USS General Pike (1813)

USS "General Pike" was a corvette in the United States Navy. She was named for Zebulon Pike.

"General Pike" was laid down by Henry Eckford, a New York City shipbuilder who supervised the construction of warships on Lake Ontario, at Sackets Harbor on 9 April 1813. Set on fire 29 May during a British attack on Sackets Harbor, the unfinished ship was saved and launched on 12 June 1813, Master Commandant Arthur Sinclair in command.

ervice history

She was made ready to sail by July and on 21 July she joined Commodore Isaac Chauncey's squadron. She sailed to the head of Lake Ontario, arriving off Niagara on 27 July. While cruising the lake, she engaged British ships under Commodore Yeo in an indecisive battle on 10–11 August.

"General Pike" returned to Sackets Harbor on 13 August and provisioned before returning to the head of the lake to search out British ships. After almost a month of maneuvering and stalking to gain an advantage over the British, she joined Chauncey's ships in a brief encounter against the British off the mouth of the Genesee River on 11 September. On 28 September the two forces again met at York Bay, Ontario, and engaged in a fierce, but still indecisive, battle. During heated exchanges of gunfire between American and British ships "General Pike" fought in heavy action against British ship "Royal George" and rendered gallant service throughout the encounter.

After returning to Sackets Harbor early in October, "General Pike" supported troop movements against the British at the lower end of Lake Ontario until mid-November when she returned to the Niagara Peninsula to cover the transfer of American troops from Fort Niagara to Sackets Harbor. She remained at Sackets Harbor during the winter months.

Throughout the remainder of the War of 1812, "General Pike" continued to operate with Chauncey's squadron. After the British withdrew blockading ships off Sackets Harbor early in June 1814, she joined other American ships in a blockade of British ships at Kingston, Ontario. The American forces kept Yeo's ships within Kingston harbor, and "General Pike" cruised Lake Ontario freely from the head of the St. Lawrence River to Sackets Harbor. Following the end of the war, she was laid up at Sackets Harbor and was sold in 1825.

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