Warriors and Warships | Sample Chapter

ROBERT D. BANKS

Conflict on the Great Lakes and the Legacy of Point Frederick WARRIORS WARSHIPS

AND

Dear Reader,

Point Frederick is a small peninsula that faces Kingston, Ontario, where the campus of the Royal Military College is located.

The historic significance of Point Frederick derives from the War of 1812. Here, the Royal Navy built warships for service on Lake Ontario. Buoyed by French-Canadians shipwrights, who filled shortages and constructed great warships, the British took control of the lake in 1814. The U.S. army began their withdrawal when they learned that their navy had lost control of the lake.

During my research, I soon uncovered much more. There was evidence of a rich Indigenous presence that spanned 2500 years. Champlain himself may have visited the site. French captains, attempting escape from burning Fort Frontenac, grounded their vessel here. The Haudenosaunee staged their attacks here, when at war with the French, as did the French, when at war with the British.

I learned of an early navy, the Provincial Marine, and also the Royal Navy. I learned how many oxen it takes to move a 100-foot pine mast. I discovered the thousands who came during the war, and how many of them died, cared for by hospital nurses. There was brilliance, drunkenness, generosity, cruelty, floggings, dancing, skating and murder.

And rumors of graveyards: one, two, or three? I hope you enjoy it,

Robert D. Banks

WARRIORS AND WARSHIPS

CONFLICT ON THE GREAT LAKES AND THE LEGACY OF POINT FREDERICK Robert D. Banks

The untold story of Point Frederick, where early nineteenth-century Canadians built warships that stopped invasion and brought peace.

Publication: CANADA January 24, 2023  | U.S. February 21, 2023

FORMAT

7 in (W) 9.25 in (H) 344 pages

Hardback 978-1-4597-5077-7 Can $59.99 US $59.99 £39.99

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EPUB 978-1-4597-5067-8 Can $9.99 US $9.99 £6.99

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 A local military history title focusing on Point Frederick, a historic military site located on a peninsula at the mouth of the Cataraqui River in Kingston, Ontario

 Covers the history beginning with European settlement and focusing on the use of site as the major British naval base on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812

 The buildings at Point Frederick continue to be used by Royal Military College and are designated a national historic site of Canada

 Gorgeous full-colour hardcover edition with over 100 photographs and maps

 Author is a retired CAF pilot who has done extensive research into the history; this is his first book

BISAC

HIS027160 – HISTORY / Military / Canada

HIS006010 – HISTORY / Canada / Pre-Confederation (to 1867)

HIS027150 – HISTORY Military Naval

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Banks graduated from Royal Military College (RMC) in 1974, and went on to become a military pilot, flight surgeon, NASA consultant, and author of scientific papers. His published articles include histories of air force and naval squadrons, WWII, and historic buildings of RMC. He splits his time between Barrie, Ontario, and San Antonio, Texas.

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Warriors and Warships  brings to life a much-neglected part of Canada’s military history, covering the warships and the people who built them at Point Frederick from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. Opposite Kingston, Point Frederick was the 1789 dockyard home of the Provincial Marine on Lake Ontario and the headquarters of Britain’s Royal Navy from 1813 to 1853. Today, it is the home of the Royal Military College of Canada.

In this detailed narrative, with over one hundred colour archival maps, aerial views, photographs, and 3D reconstructions, Robert Banks recounts Point Frederick’s building of great sail and steam warships and the roles these vessels played in conflict on Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, and Niagara, including the War of 1812, when French Canadian and British shipwrights made warships that forced the U.S. Navy into port and led to the American withdrawal from Canada. Banks also covers the role of the ships in the settlement of Upper Canada, the rebellion of 1837, the early planning of the Rideau Canal, and the beginning of the undefended border.

Along the way, Banks introduces an array of people from Upper Canada, such as Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe and his wife, Elizabeth Posthuma; Governor General Lord Dorchester; General Isaac Brock; Sir James Yeo, and even Charles Dickens. He also describes the day-to-day activities at Point Frederick, beyond shipbuilding and military campaigns, such as skating parties, sleigh rides, theatricals, disease and death, and crime and punishment.

Banks shares the moments of hardship, triumph, and tragedy of both the warriors and the warships in this important contribution to Canadian history.

