HMS Nancy (1789) - War of 1812

War of 1812

The Nancy was in MacIntosh’s wharf at Moy (Windsor) when the War of 1812 broke out between the United States and Great Britain. Moved for protection to Amherstburg, the ship was taken by the commander of the British garrison, Lieutenant-Colonel St. George, as a transport vessel. Before the war, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Elliott of The Indian Department had surveyed the Nancy as part of an inventory of the means available in case of war. According to Elliott, the Nancy could mount six 4-pounder carriage guns and six swivel guns. The schooner was apparently armed with some 3-pounder guns. Most of these were dismounted from the schooner and used to arm several small gunboats patrolling the Detroit River. At some later date, the Nancy was armed with two 6-pounder guns and two 24-pounder carronades.

On 30 July 1812, the Nancy sailed to Fort Erie in convoy with the new Provincial Marine schooner Lady Prevost, returning with military supplies and 60 men of the 41st Regiment who then participated in the Siege of Detroit. After Detroit was captured by British and Indians under Major General Isaac Brock, the Nancy carried troops, stores and provisions between Fort Erie and Detroit during the late summer and autumn. The following spring, on 23 April 1813 the Nancy joined a small squadron in moving Major General Henry Procter's division from Amherstburg to Miami Bay, positioning them for what would be an unsuccessful Siege of Fort Meigs.

On 9 September 1813, while the Nancy was in Lake Huron on a trip to Fort Mackinac (which had been captured by a British force in the first few days of the war), the Americans won the decisive Battle of Lake Erie, capturing all the British armed vessels on the lake. Nancy was the only British ship remaining on the Upper Lakes. On 5 October, as Captain MacIntosh returned to the Detroit River, he sent some of the crew ashore to discover the situation. A storm blew up and MacIntosh entered the river anyway, as his anchors and cables were defective. A group of American militia on the river bank demanded that the schooner surrender. Instead, once the wind allowed, MacIntosh weighed anchor and sailed back up the river and into the lake. Although two American armed schooners and a gunboat were lying in wait for him further down the river, the Nancy was damaged only by musket fire from the shore.

On Lake Huron, the schooner was further battered by storms. Her sails and cables were too badly worn or damaged to withstand any more bad weather, so she sailed to Sault Ste. Marie, where she was laid up, and refitted by her crew during the winter.

By recapturing Detroit, the Americans had cut the principal route by which the British at Fort Mackinac and other posts in the North West were supplied. During the winter, the British opened an alternate route overland from York on Lake Ontario via Yonge Street to Holland Landing and the Holland River. From here, the route entered Lake Simcoe and led to the head of Kempenfeldt Bay (Barrie) where Nine Mile Portage led to Willow Creek, the Nottawasaga River and Lake Huron. Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDouall reached Fort Mackinac via this route on 19 May 1814, to take charge of the post and the surrounding area. McDouall was accompanied by Lieutenant Newdigate Poyntz of the Royal Navy who took charge of the naval establishment on Lake Huron, which essentially was the Nancy only. (MacIntosh was retained as a pilot.) Plans to turn the schooner into a gunboat were discarded as unproductive, and the ship continued as a supply ship during that summer, making three round trips between the Nottawasaga and Mackinac.