The Young Commander Who Refused to Give Up the Ship

On this episode of Our American Stories, in September 1813, Oliver Hazard Perry sailed into the Battle of Lake Erie carrying a flag stitched with a promise not to give up the ship. He was young, outmatched on paper, and facing a British fleet that had dominated the early naval battles of the War of 1812. What followed was a decisive victory that reshaped the conflict and secured Perry’s place as one of its defining figures.

Craig Du Mez of the Grateful Nation Project returns to this moment to explain how Perry’s resolve, his crew, and a shifting wind altered the course of the war.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
While the War of eighteen twelve may have ended in
a draw, it created some of America's greatest military heroes
since the founding of the country and the Revolutionary War itself,
from Andrew Jackson to Winfield Scott to George Armistead. But

(00:34):
this story deals with the hero of Lake Erie, Oliver
Hazard Perry. Here to tell it is Craig Dumay of
the Grateful Nation Project Take it Away.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Craig. His middle name was Hazard, and his life would
prove that his parents made an appropriate choice in that name.
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry became a national hero with his
victory in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War
of eighteen twelve. Defeating a British Royal Navy squadron, Perry

(01:07):
led the way to American control of Ohio and Michigan territories.
In his battle report, Perry famously wrote, we have met
the enemy and they are ours. Perry was born in
South Kingston, Rhode Island, on August twenty three, seventeen eighty five,
the oldest of eight children, The first son was named

(01:28):
after his paternal grandmother's father, and also for his uncle,
who had recently been lost at sea. His father, Christopher
Raymond Perry, served as a privateer during the American Revolution.
With no established navy, the new Continental Congress commissioned merchant
ships and encouraged patriotic private citizens to harass British shipping

(01:50):
while risking their lives and resources for financial gain. Young
Oliver Perry spent part of his youth sailing with his
father and became a midshipman by the time he turned thirteen,
and participated in his first sea battle off the coast
of Haiti during the Haitian Revolution in the late seventeen hundreds.
Perry would also serve his country in the U. S.

(02:12):
Navy against the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean. He'd serve
on some of the young U. S. Navy's most famous ships,
the Adams, the Constellation, the Nautilus, the Essex, and the
Constitution Old Ironsides, the oldest commissioned warship in the world
that is still afloat. In eighteen oh nine, Perry supervised

(02:36):
the construction of small gunboats in Connecticut, a duty he
considered tedious until in April eighteen o nine, when he
received his first sea going command, the fourteen gun schooner
dubbed Revenge. Perry's first command ended badly on January eight,
eighteen eleven, while surveying Harbour's along Block Island Sound off

(02:57):
his home state of Rhode Island, the Revenge inge was
sailing in a heavy fog off Watchhill Point. The vessel
struck a reef and sank. A court martial cleared Perry
of any fault, instead blaming the schooner's pilot. Not yet
three decades removed from the Revolutionary War, the United States

(03:18):
again declared war on Great Britain on June eighteenth, eighteen twelve.
Disputes over territorial expansion, trade restrictions, and British impressment of
American seamen forced the young country to take on the
greatest naval power in the world. With the American Navy
being short on ships and experienced officers, the British Royal

(03:39):
Navy made a regular practice of taking seamen from American
merchant vessels by force to fill out the crews of
their frequently undermanned ships. In eighteen twelve, the American naval
fleet stood at just sixteen warships compared to the five
hundred warships in service for the Royal Navy. Perry's rise

(03:59):
to now national fame came on September tenth, eighteen thirteen,
in the Battle of Lake Erie, also known as the
Battle of put In Bay. He'd been sent to Erie, Pennsylvania,
the prior February to complete construction of a squadron to
challenge British control of the Gray Lakes. By September he
had a fleet of ten small vessels and was ready

(04:19):
to engage. His new fleet was superior to the enemies,
but only in short range firepower. When he encountered six
British warships under the command of Captain Robert Barclay, light
winds prevented him from closing quickly enough to leverage his
short range advantage. Perry's flagship, the Lawrence, suffered heavy damage

(04:43):
and was disabled. As the battle began, he transferred to
the Niagara, along with his Don't Give Up the Ship banner,
Boldly sailing directly into Barclay's British fleet. Niagara fired broadside
on the Royal Navy ships, winning the Battle of Lake
Erie within fifteen min In a report to Major General

(05:03):
and later US President William Henry Harrison. Perry wrote the
famous message that would be immortalized in US Navy history.
We have met the enemy and the air hours. The
victory helped insure American control of Lake Erie, forced the
British to abandon Detroit, and led to US expansion in

(05:24):
the Ohio and Michigan territories. Promoted to Captain, Perry was
chosen to lead an important diplomatic mission in June eighteen
nineteen to negotiate an anti piracy agreement in Angostura, Venezuela.
Yellow fever was said to be a problem in the
capital city. Captain Perry completed his mission, but Captain Perry

(05:47):
came down with chills and a fever and oliver hazard.
Perry died from yellow fever on August twenty three, eighteen nineteen,
on his thirty fourth birthday. The War of eighteen twelve
ended in a draw, with the Treaty of Ghent ratified
by both parties, in essence returning to the state that
had existed before the war and restoring all conquered territory.

(06:11):
Both sides could claim victory, but the new American nation
had made a powerful statement about its own sovereignty, and
by taking on for a second time the most powerful
military on Earth, Americans had earned the respect of the
dominant European powers. It was a major step in ending
European colonization of the Western Hemisphere. The war also gave

(06:32):
the new nation some of its most enduring symbols. As
legend has it, a meat packer named Samuel Wilson in Troy,
New York, supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army.
He stamped the barrel's US and American soldiers referred to
the beef as Uncle Sam's. And a poem that would
become a patriotic song came from one battle in the

(06:54):
War of eighteen twelve, the American victory at Fort McHenry
in Baltimore. That song, the Star Spangled Banner, would eventually
become our national anthem. And old ironsides and the phrase
don't give up the ship still inspire those who serve
in what is now the world's most powerful navy.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
And a special thanks to Craig Dumay of the Grateful
Nation Project. To find out more about them, go to
herocards dot us. The story of Oliver hazard Perry and
the War of eighteen twelve here, and our American stories
Leehabib here. As we approach our nation's two hundred and

(07:34):
fiftieth anniversary, I'd like to remind you that all the
history stories you hear on this show are brought to
you by the great folks at Hillsdale College. And Hillsdale
isn't just a great school for your kids or grandkids
to attend, but for you as well. Go to Hillsdale
dot edu to find out about their terrific free online courses. Again,
go to Hillsdale dot edu and sign up for their

(07:55):
free and terrific online courses.