USS Eagle (1812)
USS "Eagle", was a ship which served in the United States Navy in 1813-1815. Originally a merchant sloop, she was purchased at Vergennes, Vermont on Lake Champlain in 1812 and fitted as either sloop of war or brig for naval service. The British captured her in 1813 and renamed her HMS "Finch", only to lose her back to the Americans at the Battle of Lake Champlain in 1814. She was sold in 1815. American service and capture. She cruised on the lake under the command of Sailing Master J. Loomis as a member of Commodore Thomas  Macdonough's squadron blockading the British advance from Canada. Major George Taylor of the 100th Regiment captured "Eagle" on 3 June 1813 on the Sorrell River near Ile aux Noix on the Canadian side of the lake, after a fight of three-and-a-half hours; British casualties were three men wounded and American casualties were one man killed and eight severely wounded. (Both vessels were taken into Royal Navy service, but the Americans recaptured them the next year.) The British took her into the Royal Navy as HMS "Shannon" but later renamed her HMS "Chubb". British service and recapture . "Finch" accompanied the expedition that burned the arsenal and storehouses at Plattsburgh, New York. She was under the command of Lieutenant William Hicks on 11 September 1814 at the Battle of Lake Champlain. She was bringing up the rear of the British line together with some gunboats. She was ordered to sail towards and engage the USS "Preble", a sloop of seven guns. As she did so, the schooner USS "Ticonderoga" fired on "Finch" shooting away her rigging. "Finch" ran aground near Crab Island where a small American shore battery commenced firing on her. Unable to free herself, and with  two men wounded, Hicks struck the colors. Fate. After the Americans recaptured "Finch" they took her back into the U.S. Navy under her original name. After the war, she was sold in July 1815 at Whitehall, New York.