Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1913-05-23

he built from the forests near by. A feet of nine
vessels was built by him and his men. "A reg
ment of Pennsylvania militia covered the snip
builders while they were at work.
The battle against a superior British squadron
lasted all day, and the Lawrence was dismantied,
so that Perry had to row through a nail OF shol
to the Niagara, where he hoisted his nag again.
At 3 O'Clock he was able to send his famous dis
patch: I'VE have met the enemy and they are
ours"
Commodore Perry was then twenty-seven years
old.
Perry was a Rhode Islander by birth. The son
of a naval officer and the daughter of an Irish
woman of unusual attainments, he had the most
careful early training. so that after Lake Erie
some who knew the family spoke of it as Mrs.
Perry's victory" Young Oliver Hazard Perry
was fond of Plutarch's Lives, Shakespeare and
Addison. He was a pupil of Count Rochambeau.
At fourteen he was commissioned a midshipman.
When the war with England began there was
probably no better ordnance officer In the Amer
lean navy, and in the training of his crews he was
unwearying in personal attention to details BY
assembling his gunboats occasionally he gained
actual knowledge of the evolutions of "a fleet.
He also p%racticed sham battles, which taught him
much.
Within twenty-four hours after receipt of Com
modore Chauncey's order to go to Lake Erie he
had sent off a detachment of fifty men, and five
days later he set out himself with his younger
brother, Alexander. Travelling chiefly in sleighs
he reached Erie on March 81 There he found
Noah Brown. shipwright, and Sailing Master Dob
bins awaiting fifty carpenters from Philadelphia.
The carpenters were more than five weeks max
ing the wintry journey.
The keels of two twenty gun briggs and three
gunboats had already been laid. Incredible toll
in the wilderness enabled Perry to collect nine
vessels of 1.671 tons with 54 guns capable of
throwing a broadside of 936 pounds of metal, of
which 2SS pounds could be fired at long range.
Puny figures these seem in this day of dread
naughts, but in 1913 they were respectable if not
exactly impressive.
The Lawrence and the, Niagara, which were
the two twenty gun ships, carried two long
twelve Founders and eighteen thirty-two FOUNDER
dependents of the Americans. To make his car
ronade fire effective Perry relied on grape and
canister shot and favorite American ammunition,
language, which was made out Of scraps of iron
sewed up in leather bags
Perry's force of men consisted of about 500
landsmen and sailors, many Of whom had never
seen salt water. On the British side Captain
Barclay had six vessels of 1.460 tons, manned by
nearly 500 men, but he had sixty-three cannon.
Barclay was one of Nelson's veterans.
As the fleets approached each other at about
II o'clock the bugle sounded from the flagship.
The men of the whole British line gave three
cheers and the long guns Of the Detroit opened
on the Lawrence at a distance of a mile and a
the form of a duel. the heaviest vessel In each
fleet confronting the other. Barclay had at first
a manifest advantage. The gunners of the Law
renee, depending too much on their carronades,
fired too fast, and overshotting their stumpy guns
were able only to pit and dent the sides Of the
Detroit. So the Lawrence was reduced to a hulk
by a steady British fire. After two hours only
one gun was left mounted. the cockpit was
crowded with wounded and only eighteen un-