HMS Detroit

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During the War of 1812, the British Royal Navy had two small vessels named HMS Detroit on Lake Erie, both named after the nearby Fort Detroit.

The first Detroit was originally the United States brig Adams, mounting 6 6-pounders, captured 16 July 1813 while aground near Detroit and subsequently used to dominate the lake. However, the Americans recaptured Detroit on 9 October, but could not get the vessel away from shore guns, and burnt it later that day.

Confusingly, the other Detroit was operating on the same lake during the same time period. This one was a 12- or 14-gun schooner, 305 tons, and was built at Amherstburg Royal Naval Dockyard in Amherstburg in August 1813. She was captured just a month later, 9 September, in the Battle of Lake Erie. The vessel was commissioned into the United States Navy as its first USS Detroit, but was badly damaged, never sailed again, and was sold in 1825.

[edit] Reference

• J. J. Colledge, Ships of the Royal Navy, Greenhill Books, 1987.