America's first frontier was not the West, it was its inland waterways. The forest of the interior was like a beckoning refuge making travel by the Indian routes painfully slow and difficult, while traveling by water was a road that led to just about anywhere you wanted to go.

Friends Good Will was commissioned by Oliver Williams, a Michigan Territory trader, to be built in 1810. It would traverse the route of Lake Erie going from Detroit, MI to Buffalo, NY, and return. The ship was built at the River Rouge on the banks of the Detroit River.

In 1811, the ship was launched with the name Friends Good Will. The ship retained as its captain, Master William Lee, and made several voyages carrying with it the supplies that a new frontier would demand. Friends Good Will would play a role in the War of 1812 and would serve under two flags at different times, the British and the newly formed republic of the United States. It would serve not as a cargo ship, but as a war vessel being refitted with three cannons; one at the bow, one at the stern, and one at mid-beam of the ship that would operate on a center-swivel, being able to fire at various angles. To learn more of Friends Good Will's history, choose from one of the following links: