Frédérick Rolette

Frédérick Rolette (23 September 1785 to 17 March 1831), born in Quebec City on 23 September 1785, was an officer of the Royal Navy who served in the Provincial Marine during the War of 1812. In command of the brig at the outset of the conflict, his interception of the packet ship Cuyahoga Packet in July 1812 captured the papers of the American commanding officer William Hull which proved a windfall for British forces and eventually led to the fall of Detroit under Hull's command. However, he was captured after his ship was boarded and taken over by the Americans. He returned to British service after a prisoner swap and participated in the Battle of Frenchtown in 1813 as part of a naval artillery contingent. Serving as the second-in-command of the British schooner at the Battle of Lake Erie, he took over captaincy of the vessel after the commanding officer was mortally wounded. Rolette was also significantly injured in the battle and was forced to surrender. He spent the rest of the war in captivity.

The canton of Rolette, Quebec, is named for him, as well as , a of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Biography Frédérick Rolette (spelled "Frédéric" in his birth records) was born in Quebec City, Province of Quebec, and entered the Royal Navy at a young age. Some secondary accounts have him serving (and being wounded) at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 and also serving at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. However, he is not listed among officers wounded at the Nile nor among British participants at Trafalgar. Whatever his role in the Royal Navy, he is said to have returned to Canada and to have taken a commission as a second lieutenant in the Provincial Marine in October 1807.

Just before the outbreak of the War of 1812, Rolette was posted to Amherstburg, Upper Canada, now as first lieutenant in command of the 10-gun brig . When word of the outbreak of war reached Amherstburg in early July 1812, Rolette captured the American vessel Cuyahoga Packet, before the crew of that ship was aware that war had been declared. As reported by Thomas Vercheres de Boucherville, Rolette seized the vessel by leading some two-dozen sailors and Indians in a long boat and canoes who boarded the ship without meeting any resistance. The capture of the ship meant that the papers of General William Hull, the commanding officer leading the American invasion of Canada across the Detroit River, fell into British hands. Rolette returned to Quebec City at the conclusion of the war and was presented a fifty-guinea sword of honour by its citizens. He died on 17 March 1831, never having fully recovered from his many wounds.

, an Arctic offshore patrol ship of the Royal Canadian Navy that started construction in May 2021 and was delivered in 2024, is named in his honour.