Meantime a gallant party of British seamen had done still better down at the foot of Lake Erie--rather in the head of Niagara River. Three little American schooners, the _Ohio_, the _Somers_, and the _Porcupine_, were lying off Fort Erie on the Canada side, which was then in the possession of the Americans. That these vessels were lying in perfect security their crews could very well believe, because the British did not have even a row-boat anywhere in that vicinity. Nevertheless, when feeling most secure, two of them were captured and the third escaped only because the current of the river swept the enemy down stream so rapidly that they passed her before ready to attack. On the night of August 12, 1814, Captain Alexander Dobbs of the British brig _Charwell_ and Lieutenant Coplestone Radcliffe of the British brig _Netly_, two vessels which were lying at the head of Lake Ontario, started with seventy-five seamen and marines to carry the _Charwell’s_ gig overland to Lake Erie. By relieving one another the men carried the gig twenty miles (from Queenstown to Frenchman’s Creek). There they were joined by a body of Canadian militia, with the aid of whom they carried five big flat-bottomed scows, together with the gig, for eight miles more to the beach of Lake Erie, where all six boats were launched and filled with armed men. So expeditiously was this work done that soon after 11 P.M. this little fleet was within hail of the Yankee schooner _Somers_. When the anchor watch on her deck asked who they were, they replied: “Provision boats.” Provision boats were frequently allowed to pass at night, and the watch on the _Somers_ were entirely deceived. A moment later the British were upon her, a volley of musketry was fired that wounded two of the watch, her cable was cut, and away she went fairly in possession of the enemy. The _Ohio_ was next in line, and the British were soon around her, but her crew had come tumbling on deck at the sound of the muskets. They made a right good fight, too, considering the circumstances, for Lieutenant Conkling, who commanded the Yankee squadron, Sailing-Master M. Cally, and one seaman were shot down, and four more were wounded, while the British lost Lieutenant Radcliffe and one sailor killed and six wounded. But each of these little vessels had a crew of only thirty all told, and the British force coming on in such a fashion necessarily triumphed.