Prepare to Fire was unveiled on August 3, 2012, during the bicentennial Roots to Boots Festival. It was designed and created by Windsor, Ontario, sculptors Laura and Mark Williams to commemorate the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813.
The monument depicts bronze life-size figures of three British Royal Navy men and one foot soldier recruited to help fight the battle aboard ship in Lake Erie. During this time, man power was becoming harder to recruit and as were supplies to fight the battle, which was the case for the ‘flints’ required to fire their cannons onboard the ships. Depicted in the sculpture is a man with a musket in hand preparing to fire their ship cannon in battle. A Navy commander is holding a megaphone to holler out commands on board and at the same time helping a wounded soldier (recently shot). The winded soldier was positioned to align the canon for firing.
During the process of creating this monument, Mark and Laura worked with reenactors from the Provincial Marine group for staging and artist reference. Mark designed the concept and created the armature in steel and hand sculpted the life size figures in clay. His understudy, Dick Wood, sculpted the Marina, packing the cannon with powder. Mark then oversaw and completed final details. The cannon used was cast at Ford Motor Company many years earlier and was mounted on a faux wood cement deck to represent the frigate in battle.
Once the monument was completed in clay, they brought it to Fine Arts Foundry in Clarkton, Michigan to be molded and then cast in bronze. The first two figures were unveiled in 2012 at the Boots to Roots Festival and then the following year, the two remaining figures were installed with another smaller unveiling.
The Battle of Lake Erie was a naval battle fought between the United States Navy and the British Royal Navy on September 10, 1813, in western Lake Erie during the War of 1812. At 11:45 am the British Fleet, under Commodore Robert Barclay aboard the Detroit, opened with long guns. American Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry aboard the Lawrence, supported by two schooners, attacked the Detroit and then the Queen Charlotte. Detroit was lost and all other vessels damaged, their sails entangled or out of action. The battle ended at 2:30 pm with all British ships captured and survivors taken as prisoners. British suffered 41 dead, 94 wounded and 306 captured. American casualties were 27 dead and 96 wounded.
