Under cover of darkness, American sailors cut out two British brigs on Lake Erie
Two months after General William Hull surrendered Detroit, the British navy still owned Lake Erie outright. On October 8-9, 1812, Lieutenant Jesse Elliott led 100 men by boat from Buffalo Creek and boarded two anchored British brigs, HMS Detroit and HMS Caledonia, near Fort Erie. Caledonia reached Black Rock safely and joined the American fleet with her cargo of furs intact. Detroit ran aground under British artillery fire and, after Elliott's crew beat back an attempt to retake her, was burned where she sat.
Caledonia's capture gave the United States its first warship on Lake Erie since losing Adams/Detroit in August. She went on to serve under Oliver Hazard Perry at the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813, the fight that broke British naval power on the lake and reopened the Old Northwest to American control.
QWhy did a captured British warship have a cargo hold full of furs?
Caledonia was not built as a warship at all. The North West Company, a fur-trading enterprise, had her constructed as a commercial brig to haul pelts and trade goods across the Great Lakes. The Provincial Marine commandeered her for military use once war broke out, but she kept working cargo even in British hands, which is why she still had a hold full of furs the night Elliott's men climbed aboard. That cargo meant the Americans came away with both a ship and a prize of furs from a single raid.
QHow many men did Elliott actually need to take two armed British brigs by surprise?
Elliott moved with exactly 100 American sailors and soldiers, loaded into open boats for the run from Buffalo Creek. That figure covered both targets at once: enough hands to split into two boarding parties and overpower both crews before either had warning an attack was coming. Splitting a hundred men across two enemy decks in darkness gave each boarding party almost no room to recover from a mistake, but the surprise was complete enough that both ships fell before either could organize resistance. The same raiders later had to fight off a British counterattempt to retake Detroit after she grounded.