For more information, contact publicity@dundurn.com

Orders in Canada: UTP Distribution 1-800-565-9523

Orders in the US: Ingram Publisher Services 1-866-400-5351 dundurn.com @dundurnpress

INTRODUCTION

p oint f rederick is loc A ted ne A r k ingston, o nt A rio. i t c A n be seen from Fort Henry, an old fort and popular tourist attraction known for its history and views of Kingston and Lake Ontario. Point Frederick is the home of the Royal Military College (RMC), where officers are trained to serve in Canada’s army, navy, and air force. The view from Fort Henry has changed over the years as Navy Bay, which separates Point Frederick and Fort Henry, has been filled in to create sports fields for the cadets. The calm cam pus atmosphere and mix of classroom, dormitory, and sports buildings belie evidence in the ground and along the shores of past events that profoundly influenced the course of Canadian history.

During the War of 1812, Point Frederick was the site of a Royal Navy dockyard where warships were built. The location was strategically placed on Lake Ontario at the outlet where its waters flow into the St. Lawrence River. More of a peninsula than a point, the name first applied to a ragged hook of forested land of about 100 acres. Today, it is separated from the City of Kingston by the Cataraqui River, so named by Indigenous peoples before the arrival of Europeans.

Although Point Frederick is generally associated with the War of 1812, a conflict lasting only 30 months, the principal activity of shipbuilding spanned 50 years. Its association with Canadian history both precedes and follows the war. The choice of Point Frederick as a dockyard location was not easily made but was fortunate. When first considered during the

WARRIORS AND WARSHIPS

Revolutionary War, Kingston and Point Frederick were rejected, because the harbour was considered too shallow and the ground undefendable. When examined again, Point Frederick was thought acceptable, but another site was preferred. When a dockyard was finally ordered to be established at Point Frederick, controversy developed and vigorous arguments against Point Frederick were presented regularly for 20 years. Toronto, or York, was considered the best choice, because it was thought that Kingston could not be defended.

Soon before the onset of the War of 1812, a decision was made by Governor-in-Chief of British North America George Prévost to transfer the Kingston Royal Dockyard to York. The move would be gradual, but ship wrights were soon transferred to York. The plan was ruined by the American attack on York on April 28, 1813. The York defences were weak. The town was pillaged, government buildings burned, a vessel on the stocks destroyed, and some of the shipwrights killed or captured. York’s weak defences may have invited the second assault that occurred later in the year. Although targeted constantly by the Americans during the war, Kingston was not attacked.

From its earliest days, the Point Frederick dockyard built vessels that provided transport services on Lake Ontario for military troops, settlers, and commerce. With poor roads and few merchant vessels on the lake, the service was essential to the early development of Ontario and Canada. Some of the sailors and officers had served in the French navy before the conquest and contributed a rich legacy of sailing skill specific to Lake Ontario.

The Royal Navy came to Lake Ontario in 1813 and assumed control from the Provincial Marine, a small lake fleet under the command of the army. It was evident that the Americans planned to invade Canada. To succeed, they needed naval control of Lake Ontario. Denying the Americans control of the lake was a crucial mission of the Royal Navy. It was understood that control of the lake would go to the side that had the greatest firepower.

Both sides began a vigorous shipbuilding program. The Americans had the advantage, since they could find skilled manpower relatively close on the East Coast. The British had more difficulty, since their shipwrights were thousands of miles away. As the ships increased in size and number, more highly skilled shipwrights were required. Critically short at Point Frederick, the building program was saved by the arrival of shipwrights from Lower Canada who had been trained in the Quebec shipyards.

Launching the new, more powerful ships required deep water. This was not a problem at Point Frederick, although other harbours on the north shore were too shallow. The cove at Sackets Harbor, the site of the U.S. Navy dock yard, was also too shallow. Delayed by this problem and lacking authority to build, the U.S. Navy lost ground in the shipbuilding race. Meanwhile, Royal Navy shipwrights, working side by side with Quebec shipwrights in all weath er and without shelter, pulled ahead. After a year of building, on October 16, 1814, the British took control of Lake Ontario with HMS St. Lawrence, 112 guns; HMS Prince Regent, 56 guns; and HMS Princess Charlotte, 42 guns. This ended any chance of an invasion of Upper Canada by the two large U.S. armies near Niagara, and no shots were fired.

