American gun-boats, regularly officered and manned, and for such
smooth water sufficiently effective vessels.

What was at that time the western part of the northern frontier
became the main theatre of military operations, and as it presented
largely a water front, a naval force was an indispensable adjunct,
the command of the lakes being of the utmost importance. As these
lakes were fitted for the manoeuvring of ships of the largest size,
the operations upon them were of the same nature as those on the
ocean, and properly belong to naval and not to military history.
But while on the ocean America started with too few ships to enable
her really to do any serious harm to her antagonist, on the inland
waters the two sides began very nearly on an equality. The chief
regular forces either belligerent possessed were on Lake Ontario.
Here the United States had a man-of-war brig, the _Oneida_, of 240
tons, carrying 16 24-pound carronades, manned by experienced seamen,
and commanded by Lieutenant M. T. Woolsey. Great Britain possessed
the _Royal George_, 22, _Prince Regent_, 16, _Earl of Moira_, 14,
_Gloucester_, 10, _Seneca_, 8, and _Simco_, 8, all under the command
of a Commodore Earle; but though this force was so much the more
powerful it was very inefficient, not being considered as belonging
to the regular navy, the sailors being undisciplined, and the officers
totally without experience, never having been really trained in
the British service. From these causes it resulted that the struggle
on the lakes was to be a work as much of creating as of using a navy.
On the seaboard success came to those who made best use of the ships
that had already been built; on the lakes the real contest lay in
the building. And building an inland navy was no easy task. The
country around the lakes, especially on the south side, was still
very sparsely settled, and all the American naval supplies had to