Commanding battleships on the high seas coursed through his veins. Oliver Hazard Perry made his name as a commodore who helped secure the young United States’s northern territory by winning the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.
Although a life at sea was always his goal, Perry knew it would be difficult getting on a Navy ship at a young age.
When a frigate commanded by Perry’s father geared up for France during the Quasi War in 1799, he recommended his son to be part of the crew. At age 13, the strong-willed youth’s dream of being a midshipman on a Navy ship had come true.
For the next several years, Perry fought in the Navy against France and in the Tripolitan War to subdue the pirates of the Barbary Coast. During that time, he worked his way up through the ranks until his promotion to lieutenant in 1807.
After earning the promotion, Perry was given the task of supervising the construction of small gunboats in Rhode Island and Connecticut, a task he saw as boring. Two years later in 1809, Perry finally got his chance to command a ship, the 14-gun schooner named Revenge.
For the next couple of years, Perry and the Revenge patrolled the waters off the coast of New England until his schooner was ordered back to Washington for repairs; in 1810, his ship was prepared for an assignment in the waters off the southern coast of the United States. As he headed to South Carolina, the young commander and most of his crew became ill.
Bad luck continued to follow Perry and his crew. While doing a survey of several barrier islands along the New England coast, his ship struck a reef and sank. Perry was court martialed, and it was deemed that he did nothing wrong.
After the court-martial, Perry took a long leave of absence and married in 1811.
When hostilities again flared up with Britain in June 1812, the young lieutenant was called back into service. He was first ordered to command a small squadron of boats in Newport. Perry was restless and felt as if he was missing out on the real fighting in the war. Perry petitioned his old friend Isaac Chauncey, who was in charge of naval operations in the Great Lakes, for a better assignment. At the time, Chauncey was in great need of someone to command a flotilla of nine ships that were under construction on the shores of Lake Erie. Perry gladly took the job.
The Battle of Lake Erie
In 1813, Perry’s skills as a commander would be tested in what is now known as the Battle of Lake Erie. On Sept. 10, Perry saw a fleet of six British ships over the horizon. Knowing that the British ships were better armed for long range and his vessels for short range, Perry advanced his fleet.Perry’s flagship Lawrence was named after his good friend Capt. James Lawrence. The Lawrence took heavy fire, forcing Perry to flee the ship for the Niagara, which was part of the flotilla. But before he left the battered vessel, he brought with him his personal battle flag with the words, “Don’t Give Up the Ship.” These were Capt. Lawrence’s famous last words; he had died confronting a British ship off Boston harbor during the war.
In the end, the British surrendered after losing 40 men and having 94 wounded. Perry sent a letter to Gen. William Henry Harrison saying, “We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop.”
His victory would then lead to the United States securing its territory around the Great Lakes. For his achievement, Perry was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal and the Thanks of Congress, a formal series of resolutions to thank leaders for war victories.
Perry would continue commanding Navy ships until 1819 when he died of yellow fever after a trip to Venezuela.
