(Clear Image 14 x 15 in. on
Hot-Pressed Imported Stock “Don’t Give Up
The Ship” Brig Lawrence Engages HMS Detroit
Off Put-in-Bay THE DECISIVE NAVAL BATTLE of the War of 1812, was the Battle of Lake Erie -fought off The Bass Islands the afternoon of September 10, 1813. The original watercolor from which I worked, was by an unknown artist whose effort I much admired and tore from a magazine in a doctor's waiting room (!). Though I have a strong natural inclination for representational styles - this picture appealed to me, as the artist used loose washes combined with enough representational detail to keep the literal-rninded among us interested...And I feel I need to experiment more with this looser method of painting, and in fact one of my mentors has always urged this (but he like many others, regards "representational art" as too "photographic" and not "artsy" enough - while I hold that the challenges of accurate representation equal (or exceed) those of loose-goose "artistic" interpretation. LOL! Of such stuff is born the great "art debate…". The focus here is a semi-tight rendering of the three gunners servicing their carronade. Around and beyond them is only lightly suggested the ship’s rail and deck - while outboard we see just the suggestion of HMS Detroit’s sails (but with identifiable cannonball holes!) and British Jack, and nearer-in (right side), Lawrence’s rent sail overhead and damaged yard with loose lines and wooden blocks snapping around and over the heads of the hapless gunners...The Gunner’s Mate (center) holds a slow match in his right hand and has just ignited the charge in the deckside carronade. Below his other hand we see suggested upon the deck a woven slowmatch basket (sometimes a tub), filled with sand, and containing several other smouldering “matches”. At far right, the artist has only suggested another cannon - even to its just having fired with attendant smoke and red glow at the muzzle ... On the left, a "powder monkey" gunner rushes up another keg of powder from the magazine below decks; behind him a flat-hatted third gunner waits with his barrel tampon and watches the flight of the slow-moving, just-fired ball toward Detroit... Admiral Oliver Hazard Perry went into action with 533 men and 54 guns aboard nine ships. Opposing him were Admiral Barclay’s fleet of six ships with 440 men and 63 guns. The British were armed mostly with “long guns” capable of firing a ball more than a mile. Perry depended on carronades (“smashers”) - shorter-barreled weapons with only half the range - but capable of throwing greater tonnage at a faster rate than the British guns. The strategy was apparent: the Americans had to close with the British and deliver their punches up close - which they ultimately did. The crucial match-ups were Perry’s Lawrence versus Barclay’s HMS Detroit, and the American Niagara, under Elliott, against HMS Queen Charlotte. As he closed on Detroit, Perry raised his famous navy-blue, homemade flag: “Don’t Give Up The Ship” - purportedly the last words of his friend, James Lawrence, killed in a previous action. Lawrence was ultimately cut to ribbons, and her complement of 102 men reduced to only 20 fit for duty after more than two hours of action with the enemy. At this juncture, Perry left to command from Niagara and carry the battle to its ultimate decisive victory for the Americans. The shorter-barreled carronades were favorites during the Great Days of Sail. Named for a Scottish locale where they were first designed and cast, carronades are identifiable by the integral cast ring at or above the cascabel for acceptance of a heavy line to control recoil, visible in the illustration. Also visible is the quoin or wooden wedge (with protruding handle) which permitted rapid adjustments for elevation and depression of the barrel... Block-and-tackle purchases facilitated relatively rapid traverse, too - unlike the less manuverable long guns. As a onetime cannoneer and participant in recreated naval battles off the New England coast ( late 80's) aboard the reconstructed 26-gun British Frigate, HMS Rose (keel originally laid 1725), I have more than just a passing and artistic interest in this subject. Though Rose's big 6-pounders in her main armament were lodged in the gun deck below, we too had a number of small cannons topside in the open waist we used to fire in the heat of our "battles." And aft we had even installed a "murderer" or swivel gun (which I own: a drawing of a similar weapon accompanies the article on the "Salisbury Cannon Founders" elsewhere on this web site), on the quarterdeck taffrail and this too we often fired. Perhaps somewhat like Robert Duval in "Apocalypse Now" I loved the smell of - not napalm in the morning (lol!) - but blackpowder smoke drifting in clouds to leeward while the Yankee Sloop-of-War Constellation out of Providence (another recreation) often bore down upon us out of the bright morning mists! LOL. I "cartouched" my version of the picture at lower right with a small profile of an 18th Century naval carrondade, but this does not show well in the reproduction here. My version of this picture was selected for display on its web site choice of "Marine Artists" by a Canadian Great Lakes Naval History Re-Enactment group, whose name and contacts I lost in a computer crash some time back, and regret to say that I cannot recall same. They built reproductions of various historic vessels and annually hold a re-creation of the Battle of Lake Erie, which doubtless explains some of their enthusiasm. (If anyone can ever produce this contact for me again, I would be most appreciative).
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