The war of 1812 was really a war that neither the US or Great Britain really wanted. The US was just getting over the expenses of the war of Independence and the British were having more than enough trouble with Napoleon. However, neither of them would back down, so war it was. The main goal of the US was to take over lower Canada, while the British just wanted to defeat the United States and keep on doing what they were doing.

As just about all the fighting took place in North America, it was natural that the boundary waters between British and US interests would be involved. In this case, it was the Great Lakes; specifically Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, along with Lake Champlain. Both nations had a small military presence on these bodies and that was about to get much bigger. A construction race began between the US and Britain, with the ships being built getting larger and large as the conflict progressed. This ranged from rowed gunboats all the way up to ships of the line, though the latter were very much a very late war project.

Thanks to the way the Great Lakes were formed, it was pretty well impossible to get completed ships from the Atlantic into the lakes so these boats had to be built at shipyards on the shores. The American ships were built within a very short time as the ingenious American ship designers took many shortcuts when building these ships. It was realized that they would not be in service for long, but it was also realized that they had to be built in a hurry. There was also no need to worry about the damages of salt water on the hull as fresh water was pretty well free of the many maladies that struck their salt water cousins.

These ships also had to be built to different designs than ocean going ships. There was no real need for long term storage or even crew quarters as these ships would not be long from a port. They also had to be relatively shallow draft as harbors were not deep. Most of these boats were rather small although both sides did build frigates. Often times a ship would be captured by one side only to be recaptured later.

In this book on the ships of this war, author Mark Lardas looks at the design and purpose of Great Lakes ships. Both the British and Americans built ships differently from each other and that is covered. We then get a look at the various campaigns on the different lakes. This is followed by a look at the ships themselves. Each and every warship developed and built by both sides is covered. In addition to stats, a small historical background is provided.

It all makes for another interesting read on a subject that I daresay few have read of much. It is a superb addition to the series and makes for a book that I am sure you will enjoy reading.

March 2012

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