Lords of the Lake: The Naval War on Lake Ontario, 1812-1814

Wesley B. Turner is an associate professor of history at Brock
University and the author of The War of 1812: The War That Both Sides
Won and The Military in the Niagara Peninsula.

As Donald Graves points out in the foreword, Lords of the Lake is the
“first major study devoted entirely to naval operations on Lake
Ontario in 1812–1814.” Malcomson fills a yawning gap in the
historiography of the War of 1812, and he does it with scholarship and
style. His book, which includes eight appendixes, a glossary, and 22
maps and charts, attempts “to provide a firm foundation upon which a
better understanding may be gained about how the conflict on Lake
Ontario evolved and affected the war in general.

The author’s research has taken him to archives in Canada, the United
States, and the United Kingdom, as well as to the U.S. brig Niagara at
Erie, Pennsylvania. It is not surprising that he is able to explain the
kind, number, and size of ordnance on board the ships; their maneuvers
during engagements; and why the same vessel might be designated a sloop,
brig, or schooner. What is most impressive is the clarity of his
explanations. The reader doesn’t need to have a naval background to
follow the story.

Malcomson very capably sets the wider context: the geography of Lake
Ontario and the Niagara River, communities along their shores, the
significance of the mobility of naval forces, and the development of
squadrons on both sides of the border. He is also adept at conveying
fine details relating to individual ships, commanding officers, and crew
members, and insignificant incidents that had no effect on the course of
the war but were part of each fleet’s experience. The difficulties of
cooperation between the navies and armies on both sides are also brought
out. Fortunately for Canada, the U.S. commander Isaac Chauncey was less
helpful to his army counterpart in 1814 than was the British commander
Sir James Yeo to Sir George Prevost.

Historians concerned with naval or military history will find this
book—which won the 1998 John Lyman Book Prize for “Best Work in
Canadian Naval and Maritime History”—worth reading, as will the
interested general reader.