HMS ''Sir Isaac Brock'' was a warship which was destroyed before being completed at
York
York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
,
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...
during the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...
. The ship was named after the famed hero of the war, Major General Sir
Isaac Brock.
History
At the end of 1812, the British learned that the Americans were building warships at
Sackett's Harbor, New York, and
laid down two
sloops of war in response. Construction of ''Sir Isaac Brock'' began at York.
The new ship was a
sister ship
A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...
to , which was constructed at
Kingston. Although construction on both ships began around the same time, as the end of April 1813 approached, ''Wolfe'' was very nearly ready to be
launched while ''Sir Isaac Brock'' was still many weeks away from being complete. She had been partially planked on her starboard side but was not even close to that far along on her port side. Most of the responsibility for the delay in readiness could be laid on the shoulders of shipyard Superintendent,
Thomas Plucknett.
The ship had a registered weight of 637 tons, and was rated as having 24 guns. In fact, the rating system often omitted
carronade
A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the last quarter of the 18th century to the mid-19th cen ...
s, and ''Sir Isaac Brock'' would have had 30 guns or even more in service. (''Wolfe'' was completed with a medley of whatever guns were available).
Late in the afternoon 26 April 1813, the American flotilla was sighted off York, with a strong embarked force of infantry and artillerymen. The next day, the
Battle of York was fought. The outnumbered British regulars and militia were forced to fall back. The
Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, Major General
Roger Hale Sheaffe, ordered his regulars to retreat to Kingston, but also dispatched Captain Francis Tito LeLièvre (1794-1830) of the
Royal Newfoundland Regiment to set fire to ''Sir Isaac Brock'' to prevent her falling intact into enemy hands. LeLièvre may have been assisted in this task by Thomas Plucknett,
[Malcomson, ''Capital in Flames'', p. 225] as shipyard superintendent was the man most responsible for ''Sir Isaac Brock'' being in her partially built condition.
The Americans were enraged to find that the ship had apparently been set ablaze while negotiations for surrender with the local militia were still taking place. When eventually, a surrender was arranged, ''Sir Isaac Brock'' had been reduced to charred timbers.
See also
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Engagements on Lake Ontario
Notes
References
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External links
List of Vessels Employed on British Naval Service on the Great Lakes, 1755-1875*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sir Isaac Brock, HMS
War of 1812 ships of the United Kingdom
Great Lakes ships
War of 1812 ships of Canada
Ships built in Toronto
Provincial Marine
Maritime incidents in 1813