But it was a very old truth, for all that.  Nelson’s captains, and those of still earlier wars, had always competed eagerly for the command of the better built French prizes, which they managed to take only because the superiority of their crews was great enough to overcome the inferiority of their ships.  There was a different tale to tell when inferior British vessels with ‘run-down’ crews met superior American vessels with first-rate crews.  In those days training and discipline were better in the American mercantile marine than in the British; and the American Navy, of course, shared in the national efficiency at sea.  Thus, with cheap materials, good designs, and excellent seamen, the Americans started with great advantages over the British for single-ship actions; and it was some time before their small collection of ships succumbed to the grinding pressure of the regularly organized British fleet.

The Provincial Marine.  Canada had a little local navy on the Lakes called the Provincial Marine.  It dated from the Conquest, and had done good service again during the Revolution, especially in Carleton’s victory over Arnold on Lake Champlain in 1776.  It had not, however, been kept up as a proper naval force, but had been placed under the quartermaster-general’s department of the Army, where it had been mostly degraded into a mere branch of the transport service.  At one time the effective force had been reduced to 132 men; though many more were hurriedly added just before the war.  Most of its senior officers were too old; and none of the juniors had enjoyed any real training for combatant duties.  Still, many of the ships and men did well in the war, though they never formed a single properly organized squadron.

British Privateers.  Privateering was not a flourishing business in the mother country in 1812.  Prime seamen were scarce, owing to the great number needed in the Navy and in the mercantile marine.  Many, too, had deserted to get the higher wages paid in ‘Yankees’—­’dollars for shillings,’ as the saying went.  Besides, there was little foreign trade left to prey on.  Canadian privateers did better.  They were nearly all ‘Bluenoses;’ that is, they hailed from the Maritime Provinces.  During the three campaigns the Court of Vice-Admiralty at Halifax issued letters of marque to forty-four privateers, which employed, including replacements, about three thousand men and reported over two hundred prizes.

British Commissariat and Transport.  Transport, of course, went chiefly by water.  Reinforcements and supplies from the mother country came out under convoy, mostly in summer, to Quebec, where bulk was broken, and whence both men and goods were sent to the front.  There were plenty of experts in Canada to move goods west in ordinary times.  The best of all were the French-Canadian voyageurs who manned the boats of the Hudson’s Bay and North-West Companies.  But there were not enough of them to carry on the work of peace and war together.  Great and skilful efforts, however, were made.  Schooners, bateaux, boats, and canoes were all turned to good account.  But the inland line of communications was desperately long and difficult to work.  It was more than twelve hundred miles from Quebec to Amherstburg on the river Detroit, even by the shortest route.