On the 2nd of July 1994 I had the privilege of boarding the US Brig Niagara while she was berthed at Queen's Quay in Toronto Ontario. This 1813 warship was here on a tour with a number of other sailing vessels in a show called "The Tall Ships." Little did I know that a year later I would be writing a photo-essay about this same ship. Fortunately, when I was there I photographed "anything and everything." providing me with ample material for this essay.

To begin with, The US Brig Niagara is a product of the War of 1812 here in North America. A description of the causes of this war is beyond the scope of this essay. I highly recommend the pair of books written by Pierre Burton called "The Invasion of Canada" and "Flames Across the Border" for an interesting, accurate, and fair account of this war and its causes. These books are the results of extensive research on both sides of the Canadian US border by their author. My own research, includes many of his sources. Mr. Burton has pulled it all together in a most readable fashion.

This essay contains eight pages, of which this is the first one. Here you find out what the essay is about, and other things such as how to view the photographs full screen (you merely click on any photo to see it full screen.) You can browse forward or back through the essay by using the navigation arrows at the bottom of each page.

On the next page There is a photograph of as much of the entire ship as I could include in a 35mm shot with a 28 mm wide angle lens from as far back as I could get. The text on that page is the longest, as it is there that I put the ship into her historical context, with a description of the battle that made her famous. There is a link in the text of this page that will send you to a "framed page" describing the naval maneuver mentioned in the main text, and displaying an animated drawing of that maneuver. The navigation arrow at the bottom of the text window,- returns you to your position in the parent document, allowing you to resume where you left off.

Each of the following five pages has a photograph of some part of the brig, with text pertaining to both the modern reconstruction and its 1813 counterpart. The last page contains footnotes, credits, and a bibliography.