A short alternate history that I want to eventually follow my other book (but for cheaper), this covers two naval battles between the USN and RN/RCN on the Great Lakes in 1913. It's a bit tough to classify since the PoD in pre 1900, but the events themselves are post 1900.
Prelude
On the morning of June 30, 1913, the USS Swordfish, a Salmon-class submarine, patrolled along the shores of Manitoulin Island. The day was sunny and half the crew loitered on the submarine’s deck while it cruised along Lake Huron’s surface. A few of the all-Irish crew tried their hands at fishing while others cleaned the 50mm deck gun and other maintained a vigilant watch over the lack. Though war had been declared against Britain a week earlier, the Swordfish had yet to encounter anything fiercer than a Canadian freighter which was quickly sent to the bottom.
It was not until 1113, that morning did Seaman Conrad O’Donnell inform the boat’s skipper, Lt. Commander Edmund Fitzgerald that he spotted smoke almost directly ahead. Fitzgerald, like all submarine commanders in the Great Lakes, knew the Royal Navy planned to sortie from Owin Sound to strike before the American fleet could leave the confines of Lake Michigan. When exactly it sortied was not known, and was the purpose of the Swordfish’s, as well as several other boats’ patrol.
Standing orders were to determine the size of the enemy fleet along with position and course. As the British struck at Mackinac Strait in the Second and Third Anglo-American Wars, their destination was obvious. Fitzgerald gave the order to submerge and his crew manned their battlestations. The Submarine spent more than an hour tracking the Royal Navy once they intercepted the fleet. The Anglo-Canadian fleet consisted of three battleships and battlecruisers, three cruisers, nine destroyers and ten smaller vessels.
Instead of following orders, Fitzgerald made an attempt to reduce his report by one battleship. At 1442, the Swordfish launched two torpedoes towards the HMCS Leopard, scoring two hits on the battlecruiser and reducing its best speed to 10 knots. Immediately after the attack, Royal Navy destroys began to fan out from the battleships and cruisers, searching for the American submarine.
Had Fitzgerald fired only one torpedo, the British and Canadians might have first suspected a mine, giving Swordfish time to escape. As it happened, sharp-eyed watchmen on the HMCS Lancer spotted the wake from the torpedoes and spread word of the enemy submarine’s general vicinity. Fitzgerald had little hope of outrunning determined destroyers and before he was forced to try, he ordered his boat brought close enough to the surface for its antennae to touch the sky. His warning over the wireless telegraph was short and memorable. Taking a page from Paul Revere, Fitzgerald informed Chicago simply that the British were coming.
Whether or not Revere said ‘British’ or ‘regular’ or ‘redcoat’ remains unclear to this day, but what is known is that the Anglo-American struggle for the Great Lakes dates back to the founding of the United States of America. Though action on the lakes was light during the Revolution and occurred mostly after the Treaty of Paris when American forces took control of forts on the southern shore, fighting between the United States and Great Britain spread across all the lakes during the Second Anglo-American War (1812-14).
During 1812 and 1813, the British and their Indian allies attacked and captured numerous forts along the American shores of the lakes, including Fort Mackinac, Fort Dearborne and Detroit. In the case of Mackinac, the American commander of the garrison surrender with next to no resistance offered. The British sweep through the Great Lakes during that war was one of the most humiliating defeats in American history. Only the Battle of Lake Eire fought on September 10, 1813, saved face with a decisive American victory and control over that lake.
Actions on the Great Lakes during the Third Anglo-American War (1882-85) offered far stiffer American resistance yet resulted in almost the same number of British victories. The greatest battle on the Lakes during that war occurred on July 18, 1884, when the British and American Lake Ontario squadrons faced off near Galloo Island. The bloody three hour battle cost the United States dearly as its naval squadron on the lake was all but annihilated in a decisive British victory. With the United States Navy effectively erased from Lake Ontario, Royal Marines raided Rochester, Oswego and Niagara with impunity.
Seven months before the disastrous battle, British forces landed again on Mackinac Island, laying siege to the island. American reinforcements attempted to reach Mackinac from Chicago, but were forced to turn back during a winter’s storm, leaving the soldiers of Fort Mackinac to fend for themselves. Unlike previous wars, the British could no longer call upon Indians to aid them as the natives were either expelled from the region decades before or assimilated into American society.
Nevertheless, with the hope of aid dashed, Colonel Maxwell Eddington was forced to surrender the garrison, making it the second time in the fort’s history that the colors were struck, giving the British as much control over Lake Huron as they would have over Lake Ontario. The Third Anglo-American War ended poorly for the United States, forcing them to make territorial concessions to Britain and Canada in the Pacific Northwest. After falling twice in a century, the United States Navy was determined that Fort Mackinac would never fall again.
During the 1890s, after a slight economic depression, both the Army and Navy’s budgets grew in size. Though the Great Lakes were of great importance, the region saw on a fraction of the naval dollars that both the Atlantic and Pacific received. Between 1895 and 1905, Fort Mackinac underwent renovation, refitting and expansion. The previous garrison of three thousand grew to eight thousands, and new 253 mm short batteries pointed out towards Lake Huron. Two squadrons of torpedo boats were delivered to the fort on June 8, 1907. Two minelayers found new homes in Mackinac’s small port.
Mackinac was not the only location to receive new batteries. All of the important ports of the Great Lakes saw rings of fortifications erected in the decade leading up the Great War. Similar improvements occurred between 1903 and 1913 on the Canadian shores of the Lakes. After handedly defeating American forces in two previous wars, the Royal Navy made the mistake that most chronic victors eventually make. They forgot the axiom ‘always assume you enemy is as least as smart as yourself’. The United States Navy, as well as Army, was still viewed as a largely amateur force by the British and other European powers. By not taking their foe seriously, Britain made a costly blunder before the first shots of the Great War were fired in 1913.
