44°31′09″N 80°01′12″W / 44.519214°N 80.019951°W / 44.519214; -80.019951

Nancy was a schooner, built in Detroit, Michigan and launched in 1789. She served for several years in the fur trade on the Great Lakes, but is best known for playing a part in the Anglo-American War of 1812. She served for several years as a vital supply ship for the Provincial Marine. The Royal Navy took over the Provincial Marine in 1814 and so acquired Nancy. After HMS Nancy was blocked in by an American fleet near the mouth of the Nottawasaga River, her crew set her on fire on 14 August 1814 to prevent the capture of the ship and the cargo she carried. Forgotten for many years, the wreck was re-discovered in July 1927 and raised to form the centrepiece of the Nancy Island Museum.

Nancy was built 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Detroit along the Rouge River for the fur trading company Forsyth, Richardson and Company of Montreal. (Although Detroit was by rights on American territory, it was not handed over to the United States until the Jay Treaty was signed in 1796.) At this time the company was one of the several merchant firms based in Montreal that made up the loose partnership known as the North West Company. The Indian trade on the Great Lakes was conducted by larger sailing vessels whereas birchbark canoes remained the principal means of transport in the fur trade of the Canadian north-west via the Ottawa River.

The ship was constructed out of white oak and eastern red cedar. The vessel was 58 feet (18 m) at the waterline, 65 feet (20 m) long at the deck and 80 feet (24 m) overall. The ship had a beam of 22 feet (6.7 m) and a depth of hold of 8 feet (2.4 m), capable of carrying up to 350 barrels of cargo. Nancy was 67 tons burthen with two raked masts, square topsails and fore-and-aft mainsails. A figurehead in the shape of a fashionably-dressed lady with a hat and feather was situated on the bow. The ship was armed with two 2-pounder (0.91 kg) brass cannon mounted on the deck. John Richardson, one of the partners in the company, travelled to the trading post at Detroit to begin construction, accompanied by a master carpenter and six other carpenters. Construction began in late June 1789. On 23 September 1789, Richardson wrote:

The schooner will be a perfect masterpiece of workmanship and beauty. The expense to us will be great, but there will be the satisfaction of her being strong and very durable. Her floor-timbers, keel, keel-son, stem and lower futtocks are oak. The transom, stern-post, upper futtocks, top-timbers, beams and knees are all red cedar. She will carry 350 barrels.

The schooner, named after Richardson's eldest daughter, was launched on 24 November that year. The following spring, she made her maiden voyage to Fort Erie, under the command of Captain William Mills, and in June 1790, went to Grand Portage at Sault Ste. Marie with a full cargo. For the next twenty-two years, Nancy was engaged in the fur trade. The ship changed owners several times, being sold first to George Leith and Company in 1793, and later to the North West Company in 1800. She changed commanders in 1805, when Captain Alexander MacIntosh replaced Captain Mills.

Nancy was at MacIntosh's wharf at Moy Avenue (Windsor) when the War of 1812 broke out between the United States and Great Britain. Moved for protection to Amherstburg, the ship was taken by the commander of the British garrison, Lieutenant-Colonel St George, as a transport vessel. Before the war, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Elliott of The Indian Department had surveyed Nancy as part of an inventory of the means available in case of war. According to Elliott, Nancy could mount six 4-pounder (2 kg) carriage guns and six swivel guns. The schooner was apparently armed with some 3-pounder (1 kg) guns. Most of these were dismounted from the schooner and used to arm several small gunboats patrolling the Detroit River. At some later date, Nancy received two 6-pounder (3 kg) guns and two 24-pounder (11 kg) carronades.

On 30 July 1812, Nancy sailed to Fort Erie in convoy with the new Provincial Marine schooner Lady Prevost, returning with military supplies and 60 men of the 41st Regiment who then participated in the Siege of Detroit. After the British and members of Tecumseh's Confederacy under Major General Isaac Brock had captured Detroit, Nancy carried troops, stores and provisions between Fort Erie and Detroit during the late summer and autumn. The following spring, on 23 April 1813 Nancy joined a small squadron in moving Major General Henry Procter's division from Amherstburg to Miami Bay, positioning them for what would be an unsuccessful Siege of Fort Meigs.