Within months of the
American declaration of
war against Great Britain
in June 1812, Barclay was
sent overland with a
group of sailors and sea-
men from Halifax to the
new strategic naval base
at Kingston, on Lake On-
tario. He arrived on May
5, 1813, and gained ap-
pointment as acting com-
mander of British naval
forces on the Great
Lakes. Within days, how-
ever, Barclay was super-
seded by Capt. Sir James
Lucas Yeo and offered
command of the St.
Lawrence River gunboat
squadron. He declined
and was subsequently
posted to Amherstburg,
near Detroit, as senior
naval commander. In this
capacity Barclay assumed control of a small
squadron tasked with keeping Lake Erie out of
American hands. The ships and crews he com-
manded were not part of the Royal Navy es-
tablishment but rather a hodgepodge collec-
tion of men and vessels from the Canadian
Provincial Marine force and various militia
units. His assignment proved an exceedingly
tall order for any officer to fulfill, for Yeo re-
fused to dispatch additional manpower from
his own Lake Ontario squadron. Furthermore,
what few supplies and equipment the com-
modore did manage to forward were excruci-
atingly hauled over land to Amherstburg, there
being no direct water route.
In contrast, the American naval establish-
ment at Presque Isle, Pennsylvania, was well
situated to receive men and supplies through
an intricate network of roads and rivers
stretching as far away as New York City. In
the spring of 1813, Capt. Jesse Duncan Elliott
was authorized to commence construction of
a powerful squadron to take control of the
lake. Several keels had
been laid for two power-
ful brigs and numerous
other warships, when a
new commander, Capt.
Oliver Hazard Perry, ar-
rived that summer to su-
pervise events. This
proved a turning point in
the war.
Barclay was conscious
of his material and man-
power inferiority, but he
nonetheless assumed an
aggressive posture. On
June 15, 1813, his squad-
ron hovered off Presque
Isle to observe the status
of Perry’s fleet, still under
construction. It was well
known that the harbor
there was partially ob-
structed by a large sand-
bar that forbade deep-
draft vessels, like fully
armed brigs, from entering or leaving. Be-
cause such warships would have to be
stripped of armament and floated over the
sandbar, the British cruised off shore several
days to attack the moment this maneuver was
attempted. Inexplicably, on July 29, 1813, Bar-
clay returned with his squadron to Amherst-
burg to oversee construction and outfitting of
his own new warship, the 300-ton corvette
HMS Detroit.During this interval, Perry man-
aged to strip his warships and work them
over the bar by the time Barclay resumed his
station on August 4, 1813. However, rather
than attack, he was content to blockade the
Americans, citing to Yeo poor wind condi-
tions and the presence of numerous fortifica-
tions guarding the enemy fleet. Feeling too
weak to engage the powerful, nine-ship Amer-
ican squadron so close to shore, Barclay then
withdrew a final time to Amherstburg to await
developments. Historians still debate why
Barclay relinquished his blockade of Presque
Isle when he did. Moreover, his failure to at-BARCLAY, ROBERTHERIOT
Robert Heriot Barclay
Metropolitan Toronto Library