HISTORY

US Ships-of-the-Line

Most of the ships on the Great Lakes were no larger than brigs, but that didn't mean we didn't have aspirations of bigger ships. In October 1814, Noah and Adam Brown started the construction of the New Orleans at Sackett's Harbor. A massive 87-gun Ship-of-the-Line, it would have been the biggest ship on Lake Ontario had it been completed in the spring of 1815.

As the war was over by then, a roof was built over the New Orleans hull and there it remained until 1883. By this time, the queen of the navy was the ironclad and wooden ships were a thing of the past, so the New Orleans was broken up and sold.

The thing about the New Orleans though is its name. New Orleans had a sister ship, the Chippewa, which was dismantled in 1833. It seems clear that this ship was named after the battle that had been fought in July of 1814. That makes sense, famous battle in July, ship named in its honor in October. But the New Orleans was also started in October 1814, four months before the battle was fought.