 Three officers (acting Commanders Robert Heriot Barclay, Robert Finnis and Daniel Pring) had been detached by Vice Admiral Herbert Sawyer from the Royal Navy's North American Station in Halifax, Nova Scotia to the Provincial Marine, and did much over the winter to refit the existing vessels at Kingston.However, the Admiralty independently appointed Captain James Lucas Yeo to command the naval establishment on the Great Lakes.He collected reinforcements and materials in Britain, and crossed the Atlantic early in 1813.