HMS Confiance (1814)  HMS "Confiance" was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate that served in the Royal Navy on Lake Champlain during the War of 1812. "Confiance" served as Captain George Downie's flagship at the Battle of Plattsburgh, on 11 September 1814. Surrendered to the American Squadron following a nearly 2½ hour battle, she was eventually taken to Whitehall, New York where she was taken into the U.S. Navy and placed in ordinary. The vessel was formally abandoned by the Navy in 1820 and after being partially salvaged, was allowed to sink at her moorings. As a danger to navigation, the sunken hulk was destroyed with dynamite charges during dredging operations on the channel in 1873. The frigate was constructed at the Ile aux Noix Naval Shipyards and launched on 25 August 1814. To this day "Confiance" remains the largest warship ever to sail on Lake Champlain. The British built "Confiance" in answer to the American commander Thomas Macdonough's ambitious shipbuilding program, itself designed to thwart British advances into Vermont and New York State via the lake. The formidable vessel was described as having "the gun-deck of a heavy frigate, with thirty long twenty-fours upon it. She also had a spacious top gallant forecastle, and a poop that came no further forward than the mizzen mast. On the first were a long twenty-four on a circle, and four heavy carronades; two heavy carronades were mounted on the poop." Captain George Downie was appointed to command soon after the vessel was launched, replacing Captain Peter Fisher, who in turn had superseded Commander Daniel Pring. As a fifth-rate ship, "Confiance" required a post rank captain in command, and only the distant Admiralty could promote Pring to Post Captain. Like Macdonough, Downie had difficulty obtaining men and materials from Commodore James Lucas Yeo on Lake Ontario, and Macdonough had intercepted several spars and other materials sold to Britain by unpatriotic Vermonters. Downie could promise to complete "Confiance" only on 15 September; and even then, her crew would not have been exercised. Sir George Prévost, Governor in Chief of British North America and overall commander of the invasion forces, was anxious to begin his campaign as early as possible, to avoid the bad weather of late autumn and winter, and continually pressed Downie to prepare "Confiance" for battle more quickly.