Hunter brig

This Month in Naval History

Hunter

A British name retained.

(Brig: t. 1S0; a. 10 guns)

Hunter, a brig, was built in 1806 as General Hunter for the Canadian Provincial Marine at Malden, Canada. She was part of Commodore Barclay's squadron on Lake Erie and was captured along with flve other ships in the famous Battle of Lake Erie 10 September 1813. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry had built his fleet literally from nothing, had forced his enemy to do battle, and courageously carried through to an important victory. Hun ter was one of the ships spoken of in Perry's immortal dispatch to Gen. William Henry Harrison: "We have met the enemy and they are ours—two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop." The victory secured the Lake region for the United States and ended the threat of invasion from that quarter. Hunter served on the Lake for the remainder of the war and was then sold.

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