HMS Detroit (1813)
 Painting of HMS Detroit by E.A Hodgkinson | |
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Detroit |
| Builder: | Amherstburg Royal Naval Dockyard, Amherstburg |
| Launched: | August 1813 |
| Fate: | Captured on 10 September 1813 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 305 bm |
HMS Detroit was a 20-gun sloop of the Royal Navy serving on Lake Erie during the War of 1812.
Detroit was a corvette (a ship-rigged flush decked vessel), of approximately 490 tons (though there is much debate regarding measurement of tonnage, due both to differences in British and American measures and ways in which tonnage is measured, either in tonnes burthen or in displacement), and was built at Amherstburg Royal Naval Dockyard in Amherstburg. Launched in August 1813, she was captured just a month later, 10 September, in the Battle of Lake Erie. The vessel was commissioned into the United States Navy as its first USS Detroit, but was badly damaged, never sailed again, and was sold in 1825.
The Detroit was originally intended to have a main battery of twenty 24-pounder carronades. In late April 1813, these guns were in store at the dockyard in York, the provincial capital of Upper Canada, awaiting shipment to Amherstburg. On 27 April, after the British were forced to retreat at the Battle of York, these weapons were captured by the Americans under the command of Commodore Isaac Chauncey, commanding the United States squadron on Lake Ontario. As a result, the Detroit was fitted out with nineteen assorted guns, some of which were removed from the defences of Fort Amherstburg. Instead of the short-range carronades, many of these were long guns, firing a lighter shot but with longer range. Most of the guns lacked flintlock firing mechanisms, and even linstocks and slow match to fire them, and could be discharged only by flashing pistols at powder piled in the touchholes.
There had been another HMS Detroit on Lake Erie during this time. This had been the United States brig Adams, fitted out to mount six 6-pounders. She was surrendered to the British on 16 August 1812 with the surrender of Detroit and subsequently used to dominate the lake. However, the Americans recaptured Detroit on 9 October but could not get the vessel away from shore guns, and burnt her later that day.
References
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
- Cruikshank, Ernest. Zaslow, Morris. ed. The Defended Border. Macmillan of Canada. ISBN 0-7705-1242-9.
- Malcomson, Robert and Thomas Malcomson, HMS Detroit: The Battle of Lake Erie, (Annapolis, MD. Naval Institute Press, 1990)
- David Lyon & Rif Winfield (2004). The Sail & Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889. London. ISBN 1-86176-032-9.
- Rif Winfield (2005). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. London. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.
- David Lyon (1997). The Sailing Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy, Built, Purchased and Captured, 1688-1860. London. ISBN 0-85177-864-X.
- Robert Malcomson (2001). Warships of the Great Lakes: 1754-1834. Annapolis. ISBN 1-55750-910-7.
- Robert Malcomson (1998). Lords of the Lake. Annapolis. ISBN 1-55750-532-2.
