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Class: Brigantine
Launched:1813
Rebuilt In: 1913, 1933, 1988
At: Erie, Pennsylvania
Length: 198 feet
Beam: 32 feet
Draft: 10 feet, 6 inches
Displacement: 295 tons
Armament: Eighteen 32 pounder carronades; two 12
pounder long guns (1813); four 32 pounder carronades, two 12
pounder long guns (1997)
Address:
U.S. Brig Niagara
150 Front Street, Suite 100
Erie, PA 16507
(814) 452-2744
Fax: (814) 455-6760
Email: sail@brigniagara.org
http://www.brigniagara.org
One of six warships built to regain control of the upper
Great Lakes from the British during the War of 1812, the
hastily built Niagara was Commodore Oliver Hazard
Perry's relief flagship in the Battle of Lake Erie on
September 10, 1813. In this pivotal naval battle the entire
British squadron of six warships was captured by Perry's nine
ship squadron. Following the battle, Perry sent his classic
message of victory, "We have met the enemy and they are
ours..." This victory led to the reopening of American
supply lines on the upper Great Lakes, removal of the British
and Indian threat to the Northwest Territory and improvement
of the country's morale.
After the war, Niagara served as a station ship in
Erie until she was scuttled in Presque Isle Bay in 1820. The
wreck was raised and rebuilt in 1913 to commemorate the
centennial of the battle at Put-In-Bay, Ohio. Following the
celebration she became a museum ship in Erie. Niagara
was rebuilt again between 1933 and 1943 and placed ashore in
downtown Erie. She underwent her third reconstruction, between
1988 and 1990, which enabled her to return to the water as an
active sailing ship. Sailing again, Niagara serves as a
reminder of one of the United States' greatest naval victories
of the 19th century and of the nearly two centuries of peace
between the United States and Canada that have followed. Her
operating base is the Erie Maritime Museum.
The United States Brig Niagara is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places.
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Historia
y Arqueologia Marítima