HMS Chippeway (1812)

History
Great Britain / Upper Canada
Name:	Chippawa
Namesake:	Chippawa Creek
Builder:	Anderson Martin, Chippawa, Ontario Canada
Launched:	1810
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Chippawa
Acquired:	1812
Captured:	10 September 1813
United States
Name:	USS Chippewa
Acquired:	10 September 1813 (by capture)
Fate:	Grounded by storm; burned by British in December 1813
General characteristics
Type:	Schooner
Tons burthen:	30-70 (Records differ;[Note 1]
Beam:	16 ft (4.9 m)
Depth of hold:	7 ft (2.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Schooner
Complement:	15; 27 as HMS Chippeway[3]
Armament:	British service: 1 x 9-pounder gun American service: 1 x 12-pounder gun + 2 x swivels,[4] or 1 x 18-pounder gun + 2 swivels[5]

HMS Chippawa, or Chippeway (slang var.), was the mercantile schooner Chippawa, built and launched in 1810. The British brought her into service as HM Schooner Chippawa,^[6] sometimes recorded as Chippeway.

The United States later captured her at the Battle of Lake Erie, and brought her into service, as USS Chippewa. A storm drove her aground in October 1813, where a British force burned her in December.

Career

The small merchant schooner Chippawa, built in Chippawa,^[7][8] Ontario, Canada, in 1810, was under the command of her builder Captain Anderson Martin^[7][8] or perhaps his brother Capt. Budd Martin,^[9][10] and trading on the Great Lakes. At the outbreak of the War of 1812 she was ferrying supplies and furs. The British initially armed Chippawa with two guns, and brought her into the Provincial Marine under the command of Lieutenant Rollette. During the one-month armistice in August 1812, Chippawa carried General Isaac Brock on Lake Erie.^[9]

She was armed with only one gun and under the command of Master's Mate J. Campbell when on 10 September 1813 the American sloop Trippe captured her during the Battle of Lake Erie.^[11] The Americans concentrated their fire on the larger British vessels and Chippawa came under fire when she went to help them. The Americans then captured her and Little Belt while they were trying to escape.^[2] Her only casualty was Campbell, who was slightly wounded in the action.^[12]

The Americans took her into service as USS Chippewa, under the command of Acting Midshipman Robert S. Tatem. She then carried the baggage of the 27th and 28th regiments of Infantry from Put-in-Bay, Ohio.^[13]

Fate

A storm on 12 October drove Chippewa ashore near Buffalo.^[13] A later storm on 25–26 October drove Little Belt, Trippe, and Ariel ashore too at Buffalo. All efforts to refloat them failed, and on 30 December the British landing party that captured the Navy yard at Black Rock, New York (now a neighborhood of Buffalo), burned them during the Battle of Buffalo.^[14]

Footnotes

Notes

1. Mansfield reports her burthen as 30 tons.^[1] Hepper says 32 tons.^[2] DANFS says 70.</ref>
2. 79 ⁷⁵⁄₉₄ (by calc); bm)
Length: 59 ft (18 m)^{[Note 2]}
3. All dimensions are from Silverstone.<ref name='Silverstone'>Silverstone (2001), p.66.

Citations

1. Mansfield (1899), Vol. 1, p.184.
2. Hepper (1994), pp.147-8.
3. Mills (1813), p.118.
4. Slocum (1905), op. 351.
6. Gen. Brock, military memo, 2 June 1813, to Provl.Lieut. Rolette, Commr. of "H.M.Schooner Chippawa"[sic].
7. History of the City of Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio; 1888, Munsell & Co., New York.
8. Early History of the Maumee Valley; L. Hosmer 1858
9. Mansfield (1899), p.184
10. Dobbins papers; Buffalo (NY) Historical Society
11. "NMM, vessel ID 382344" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol v. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
12. The London Gazette: no. 16855. pp. 330–332. 8 February 1814.
13. Mansfield (1899),Vol.1, p.585.
14. The London Gazette: no. 16862. p. 438. 26 February 1814.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
• DANFS - Chippewa (I):This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
• Mansfield, John Brandt (1899) History of the Great lakes .... (J. H. Beers & co.) {note; Mansfield errs in several details about the schooner 'Chippawa'.}
• Mills, James Cooke (1913) Oliver Hazard Perry and the battle of Lake Erie. (J. Phelps).
• Silverstone, Paul H. (2001) The Sailing Navy, 1775-1854. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press) ISBN 1- 55750-893-3
• Slocum, Charles Elihu (1905) History of the Maumee River basin from the earliest account to its organization into counties. (Published by the author).

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