HMS Detroit

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, surrendered Aug 16 1812 with the surrender of 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 vessel was originally pierced for 20 guns, but was armed with an extremely heterogeneous 19 gun battery, because its intended armament had been interdicted by US naval forces under the command of Commodore Isaac Chauncey on Lake Ontario. "Detroit" was a corvette (a ship-rigged flush decked vessel), of approximately 490 tons (though there is much debate regarding measurement of tonnage, due both to differences in British and American measures and ways in which tonnage is measured, either in tonnes burthen or in displacement), and was built at Amherstburg Royal Naval Dockyard in Amherstburg. Launched in August 1813, she was captured just a month later, 10 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.

References

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* Malcomson, Robert and Thomas Malcomson, HMS Detroit: The Battle of Lake Erie, (Annapolis, MD. Naval Institute Press, 1990)