In size and armament they were absurd cockleshells even when compared with a modern destroyer, but they were to make themselves superbly memorable.
Perry's flagship was no larger than the ancient coasting schooners which ply today between Bangor and Boston with cargoes of lumber and coal.
Through the winter and spring of 1813, the carpenters, calkers, and smiths were fitting the new vessels together from the green timber and planking which the choppers and sawyers wrought out of the forest.

The iron, the canvas, and all the other material had to be hauled by horses and oxen from places several hundred miles distant.

Late in July the squadron was ready for active service but was dangerously short of men.
This, however, was the least of Perry's concerns.

He had reckoned that seven hundred and forty officers and sailors were required to handle and fight his ships, but he did not hesitate to put to sea with a total force of four hundred and ninety.
Of these a hundred were soldiers sent him only nine days before he sailed, and most of them trod a deck for the first time.

Chauncey was so absorbed in his own affairs and hazards on Lake Ontario that he was not likely to give Perry any more men than could be spared.