Fortunately, the task he had set was a long as well as a hard one. With all the men and means at his command, he could not get ready to sail until well on into the month of October. But when he was ready his was a fleet fit to terrify as well as astonish the farmers that, for the most part, composed the American forces, then under command of General Gates, at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The _Inflexible_, that carried the flag of the fleet, was a ship of 300 tons, and carried eighteen twelve-pounders. There was one schooner called the _Maria_, with fourteen guns, and another, the _Carleton_, of twelve guns. There was a huge scow very appropriately call the _Thunderer_, for she was armed with six twenty-four-pounders and twelve six-pounders, besides several brass howitzers. There was a gondola of seven guns. There were twenty gunboats with one carriage gun each, the guns varying in size from nine to twenty-four-pounders. In all, the British flotilla included twenty-five vessels, that were armed with eighty-nine first-class guns of that day, and abundantly supplied with ammunition. [Illustration: General Arnold. Drawn from Life at Philadelphia by Du Simitier.] To Benedict Arnold was given the task of preparing a flotilla to stop the invasion of Sir Guy Carleton. Benedict Arnold was an army officer and in command, under Gates, of militia who were, as said, for the most part farmers. But Arnold was a man of infinite resource, energy, and courage. Some shipwrights and sailmakers were brought from the American coast, and with such materials as were at hand he set to work to build a navy for the defence of the lake. He had, fortunately, seen service at sea, and the task was not wholly beyond his experience. When the month of October arrived Arnold was afloat with a fleet of fifteen vessels--the twelve-gun schooner _Royal Savage_, the ten-gun sloop _Enterprise_, the eight-gun schooner _Revenge_, the eight-gun galley _Trumbull_, the eight-gun galley _Congress_, the eight-gun galley _Washington_, the six-gun galley _Lee_, the five-gun gondola _Spitfire_, the five-gun gondola _Connecticut_, the three-gun gondola _New Haven_, the three-gun gondola _Providence_, the three-gun gondola _Philadelphia_, the three-gun gondola _Jersey_, the three-gun gondola _New York_, and the three-gun gondola _Boston_. Two or three of the names of the vessels built for the impending strife may be worth noting. The British named one of their medium-sized vessels the _Loyal Convert_. Arnold named the largest of his the _Royal Savage_. Carleton named another for himself, but Arnold, less vain, went to the leaders of the American army and to the towns of the nation for the names of his ships. [Illustration: The _Royal Savage_.]