Governor Simcoe (ship)

The Governor Simcoe was a 137-ton private schooner serving the North West Company fur trade on Lake Ontario from her launch at Kingston, Upper Canada, 29 October 1793 until the War of 1812. As was common for most NWC ships at the start of the war, she was then likely hired out as a supply ship for the Provincial Marine and remained unarmed until a survey and refit in March 1813. For some years prior to the outbreak of war, and for at least the first five months of the war, she was commanded by James Richardson (1759-1832) an ex-Provincial Marine Officer. “On the eve of the Battle of Queenston Heights on 13 Oct. 1812 he delivered a shipment of gunpowder to Niagara and afterwards returned to York with prisoners and the news of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock’s death.”

On her last merchant voyage, 11 November 1812, she was spotted and chased by Commodore Chauncey’s United States Navy Lake Ontario squadron then patrolling off Kingston. The Governor Simcoe “evaded capture but ran too closely over a shoal and sank at its berth in Kingston from the damage it had incurred.”

Early in 1813, despite being the oldest vessel on the lakes at the time, the British acquired her (whether by purchase or hire). After a survey and extensive refitting in March, 1813, she was initially armed with ten 32-pounder carronades and a pair of 12-pounder long guns and renamed the HMS Sir Sydney Smith. She set sail on 27 May 1813 with the rest of Commodore Yeo’s British Provincial Marine Lake Ontario Squadron. As the Smith she took part in attacks on Sackets Harbor and Oswego as well as engagements against the USN on 10–11 August 1813.

The British Navy took command of all Provincial Marine vessels in 1814, renamed them and replaced their crews with Royal Navy crews. The Sir Sydney Smith was refitted as a brig and renamed the HMS Magnet. Commanded by Lieutenant George Hawkesworth, on 5 August 1814, she was carrying munitions from York to Niagara when Chauncey’s squadron arrived to block his access to safe anchorage on the Niagara River. Fearing capture Hawkesworth, drove the Magnet ashore 10 miles (16 km) west of the mouth of the Niagara River, salvaged what munitions he could then set a fuse to destroy the Magnet and the remaining cargo in an enormous explosion which observers said could be heard and felt at York - approximately 30 miles (49 km) across Lake Ontario.