After the peace, but anticipating a return to war, the British preserved and kept the Point Frederick warships ready for combat. They also continued build ing. While naval vessels sailed peacefully on Lake Ontario, the American government suggested a plan to remove all warships on both sides from the Great Lakes, which Britain agreed to. Still concerned about a future conflict, however, the British maintained the naval fleet at Point Frederick. During this interval, construction was underway on the Rideau Canal, a feature that would allow the Royal Navy quick access to Lake Ontario in the event of another war.

The strategic success of the canal led to the sharp decline of the Point Frederick dockyard. A standing navy on Lake Ontario was no longer needed, although fears of rebellion led to the return of the Royal Navy in 1838. Royal Marines were called into action soon after, taking casualties. This prompted a Royal Navy gunboat presence on Lakes Ontario and Erie for a few more years. But the promise of demilitarization with the United States was kept, and there was no need for a standing naval force. Warships disappeared from the Great Lakes. The Rideau Canal was utilized for commerce and pleasure boating. The demilitarized border, a direct result of the bloodless Royal Navy victory on Lake Ontario in 1814, led to peace. This remains perpetuated along the world’s longest undefended border.

The dockyard was closed for many years until the British Admiralty ceded the Point Frederick naval property to the Dominion of Canada in 1870. Since 1876, Point Frederick has been the home of the RMC. In anticipation of the college’s opening, most of the old Royal Navy buildings were pulled down, the grounds were beautified, and trees were eventually planted. Several of the old stone buildings were preserved, most built after the War of 1812.

One of the buildings that has survived is the Stone Frigate, a limestone storehouse erected following the War of 1812 to hold naval stores. During the interior renovation done prior to the opening of the RMC, it was gutted again and a new interior built. At first the Stone Frigate housed the entire college, until an education building was constructed. The old blacksmith structure, built in stone in 1815, became the gymnasium.

From this modest beginning, the RMC has grown into a world-class in stitution respected around the globe. The success of the college is often told through the accomplishments of its graduates. Aside from military achieve ments, graduates populate the professions, excelling in most fields, including business, politics, science, academia, engineering, law, medicine, and sports.

The history of the RMC has been told in two books by historian Richard A. Preston. The first is Canada’s RMC: A History of the Royal Military College. 1 The second extends the history to 1991 and is titled To Serve Canada: A History of the Royal Military College Since the Second World War. 2

Preston’s first history begins with Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie’s visit to Fort Henry in June 1874. The prime minister and another officer presented themselves to the sentry, who did not recognize him and would not allow him inside. Word was sent for Major D.T. Irwin, the commanding officer in Kingston. As Irwin rode up Fort Henry hill to meet his guests, he consoled “himself that any unfortunate delay could be attributed to the lack of forewarning.”

According to Preston’s account,

Mackenzie proved to be “most agreeable” despite the in convenience caused by the delay. He proceeded to look over the fort and also inspect the buildings on Point Frederick, the next peninsula to the west between Point Henry and Kingston, which had at one time been the site of a royal dock yard. Mackenzie already knew something about the buildings on Point Frederick because he had worked as a stone mason on the construction of the Kingston martello towers soon after he had arrived from Scotland as an immigrant.3 AND WARSHIPS

Irwin rode up to Fort Henry where he found that his unex pected guest was indeed the Prime Minister, the Honourable Alexander Mackenzie.

In his book, Preston remarks that the visit of the prime minister “was in fact the first constructive step and a significant development for Canada, the establishment of a military college to educate and train officers.”

While writers and historians have written short accounts of historical events of early Point Frederick before the RMC, the complete story has not been told. This book aims to put the pieces together and complete the nar rative of Point Frederick. Preston’s account of its history begins where this one ends.

This story starts more than two centuries before the beginning of the RMC in a Wendat canoe returning from battle with the Haudenosaunee and carrying the first European casualty of war on Lake Ontario.

