Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p2.djvu/138

  “These are to certify my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that Lieutenant Henry Kent, when serving on the Lakes of Canada, was appointed by Commodore Sir James L. Yeo senior lieutenant of H.M. ship Princess Charlotte, under my command, then on the stocks, and his exertions in aid of completing the building of that ship – in preparing her rigging and stores – in launching and fitting her for service – were of the most officerlike, active, unremitting, and strenuous nature; and mainly contributed to enable the ship to join the expedition to Oswego, in May 1814; and I further certify, that his conduct in the attack of Oswego was that of a most zealous, brave, and intelligent officer; and I consider his devotion to the service of that nature that their Lordships may place entire confidence in him.

(Signed)“.”

After landing the troops and wounded men of the squadron at Kingston, the Princess Charlotte and her consorts made several diversions along the enemy’s shore, but nothing decisive took place on Lake Ontario during the remainder of the campaign. At the close of the war, Lieutenant Kent commanded a division of flotilla; and in the spring of 1815, he was sent to Chippewa, above the falls of Niagara, with 120 artificers and 30 marines, to assist in constructing two large schooners, the “Tecumseh” and “Newash,” for the protection of our settlements on Lake Erie. These vessels were laid down in the beginning of May, and launched on the 7th August; at which period Commodore Sir Edward W. C. R. Owen, paid the building party a visit, expressed himself much pleased with their exertions, and offered Lieutenant Kent a lucrative civil appointment; on declining which he was placed in command of the Tecumseh, mounting two long 24-pounders on pivots, and four carronades of the same calibre, with a complement of fifty men. After making two or three trips from one garrison to the other on Lake Erie, he passed a dreary winter in Grand River, both shores of which being dismal swamps, and his nearest neighbours the Six Nations, who settled in Canada during the revolutionary war. In the spring of 1816, he had much difficulty in getting the Tecumseh over the bar, there being but five feet two inches water thereon, and her light draught seven and a half; this task, however, was accomplished after six days’ hard labour, by