Lion in the Bay by Chipp Reid

Author:Chipp Reid
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612512372
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2015-09-20T16:00:00+00:00

Joshua Barney held a unique position. As a captain in the U.S. Flotilla Service he received the same pay and held the same authority as a captain in the U.S. Navy, but he and his command were outside the normal Navy chain of command. Barney reported directly to Secretary of the Navy Jones, and his command was separate from, but equal to, the Navy squadrons in Norfolk and Baltimore.20 The flotilla was an amalgam of vessels. The flagship was the block sloop Scorpion, which, along with Barney’s second-largest ship, the schooner Asp, had once been part of the Potomac Flotilla. The Asp needed overhaul and had yet to join Barney’s force. Barney had two U.S. Navy gunboats, No. 137 and No. 138, which he stripped of armament and used primarily as supply vessels. The flotilla also included the Vigilant, a 45-foot “barge” built in Baltimore. Barney acquired a small pilot boat that he named Lookout Boat for use as a messenger boat and twelve galleys, or “barges,” built in Baltimore and St. Michaels.

Barney spent all winter recruiting for and fitting out his flotilla, with varying levels of success. Shipwrights turned out two types of barges—a 75-foot-long galley Barney dubbed a “first-rate” and the 50-foot-long “second-rates.” Arming the barges, however, was more difficult than expected because shortages plagued Barney. “I have been severely disappointed in the delivery of the guns (light 18-pounders),” he wrote to Secretary Jones on April 4, 1813.21 As for the heavier ordnance, Barney quickly realized that 24-pounder long guns and 42-pounder carronades were too heavy for his barges. He received a shipment of 18-pounder long guns and 32-pounder carronades, but those proved too heavy for the second-rate barges, and Barney eventually swapped the 18-pounders for 12-pounders.22

The commander of the Chesapeake Flotilla actually had more boats than he could man. With shipyards in Baltimore, Washington, and St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore churning out barges, Barney had twenty-six vessels in Baltimore by spring. He was able to man barely half of them. Competition for manpower remained intense. The Army and Navy were both recruiting in Baltimore. The Navy was building two new sloops of war, the Ontario and the Erie, and had plans to begin construction of a 44-gun frigate, the Java. The Army was looking to augment its strength by recruiting “Sea Fencibles,” a home defense force for ports. The Army had recruited two companies in Baltimore who were to serve under Maj. George Armistead, commander at Fort McHenry. John Gill, commander of one of the two companies, approached Barney with the idea of transferring his 104-man unit to the flotilla. Barney liked the idea but told Gill to forward his request directly to Jones. The transfer died when Barney’s political rival, Samuel Smith, exerted pressure on both Jones and Secretary of War Armstrong to keep the Fencibles out of the flotilla.23

Barney’s efforts to recruit on the Eastern Shore also ran into political problems of a different sort. Local elections were due in October, and politicians from both parties were loath to see potential voters leave.

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