Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1913-05-17

he built from the forests near by. A feet of nine
vessels built by him and his men [es
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 d1smahtieo'
that Perry had to row through nan OF snoe
to the Niagara, where he hoisted his flag again
At o'clock he able to send his famous ois-
patch: I'VE have met the enemy and they are
ours"
Commodore Perry then twenty-seven years
old.
Perry was Rhode Islander by birth. The son
of naval officer and the daughter of an Irish
woman of unusual attachments, 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 a pupil of Count Rochambeau
At fourteen he commissioned a midshipman-
When the war with England began there was
probably better ordnance officer in the Amer
lean navy, and the training of his crews he was
unwearying in personal attention to details BY
assembling his gunboats occasionally he gained
actual knowledge of the evoutions of a fleet
He also practiced sham battles which taught him
much.
Within twentyfour hours after receipt of Com
modore Chaunceys order to go to Lake Erie ne
had sent off detachment of fifty men. and five
DAYS later he himself with his younger
brother Alexander. Travelling chiefly in sleighs
he reached Erie on March ~ There he found
Noah Brown, shipwright, and Sailing Master Dob
bins awaiting fifty carpenters from Philadelphia
The carpenters more than five weeks max
ing the wintry journey.
The keels of two twenty gun br1gs and three
g1lnboats had already been laid. Incredible toll
in the wilderness enabled Perry to collect nine
vessels of 1871 tons with "a guns capable of
throwing broadside of $50 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 twenty gun ships, carried two long
twelve Founders and eighteen thirty-two FOUNDER
carronades The long range guns were the chief
dependents of the Americans. To make his
ronade fire effective Perry relied grape and
canister shot and favorite American ammunition,
language which 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 1.46O TONS manned by
nearly 500 men. but he had sixty-three cannon.
Barclay was one of Nelson's veterans
IL 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 mile and
half. BY noon the battle began in earnest in
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 much their carronades.
were able only to pit and dent the sides of the
by steady British fire After two hours only
one gun was left mounted the cockpit
crowded with wounded and only eighteen un-