Combat· War of 1812
Engagement near Kingston
The first real test of strength on Lake Ontario.
Commodore Isaac Chauncey took his newly assembled squadron out of Sackett's Harbor and chased the British corvette Royal George across the lake, pressing her until she ran for the shelter of the batteries at Kingston, the main British naval base on the lake. Chauncey's ships, with their Marines firing from the tops, exchanged fire with the Royal George and the shore guns before breaking off in the face of the fortifications and worsening weather. The action was indecisive, neither ship was taken, but it asserted an aggressive American presence on Lake Ontario and showed that Chauncey meant to contest the lake rather than cede it. The contest would settle into a long shipbuilding race between the two sides, each trying to outbuild the other for command of the water.
Podcast episodes on War of 1812
Record no. 250