USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 13
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 13
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 13
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move that your colony be rated to pay our minister of the Church of England who now preaches in Boston and you hear him not, as to make the Quakers pay in your colony;" a logical sentiment which was not received with the spirit of toleration.
The colonies were soon forced to surrender their charter, by reason of which the colonists were thrown into great alarm. The press was restrained, exhorbitant taxes were levied, and it was pretended that all land titles were void and new ones must be obtained by the payment of large fees. Andros is said to have declared that an Indian deed was "no better than the scratch of a bear's paw." Governor Hinckley made answer to the king that all the money left in the colony would scarce suffice "to pay one-half of the charges for warrants, surveying, and patents, if everyone must be forced thereto."
Great was the delight in the colony when the revolution of 1688 occasioned the flight of King James II and William and Mary came to the throne. Each colony reassumed its former powers. Plymouth Colony had existed under a patent from the council of Plymouth and had no charter, as had Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, but the General Court of Election assembled at Plymouth in June, as had been the case since the Compact was signed in the cabin of the "Mayflower" and Mr. Hinckley was again elected governor and William Bradford as his deputy.
In 1690 the colonies bore their part in the French and Indian War, which continued seven years, during the reign of William and Mary. The Cape towns furnished their quota of soldiers. At the first call Barnstable County furnished nineteen men but there was soon a second call for forty-six men from Barnstable County, in addition to twenty- two Indians. It was further "ordered that one-third the military in each town shall take their arms with them to meeting on the Lord's Day." This might be termed as "preparedness" in those trying times.
The last Court of Elections held in Plymouth was June 2, 1691, as thereafter the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies became one gov- ernment. In fact the charter granted by William and Mary in 1691, united the colonies of the Massachusetts Bay, New Plymouth, the Province of Maine, the territory called Arcadia, or Nova Scotia, and all the tract of land lying between the territories of Nova Scotia and the Province of Maine, into "one real province, by the name of our Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England."
Again Governor Hinckley had to step down and out of office, as in May, 1692, Sir William Phipps arrived with his commission as Gov- ernor-in-Chief, bringing with him the new charter, and at once assumed authority. The old General Court of the Plymouth Colony met once
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more, the first Tuesday in July, and appointed a fast for the last Wednesday in August. This was its final act. The Plymouth colonial government had been in existence seventy-one years and during that time had elected six governors, each serving several terms by successive annual elections.
In 1696 Dr. Francis LeBaron came to Plymouth and began the practice of medicine. He left many descendants and was much revered by the people of the Pilgrim town. His coming to Plymouth was by reason of the wreck of a French privateer, fitted out in Bordeaux to cruise on the American coast, on which Dr. LeBaron was a physician and surgeon. The privateer was wrecked in Buzzards Bay, the crew were made prisoners and taken to Boston, the doctor being liberated at the request of the people of Plymouth that he might practice his profession among them.
In 1697 a committee was appointed by the court "to view a place for a passage to be cut through the land in Sandwich, from Barnstable Bay into Manomet Bay, for vessels to pass through and from the western parts of the country, it being thought by many persons to be very neces- sary for the preservation of men and estates, and that it will be very profitable and useful to the public."
CHAPTER XXXVII CODFISH THE TOTEM OF MASSACHUSETTS
Days When Massachusetts Maintained A Private and Effective Navy in the Struggle for Independence - Yankee Captain Demonstrated Need for Panama Canal-Much Wealth Taken from Sea by Youthful Commanders-Stories of the "Surprise" and the "Nantucket"-Pi- rates, Shipwrecks and Buried Treasure-Woman Who Gave up a Tea Room to Become A Buccaneer-Plunder Guarded by Ghosts.
The number plates on more than half a million motor cars in Massa- chusetts in 1928 bore the picture of a codfish and once again, on land and sea, the codfish has come into its own, typical of the industry which literally kept Massachusetts alive in early colonial days. The "sacred codfish" and "codfish aristocracy" may be words to arouse smiles of con- tempt and ribald laughter on the part of those as dumb as the codfish itself, but the codfish has a right to hold its place as the totem of Massa- chusetts. In these days of the fetish of cod liver oil for children and poultry, it should be remembered that for a century and a half New England, not to limit the statement to the Old Bay State, drew its living from the sea. The fisheries were necessary to the settlers in the beginning for physical life, and it was because the people of New Eng- land were masters of the sea that the Revolutionary War was won.
