Another Bid for Sylph's Bones: Schooner Days DCCCLXVII (867)

by C. H. J. Snider

BEFORE leaving the bones of the Sylph, be it recorded that the war-brig Oneida also found a grave in the bay at Clayton, N.Y., and could be the original of the remains believed to be the Sylph's.

The Oneida was the first American fighting ship built on Lake Ontario. She was begun at Oswego in 1808, when the irksome orders-in-council and asserted rights-of-search of the Napoleonic wars were being countered by embargos and customs imposts. The Provincial Marine of Upper Canada had a few small brigs, so the Americans, "just in case," began this Oneida of 243 tons, a lubberly tub, which could not sail for sour apples, but packed 18 heavy guns, with enough fire-power to match any two British vessels. In 1809 the British launched the Royal George, of double her tonnage, and as many guns. The armament race was on, three years before war was declared. Six or seven years later warships were a dime a dozen. A British two-decker sold in Kingston for $25.

WHAT BECAME OF THEM?

The Cape Vincent District Report of Enrollments of Sailing Vessels at Sacket's Harbor from 1814 gave this information about '"ex-warships of 1812 with Capt. Van Cleve's comments added:

PHOENIX, 27 tons, Capt. Wm. Osborne, 1816. "She was a gunboat, rebuilt."

TEAZER, 39 tons, built 1814, burned at dock at Sodus, 1821. (Three Teazers, the first Teazer, Young Teazer, and Young Teazer's Ghost, were American privateers on the coast of Nova Scotia in the war and their fame was sufficient to create a namesake on Lake Ontario).

COMM. ECKFORD, 109 tons, Capt. Saml. Dixon. "Captured in War of 1812 by U.S. squadron in May, 1813. Took out new papers July 30th, 1816." (Apparently the first or second to be converted to commerce, in the same year as the Phoenix, mentioned before).

LADY OF THE LAKE, 50 tons, Capt. John Rogers, enrolled as a merchantman 1826. "She was a war vessel. See supra."

ADJUTANT CLITZ, 147 tons, Capt. Robt. Hugunin. "She was the war brig Oneida during the war of 1812. Fitted out as a merchantman in 1827, was commanded, by Capt. Robt. Hugunin and afterwards by Lieut. Richard McMullen, U.S.N. She was owned at last by E. G. Merrick, Esq., and was then commanded by Capt. Geo. W. Smith."

Typescript copy of "Historical Notes on Great Lakes Shipping" in Toronto Public Library, attributed to "James Van Cleve," the veteran captain who wrote so much of the history of early shipping, adds the information about the Oneida that she was of 18 guns and as a merchantman was confined to the timber trade. She retired from service in 1837 and sunk in the bay at Clayton, N.Y. Enrollment was dated April 24, 1829 and her name changed to Adjutant Clitz."

The discrepancy in the spelling of her name may be merely typographical. Date of enrollment, contrasted with Capt. Van Cleve's handwritten assertion elsewhere that she was fitted out in 1827 as a merchantman, may mean that it took two years to get her papers through with the new name.

It is not a remarkable coincidence that she should have been sunk at Clayton in 1837, like the Sylph in 1843, for Clayton was a busy timber port in those years and likely to be the last resting place of more than one old drogher. E. G. Merrick and his partner, Capt. Robt. W. Smith, apparently found the Oneida unfit for service and replaced her by another ex-war brig, the Sylph. The Oneida was notoriously slow, even as a man-of-war. It is of some significance that Van Cleve, who was zealous to examine ancient wrecks and note their remains, does not mention seeing those of the Oneida. She may have been broken up early. She was the first U.S. man-of-war on Lake Ontario, having been begun at Oswego in 1808 and launched in 1811.

SYLPH, brig, 236 tons, Capt. John Vorce. "She was war vessel during the War of 1812, became merchantman 1830 in the timber trade, owned by Smith end Merrick. Hulk sunk in 1843 in the bay at Clayton, where portions still remain."

"The MADISON, sloop of war, of 24 guns, was dismantled and sunk at Sacket's Harbor after the war. In 1833 she was raised and fitted out as a merchant vessel by Capt. Robert Hugunin and was confined to the timber trade, under the name of Gen. Leavenworth. She. went ashore near Oswego, 1835." Seemmgly she was the third and last of Commodore Chauncey's war fleet to become a timber drogher.

OF WHOSE BONES?

It has been suggested that the "Old Wreck," nameless to Claytonians of the present and past generations, and dredged out twelve years ago, may have been the Oneida's. This is possible, but not probable, for two reasons. Capt. Van Cleve, the most observant of writers about early vessels, spoke of the wreck of the Sylph being visible in 1877, and gave some particulars about it. He must have seen this vessel afloat in the 1830's, for he himself was trading to Clayton with the timber schooner St. Lawrence before the Sylph was sunk there, as he says, in 1843, and before the Oneida was sunk in 1837. But while he mentions the Oneida, with particulars of her commercial career, he says nothing of ever seeing her wreck, from which we might take it that it had been broken up and disappeared long before the Sylph was sunk. The deadwood and timbers photographed and examined at Clayton recently seemed sufficiently sound to have been visible in from 1843 to 1877, and old residents confirm having seen these "ribs." The Oneida seemingly disappeared completely 111 years ago, possibly being broken up for her iron fastenings. If anything was left of her it must have been bedded in the bottom to such an extent that it, was never a menace to navigation, as the one believed to be the Sylph was for almost a century.

AFTER THE WAR WAS OVER

SACKET'S HARBOR, American naval arsenal en Lake Ontario, with the fleet created in three strenuous years falling to pieces. Some of these sunken and dismantled men-of-war were resurrected ten years later for the timber trade and other peaceful avocations. The small vessel to the left, shown with her sails up in this old American print, was probably the Lady-of-the-Lake, which became a packet in 1826 and was lost with all on board between Toronto and Oswego. The largest building, in the background, was the covering of the giant three-decker New Orleans, 120 guns, never launched. This gave the name to Shiphouse Point, still shown on the charts, although ship and shiphouse were torn down seventy years ago. One old wreck still remains in Sackets Harbor with her gunports visible, 134 years after her launching.