Miller Worsley Miller Worsley ( 8 July 1791 – 2 May 1835 ) was an officer in the Royal Navy , best known for playing a major part in the Engagements on Lake Huron in the Anglo - American War of 1812 . Early career . Worsley was the son of a clergyman , and first joined the Navy as a volunteer in 1803 . He became a Midshipman in 1805 . He was present at the Battle of Trafalgar , aboard HMS " Swiftsure " . Although he passed the examination for Lieutenant in 1810 , owing to the large numbers of officers in the Royal Navy at the time he was still a Midshipman when drafted from Bermuda in 1812 with several other officers ( including Acting Commanders Robert Heriot Barclay and Daniel Pring ) to serve in Canada . He was finally promoted Lieutenant on 12 July 1813 . Early in 1814 he was appointed First Lieutenant of the frigate HMS " Princess Charlotte " on Lake Ontario and participated in the Raid on Fort Oswego . He was then appointed to command the Royal Naval detachment on Lake Huron , succeeding Lieutenant Newdigate Poyntz , who had quarrelled with the Army Commander , Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDouall , over the degree to which the Naval personnel should be subject to McDouall ' s orders . Engagements on Lake Huron . Worsley made his way overland to the base at Nottawasaga Bay in July and took command of the only naval vessel on the lake , the commandeered schooner " Nancy " . Before he could sail to Fort Mackinac with urgently needed rations and powder , he was warned that an American force was lying in wait . He attempted to conceal the " Nancy " by towing it some distance up the Nottawasaga River and constructed a blockhouse to defend the schooner . His detachment consisted of a Midshipman and twenty - one sailors of the Royal Navy , nine French Canadian voyageurs and twenty - three Ojibwa Natives . The Americans discovered the schooner ' s hiding place , and the Americans landed a superior force of infantry supported by artillery and ships firing " blind " over intervening sandy ridges . After a stiff resistance , Worlsey decided that the day was lost and made preparations to retreat . Either he or American shells set the schooner on fire . Both the schooner and blockhouse were destroyed . Worsley withdrew his small party unmolested , having lost one man killed and one wounded . After the Americans withdrew , he then loaded two batteau x and a canoe with some supplies which the Americans had missed and set out for Fort Mackinac . After rowing and paddling , during which passage he and his party ate only some game they shot and some fish from the lake , he spotted two American gunboats near St . Joseph Island . He concealed the batteaux and continued to Mackinac in the canoe , at one point passing only a few yards from one of the gunboats . At Mackinac , he obtained four large boats and reinforcements of marines from Lieutenant Colonel McDouall . In the early hours of 4 September , he led a successful boarding attack on the gunboat USS " Tigress " , which was captured after a sharp fight . Two days later , the unsuspecting USS " Scorpion " also fell into Worsley ' s hands . This secured British supremacy on Lake Huron for the remainder of the war . Later career . Worsley fell ill in October with " Lake Fever " , which affected many sailors on the Great Lakes during the war . He saw no further active service , although he was appointed half - pay Commander on 13 July 1815 . After the war , he returned to his parental home on the Isle of Wight , and married in 1820 . He and his wife had at least two sons and one daughter . In 1832 he became an Inspecting Commander in the Coastguard . He left in 1834 and died the next year . Worsley Street in the City of Barrie , Ontario , is named after him . This street crosses Poyntz Street at the southeast corner of the Barrie courthouse .