Sir Robert Barrie KCB KCH (5 May 1774 – 7 June 1841) was a British naval officer noted for his service in the War of 1812.

He was helped early in his naval career by the patronage of his uncle, Sir Alan Gardner, who arranged for him to take part in the Vancouver Expedition.

He was mentioned in dispatches for his gallant conduct in a fight with a French squadron when, as First Lieutenant of Bourdelais, "though dangerously wounded, he had disdained to quit the deck".

He was particularly active during the War of 1812, carrying out several successful attacks on American towns and shipping in the Penobscot River region, and helping to destroy the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla.

He was active in a number of areas, building and expanding the dockyard and promoting important hydrographic surveys and the construction of canals.

[3] Gardner arranged for Barrie to serve as a midshipman aboard HMS Discovery from December 1790 until 1795, during George Vancouver's voyage of diplomacy and exploration along the Pacific coast of North America.

Many of his letters home survive, describing his experiences of adventure, punctuated by periods of boredom after he exhausted the books on the ships.

[4] Barrie gained an acting promotion to Lieutenant on the expedition, and commanded a survey party on the northern coast of what is now British Columbia.

[2] Barrie took command of the frigate HMS Pomone in June 1806, serving initially off the French coast and then in the Mediterranean.

He was then ordered to bring the British ambassador to Persia back to England, but Pomone was sunk while approaching Portsmouth.

In September 1814 he joined Sir John Coape Sherbrooke's forces for the attack on the Penobscot River region in the American state of Maine (then part of Massachusetts).

Barrie's rough treatment of the captured towns in central Maine earned the British lasting resentment in that region.

[2] The post made him senior naval officer in the Canadas, with control over the inland waterways and the port at Quebec.

He promoted a hydrographic survey of the Saint Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, the building of the Rideau and Welland canals, and relations with the United States.

After the St. Lawrence was sold, for $9925, the other old warships remained as hulks in the Navy Bay or "in frame" on the stocks on Point Frederick.