POINTE MONTRÉAL

t he e A st of lA ke o nt A rio w A s first described by sA muel de Champlain after he passed “five very large islands” while crossing “at one end, that pointing eastward.”1 It was the fall of 1615, and he was travelling in a light birchbark canoe with Wendat people heading for a rendezvous with the enemy. About three weeks later, they returned from the south shore of the lake after a deadly battle with the Haudenosaunee. The injured Champlain had to be carried. He was taken from an island, along a river, and then con veyed overland by a trail until they arrived at a lake where they remained for a period. The lake was probably Loughborough,2 north of Kingston. The river may have been the Cataraqui.3 If so, Champlain was an early visitor to the Kingston area and could have rested with his men and the Wendat on the very peninsula later named Point Frederick.

Champlain’s writing is vague in detail about this part of the journey, perhaps because of his injuries. But he did manage to observe and describe the method used by Wendat hunters to corral and harvest deer on a substantial scale. According to Champlain, one technique involved 400 to 500 hunters placing themselves in a line near the base of a peninsula. Armed with bows and arrows, they marched together into the bush, making noise and driving deer forward and along the peninsula toward its end. Their purpose was to force the deer into the water or against the fences built to funnel them into enclosures where they could be killed. Any deer escaping into the water were taken by hunters in canoes.4

WARRIORS AND WARSHIPS

The forested Point Frederick was ideal for this kind of hunting, since it was long and narrow with water on three sides. Midway along the peninsula, the ground sloped into a narrowing depression pinched by two small inlets and joined by swampy ground. This depression, with an upslope on the other side, formed a natural wet hollow that could be used to crowd and congest the frightened deer.

A few years ago, archaeologists discovered evidence of a line of posts across the downslope, just above the hollow between the inlets, now filled. The posts were deliberately placed, some having pointed bottoms. The line of posts, probably a surviving section of a larger fence, was six and a half feet long and centred on the peninsula, an ideal place to trap deer within the hollow. This find, and Champlain’s description of Indigenous hunting, helped explain the dispersed pattern of recovered arrowheads, scattered perhaps because of wounded deer escaping and dying elsewhere. Other arrowheads were found in a concentrated pattern, suggesting a lo cation employed to collect and manufacture the stone points. This system of hunting was known to be practised in the autumn, the time of Champlain’s trip. 5

The line of posts was close to another discovery — an archaeological feature uphill on a bedrock outcropping that once overlooked the shore of the east inlet. The feature was identified as a fishing and hunting camp used periodically and perhaps seasonally for many years by Indigenous peoples. It was most active between 1100 and 950 BCE and between 800 and 1650 CE. Clues to the presence of people were found elsewhere along the peninsula, usually near the east shorelines. This suggested activities along the Navy Bay shorelines remote from the heavier traffic on the Cataraqui River on the other side of the peninsula. Any camps along the Navy Bay shore, especially within the small inlet, would have been sheltered from travellers on the Cataraqui River, yet a conveniently short distance to the river.6 The Wendat accompanying Champlain would have known about this site. It may have been there that Champlain witnessed the hunt.

The first suggestion of the Point Frederick peninsula comes from the founding of Fort Frontenac. By that time, epidemics of disease carried to North America by Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, had spread throughout First Nation communities, reducing the populations by more than half. As well, Haudenosaunee raids had destroyed the Wendat community

and contributed to a near depopulation of today’s Southern Ontario.7 When Louis de Buade, comte de Frontenac, or Count Frontenac, the governor general of New France, arrived at Cataraqui in 1673, representatives from Haudenosaunee settlements on the north shore of Lake Ontario met with him.

Frontenac had led a party of soldiers in canoes up the St. Lawrence River to Lake Ontario, arriving on July 12. They met with Jesuit missionaries and the Haudenosaunee on the lake before entering the Cataraqui River. In addition to his many activities that day, Frontenac assessed the quality of the ground and defensibility of the river mouth before selecting the site for a fort. He “re-embarked in a canoe to explore both sides of the entrance to the river and some points which jut out into the lake, so he did not return until eight o’clock in the evening …”8 After addressing the assembled French and Indigenous people the next day, Frontenac had his soldiers raise the first wooden palisades of the new fort.