With reference to that time in the history of our country, no less a faithful historian than Dr. Edward Everett Hale stated on pages 287, 288, 289 and 290 of the "Story of Massachusetts :"
Strictly speaking, the independence of the nation was won upon the sea rather than upon the land. This truth should be impressed in the "Story of Massachu- setts," because in such success, Massachusetts had so much to do. Probably in every year of the war, Massachusetts had more men at sea against the enemy than Washington had on land in the whole Continental army. It seems quite clear that, as the war went on, the nation had more men at sea against the enemy, than the total force of soldiers in the Continental army and the militia.
The navy of the State itself amounted to more than forty vessels, between the beginning and the end, though there was no period when nearly so large a force was in commission. Some of the vessels which make up this number were only purchased by the State, or perhaps chartered for a single voyage.
The tendency of the writers of our history has been to describe in detail the victories and the reverses on the land, but the history of the naval warfare has been and is buried, in old log books or in the journals of young men who are join- ing in this wide system of adventure. If the readers will recollect what has been said, that on an average, two prizes a day were taken for more than six years, and if it is remembered that the State of Massachusetts sent out fully three quar- ters of the seamen engaged in such adventure, he will understand how much, of what
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is essential to history, is so hidden away in such records. Some extracts from such papers will give an idea of the way in which such young men won the vic- tories of the seas.
The State of Massachusetts, sooner or later, seems to have commissioned six hundred privateers. I think the number was much larger.
Of the naval commanders of that day John Forster Williams was the most popular captain. He had fought some battles with matchless intrepidity, and until the year 1814 was highly honored in Boston as one of the heroes of the Rev- olution. The battle which he fought in the "Protector," in which he took the "Ad- miral Duff," was one of the well-contested naval actions of the war, and when he brought his prize into port he was received with all the honors which the little town could give him.
It should be remembered that the number of seamen engaged in the privateer fleet in the Massachusetts State cruisers and in those of the nation amounted in every year to forty or fifty thousand men. This is an enormous proportion of the people of a State which had not more than four hundred thousand inhabitants. If it is also remembered that on the average one or two prizes were brought in every day into one or another of the seaports of the State, it will be easy to see how constant and how intense was the excitement arising from the conditions of the war. In a single voyage of Abraham Whipple, he disguised his ship as a merchantman and made her one of a fleet which an English squadron was con- voying from the West Indies to England.
Every night, as soon as it was dark, he captured one of his unsuspecting neigh- bors. In this way he took ten prizes successively in ten nights, and his prize crews brought eight of them into port successfully. These eight sold for more than a million dollars.
The embattled farmers who "fired the shot heard round the world" at Lexington and at Concord Bridge, were only two weeks in advance of Cape Cod seamen and others of the same calling in this vicinity who manned a vessel, fitted out by the people of New Bedford and Dartmouth and went in pursuit of a prize which had been taken in Buzzards Bay by the British sloop of war "Falcon." The "Margaretta," a king's sloop, and two other vessels were seized by the people of Machias, in the Province of Maine. The armament was placed on another vessel, by the Massachusetts government, under the command of the first naval officer in the American Navy, O'Brien.
When, in September, Washington issued commissions giving power to cut off the supply vessels of the English, it was all the authority the seamen of Massachusetts, and notably Cape Cod, needed. The "Lynch," the "Franklin," the "Lee," the "Washington," the "Harrison" and the "Warren" were at once commissioned by the Massachusetts govern- ment. The "Lynch" was named in honor of Thomas Lynch of South Carolina, the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was lost at sea in 1779.
Massachusetts issued privateers' commissions and there were numer- ous men from Cape Cod who helped make up the fearless crews. This
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was then considered a perfectly legitimate method of warfare, and it was surely no worse than the employment of gas in the World War or the acts of the "Alabama" commissioned in the Civil War. Again Dr. Hale tells in his book already referred to some interesting facts. He says :
In those days no such questions of conscience were asked. All other com- merce was endangered by the English cruisers. It was hard for a coaster even to run along the shore without being snapped up by one of their watchful command- ers. Here were therefore all the men, who would have been engaged in the whale fish' ry or the cod fishery or in commerce with the West Indies, with Europe or the rest of the world, ready to go out as privateersmen under any popular com- mander. Under John Adams's pressure, Congress created a navy before the Dec- laration of Independence. As the war went on, the new State of Massachusetts maintained its own navy, building or buying its ships. It should be remembered that at this time the building of ships for sale abroad was a very important in- dustry. No finer vessels were built in the world. The names given to these vessels show the spirit of the time. The "Margaretta," after her capture, became the "Liberty." The "Andrew Doria" recalled the name of the "Venetian Doge." There was the "Oliver;" there was the "Cromwell;" there were the "Oliver Crom- well" and the "Protector." The reader will come to some passages from the log of the "Tyrannicide." All these names were used, that kings might remember "that there was a crick in their necks also."
