USS Somers (1812)

History
United States
Name:	USS Somers
Acquired:	Purchased for $5,500 in 1812
Fate:	Captured by the British, 12 August 1814
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Somers
Acquired:	Captured 12 August 1814
General characteristics
Type:	Schooner
Propulsion:	Sail

USS Somers was a schooner, formerly Catherine, purchased by the United States Navy in 1812. She was purchased for $5,500 from Jacob Townsend, a pioneer and one of the first settlers of Lewiston, New York and purveyor of goods on the Great Lakes. She fought in the War of 1812 under the command of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry on Lake Erie and Lake Huron, and took part in the capture of the British Squadron on 10 September 1813. She was captured by the British in 1814, and taken into service as HMS Somers.

When purchased, she was penned up in the Niagara River during the spring of 1813 by powerful British batteries which commanded the river from its Canadian bank at Fort Erie.

Late in May, an American joint Army-Navy operation captured Fort George. This victory enabled Perry to get Somers, the brig Caledonia, and three other schooners out from the Niagara to the open waters of Lake Erie. The American ships proceeded along the southern shore of the lake to Presque Isle, where Perry had been constructing more powerful warships, brigs Lawrence and Niagara.

However, the draft of the new American vessels was too great for them to sail easily across the bar off Presque Isle to Lake Erie. Perry's problem was further complicated by the fact that the British fleet, under Commodore Robert Heriot Barclay, cruised off the American base, ready to attack any United States ship which attempted to emerge. Of course, the bar, which prevented the Americans from getting out, also kept Barclay's fleet from entering the harbor to destroy Perry's squadron.

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