They had fewer than three hundred men aboard, and it was bracing news for Perry to receive word that a hundred officers and men under Commander Jesse D.Elliott were hastening to join him.

Elliott became second in command to Perry and assumed charge of the _Niagara_.
For almost a month the Stars and Stripes flew unchallenged from the masts of the American ships.

Perry made his base at Put-in Bay, thirty miles southeast of Amherstburg, where he could intercept the enemy passing eastward.

The British commander, Barclay, had also been troubled by lack of seamen and was inclined to postpone action.

He was nevertheless urged on by Sir George Prevost, the Governor General of Canada, who told him that "he had only to dare and he would be successful." A more urgent call on Barclay to fight was due to the lack of food in the Amherstburg region, where the water route was now blockaded by the American ships.