and chestnut frames, the outside planking being of oak and
the decks of pine. Two gunboats were newly planked up, and work on a
schooner was just begun. The vessels had to be vigilantly guarded against
attack by the British, who were fully aware of the work being done. The
capture of Fort George left the Niagara River open, and several American
vessels which had been unable before to pass the Canadian batteries were
now, with great exertion, drawn into the lake. These were the brig
Caledonia, the schooners Somers, Tigress and Ohio, and the sloop Trippe.
An English squadron set out to intercept the new arrivals, but Perry
succeeded in gaining the harbor of Erie before the enemy made their
appearance.

The American ships were ready for sea on July 10, but officers and
sailors were lacking, and it was not until about the close of the month
that Perry had three hundred men to man his ten vessels. While the
British squadron, under Captain Robert Heriot Barclay maintained a
vigorous blockade, Perry found that his new brigs could not cross the bar
without landing their guns and being blocked up on scows. Commander
Barclay, thinking that Perry could not move, made a visit of ceremony
with his squadron to Port Dover, on the Canadian side. During Barclay's
absence Perry got the Lawrence and Niagara over the bar, and the British
commander was astonished, when he returned on the morning of August 5, to
see the American fleet riding at anchor, and ready for battle. Barclay
wished to delay the naval combat until after the completion at Malden of
a ten-gun ship called the Detroit, which was to be added to his force,
and he therefore put into that harbor.[1] Perry improved the delay to
exercise his crews, largely made up of soldiers, in seamanship.

[1] Malden, on the Detroit River, eighteen miles below the city of
Detroit, is now known as Amherstburg.

It was not until September 10 that the British squadron came out to give
battle. Master-Commandant Perry had nine vessels mounting fifty-four
guns, with 1536 pounds of metal. The British squadron consisted of six
vessels, mounting sixty-three guns, with a total weight of 852 pounds.
The American vessels were manned by 490 men and the British by 502 men
and boys. In discipline, training and physical condition, however, the
difference of crews was much more in favor of the British than the
numbers indicate. The brig Lawrence was Perry's flagship; Barclay's
pennant flew on th