USS Lady Prevost (1812)

USS Lady Prevost was a schooner captured from the British during the War of 1812 and pressed into use in the United States Navy.

Built in 1810 as the Lady Prevost at Canadian Provisional Marine in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada, she was a 13-gun ship named for the wife of General Sir George Prevost, Commander-in-Chief of the British armies along the Canadian-New York border in the War of 1812. She operated out of Navy Island Royal Naval Shipyard.

British service
The British schooner served as a training ship for Canadian seamen on Lake Erie through 1812, in preparation for a campaign to gain control of the Great Lakes and a subsequent invasion of the United States. Under command of Lieutenant James Buchan, RN, she was one of Captain James Barclay’s squadron which engaged the American squadron under Captain Oliver Hazard Perry off Put-in-Bay in the Battle of Lake Erie on 11 September 1813. In a gun duel first with schooners USS Somers (1812), USS Tigress, USS Porcupine, and sloop USS Trippe (1812), and then, as the tide of battle turned, with Perry’s flagship USS Niagara (1813), Lady Prevost suffered damage to her masts and superstructure and, with the rest of her squadron, surrendered.

American service
Taken prize at the surrender, the schooner was repaired and joined the American squadron on Lake Erie as USS Lady Prevost. In company with Niagara, USS Scorpion (1812), and Trippe under command of Captain Jesse D. Elliott, she sailed into Lake Sinclair on 29 September to cut the supply lines of the British Army attempting to invade western New York.

For the remainder of the War of 1812, the squadron operated on Lakes Erie and Huron, cooperating with the Army commanded by General William Henry Harrison. Lady Prevost was primarily engaged in supporting American troops fighting the British and their Indian allies in the northwest.

Disposition
Following the end of the war in 1815, Lady Prevost was burned and sunk by the Americans at Erie, Pennsylvania, but was raised later that year and converted into a merchantman. She was sold at public auction late in 1815.