[1] The Americans possessed only one brig, Oneida under Lieutenant Melancthon Taylor Woolsey, and a small navy yard at Sackets Harbor, New York.

To supplement Oneida, he first purchased or commandeered several trading vessels (including some captured Canadian schooners), but he also dispatched thousands of carpenters, shipwrights and so on to Sacket's Harbor to construct proper fighting ships.

[2] Chauncey hoisted his broad pendant aboard Oneida on 6 November and with his squadron, pursued the British ship Royal George into Kingston.

He and General Henry Dearborn, the commander-in-chief of the American armies in the north, had the opportunity to strike a blow before British seamen and officers from England could reach Canada and travel up the St. Lawrence River.

The British themselves set fire to the part-completed corvette HMS Sir Isaac Brock to prevent it falling into American hands.

The Americans followed up the retreating British towards Burlington Heights at the western end of the lake, with their lakeside flank covered by Chauncey, but were checked at the Battle of Stoney Creek.

While they were preoccupied at the western end of Lake Ontario, Commodore Yeo had arrived in Kingston, accompanied by 465 officers and seamen of the Royal Navy, to take charge of the British squadron.

Embarking troops under Prevost, who happened to be in Kingston on public and Army business, he almost immediately attacked the American base in the Second Battle of Sacket's Harbor on 29 May.

His vessels captured several unguarded batteaux carrying supplies and equipment for the American troops, and raided encampments on their line of communication.

They first embarked a battalion of 250 infantry under Colonel Winfield Scott and contemplated an assault on the British defensive positions at Burlington Heights.

They found that the waters around the British position were too shallow to allow Chauncey's vessels to support any landing, and the defenders were too numerous and well-prepared for Scott to risk an unsupported attack.

At about 12:40 pm, Yeo abruptly reversed course, intending to exchange a single broadside with General Pike while they passed on opposite tacks, and then concentrate against the weaker schooners at the rear of Chauncey's line.

Chauncey called off the action, stating officially that if he had tried to continue the attack, both British and American squadrons might be driven ashore, into British-held territory.

The American control of the lake had allowed them to complete the movement of their troops from Fort George to Sacket's Harbour in preparation for the planned attack on Montreal late that year.

As the army under Major General James Wilkinson moved in many batteaux and other small craft to French Creek near present-day Clayton, New York, some of the British vessels under Commander Mulcaster bombarded their encampments and anchorages until 5 November, when American artillerymen drove them off, setting fire to the brig Earl of Moira with hastily heated red-hot shot.

This allowed Mulcaster's vessels to return to Kingston to embark a detachment of troops under Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Wanton Morrison and pursue the Americans down the river.

[17] The last event of the year was the transport of William Henry Harrison's troops from the Niagara to Sackett's Harbor, to replace Wilkinson's army.

[18] Over the winter of 1813–14, the Americans diverted shipbuilder Noah Brown and some shipwrights and materials to Lake Champlain, which allowed them to construct the squadron which later won the decisive Battle of Plattsburgh.

In Kingston, an officer, Captain Richard O'Conor, who had served alongside Yeo during his earlier career, had been in charge of the dockyards since he arrived in May 1813,[21] and had greatly extended the facilities.

A few weeks later, Lieutenant Woolsey nevertheless tried to take several boats loaded with cannon, cables and other stores for Chauncey's new ships to Sacket's Harbor but was driven into a creek a few miles south of the base.

[23] Once Chauncey had received these guns and other equipment, he was able to complete two frigates (Superior and Mohawk) even larger than Yeo's, and the heavily armed brig sloops Jones and Jefferson.

However, his squadron was not ready for service until mid-July, and was then delayed in port until the end of the month, as Chauncey was ill but refused to delegate responsibility to his second in command, Captain Jacob Jones.

Eventually, on 21 September, Chauncey's ships transported Major General George Izard's division from Sacket's Harbor to the Genesee River to reinforce the American army on the Niagara.

Izard, who was senior to Jacob Brown, refused to make an all-out attack on the outnumbered British army, and eventually retired to the American side of the Niagara.

[30] The British had re-rigged their schooners as brigs and renamed most of their vessels since many of them formerly belonging to the Provincial Marine had names which duplicated those of Royal Navy ships in commission at sea.

[33] Because neither side had been prepared to risk everything in a decisive attack on the enemy fleet or naval base, the result of all the construction effort on Lake Ontario was an expensive draw.

The Americans had been based at Sacket's Harbor, and this small town was unable to cope with the great numbers of soldiers, sailors and shipwrights there.

On the British side, the effort required to ship all the ordnance and naval stores up the Saint Lawrence prevented them from deploying sufficiently large numbers of troops in Upper Canada.

[37] By contrast, it has been argued that since the British strategy under Governor General Prevost was defensive for most of the war, Yeo needed only to avoid defeat, and certainly succeeded in this.

For example, Yeo's hoarding of men and supplies, and failure to forward sufficient of these to the British squadron on Lake Erie, contributed to their complete defeat.