Ron Burgess has taught high school history for over thirty years, and has been involved in the tourism industry of Northern Ontario as owner operator of North Huron Charters Ltd. operating out of Blind River, running bareboat sailing charters and safari sailing charters in the North Channel of Lake Huron. That has given him the background and inspiration to write The Lake Captain, 1812.

The Lake Captain: 1812 deals with a small and forgotten chapter of Canadian history during the War of 1812 which took place on Lakes Erie and Huron. Captain Alexander Mackintosh and his uncle Angus Mackintosh were involved in the fur trade with the North West Company. Angus eventually became the twenty-fifth Chief of Clan Mackintosh in Inverness, Scotland. In the spring of 1812, Captain Alexander Mackintosh brought his ship, the six gun, eighty foot, fur trader Nancy to its home port of Sandwich. The Nancy was pressed into service with the British in an armed struggle with the newly formed United States, for the fur rich heartland of North America. In addition to serving with some of the best officers of the British Army and Royal Navy, Mackintosh found that he had to endure a few of the worst. After American victories over the Royal Navy on Lake Erie and the British army at Moraviantown, Mackintosh found himself in command of the "last British ship" on the Upper Great Lakes facing a formidable American fleet.