schooner, employed on the river St. Lawrence[1]. This command he nominally retained for a considerable time; we say nominally, for almost immediately after the commencement of the war in Canada, the late Admiral Vandeput, with whom he had served as a Midshipman in India, and who had conceived a just idea of his talents, recommended him as a proper person to fit out a flotilla, to act against the revolted colonists on the Lakes; in consequence of which he was appointed superintendant of the naval department at St. John’s; and in the year following, received a second commission, nominating him to the elevated station of senior officer of the naval department in that quarter. In fact, he might have been truly called the civil Commander-in-Chief, all the conjunct duties of the Admiralty and Navy Board being vested in him. His exertions and merit were so conspicuous as to draw forth the highest encomiums from the Admiral commanding on the station, particularly on account of the celerity and expedition with which he constructed a ship of above 300 tons, called the Inflexible, the very appearance of which vessel on the lakes, struck with insurmountable terror the whole American fleet, and compelled it to seek for safety in ignominious flight, after having held out a vain boast of many months’ continuance, that the first appearance of the British flotilla would be the certain forerunner of its immediate destruction.
The Inflexible was originally put on the stocks at Quebec; her floors were all laid, and some timbers in; the whole, namely, the floors, keel, stem, and stern, were taken down, and carried up the St. Lawrence to Chamblais, and from thence to St. John’s. Her keel was laid, for the second time, on the morning of the 2d Sept. and by sunset,
- ↑ It was about the same period that Mr. Schanck exhibited a talent for mechanics. This had formerly displayed itself, indeed, on several occasions,for the good of the service; but what caught the eye of the multitude was the construction of a cot, which by means of pulleys might be raised or lowered at pleasure, at the will of the person who reclined in it; while by means of castors, it could also be removed by himself from place to place without any difficulty. This was afterwards presented, we believe, to the grandfather of the present Lord Dundas, and obtained for the inventor the familiar appellation of “Old Purchase,” among his companions.
