The first Asp was a schooner in the United States Navy during the War of 1812. Asp, the former British merchant vessel Elizabeth, was captured on Lake Ontario in 1812 by the schooner , purchased by the Navy from the prize court: outfitted; and commissioned on 6 February 1813, Lt. Sidney Smith in command. Service history Battle of York Asp got underway on 25 April 1813 as a unit of Commodore Isaac Chauncey's Lake Ontario squadron escorting General Henry Dearborn's 1,700 troops to York (now Toronto), Canada. The squadron arrived off York two days later. While Dearborn's troops hustled ashore, Asp and the other ships of the squadron supported them by bombarding the town's defenses. Outnumbered and outgunned, the defenders gave way after a brief, but stubborn, defense. The squadron remained at York for about a week loading booty of war and destroying that which could not be carried on. At York, the American force captured the 10-gun brig and destroyed an 'almost complete' 24-gun ship. When the warships left York, they spent the following two weeks convoying reinforcements and supplies to General Dearborn. Battle of Fort George The next enterprise decided upon was an attack on Fort George, located almost due south from York across the western end of Lake Ontario and on the Canadian side of the Niagara River where it empties into Lake Ontario. Commodore Chauncy carefully reconnoitered the defenses of the British stronghold on 26 May. Before dawn the following morning, the squadron moved in with the embarked assault troops. While the larger ships of the squadron bombarded the various defenses and batteries around the fort, Asp joined and in covering the landings themselves. Their point-blank grape shot fire riddled the British ranks to such a degree that the American troops easily established a beachhead and soon drove off the remnants of the British who tried unsuccessfully to rally further inland. In that victorious combined operation, the American Army and Navy succeeded in securing the Niagara frontier and the river by forcing the British to evacuate the entire area. It also allowed the Lake Erie squadron to be augmented by five vessels which had been bottled up in the Niagara between the falls and British batteries at the southern (Lake Erie) end of the river. At Sackett's Harbor While the American squadron had been concentrating on the western end of Lake Ontario, the British had been