Upon his return to Quebec, Frontenac arranged for his friend, RenéRobert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, to be granted the seigneurial ownership of Fort Cataraqui, afterward known as Fort Frontenac, by the French king, Louis XIV. The grant included much of the surrounding land. So, according to the French legal system, La Salle became an owner of Point Frederick, the traditional lands of the Algonquin-speaking Indigenous people and the Haudenosaunee Iroquoian speakers.

La Salle soon replaced the wooden palisade with stone walls, indicating permanence and a willingness to defend the post. He recruited a few families to occupy and farm his seigneurie. A Haudenosaunee village was established near the fort and remained in some form for many years. Sailing vessels on Lake Ontario began with Sieur de La Salle, who built the Frontenac in the fall of 1678 near Fort Frontenac.9 Although the land around Fort Frontenac was cleared, there are no records to suggest any development or clearing of Point Frederick. Archaeologists have discovered buried foundations of a building on Point Frederick that are aligned with the orientation of those at Fort Frontenac, raising the tantalizing possibility that a French building did exist.10 But so far the thought remains conjecture. Historian Richard Preston asserted that the French quarried stone on Point Frederick.11

The first map that convincingly shows the existence of Point Frederick is from 1682 (see Fig. 1.1). The landscape depictions are inaccurate but

Fig. 1.1:

The earliest convincing map of Point Frederick, circa 1682, nine years after the founding of Fort Frontenac. Features and modern context: (1) Point Frederick peninsula; (2) Navy Bay; (3) Kingston Inlet; (4) Haudenosaunee village; (5) Fort Frontenac; and (6) Kingston Harbour. Point Frederick is mostly forested. Compass label added to detail of map.

recognizable. Along the west shoreline of Point Frederick is a small indenta tion, marked by number 3 in Fig. 1.1, which corresponds to Kingston Inlet. This map is one of the first to use the name “Pointe de Montréal” to refer to Point Frederick, which is shown to be forested and have meadows. The awkward positioning of Cedar Island suggests confusion with Point Henry.

The early maps appear remarkably inaccurate, even when allowing for the primitive survey instruments of the time. Some inaccuracies, whether those in Fig. 1.1 or others, may be explained by changes in water levels that altered shorelines. Seasonal water-level fluctuations are normal on lakes in Canada, with springtime high water due to snowmelt adding to rainfall. But there may have been longer-term trends. Early observers noted great variations in the level of Lake Ontario, some believing they followed a seven-year cycle. Settlers cor rectly predicted the water level in 1795.12 Lieutenant James Richardson, with long experience on Lake Ontario, recalled that the water level rose five feet after 1815.13 According to the writer and traveller John Howison in 1816, the water level was seven and a half feet above average, and Lake Erie was similarly affected.14 John Clark described the waters of the lake being three and a half feet lower in 1842 than 1838. By 1848, the water was down five feet.15

Changes in water levels of this order would have altered the appear ance of shorelines. In the case of Point Frederick, with low elevations and swampy areas, rising waters would have submerged parts of the peninsula and created one or two islands. Water at the two inlets rising above the low ground would have created a small strait, making the south part of Point Frederick an island. Rising waters in Navy Bay could have submerged low ground at the head of the bay and opened a channel to the Cataraqui River to form a second island. Fluctuating water levels also submerged or exposed the Navy Bay sandspit, resulting in its depiction in some maps and images but not others.

Rising lake water might also explain confusing historical accounts of islands near Fort Frontenac. Normally, the closest island is Belle Island, which is low and swampy and more than one-third of a mile north on the Cataraqui River. The next is Cedar Island, one and a quarter miles away on the opposite side of Point Frederick.

An example of such confusion is the narrative of Father Jean de Lamberville, a missionary. In 1687, he described a nearby island while escap ing in a French vessel from Kingston Harbour.16 Another report mentions the “narrow channel between Point Henry and Ile Royale, as the French called it — the tongue of land, then an island, on which the Royal Military College buildings now stand.”17

With the evidence of the long but periodic presence of Indigenous peoples on Point Frederick prior to European contact, there is no reason that hunting and fishing camps ended with the founding of Fort Frontenac. Given its prox imity to the fort, temporary habitation by traders, soldiers, and Indigenous peoples can be assumed if not documented. By 1686, French governors were beginning to use Fort Frontenac as a rallying point for massing troops. In 1686 and 1687, Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville, the governor general of New France, camped up to 2,000 troops at Fort Frontenac, 18 no doubt straining local resources. If Point Frederick was not used as an overflow area, it was likely frequented for hunting, fishing, or collection of firewood.

