Under Douglas's directions, the planking and frames of two schooners were taken down at Chambly, and carried round by road to St.John's, where they were again put together.

At Quebec he found building a new hull, of one hundred and eighty tons.

This he took apart nearly to the keel, shipping the frames in thirty long-boats, which the transport captains consented to surrender, together with their carpenters, for service on the Lake.

Drafts from the ships of war, and volunteers from the transports, furnished a body of seven hundred seamen for the same employment,--a force to which the Americans could oppose nothing equal, commanded as it was by regular naval officers.

The largest vessel was ship-rigged, and had a battery of eighteen 12-pounders; she was called the _Inflexible_, and was commanded by Lieutenant John Schanck.