USS Saratoga ( 1814 ) USS " Saratoga " , named for the Battles of Saratoga , was a corvette built on Lake Champlain for service in the War of 1812 . Service history . " Saratoga " was laid down on 7 March 1814 , launched on 11 April 1814 and she was christened on the day that Napoleon abdicated . She was a Corvette weighing 734 tons , 143 ' long with a beam of 36 ' 6 " and a depth of hold 12 ' 6 " . She had a complement of 212 with an armament of eight long 24 - pounders , six 42 - pounder carronades and twelve 32 - pounder carronades . The " Saratoga " began her service on Lake Champlain as England was turning her attention and resources from the European continent to North America . British strategy envisaged a series of amphibious raids along the American coast as a diversion to cover a lethal thrust south from Canada down the strategic and already historic Lake Champlain - Hudson River corridor . However , the completion of " Saratoga " put the United States ahead in the naval construction race on Lake Champlain ; and Sir George Prévost , the Governor General of Canada and top British military commander in America , felt that supremacy afloat was a prerequisite to a successful invasion of the United States through the state of New York . He , therefore , delayed the start of his campaign until new naval construction had tipped the balance back in his favor . Meanwhile , Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough , commander of American naval forces on the lake , took advantage of the edge which " Saratoga " had given him and sailed to the mouth of the Richelieu River . He proceeded to blockade the Richelieu for most of the following summer . Up the river at Ile aux Noix , the little British fleet , protected by shore batteries and by the river ' s narrow and tricky channel , waited while English shipwrights worked feverishly to complete . The British launched the " Confiance " on 25 August 1814 . She was a 36 - gun frigate hastily fitted out for battle and the largest warship ever to sail on Lake Champlain . Battle of Plattsburgh . Master Commandant Macdonough , commanding officer of " Saratoga " as well as of the other American forces on the lake , had sailed back south . He had proceeded around Cumberland Head , New York ; and entered Plattsburg Bay . There , he deployed his ships across the mouth of the harbor in a strong defensive position where when the British fleet would attack them , they would be at a disadvantage of having to slowly and laboriously approach the line of American broadsides , against the wind and unable to bring most of their guns to bear . As Master Commandant MacDonough awaited the arrival of the enemy , he dropped kedge anchors and arranged spring lines , which afforded his ships maximum maneuverability . He then had the crews practice turning their ships so that alternately starboard and port guns would face south . During the construction race , crack British troops — veterans hardened in Wellington ' s bloody Peninsular Campaign — had been rushed from Spain to the St . Lawrence for the impending offensive . Before the end of August , the British Army had begun to march south along the western shore of Lake Champlain . Badly outnumbered , American ground forces withdrew before the English advance , crossed the Saranac River , and took prepared positions on the bluffs which overlook Plattsburg Bay . On the morning of 11 September , when Commodore George Downie led the British squadron around Cumberland Head , Macdonough was ready . As British brig , " Linnet " , approached firing range , she opened the action with a salvo toward " Saratoga " . All but one of the projectiles fell short ; and that solid shot was all but spent as it landed on the American corvette , bounced across her deck , and smashed a wooden poultry cage freeing a gamecock . The indignant rooster took to his wings and landed in the rigging . Facing the British warships , the cock defiantly called out challenge to battle . Macdonough , himself , aimed a long 24 - pounder at the bow of " Confiance " , pulled the lanyard firing " Saratoga " s first round , and gave the signal , " close action . " The shot cut the British flagship ' s anchor cable , ripped up her deck , and smashed her helm . Then , all the American ships opened fire . " Confiance " s first broadside struck " Saratoga " from point blank range , and the American flagship reeled from the blow . Half of her men were felled by the shock ; but most of the sailors picked themselves up , carried their dead and wounded comrades below , and returned to the fray . Since " Confiance " s green gunners failed to reset the elevation of their barrels , each of her subsequent volleys tended to be higher than its predecessor and , while shredding " Saratoga " s rigging , did little structural damage to the ship . After almost two hours ' fighting , " Saratoga " s last serviceable starboard gun , a carronade , broke loose from its carriage and hurtled down the main hatch . Macdonough then dropped a stern anchor ; cut his bow cable ; and , with the help of tars hauling on lines to kedge anchors , swung the ship around bringing her fresh , port , broadside guns to bear on the enemy . The badly battered British flagship , with Downie and her first lieutenant dead , also attempted to wind ship but was unable to do so . Helpless to do further harm to her adversary , " Confiance " struck her colors . Then , by pulling on her starboard kedge line , " Saratoga " s sailors turned the corvette ' s guns toward " Linnet " and opened fire . The British brig , although severely damaged and unable to move , gallantly kept up the fight for about an hour before surrendering . At that time , " Finch " and " Chub " , the other two relatively large warships in the British squadron , were already in American hands ; so the surviving English gunboats fled toward Canada . Macdonough ' s victory in Plattsburg Bay left the United States unchallenged on Lake Champlain and forced Prevost to retreat to Canada . This weakened the British position in negotiations at Ghent and enabled American commissioners to secure a favorable rather than a humiliating peace . It also helped to restore American morale after the recent burning of Washington , D . C . After the war , " Saratoga " was laid up until sold at Whitehall , New York , in 1825 . Saratoga Passage , a body of water in Puget Sound , was named after the ship .