Denonville’s aggressive attitude toward Indigenous nations included his own allies. A historic betrayal of the Haudenosaunee, which involved imprisonment and transportation of some to slave ships in France,19 led to war. A far-ranging conflict soon engulfed not only Fort Frontenac and Fort Niagara but also rural Quebec, Montreal, and Lachine.

WARRIORS AND WARSHIPS

During a siege in the summer of 1687, starvation was reported at Fort Niagara and supplies were desperately needed. To make the delivery from Fort Frontenac, the French had to run a Haudenosaunee blockade of the har bour. The Haudenosaunee were armed with traditional weapons and firearms and travelled in canoes. Their proclivity for torture was known and widely feared.

Father Lamberville, the chaplain of the crew, left a description of what occurred. He described loading the needed supplies into a barque in plain sight of the Haudenosaunee. When a light northeast breeze came up, he joined the crew of 12 on board the vessel. The subsequent events have been characterized as the first naval engagement on Lake Ontario. Lamberville recounted his passage out of Kingston Harbour. What follows are a few select passages:

At first we had quite a good wind which helped us out of the harbour.…

Hardly had we doubled the nearest point than an Iroquois in ambush fired at us…. They had come together in such great numbers to take part in the festival, that the narrow passage through which we must pass to go into the lake seemed to us to be all covered with canoes….

First … two Iroquois … came out from the woods on to the beach; these were followed immediately by sev eral others who carried their canoes to the water where they hastily embarked to cut off our route, and to reach a little island which they well knew the bark must pass … a large number of canoes in which there were for the most part seventeen Iroquois musketeers, standing up, paddled hard to come to surround us, whilst others went along the shore to stop us from getting to the woods in the event that we were beaten. A large number of men, women, and even children ran on the land on both sides of the passage, to have the diversion, it seems, of seeing us captured….

We tested their first fury, lying on the deck, and more than 800 balls skimmed over in no time….

One party withdrew to the little island,20 which we had to pass, to disembark their wounded and to repair their ca noes damaged by our small artillery.

The Iroquois, however, were not discouraged … seeing us without wind, and almost aground on a reef,21 shouted that we were in their power….

We soon felt … a little wind which arose and which gently made us pass beyond the little isle….

This was the last attempt of the enemy who did not wish to follow us into the lake for fear of being surprised by a wind, or perishing in the water when they were far from land.22

In 1689, with the war still raging and Denonville in a panic, the withdrawal and destruction of Fort Frontenac was ordered. Denonville sent a command to “get ready to abandon the fort at Catarokouy and withdraw all from it as best you can” and advised them “to be careful when leaving Catarokouy to avoid the point of land called Montreal behind which I believe the enemy has gone in order to await you there.”23,24 Fort Frontenac was aban doned for several years but then reoccupied and rebuilt in 1695.

Aside from the Frontenac, which was soon lost on Lake Ontario, La Salle constructed three more vessels. Any surviving ships were likely lost when Fort Frontenac was abandoned.25 The harbour was well suited for assembling small vessels. According to a noted traveller who visited in 1720, the “Bay of Cataraqui is double; that is to say, that almost in the middle of it there is a point that runs out a great way, under which there is good anchorage for large barks.”26 After the return of the French, ships were again built, and by 1726, at least two schooners had been constructed at Fort Frontenac. Two more were built in 1743 and 1745, and the fort became a transshipment centre for the fur trade. By 1756, there was a fleet of four armed vessels commanded by Captain René-Hippolyte Laforce. His flagship was the 20-gun Marquis de Vaudreuil . He and his crew were involved in the fur trade but also acted as a naval unit moving troops and supplies.

