USS Julia was a schooner in the United States Navy during the War of 1812. In September 1812, Lt. Melancthon T. Woolsey purchased Julia for the Navy on Lake Ontario. Julia, Sailing Master James Trant in command, sailed from Sackets Harbor on 8 November 1812 with Commodore Isaac Chauncey's flotilla. That afternoon lookouts on the American ships spotted HMS Royal George, the largest warship yet constructed on the Great Lakes, off False Ducks Island and sent her scurrying into the Bay of Quinte where she escaped in the rapidly falling night. The next morning they again sighted her and resumed the chase. When the British ship reached the shelter of the Canadian batteries at Kingston, Chauncey decided to follow her in to test the strength of the defenses and, if possible, to capture the warship