Filming We Have Met The Enemy alongside the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry in Newport, RI |
Sailing School Vessel
(SSV) Oliver Hazard Perry is a new training ship based in Newport, Rhode
Island. Two events that started in
January 1813 led to her creation – and part of these events will always sail
with her.
On New Year’s Day 1813, Oliver Hazard Perry, desperate for a
new command, wrote the commander of the US Great Lakes Fleet, imploring him
for a position. Perry’s resolution to
join the fighting in the War of 1812 got him the job to take command of US
naval forces at Lake Erie.
That same January, the British began work on a sloop-of-war at their naval base at Amherstburg on Lake Erie. Launched in July that year, this ship, HMS Detroit, became the flagship of the
British Royal Navy Squadron on Lake Erie. In September of 1813, Rhode Island native Oliver
Hazard Perry captured HMS Detroit
after fierce combat in the Battle of Lake Erie (In 1841 the original Detroit was floated over Niagara Falls
as a publicity stunt – its disintegrating remains flowed over time, from the
Great Lakes into the Atlantic Ocean).
Perry and his role in the Battle of Lake Erie have been
honored with a replica of his flagship, the Niagara,
which sails out of Erie, PA. Likewise, in
the spirit of preserving the equally proud heritage of Britain and Canada in
the war of 1812, construction of a replica of the Detroit was commenced at Amherstburg, Ontario in the 1990’s. For financial reasons however, only the hull
of the new Detroit was
completed. That hull was eventually floated
back to Rhode Island from Lake Erie along much the same route Perry himself took. The
hull of the new Detroit then became
the hull of the new SSV named in honor of Oliver Hazard Perry.
Perry made his New Year’s Day plea from his home in
Newport. As was Perry, the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry is an ocean
going Newport sailor which will always be connected to the Great Lakes.
Today the spirits of Perry and his former adversaries, the
British and Canadians who fought against him on the Detroit, are joined and embodied in the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry. The
new ship and its crew are a working legacy of Perry’s exemplary
conduct at Lake Erie and the proud heritage of Britain and Canada. With its pedigree and namesake, SSV Oliver Hazard Perry is destined to
be an ambassador of the finest virtues of maritime service and is a constant
reminder of the epic Battle of Lake Erie and its importance.
We Have Met The Enemy website