, separating it from Canada. In the early 1800s, though, Canada was controlled by Great Britain, which the U.S. had just fought in the Revolutionary War.

And so when war flared up again with the War of 1812, it became increasingly urgent to protect the northern coastline, leading to the construction of a fleet of ships at Erie.

The geography of the Great Lakes meant that for the most part, ships that would fight there would have to be constructed there.

The Erie Maritime Museum, the home port for the Niagara, explained what the United States was facing when it needed to build a Great Lakes fleet after the War of 1812 broke out.

A painting shows the process of building the American Great Lakes fleet for the War of 1812. National Parks Service Photo

“The task was a daunting one,” the museum’s site explains. “Skilled shipwrights could only be recruited from East Coast cities and had to be persuaded by high wages to march for weeks through Pennsylvania’s mountainous wilderness, in winter, to reach the frontier outpost of Erie. Everything needed except wood had to come the same way.

“To house so many men in winter, the first project was to build more log buildings. A larger town needed to be built, before a shipyard could be established, before a fleet could be built.”

The situation wasn’t made any easier by the fact hardly anyone lived in the area when the war began.

“There was nothing out here,” said Chuck Johnson, education and volunteer coordinator with the Erie Maritime Museum, 150 E. Front St., Erie.

By 1812 there were about 400 people living in Erie, and Pittsburgh, which was about three days travel from Erie, had 6,000 people.

The geography of Lake Erie had much to do with the decision to build there. Presque Isle Bay was sheltered and had a sandbar across the entrance that meant the water was too shallow for the larger British warships to sail into the bay.

The American ships such as the Niagara were built with much shallower drafts, allowing them to navigate in shallow water, though even they needed assistance clearing the sandbar to get into the lake.

Presque Isle Bay was chosen for the construction of ships in part because it offered a protective barrier for ships. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

The battle of Lake Erie

By July 1813, nearly all the American squadron was ready to launch. And on Sept. 9, 1813, Perry received a battle flag he’d use to signal the ships in the fleet to engage the enemy.

Like the note Perry would write, this flag bore a phrase that was already famous and would become another historical cliché. The flag bore the last words of Capt. James Lawrence, a friend of Perry’s and the namesake of his flagship.

Lawrence had died aboard the USS Chesapeake in May 1813, and his dying words to the frigate crew were: “Don’t give up the ship.”

A painting shows the Niagara engaged in the Battle of Lake Erie. National Parks Service Photo

The next morning, the battle began, and at the start things looked bad for the Americans in general and Perry in particular. The Lawrence took heavy fire from two British ships and nearly four fifths of the crew was killed or wounded in action.

After the last of the Lawrence’s guns were disabled, Perry had himself rowed to the Niagara. It was then that the tide turned.

The British expected the American squadron to retreat after the Lawrence was surrendered, but instead, Perry sailed through the British line and was able to fire broadside against the two largest British ships, the Detroit and Queen Charlotte.

The two ships were disabled and surrendered, and four smaller British ships were captured, as well.

The victory gave the United States control over Lake Erie and was part of the reason Pennsylvania, Ohio and Western New York were safe from attack for the rest of the war.

Forgotten and remembered

Noah Brown, a shipbuilder who was responsible for the work at Lake Erie, predicted the fleet would have a short service life.

“ … though staunchly built, we want no extras,” he wrote at one point. “Plain work is all that is required; they will be wanted for only one battle. If we win, that is all that is wanted of them. If the enemy is victorious, the work is good enough to be captured.”

He was right: In the years after the battle, the ships were anchored in Lake Erie, their condition slowly deteriorating. In 1820, both the Niagara and the Lawrence were scuttled, allowing the mud and water to cover the hulks until they would be needed again.

A photo from 1913 shows the remains of the Niagara after being raised from the bottom of Lake Erie. Library of Congress

They never were.

But in 1913, 100 years after the battle and 93 years after they were scuttled, the Niagara was raised to take part in the centennial. Four years later, it was sold to the city of Erie and continued to deteriorate.

In 1929, Erie sold the ship to a foundation that planned to make it the centerpiece of a museum, but the Great Depression meant delays and setbacks.

Plans to restore the ship were hampered by lack of money, damage to the original and the fact no original plans existed. That led the restoration to continue in fits and starts over the decades.

Finally, in 1981, the Flagship Niagara League was formed with the goal of turning the ship from an outdoor museum piece to a working sailing vessel. By that time it was clear that age, decades spent below the water and poor work in previous restoration meant nearly everything on the ship is now new, leading it to be called a replica, rather than a restored ship.

In April 1988, the Niagara was named the flagship of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The ship launched Sept. 10, 1988, 175 years after the battle.

A photo from 1913 shows the reconstructed Niagara sailing up the Maumee River near Toledo, Ohio. Ken Levin Toledo Poscard Collection

A new mission

While the Niagara was built to preserve the safety of the northern coast, its new mission is preserving the way people sailed until very recently.

In 2005, the U.S. Coast Guard certified the ship to serve as a school ship to teach square-rigged sailing, and that has been a vital part of what it has done since.

Johnson, the museum educator with the Erie Maritime Museum, said the ship draws people in.

“When you see her fully rigged with the sails completely out, whether it’s tied up in the bay or out on the lake, it’s awe-inspiring,” he said.

The U.S. Niagara in front of the Statue of Liberty. National Parks Service Photo

Part of the year, the ship serves as an interactive museum showing what life was like on a sailing ship in the 19th century, and part of the year it serves as a floating classroom.

Whether people are taking a tour or going on one of the two-week long training voyages, getting them onto the ship is a way to captivate visitors.

“The best way to teach it is to just get people on board,” Johnson said.

And the ship does, indeed, captivate people. There are about 150 regular volunteers, and many of them started as museum visitors or people interested in sailing.

“It’s a community,” Johnson said. “What ties it all together is the ship. It really does become a family.”