HMS Detroit (1812)

HMS Detroit was a 6-gun brig of the Royal Navy. She served on Lake Erie during the War of 1812, giving the British control of the lake. She was briefly recaptured by the Americans, but came under heavy fire and had to be abandoned. Both the British and Americans contested her until her battered hulk was burnt.

American career and surrender
Detroit had previously been the brig Adams, a 200-ton vessel built on the River Rouge in 1799. She was utilised by the General William Hull, the US Army commander at Detroit, Michigan, to transport troops and supplies to Fort Mackinac and Fort Dearborn. Adams was in drydock at Detroit for repairs and refitting when war broke out, and was surrendered to the British with the rest of the city on Hull's capitulation. The British armed the prize and commissioned her as HMS Detroit. She and HMS Caledonia (1807) gave the British undisputed control of Lake Erie.

British career
All changed early on the morning of 9 October 1812 when a boat expedition commanded by Lt. Jesse D. Elliott captured the two vessels right under the muzzles of the guns at Fort Erie. Caledonia made it safely to the temporary American base at Black Rock, but Detroit, owing to light wind, was swept away by the Niagara River's strong current and was forced to anchor within range of British guns. An artillery duel ensued. Elliott brought all his guns to his engaged side and continued the cannonade until his supply of ammunition was exhausted. Thereupon, he cut the cable; and the brig drifted down the river. She grounded on Squaw Island within range of both British and American batteries. Elliott and his men left the ship, and almost immediately, some two score British soldiers took brief possession of the brig. American guns soon drove them out with great loss, and both sides began pounding her with gunfire. The Americans finally set fire to and destroyed the battered hulk.

Masters
Adams had three sailing masters during her American career, sailing under the command of Captain Peter Curry for her maiden voyage on 18 May 1800. Her second master was John Williams (not Joseph Campau's nephew), in the summer of 1801. Adams spent her longest period under Lieutenant Henry B. Brevoort, an army officer who had been master of the Gally Adams on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in 1800 and 1801. The Askin Papers recorded that "In the spring of 1802, he (Brevoort) was ordered to Detroit to assume command of the Adams, which had been built at Rouge River...from this time until the War of 1812, Brevoort commanded the 'navy of the lakes', which during most of the period comprised the Adams and her crew."