René Laforce was a truly remarkable man. He was a soldier, sailor, ship wright, carpenter, mapmaker, surveyor, engineer, and commander, excelling at all. The accounts of his involvement in historic events reads like a

Fig. 1.2: This labelled map detail is attributed to Pierre Pouchot and dated 1755 or 1756. The features contain (1) Point Frederick; (2) Fort Frontenac; and (3) Navy Bay. In this depiction, “Pointe de Montreal” is wooded except for the suggestion of a clearing on south Point Frederick. The handwritten notes appear to be plans for a defensive work on Point Frederick. AND WARSHIPS

novel. Born in 1728 in La Prairie, Quebec, he spent much of his early life at Niagara. He received part of his education on Lake Ontario and in the surrounding forestlands, where he learned the culture and language of the Haudenosaunee. While his career started on Lake Ontario, he completed it by constructing vessels and the dockyard at Point Frederick.27

In the lead-up to the Seven Years War, which spilled into North America and led to the British conquest of Quebec, improvements were made to the French defences. Captain Pierre Pouchot, a French military engineer, journeyed to Fort Frontenac in 1755. There, he undoubtedly soon met Captain Laforce. Pouchot’s mission was to improve the defences of the fort and those at Niagara. Pouchot closely inspected Fort Frontenac, the surrounding area, and Point Frederick, then ordered improvements that included constructing “entrenchments around Fort Frontenac….”28

A detail of the map in Fig. 1.2 shows Fort Frontenac and Point Frederick, although the proportions are wildly inaccurate. The depiction of Point Frederick (Pointe de Montréal) shows clearing, an earthwork, and a possible barrier, perhaps an abatis meant to provide defence against an attack from the woods. Pouchot wrote in his memoir that he “very easily brought everything to favor his arrangement.”29 He does not indicate what work was done

on Point Frederick, but Charles de Plantavit, Chevalier de La Pause, visiting a year later, implied the presence of a redoubt that was not adequately built.30 It is clear that the site was considered important for defence.

The British established a maritime presence on Lake Ontario at Oswego in 1755 by building small vessels. 31 The French navy did not take it seriously at first. French general Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, who arrived at Quebec in 1756 to lead the defence of Canada, had another opinion. He promptly dispatched a different military engineer, La Pause, to Fort Frontenac to assess the defences of the fort and surrounding area.

La Pause identified the problems in a professional manner. In a devastating analysis that may have influenced Montcalm, he correctly predicted how it would be attacked and defeated. La Pause wrote of “the redoubt on Montreal Point” and considered it imperative to fortify. While he noted that it was not sufficient, 32 he stated that the redoubt “should have been large enough to hold a hundred men with cannon.” In his report, La Pause also described “a small bay only an eighth of a league in depth but protected from bad weather,” most likely Navy Bay but possibly Deadman Bay.33

With Montcalm also present at Fort Frontenac in 1756, he may have personally inspected the fortification and ordered the redoubt enlarged as La Pause had suggested. But Montcalm’s greater priority was his upcoming attack against the British at Oswego. He would have been less interested in shoring up an undefendable trading post than massing his 3,000 troops, boats, and ships for the attack across the lake. The staging areas probably included Point Frederick. The artillery batteries on the south tip of Point Frederick may have provided protection during loading of the troops. In charge of the French ships was Captain Laforce in the frigate Marquise de Vaudreuil . Captain Pierre de La Brocquerie was the commander of the other vessel, the Huron. 34

The attack on Oswego was a success. As well as protecting the army and putting the troops ashore, Laforce and La Brocquerie had fought the British and sunk a few of their small boats.35 The rest of the British vessels were captured or destroyed. The British naval presence was effectively removed on the lake for the moment.

Montcalm, or another senior officer, may have appreciated the poor qual ity of the French charts being used on the lake. Doubtlessly wanting to improve their charts in anticipation of the return of the British to the lake, both

Figs. 1.3A A nd 1.3B: Two maps, two opinions. Fig. 1.3A: The 1757 RenéHippolyte Laforce map of Cataraqui shows sounding depths, although not in Navy Bay. Fig. 1.3B: Pierre de La Brocquerie’s map of the same place, also from 1757, is similar but less stylized.

Laforce and La Brocquerie undertook surveys to produce accurate maps of the lake and harbours. They decided, or were otherwise directed, to produce their maps independently.

