HMS Prince Regent, Princess Charlotte and St. Lawrence were the most powerful British warships built in Upper Canada during the War of 1812. HMS St. Lawrence was the largest and most heavily-armed warship ever to sail on fresh water. Their presence on the waters of Lake Ontario gave the British control of the lake without having to fire a shot in anger.
Shipbuilding started as soon as the British Royal Navy took over the Kingston naval base in the winter of 1812-1813. Commodore James Lucas Yeo took command in May 1813. The Navy mobilized supplies, skills and labour from both British North America and Britain to build ships whose design was suited to the conditions of the lake, the limits of the material available and the need for quick construction. Between 1813 and 1817, at least ten ships were built in the Kingston dockyards, including HMS Prince Regent, HMS Princess Charlotte and HMS St. Lawrence, all launched in 1814.
Commodore Yeo’s strategy depended on maintaining naval superiority in numbers of ships and firepower. Master shipbuilders were recruited from Quebec and hundreds of carpenters and labourers at Kingston worked feverishly to counter the production by their counterparts across the lake at Sackets Harbor. Oak and elm beams were purchased from the local area, while cannon and other equipment were brought across the Atlantic Ocean and then carried by packet boat and portage up the St. Lawrence River. All three British ships were built with narrower V-shaped hulls to increase their speed in the water, and their fire power was maximized by fitting them with as many cannon as possible. HMS Princess Charlotte and Prince Regent were launched in April 1814 with 40 and 58 guns respectively. In September that year, HMS St. Lawrence was completed and launched. The largest warship on the lake, armed with 102 guns, it tipped the advantage back to the British.
Once the war was over, most vessels of the Lake Ontario squadron were no longer needed following the terms of disarmament in the 1817 Rush-Bagot Agreement, and these three vessels eventually sank. The wrecks of HMS Prince Regent, Princess Charlotte and St. Lawrence and the collection of objects from them attest to the presence of the British fleet based in Kingston and continue to inform our understanding of this arms race between the Americans and the British and its role in determining the outcome of the war.
