commanders.
119
Up to this period, our naval force on the Canadian Lakes consisted of corvettes, brigs, and schooners; but the Americans, with their natural promptitude in military affairs, having begun to construct two frigates at Sackett’s harbour. Sir James L. Yeo lost no time in laying the keels of two frigates, and every exertion was made to complete them by the breaking up of the ice. Volunteers from the ships on the coast were called for to man them; and such an appeal to British sailors was not in vain, as will be seen by Lieutenant Kent’s account of his march from St John’s, New Brunswick, to Kingston, on Lake Ontario, dated at the latter place, June 20th, 1814:–
“We left Halifax in the Fantome, on the 22d January last, cheered by a large concourse of the inhabitants, and arrived at St. John’s on the 26th, making a passage of four days, the weather extremely bad: the brig appeared a complete mass of ice, it freezing as fast as the sea broke over us. The inhabitants of St. John’s came forward in the most handsome manner in a subscription to forward us in sleighs to Frederickston, the seat of government, a distance of eighty miles. The volunteer seamen from the Fantome, Manly, and Thistle were divided into three divisions, each of seventy men, the first under Captain Collier, of the Manly, the second under Lieutenant Russel, and the third under myself. On the 29th of January, the first division proceeded about nine in the morning, and in the afternoon the second followed; the next morning I disembarked, the rigging of all the ships being manned, and the crews cheering us. On landing, we were received by the band of the 8th regiment, and a large concourse of people, who escorted us to the sleighs, when we set off at full speed. In eight hours we went fifty miles, and then halted for the night, at a small house on the banks of the river; started again in the morning, reached Frederickston in the afternoon, and found the other divisions halted there. The seamen were lodged in a barrack, which was walled in, but they soon scaled the walls and got scattered about the town. Having their pockets well lined with prize-money, they were anxious to lighten them, thinking this was the last opportunity they would have of enjoying themselves[1]. After collecting them again, they were formed into two divisions, the first under Captain Collier’s command, the second under mine, as being the senior lieutenant. From Frederickston we continued on the ice of the river St. John, except in
- ↑ Many of the petty officers had upwards of 300l. in their possession when they left Halifax.