Prelude
On the morning of June 30, 1913, the USS Swordfish, a Salmon-class submarine, patrolled along the shores of Manitoulin Island. The day was sunny and half the crew loitered on the submarine’s deck while it cruised along Lake Huron’s surface. A few of the all-Irish crew tried their hands at fishing while others cleaned the 50mm deck gun and other maintained a vigilant watch over the lack. Though war had been declared against Britain a week earlier, the Swordfish had yet to encounter anything fiercer than a Canadian freighter which was quickly sent to the bottom.
It was not until 1113, that morning did Seaman Conrad O’Donnell inform the boat’s skipper, Lt. Commander Edmund Fitzgerald that he spotted smoke almost directly ahead. Fitzgerald, like all submarine commanders in the Great Lakes, knew the Royal Navy planned to sortie from Owin Sound to strike before the American fleet could leave the confines of Lake Michigan. When exactly it sortied was not known, and was the purpose of the Swordfish’s, as well as several other boats’ patrol.
Standing orders were to determine the size of the enemy fleet along with position and course. As the British struck at Mackinac Strait in the Second and Third Anglo-American Wars, their destination was obvious. Fitzgerald gave the order to submerge and his crew manned their battlestations. The Submarine spent more than an hour tracking the Royal Navy once they intercepted the fleet. The Anglo-Canadian fleet consisted of three battleships and battlecruisers, three cruisers, nine destroyers and ten smaller vessels.
Instead of following orders, Fitzgerald made an attempt to reduce his report by one battleship. At 1442, the Swordfish launched two torpedoes towards the HMCS Leopard, scoring two hits on the battlecruiser and reducing its best speed to 10 knots. Immediately after the attack, Royal Navy destroys began to fan out from the battleships and cruisers, searching for the American submarine.
Had Fitzgerald fired only one torpedo, the British and Canadians might have first suspected a mine, giving Swordfish time to escape. As it happened, sharp-eyed watchmen on the HMCS Lancer spotted the wake from the torpedoes and spread word of the enemy submarine’s general vicinity. Fitzgerald had little hope of outrunning determined destroyers and before he was forced to try, he ordered his boat brought close enough to the surface for its antennae to touch the sky. His warning over the wireless telegraph was short and memorable. Taking a page from Paul Revere, Fitzgerald informed Chicago simply that the British were coming.
Whether or not Revere said ‘British’ or ‘regular’ or ‘redcoat’ remains unclear to this day, but what is known is that the Anglo-American struggle for the Great Lakes dates back to the founding of the United States of America. Though action on the lakes was light during the Revolution and occurred mostly after the Treaty of Paris when American forces took control of forts on the southern shore, fighting between the United States and Great Britain spread across all the lakes during the Second Anglo-American War (1812-14).
During 1812 and 1813, the British and their Indian allies attacked and captured numerous forts along the American shores of the lakes, including Fort Mackinac, Fort Dearborne and Detroit. In the case of Mackinac, the American commander of the garrison surrender with next to no resistance offered. The British sweep through the Great Lakes during that war was one of the most humiliating defeats in American history. Only the Battle of Lake Eire fought on September 10, 1813, saved face with a decisive American victory and control over that lake.
Actions on the Great Lakes during the Third Anglo-American War (1882-85) offered far stiffer American resistance yet resulted in almost the same number of British victories. The greatest battle on the Lakes during that war occurred on July 18, 1884, when the British and American Lake Ontario squadrons faced off near Galloo Island. The bloody three hour battle cost the United States dearly as its naval squadron on the lake was all but annihilated in a decisive British victory. With the United States Navy effectively erased from Lake Ontario, Royal Marines raided Rochester, Oswego and Niagara with impunity.
Seven months before the disastrous battle, British forces landed again on Mackinac Island, laying siege to the island. American reinforcements attempted to reach Mackinac from Chicago, but were forced to turn back during a winter’s storm, leaving the soldiers of Fort Mackinac to fend for themselves. Unlike previous wars, the British could no longer call upon Indians to aid them as the natives were either expelled from the region decades before or assimilated into American society.
Nevertheless, with the hope of aid dashed, Colonel Maxwell Eddington was forced to surrender the garrison, making it the second time in the fort’s history that the colors were struck, giving the British as much control over Lake Huron as they would have over Lake Ontario. The Third Anglo-American War ended poorly for the United States, forcing them to make territorial concessions to Britain and Canada in the Pacific Northwest. After falling twice in a century, the United States Navy was determined that Fort Mackinac would never fall again.
During the 1890s, after a slight economic depression, both the Army and Navy’s budgets grew in size. Though the Great Lakes were of great importance, the region saw on a fraction of the naval dollars that both the Atlantic and Pacific received. Between 1895 and 1905, Fort Mackinac underwent renovation, refitting and expansion. The previous garrison of three thousand grew to eight thousands, and new 253 mm short batteries pointed out towards Lake Huron. Two squadrons of torpedo boats were delivered to the fort on June 8, 1907. Two minelayers found new homes in Mackinac’s small port.
Mackinac was not the only location to receive new batteries. All of the important ports of the Great Lakes saw rings of fortifications erected in the decade leading up the Great War. Similar improvements occurred between 1903 and 1913 on the Canadian shores of the Lakes. After handedly defeating American forces in two previous wars, the Royal Navy made the mistake that most chronic victors eventually make. They forgot the axiom ‘always assume you enemy is as least as smart as yourself’. The United States Navy, as well as Army, was still viewed as a largely amateur force by the British and other European powers. By not taking their foe seriously, Britain made a costly blunder before the first shots of the Great War were fired in 1913.
