ERIE, LAKE, BATTLE OF

an encavonent between an American and a. ritish fleet on Lake Erie, on Sept. 10 1813. The American ve els were under the command of Oliver H, Perry, a naval officer le than thirty years old, who had been sent up to the Lake with a force of sailors and shipbuilders, to build war ve els and man them, to check the efforts of the British then being made to gain control of the Lake, and, through it, of the entire Northwest, By the beginning of September, Perry had nine ve els with 54 guns. The British fleet which sighted the Americal ve els on the morning of Sept. 10, under the command of Captain Barclay, numbered six ships with 63 guns. At first Perry’s fiagship, the ‘Lawrence,’ was completely disabled by the concentrated fire of the British guns. Perry, with eight survivors of his crew, had barely time to escape in a ship’s boat to another of his ve els, the ‘Niagara.’ Hoisting his flag from this ve el, he renewed the battle and within half an hour the British were so crippled that they were compelled to surrender. It was the first time that a British fleet had been overcome hy the Americans.