Amherstburg Royal Naval Dockyard was a

Provincial Marine Provincial Marine was a coastal protection service in charge of the waters in the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River and parts of Lake Champlain under British control. While ships of the Provincial Marine were designated HMS, they were ...

and then a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

yard from 1796 to 1813 in Amherstburg, Ontario, situated on the

Detroit River The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively referred to as Detro ...

. The yard comprised blockhouses, storehouses, magazine, wood yard and wharf. The yard was established in 1796 to support the

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of 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 th ...

Provincial Marine after Great Britain ceded a pre-existing shipyard on the Detroit River to the United States. Amherstburg Royal Naval Dockyard constructed four warships for the

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...

detachment of the Provincial Marine before and during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

. In 1813 the dockyard was abandoned and destroyed when the British retreated and never reopened. In 1928, the site was designated a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...

History

In 1796,

Fort Amherstburg Fort Amherstburg was built by the Royal Canadian Volunteers at the mouth of the Detroit River to replace Fort Detroit, which Britain was required to cede to the United States of America in 1796 as a result of the Jay Treaty. Built in the years ...

was chosen as the site of a new dockyard for the construction of

vessels after the former site at

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

was ceded to the United States. It was the only British naval base west of Kingston and located on the

, with easy access to Lake Erie and Lake Huron. The dockyard comprised a large storehouse, two blockhouses, a timber yard with a saw pit, and a

wharf A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...

. The blockhouses flanked the yard, with Fort Amherstburg and the town of Amherstburg on either side, with the dockyard overlooking the channel which ran between it and Bois Blanc Island. The dockyard was further protected by defences constructed on the island which watched over the entrances to both ends of the channel. The establishment of the dockyard was directly linked with the growth of the town of Amherstburg, with many inhabitants working at the dockyard.

List of ships constructed at yard

* ''General Hope'' – schooner * ''Earl of Camden'' – schooner * – brig 1807 * – brig 1809 * – 1810 ship-sloop * – schooner 1812 * 2nd – 1813 ship-sloop

War of 1812

During the War of 1812, the yard was the base of operations for first the Provincial Marine's operations on Lake Erie and Lake Huron and later the

's. However, due to the yard's location at the far end of Lake Erie, supplies for the yard had to be shipped across the lake from Fort George and overland from

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

or shipped to

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

and Burlington Heights, transported overland to Long Point before being transported on the lake again to the shipyard. In May 1813, the Royal Navy took command of all Provincial Marine forces and establishments on Lake Erie. With the construction of superior American ships in 1813, Commander

Robert Heriot Barclay Robert Heriot Barclay (18 September 1786 – 8 May 1837) was a British naval officer who was engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, and its North American counterpart, the War of 1812. Life He was born in Cupar, Fife, Scotland, the son of the Rev. P ...

, the Royal Navy commander of the Lake Erie squadron in 1813, sought to defeat the Americans before they could cut off his supply lines. The

Battle of Lake Erie The Battle of Lake Erie, sometimes called the Battle of Put-in-Bay, was fought on 10 September 1813, on Lake Erie off the shore of Ohio during the War of 1812. Nine vessels of the United States Navy defeated and captured six vessels of the Briti ...

, saw the effort fail and the entire British squadron was captured. With the American control of the lake, the British land forces were forced to retreat to Burlington Heights in order to be supplied. The yard was burned and abandoned in September 1813 after the Battle of Lake Erie. In 1814 a new yard was established at

Penetanguishene Naval Yard Penetanguishene Naval Yard was a Royal Navy yard from 1834 to 1856 in Ontario. Land was first acquired in 1798 near Penetanguishene and a base finally built in 1813, but it was abandoned in 1815 at the end of the War of 1812. It was reinstated ...

National historic site

The site of the yard was designated a

in 1928. The site is marked by a four-sided monument featuring four brass plaques detailing the site's historic significance, located in a municipal park.

Notes

References

* * * * * * *

External links

Canadian Historical Naval Ships and Yards

{{Royal Navy shore establishments Military of Canada Royal Navy bases in Canada Royal Navy dockyards in Canada History of the Royal Navy National Historic Sites in Ontario Designated heritage properties in Ontario Military history of the Great Lakes