96
Addendum NIAGARA TRIVIA…OR EVERYTHING YOU HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE BRIG !
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
Erie sailing master Daniel Dobbins, who initiated the construction of the fleet, was at the time of the battle en route from Erie to Put-in-Bay with a re-supply vessel. He and his crew were later awarded prize money along with the rest of the men. In the minutes before the battle, men spread sand over the decks, to keep the men from slipping and falling on the blood and gore in the heat of battle. Five cannonballs ripped through the walls of Surgeon’s Mate Usher Parsons hospital in the officers wardroom of Lawrence, re-injuring men who had already been bandaged. Perry’s first lieutenant, John Yarnell, looked grotesque: “His nose, perforated by a splinter, had swollen to twice its normal size. Blood from a scalp wound threatened to blind him, but Parsons bound it up with a bandana and Yarnell went back to the deck. At that point he walked into a cloud of cattail down, torn from a piles of hammocks by a cannonball. Wounded a third time, he came below once more for medical help, his bloody face covered with down, looking like a gigantic owl. … the men couldn’t help laughing.” (Pierre Berton, 59) Perry wore a plain blue jacket throughout the battle, so as to not draw attention to himself. This fact helps explain why he remained untouched. A pig got loose during the battle, had its hind legs shot off, and flailed about the deck, hungrily eating away at a pot of spilled peas. Aboard Detroit, a pet bear roamed the deck unhurt, licking the blood of the dead and dying. An obscure woman by the name of Sally McCommons ran a makeshift hospital on Presque Isle in the months following the battle, when the wounded returned to Erie. When President Thomas Jefferson decreased the size of the Navy in 1801, Oliver Hazard Perry was one of only 150 midshipmen retained. Whenever at sea, Perry’s cabin was said to shelve more books than that of any other officer afloat. On September 10, 1813, Perry saw an eagle following his flagship. Since the bird was the national symbol of the United States, Perry took its appearance as no accident, but as a good omen, fate’s way of telling him that victory lay ahead. Perry had a long history of good luck that was dubbed “Perry Luck.” On September 10th this “Perry Luck” was definitely apparent. On his original flagship, Lawrence, every officer on the brig was either killed or wounded, except Perry and his 13 year old brother, James Alexander. As Perry made his famous transfer from Lawrence to Niagara, he was again untouched by British fire.