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Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent
HMS DETROIT CAPTURED BY AMERICAN FORCES ….AGAIN!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
NOTE: As the War of 1812 Bicentennial celebrations loom ( you will hear much more about this as we get closer) there have been a number of people who have asked us about whatever happened to the building project concerning the HMS Detroit. The following article is from 2003 and it provides a very clear answer. You may not like it but….that’s what happened!If you examine, in a cursory manner, past brochures published by the Amherstburg Visitors Centre, you would probably come to the conclusion that it is a Canadian town that “gets it” when it comes to promoting its rich War of 1812 history as a tourist draw. However, appearances, as we know, can be terribly deceptive!
On a former tourism brochure cover, it depicted a group of British soldiers (circa War of 1812) charging an unseen enemy which we assume to be U.S. forces. When one looks through the booklet there is quite a bit of print describing its historic gems. It refers to the Gordon House, Kings Navy Yard, Park House Museum, and The Commissariat and, of course its showpiece - Fort Malden. All of them having played significant roles in the War of 1812.
In short, Amherstburg has in my mind been a tourist Mecca waiting to be developed. It’s close to the U.S. border (millions of potential visitors within a day’s drive), has wonderful architectural features, a mild climate, wonderful access and views of the Detroit River. It also a group of concerned citizens, historians and re-enactors dedicated to preserving, celebrating and mining its vast historical reserves.
We have always seen Amherstburg as having the potential of Niagara –On –The- Lake and naively assumed that it would only be a matter of time. We, as well as many other residents of Ontario, thought that once the building of the replica of the HMS Detroit was completed and safely anchored on the waterfront at Amherstburg, that the town would finally assume its mantle as one of Ontario’s hot tourist spots.
We have been savouring and holding fast to that idea for almost two decades! We know these things take time. We knew some of the people involved in its early stages and had faith in their judgment, enthusiasm and dedication.
We rejoiced, in the past, when we saw an automotive company construct and place on display in Windsor the cannon needed for the project. We unrealistically mused about somehow getting the HMS Detroit up the Thames River some October in the future for our own celebration of the Battle of the Thames. In short, we were excited!
But then there appeared some cracks in the plan. We heard rumours of dissension among the ranks, that some Amherstburg citizens did not support the project and that the cost of building this ship’s replica was escalating at an alarming rate.
Still we were heartened to hear that a few years ago the hull of the HMS Detroit ad been completed and that it was being transported to Amherstburg. It seemed quite promising and then…nothing. No news in situations like this is never good and so it was with the HMS Detroit.
It was spirited away to a hiding place in La Salle, we heard, and the another “news blackout”. We could not get a definite answer on where the ship was either in its physical location nor in its expected completion date.
And then the startling, totally unexpected news came. The hull of the HMS Detroit that was to meant to pay homage to its predecessor, the ship that so valiantly left Fort Malden in September of 1813 to do battle with Oliver Hazard Perry and a U.S. squadron on Lake Erie, was to be sold! From an even more local point of view, the ultimate result of the British defeat on Lake Erie led directly to the Battle of the Thames.
However, there was more bad news! Not only was the partial replica of the HMS Detroit to be sold to rich Americans from the home of Oliver Hazzard Perry (Newport, R.I.) but the ship was to be completed and renamed the “Oliver Hazzard Perry”! As a former English teacher I loved the wonderful example of irony but, as a local historian, I cringed!
Not only was it bad enough that the original HMS Detroit had been captured by Commodore Oliver Hazzard Perry (and later in time sent over Niagara Falls with a boat load of animals as an early, bizarre, cruel American reality show) but now its namesake had been recaptured by Americans and named for its arch enemy! Does life get any crueler than that?
A segment of the population, like Chatham-Kent, has always been reluctant to embrace its future by celebrating its past. We feel great sympathy as well as empathy with all those forward-thinking, dedicated volunteers in Amherstburg who saw a dream and pursued it. These recent developments must be truly heart wrenching and discouraging to all those who worked so hard to raise an impressive amount of money and hoped to see it completed within their life times.
What happened? Well, the project seemed to have been, in 1996, removed from the hands of dedicated volunteers and became a paid organization. From 1999 to 2002 the HMS Detroit organization spent a whopping $400,000 on salaries and administrative costs. In short, the original intent of this wonderful project got horribly sidelined.
It is a very depressing story but only the most recent in our area’s failure to pursue our past as a tool (only one of course) for the betterment of our future. There seems to be a “death wish” of sorts in our area when it comes to arts and culture projects and I cannot, for the life of me, understand its prevalence.
Other areas in North America seem so progressive in these areas and as a result so alive, so vibrant, and so profitable. While in our area of Ontario we seem quite content to let things slip away, and follow that old adage of… “nothing ventured, nothing gained”.
No better example exists that the recapture of the HMS Detroit by Americans who seem to value their past and come up with countless ways to celebrate, commemorate and profit from their past.
Jim and Lisa Gilbert are local, national and international award winning educators and historians.
