James Lucas Yeo

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Sir James Lucas Yeo. Portrait from the early 19th century

Sir James Lucas Yeo (born October 7, 1782 in Southampton , England , † August 21, 1818 at sea) was a British naval officer who distinguished himself in the Napoleonic Wars and in the war of 1812 with the United States .

Life

James Lucas Yeo was the eldest son of James Yeo, a temporary procurement agent for the Royal Navy . He grew up near Winchester in the English county of Hampshire and joined the British Navy as a volunteer in 1793 at the age of 11 . In 1797 he became a lieutenant . On June 4, 1805, as the first officer of the frigate HMS Loire, he carried out a bold coup on the port of Muros in north-west Spain , in which he stormed the port city, defended by 250 soldiers with 12 guns, and the French 22-cannon privateer with only 50 men Confiance (formerly the ship of the famous privateer captain Robert Surcouf ) along with other prizes in British hands. For this success he was promoted to Commander and got the HMS Confiance put into the service of the Royal Navy as the first independent command.

For his role in successfully relocating the Portuguese royal family in the face of a French invasion, he was awarded the rank of captain in 1807 . In the winter of 1808/1809 he led a British-Portuguese expedition against Cayenne ( French Guiana ). Although he had only 400 men and little artillery, he succeeded in forcing the 1,200-man French garrison , which had well-developed fortifications and over 200 artillery, to surrender, thereby ending the French presence in South America . This success brought him the title of nobility and the Knight's Cross of the Order of St. Benedict de Avis in 1810 , a high Portuguese honor. To this day he is the only Protestant who has received this medal.

In 1811 he was given command of the frigate HMS Southampton stationed in Jamaica . After the outbreak of the war with the USA in 1812 , he took the American brig USS Vixen with this on November 22, 1812 , but shortly afterwards both ships ran into a reef in the Crooked Island Passage in the Bahamas and were lost however, there were no fatalities. As usual when a ship is lost, Yeo had to answer to a court martial , but was able to make credible that the reef had previously been unknown and the local currents had not been documented, whereupon the court absolved him of all responsibility for the accident.

In March 1813, Yeo was promoted to commodore and commander in chief of the navy on the Canadian lakes without previously commanding a naval formation or a larger warship. Its main role was to maintain British control of Lake Ontario , as the sea transport route from Kingston to the main theater of war on the Niagara Peninsula was of vital strategic importance. Therefore, he had to choose a largely defensive strategy and not risk losing his fleet. It is evidence of considerable self-discipline and excellent judgment that Yeo, whose career had so far been promoted by bold coups, consistently treaded this path that brought him little fame personally due to a lack of brilliant victories, but was probably the only feasible for a successful defense of Canada . However, this caution is likely to have prevented possible success in several cases. Since his opponent, Commodore Isaac Chauncey , proceeded in a similar way, spectacular battles on Lake Ontario did not materialize.

Yeo initially had a fleet of five larger ships ( HMS Wolfe , 23 cannons, HMS Royal George , 22 cannons, HMS Prince Regent , 16 cannons, Earl of Moira , 14 cannons) and a number of smaller vehicles ( schooners and gunboats ). The British were thus clearly superior to the US unit, which consisted of only two larger ships ( USS Madison , 24 cannons, USS Oneida , 16 cannons), but in contrast to them suffered from a lack of trained crews. In addition, the main weapon of the British, the carronade , had great destructive power at short range, but was inferior to the long-barreled cannons of the Americans at longer distances .

An attack on the important US naval base Sackets Harbor on May 28th was intended to secure British rule over Lake Ontario and to support the British land forces on the Niagara River under Brigadier General John Vincent , but was only partially successful. Due to the extreme caution of Governor General Sir George Prevost , who was in command, and Yeo's unwillingness to bring his precious ships close to the American coastal batteries, Sackets Harbor could not be captured by the landed troops. Nonetheless, the attack caused considerable damage, which hindered American armaments. Yeo was able to maintain naval rule until Chauncey ran out of Sackets Harbor on July 23 with a powerful fleet. There were two small, unsuccessful skirmishes, and on September 28, Yeo's fleet withdrew to Kingston. In the meantime, his squadron on Lake Erie under Robert Heriot Barclay had been destroyed in the Battle of Lake Erie by a superior US unit under Oliver Hazard Perry .

In the winter of 1813/1814, both the British and the Americans began an arms race in which Yeo was at a disadvantage due to its long and vulnerable supply routes. Nevertheless, he was the first to set sail with the two new frigates HMS Prince Regent (54 cannons) and HMS Princess Charlotte (42 cannons) on May 3, 1814, and initially won naval supremacy. He used this for a successful attack on Fort Oswego on May 5th and a blockade of Sackets Harbor, which he was able to maintain until June 6th. Since Chauncey was able to reinforce the frigates USS Superior (62 cannons) and HMS Mohawk (42 cannons) on August 9 and thereby set sail, which was superior to the British, Yeo avoided a fight with the Americans and concentrated on the ship of the line Completion of HMS St. Lawrence . With its 112 cannons, including 68 heavy 24- and 32-pounders, it was the most powerful warship ever built in Canada.

During the completion of the ship, the British troops under Sir Gordon Drummond on the Niagara Peninsula were in a desperate situation in the face of superior US troops and blatant supply shortages. On October 15, Yeo set sail with his new flagship and a large fleet, arrived at the mouth of the Niagara River on October 18, thereby saving Drummond's army. US commander Jacob Brown ordered a withdrawal to the US when news of Yeo's arrival reached him. Meanwhile, on September 11th, in the Battle of Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain, another squadron under George Downie had been destroyed by the Americans. Mainly responsible for the debacle, however, was Governor General Prevost, who had forced Downie to fight, even though his new flagship, the HMS Confiance, was only partially operational, and then had not provided the promised support from land forces. Yeo submitted a correspondingly critical report to the Admiralty .

His large-scale naval construction program for the winter of 1814/1815, which included the completion of a frigate and two ships of the line, remained insignificant, as news of the conclusion of the peace of Ghent in Canada reached Canada before further fighting began in March 1815 . The overworked and healthily ailing commodore was immediately called back home. Upon arriving in London , he submitted a report to the Admiralty on his experience in Canada. In his view, the British defensive successes were due in large part to the "stupidity" of the Americans, who had failed to cut the easily accessible supply route via the Saint Lawrence River and thus force the abandonment of all of western Canada.

On June 5, 1815, Yeo received the appointment as commander in chief on the west coast of Africa with the special task of preventing the slave trade, which was a matter close to his heart as a staunch abolitionist . Before his departure, he appeared before a court martial over the battle of Plattsburg. Not least because of his testimony, the surviving officers were honorably acquitted and Governor General Prevost was again charged with responsibility for the defeat. At the age of only 35, Sir James Lucas Yeo died on August 21, 1818 on board his flagship HMS Semiramis, probably due to the previous exertions . His body was brought to the UK and buried in the Royal Garrison Chapel in Portsmouth , where a memorial stone still commemorates him today.

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personal data
SURNAME Yeo, James Lucas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British naval officer
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1782
PLACE OF BIRTH Southampton , England
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1818
Place of death at sea