Perry was now the commodore of a fleet of nine vessels,--the brigs _Lawrence_, _Niagara_ and _Caledonia_, five schooners, and one sloop. Captain Barclay, the British commander, had only six vessels, but some of them were larger than Perry's. They were the ships _Detroit_ and _Queen Charlotte_, a large brig, two schooners, and a sloop. Such were the fleets with which the great battle of Lake Erie was fought. I know you are getting tired of all this description, and want to get on to the fighting. You don't like to be kept sailing in quiet waters when there is a fine storm ahead. Very well, we will go on. But one has to get his bricks ready before he can build his house. Well, then, on the 10th of September, 1813, it being a fine summer day, with the sun shining brightly, Perry and his men sailed out from Put-in Bay and came in sight of the British fleet over the waters of the lake. What Captain Perry now did was fine. He hoisted a great blue flag, and when it unrolled in the wind the men saw on it, in white letters, the dying words of Captain Lawrence, "Don't give up the ship!" Was not that a grand signal to give? It must have put great spirit into the men, and made them feel that they would die like the gallant Lawrence before they would give up their ships. The men on both fleets were eager to fight, but the wind kept very light, and they came together slowly. It was near noon before they got near enough for their long guns to work. Then the British began to send balls skipping over the water, and soon after the Americans answered back. Now came the roar of battle, the flash of guns, the cloud of smoke that settled down and half hid everything. The Americans came on in a long line, head on for the British, who awaited their approach. Perry's flagship, the _Lawrence_, was near the head of the line. It soon plunged into the very thick of the fight, with only two little schooners to help it. The wind may have been too light for the rest of the fleet to come up. We do not know just what kept them back, but at any rate, they didn't come up, and the _Lawrence_ was left to fight alone. Never had a vessel been in a worse plight than was the _Lawrence_ for the next two hours. She was half surrounded by the three large British vessels, the _Detroit_, the _Queen Charlotte_, and the brig _Hunter_, all pouring in their fire at once, while she had to fight them all. On the _Lawrence_ and the two schooners there were only seven long guns against thirty-six which were pelting Perry's flagship from the British fleet. This was great odds. But overhead there floated the words, "Don't give up the ship"; so the brave Perry pushed on till he was close to the _Detroit_, and worked away, for life or death, with all his guns, long and short.