ERIE, Pennsylvania- It was a famous victory. But more than that, the Battle of Lake Erie, during the War of 1812, has gone down in history for its rhetoric, for it put a rousing battle cry and a proud slogan into the language.
It happened in the afternoon of Sept. 10, 1813. Six British warships and nine much-smaller American craft were engaged in a furious battle off Put-In-Bay, a bit west of here.
Bob Fischer, a guide at the Erie Maritime Museum, explains: "In the heat of battle the (U.S.) commander, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, shifted his command to the brig Niagara when his flagship, the Lawrence, was disabled. On board Niagara he raised the Lawrence's flag with the words 'Don't give up the ship.' The Americans rallied and forced the British to surrender."
Then, says Fischer, Perry sat down and wrote to his commander. Those words have become as famous as the battle cry on the flag: "We have met the enemy and they are ours."
It was a turning point in the war, a battle that arguably changed the political geography of North America. If the British had won, Lake Erie would have remained in British hands and, some historians say, the border would not now run through the Great Lakes. Author Pierre Berton, in his book The Great Lakes, suggests that the border might be farther south, "perhaps making Canadian cities out of Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit."
A reconstructed Niagara is the centrepiece of the Erie Maritime Museum. Visitors can tour her when she's in port. The tall ship makes summer cruises on the Great Lakes as a "goodwill ambassador" of Pennsylvania, of which she has been designated the official flagship.
A video and artifacts in the museum tell the whole story of the battle and of the Niagara. The brig was one of six built in Erie that took part in the pivotal battle. She sank in 1820 but the hulk was raised and rebuilt for the centenary of the battle in 1913.
This ship, with many repairs, sailed until the 1980s, when it was decided she was beyond saving, so the present Niagara, an exact reconstruction (but with a back-up motor) was built, using some of the timbers from the original. She was commissioned in 1990.
An exhibit on Commodore Perry says he was just 27 when he became the hero of Lake Erie. He died of yellow fever in the Caribbean in 1820, aged 34.
Inside the museum there's a reconstruction of part of a gun deck of the Niagara, with manikins of sailors loading the cannon.
Another exhibit in the museum is the prow of the USS Michigan (later renamed the USS Wolverine), the first iron-hulled steamship in the U.S. Navy. She was also built in Erie and sailed from 1844 until 1923, the longest career of any powered U.S. Navy vessel. A marker says the prow was saved from the wrecker's torch at the request of her last captain, William Morrison.
If you go:
For more information on the brig Niagara and the Erie Maritime Museum visit www.brigniagara.org.
