HMS Nancy ( 1789 ) HM Schooner " Nancy " was a schooner , built in Detroit in 1789 . She served for several years in the fur trade on the Great Lakes , but is best known for playing a part in the Anglo - American War of 1812 , serving as a vital supply ship for the British . Blocked in by an American fleet near the mouth of the Nottawasaga River , she was set on fire on 14 August 1814 to prevent the capture of the ship and the cargo she carried . Forgotten for many years , the wreck was re - discovered in July , 1927 and raised to form the centrepiece of the Nancy Island Museum . Construction . The " Nancy " was built by the fur trading company Forsyth , Richardson and Company of Montreal , at Detroit . ( Although Detroit was by rights on American territory , it was not handed over to the United States until the Jay Treaty was signed in 1796 . ) At this time the company was one of the several merchant firms based in Montreal that made up the loose partnership known as the North West Company . The Indian trade on the Great Lakes was conducted by larger sailing vessels whereas birchbark canoes remained the principal means of transport in the fur trade of the Canadian north - west via the Ottawa River . John Richardson , one of the partners in the company , travelled to the trading post at Detroit to begin construction , accompanied by a master carpenter and six other carpenters . Construction began in late June 1789 . On 23 September 1789 , Richardson wrote : The schooner will be a perfect masterpiece of workmanship and beauty . The expense to us will be great , but there will be the satisfaction of her being strong and very durable . Her floor - timbers , keel , keel - son , stem and lower futtocks are oak . The transom , stern - post , upper futtocks , top - timbers , beams and knees are all red cedar . She will carry 350 barrels . The schooner , named after Richardson ' s eldest daughter , was launched on 24 November that year . The following spring , she made her maiden voyage to Fort Erie , under the command of Captain William Mills , and in June 1790 , went to Grand Portage at Sault Ste . Marie with a full cargo . For the next twenty - two years , the " Nancy " was engaged in the fur trade . The ship changed owners several times , being sold first to George Leith and Company in 1793 , and later to the North West Company . She changed commanders in 1805 , when Captain Alexander MacIntosh replaced Captain Mills . War of 1812 . The Nancy was in MacIntosh ’ s wharf at Moy ( Windsor ) when the War of 1812 broke out between the United States and Great Britain . Moved for protection to Amherstburg , the ship was taken by the commander of the British garrison , Lieutenant - Colonel St . George , as a transport vessel . Before the war , Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Elliott of The Indian Department had surveyed the " Nancy " as part of an inventory of the means available in case of war . According to Elliott , the " Nancy " could mount six 4 - pounder carriage gun s and six swivel gun s . The schooner was apparently armed with some 3 - pounder guns . Most of these were dismounted from the schooner and used to arm several small gunboats patrolling the Detroit River . At some later date , the " Nancy " was armed with two 6 - pounder guns and two 24 - pounder carronade s . On 30 July 1812 , the " Nancy " sailed to Fort Erie in convoy with the new Provincial Marine schooner Lady Prevost , returning with military supplies and 60 men of the 41st Regiment who then participated in the Siege of Detroit . After Detroit was captured by British and Indians under Major General Isaac Brock , the " Nancy " carried troops , stores and provisions between Fort Erie and Detroit during the late summer and autumn . The following spring , on 23 April 1813 the " Nancy " joined a small squadron in moving Major General Henry Procter ' s division from Amherstburg to Miami Bay , positioning them for what would be an unsuccessful Siege of Fort Meigs . On 9 September 1813 , while the " Nancy " was in Lake Huron on a trip to Fort Mackinac ( which had been captured by a British force in the first few days of the war ) , the Americans won the decisive Battle of Lake Erie , capturing all the British armed vessels on the lake . " Nancy " was the only British ship remaining on the Upper Lakes . On 5 October , as Captain MacIntosh returned to the Detroit River , he sent some of the crew ashore to discover the situation . A storm blew up and MacIntosh entered the river anyway , as his anchors and cables were defective . A group of American militia on the river bank demanded that the schooner surrender . Instead , once the wind allowed , MacIntosh weighed anchor and sailed back up the river and into the lake . Although two American armed schooners and a gunboat were lying in wait for him further down the river , the " Nancy " was damaged only by musket fire from the shore . On Lake Huron , the schooner was further battered by storms . Her sails and cables were too badly worn or damaged to withstand any more bad weather , so she sailed to Sault Ste . Marie , where she was laid up , and refitted by her crew during the winter . By recapturing Detroit , the Americans had cut the principal route by which the British at Fort Mackinac and other posts in the North West were supplied . During the winter , the British opened an alternate route overland from York on Lake Ontario via Yonge Street to Holland Landing and the Holland River . From here , the route entered Lake Simcoe and led to the head of Kempenfeldt Bay ( Barrie ) where Nine Mile Portage led to Willow Creek , the Nottawasaga River and Lake Huron . Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDouall reached Fort Mackinac via this route on 19 May 1814 , to take charge of the post and the surrounding area . McDouall was accompanied by Lieutenant Newdigate Poyntz of the Royal Navy who took charge of the naval establishment on Lake Huron , which essentially was the " Nancy " only . ( MacIntosh was retained as a pilot . ) Plans to turn the schooner into a gunboat were discarded as unproductive , and the ship continued as a supply ship during that summer , making three round trips between the Nottawasaga and Mackinac . Destruction of the " Nancy " . During one of the ship ' s supply trips to the Nottawasaga , in July 1814 , an American force left Detroit , intending to recover Fort Mackinac . Their frontal assault was defeated in the Battle of Mackinac Island . However , they had learned of the location of the " Nancy " from a prisoner , and three of their vessels proceeded to Nottawasaga Bay . At the Nottawasaga , Lieutenant Miller Worsley of the Royal Navy had succeeded Poyntz and taken command of the " Nancy " , which was about to sail to Mackinac with 300 barrels of flour , bacon and other rations . He was warned of the American presence and had the " Nancy " towed two miles up the river , where he hastily built a blockhouse armed with two 24 - pounder carronades and a 6 - pounder gun ( presumably dismounted from the schooner ) . His force consisted of 21 sailors , 23 Ojibwa and 9 French - Canadian voyageurs . On 13 August , Captain Arthur Sinclair led three American ships ( " Niagara " , " Scorpion " and " Tigress " ) into Nottawasaga Bay . The Americans believed that the " Nancy " was still out on the lake and heading back to the Nottawasaga , and intended to wait in ambush for her in the bay . However , Sinclair landed some of his embarked troops to make an encampment on the spit of land between the river and the lake shore , and some wood - cutting parties discovered the schooner ' s hiding place . The next day , three companies of American regular infantry supported by a 5 . 5 - inch mortar and the guns of Sinclair ' s ships attacked Worsley ' s position . Faced with overwhelming odds , Worsley determined to scuttle the " Nancy " to prevent the enemy from capturing the ship or her valuable stores . A line of powder was set running to the Nancy and from there to the blockhouse . At four o ' clock , the " Nancy " was set alight which in turn by way of the powder train , set off an explosion in the blockhouse . The blockhouse explosion surprised Sinclair , causing him to think that one of the howitzer ' s shots had found its mark . After the action , the gunboats " Scorpion " and " Tigress " were left to guard the river to prevent canoes and bateaux from getting supplies to Fort Mackinac . Eventually the river mouth was blocked with felled trees , and the two gunboats proceeded along the north shore in the hope of intercepting fur - laden canoes on the lake . Worsley and his men removed the obstructions and reached Mackinac in a large canoe on 31 August after paddling and rowing for 360 miles . They subsequently surprised and captured both American gunboats in the Engagement on Lake Huron . Aftermath . The North West Company was compensated 2 , 200 pounds by the Admiralty after the war for the destruction of the ship in service , with additional compensations for services between 1812 and 1814 totalling 1 , 243 pounds , 5 shillings . The Detroit River incident of October 5 , 1813 was the basis for the song " The Nancy " by Canadian singer / songwriter Stan Rogers on his From Fresh Water album . Nancy Island . An island grew over the remains of the ship as silt was deposited by the river around the sunken hull . The hull remained visible under water . It was discovered on 1 July 1911 by C . H . J . Snider , a noted Canadian marine historian and editor of the " Toronto Telegram " , but drew little notice until after 1924 . In August of that year , Snider , Dr . Alfred H . Macklin , C . W . Jefferys and Dr . F . J . Conboy began a fund - raising campaign to assist with the recovery of the wreck the following year . In the process , the recovery crew found numerous valuable artifacts including an assortment of 24 - pounder and 6 - pounder shot . Following further explorations by C . H . J . Snider and his salvage crew , the hull was excavated . The " Nancy " s figurehead , ship ' s cutlery and numerous personal artifacts were recovered from both the bottom and the banks of the Nottawasaga River . Dr . Macklin and C . W . Jefferys persuaded the Government of Canada to provide a World War I style metal military storage building for the museum . The Nancy Museum was opened on the island on 14 August 1928 to recognize the ship and its major contribution to the war effort and the border committee .