Laforce left Fort Frontenac and made his way to Quebec during the win ter of 1756–57. A measure of his personal dedication to completing the map at Quebec is indicated by the date of February 4, 1757.36 This was a little more than three weeks after his marriage to Madelaine. The map he completed at Quebec was the most accurate depiction of Lake Ontario yet. It included four small inset maps of key harbours. While stylized, each inset map contained important details, such as water depths of the harbours. One of the insets is

the first precise map of the Cataraqui River and Point Frederick, with the depths of the harbour shown (see Fig. 1.3A). Not shown are the depths of Navy Bay.

La Brocquerie’s map was completed at Fort Frontenac on October 4, 1757 (see Fig. 1.3B). This map was similar but not identical to Laforce’s (see Fig. 1.3A). La Brocquerie also reported water depths of the harbours. They are different in detail to those of Laforce. Unlike Laforce, La Brocquerie includ ed inset drawings of the vessels of the French and British fleets. These would have been helpful to captains attempting to identify other vessels on the lake as friend or foe.

Although the lake was by this time referred to as Lake Ontario, the French had other names for most Ontario places. In the Kingston area, Garden Island was “Île aux Cochons,” Wolfe Island was “Grand Île,” Deadman Bay was “Le Mariegeau,” and Point Frederick was “Pte du Moralle” (short for “Montreal”).37 Both captains were certainly very familiar with Point Frederick and Navy Bay, yet neither reported the depths.

Neither the maps nor the French naval control of Lake Ontario prevented the fall of Fort Frontenac. British Lieutenant-Colonel John Bradstreet crossed the end of the lake and arrived on August 25, 1758, landing about one mile to the west. His force included 80 bateaux with artillery, provisions, and ca noes for his 3,100 men, while Fort Frontenac was defended by just over 100 soldiers. Among them were the two mapmakers, Laforce and La Brocquerie. Scouts brought early warnings of the British force, and any lookouts on Pointe Montréal were pulled in.

Although the outcome was a foregone conclusion, the French offered re sistance. The British established an artillery battery about 500 yards west of the fort on the high ground. They began a bombardment that lasted until the surrender of the fort on the morning of August 28. Two of the French vessels at tempted to escape by running the harbour, but the wind was unfavourable, and after taking fire, they ran both vessels aground “on the island opposite to the fort and made off in their boats, as did the eight Indians who had been inside the fort.…” About 40 were on board the vessels.38 Laforce and La Brocquerie were the captains, and among those who made the dramatic escape. 39

Bradstreet ordered the destruction of Fort Frontenac. The British took all they could carry and destroyed the rest, leaving behind a desolate and deserted ruin. A small French force returned and occupied the site for a short

time. Laforce attempted to build two schooners to replace the ones lost, but those attempts were half-hearted and unsuccessful.40 The scattered cannons remained where they fell.

The French were not yet finished on Lake Ontario. They still held Niagara. Because the British lacked large vessels on the lake, the French were still technically in control with their fleet of three. Captain Laforce was now in charge of the Iroquoise.41 In June 1759, the British emerged from Oswego without large-vessel naval support. They were intent on attacking and capturing Niagara, the last French fort on the lake. The British flotilla was led by Brigadier-General John Prideaux. As they made their way along the shore, Laforce, nearly alone on the lake, missed finding the flotilla, and the British took Niagara.

The French navy withdrew to Fort Lévis, on the St. Lawrence River. Command of the fort devolved to Pouchot, who was determined to fight. Laforce anchored the Iroquoise and moved ashore to continue service as a sol dier for Pouchot. They spent the winter of 1759–60 preparing for a last-stand defence they knew was coming. An army of 11,000 under Major-General Jeffrey Amherst coasted the eastern Lake Ontario shorelines, descended the St. Lawrence, and appeared in front of Pouchot. The French offered a spirited defence, although brief. It was the last battle of the war. The French surren dered at Montreal at Place d’Armes on September 9, 1760. Britain now pos sessed French Canada by right of conquest. Pouchot and Laforce were taken as prisoners to New York.

The Iroquoise, the Outaouaise, and a vessel not yet completed were cap tured by the British. They were pressed into service and then used as trans ports on Lake Ontario,42 joining a small collection of vessels constructed at Oswego or Niagara to form the core of a British marine service on Lake Ontario. But with scant knowledge of Lake Ontario, the new British provin cial transport service would need the expertise of someone with real experience on the lake.

Someone like René-Hippolyte Laforce. WARSHIPS