A Long Yacht

In 1800, the brig Recovery (150 tons) was launched at Point aux Pins on Lake Superior, to be followed by the schooner Perseverance (80 tons) in 1803. The Americans captured her in July 1814 and tried to float her down the rapids at Sault Ste. Marie where she was wrecked and then set on fire. Mills, in Our Inland Seas, writes that the Recovery survived the war, passed down the rapids and saw service in the lumber trade on Lake Erie. The Mink was also built at Point aux Pins for the North West Company. She went down the rapids during the war, was captured and burned by the Americans in 1814.

In March 1803, the American War Department directed Colonel Randolph Hamtramck to establish a fort at the mouth of the Chicago River. Captain John Whistler sailed with his family on the Tracy with a load of artillery and other supplies for founding Fort Dearborn. The Tracy had been built at Detroit in 1799 and was the first of many sailing vessels to reach Chicago. Around the same time, in the same yacht yard at Detroit, the Adams was built. She was a 150- ton brig and became the first of the American navy vessels on the Upper Lakes. She served until captured by the British when Detroit fell. Renamed the Detroit, she was anchored under the guns of Fort Erie when Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott USN attempted to recapture her on October 9, 1812. He did not succeed and the Detroit was battered by the guns of both sides and destroyed in the Niagara River.

In 1808, the first United States Navy vessel to appear on Lake Ontario, the brig Oneida, was launched at Oswego. The builders were Henry Eckford and Christian Berg. She was 243 tons, with 16 guns, and served extensively in the war that was about to erupt. She was still in service as a timber drogher in 1828.

Interestingly, the American War of Independence was hardly noticed on the Great Lakes. During the revolution, the British prohibited commerce between the two countries, but the forbiddance had little effect. Following the outcome of this war, vast waves of refugees entered Canada from the south, people who had been loyal to the Crown and were seeking a new life where they could continue their loyalty. Stripped of their land and much of their possessions, these migrants became known as the United Empire Loyalists. The arrival of the Loyalists peaked around 1780, and the yachts of the Provincial Marine were kept busy transporting them across Lakes Ontario and Erie.

Over the period of early sailing vessels on the Great Lakes, reports show that many were lost early in their careers. At the time there were no aids to navigation and the few charts available were very incomplete. In 1803, construction of the first lighthouses on the lakes was commenced at Kingston, Niagara and York. Of necessity, the early navigator learned quickly the need for constant alertness and caution. If he was careless, his prospects for a long life were no better than that of his yacht.