The method of fitting out a privateer was this: some man of enterprise or reputation obtained from the Government a commission which gave him a right to arm his vessel, the "Cromwell" or the "Sally," as a privateer, and to ship a crew. The crew once shipped were under his command, as they would have been in a vessel of the State. But it was generally supposed that the discipline of a pri- vateer was not so severe as that of the national or State vessels. The crew en- listed under an agreement that the profits of the adventure were to be divided among them. Each man had what is called his "lay," varying accordingly to the importance of the service he rendered. To this arrangement they were all accus- tomed. For all fishing vessels and all whalers went out under a similar com- munistic arrangement.
The privateer fleet of Massachusetts increased in strength until the end of the Revolutionary War. At the end of the war, the town of Salem alone had fifty-nine privateers in commission, carrying four thousand men. This was a force larger in numbers than the United States had afloat at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898. There were many privateers owned in this vicinity. In fact privateering had become the business of those who had no longer the fisheries or the regular commerce of olden times to rely upon.
To delve, for a few minutes into early history as relating to the sea, there are some interesting dates to familiarize oneself with. The coast of Massachusetts and Cape Cod in particular was visited by Leif in the year 1000 or 1002. In 1497 Cabot passed along the shore. John Cabot and his son, Sebastian, were Venetian navigators in the service Plym-49
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of England. They discovered the North American continent, an event second only to Columbus' discovery in importance. In 1500-01 Cor- tereal visited the coast and enslaved some Indians. In 1602 Gosnold made a settlement at Cuttyhunk. In 1620 the Pilgrims arrived at Cape Cod. In 1630 the Massachusetts Colony brought its charter to Massa- chusetts. In 1631 the "Blessing of the Bay" was launched on July 4. It was the first ship and the great shipbuilding industry had begun.
Reference has been made to the fact that the United States had less men afloat at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898 than the town of Salem at the end of the Revolutionary War. Those who were afloat, however, gave equally good account of themselves.
Terrific Speed from Ocean to Ocean-Although American history dates back a few years, historically speaking, water transportation has proceeded along the lines of all the important changes since logs became dug-outs, and propulsion has progressed from oars to sail, from sails to steam-driven paddle-wheels and stern propellors. If we wish to in- clude the sagas of the Vikings as authentic history of these shores we can include in our list galleys and Dragon boats of the Norsemen, with their high prows; as well as caravels, shallops, pinnaces, barques, pinckes, busses, ketches, scows, schooners, ships of the line, packets, fri- gates, whalers, clippers, or what have you?
In time iron displaced wood in shipbuilding and steel-clad warships replaced the ironclads of Civil War days. The building of steel ves- sels did not arrive at considerable importance in this vicinity until the construction of battleships at Fore River, Quincy, a quarter of a century ago, but an East Bridgewater man, the late Honorable Benjamin W. Harris, for many years judge of the Plymouth County Probate Court, was known as the father of the steel navy, for reasons explained else- where in this history.
The steam frigate, with sails and wooden masts and little or no ar- mor fought the battles in the Civil War, not forgetting the low, flat, ar- mored vessel, with a revolving turret, designed by John Ericsson and named the "Monitor." Her two guns saved the Union frigates of wood from the "Merrimac," and her armored deck withstood the rain of shells from the iron-clad "Merrimac."
When the Spanish War occurred in 1898, the United States battle- ships were large steelclad vessels, with sides of armor plates, with col- lections of turrets that were revolving turntables, heavily armored, and resting on circular steel bases through which shells and ammunition were hoisted. The masts of metal carried guns. Great engines drove this heavy fighting machine more than twenty knots an hour. One of the gigantic floating batteries of this type was the battleship "Maine," which was blown up in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, February 15, 1898.
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The explosion killed or gave fatal wounds to two hundred and sixty officers and men. Others constituted the Asiatic fleet, under command of Commodore George Dewey which sailed into the harbor of Manila, in the Philippine Islands, the first of May, 1898, and took complete pos- session of Manila Bay. Others composed the North Atlantic Fleet, commanded by Rear Admiral Sampson, and the Flying Squadron under Commander Schley, which, at the battle of Santiago, July 3, 1898, vir- tually ended the war by destroying Admiral Cervera's Spanish Fleet and "wiped an entire empire off the map in twenty minutes."
There were Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable County men with Dewey at Manila, on the battleship "Maine," with Sampson and Schley, but it was with another first class battleship, the "Oregon," which, March 1, 1898, was in dock at Bremerton, in the State of Washington, that people in the vicinity of the three counties had a peculiar interest. Before the blowing up of the "Maine," before President Mckinley de- manded that Spain should "at once relinquish its authority and govern- ment in the Island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters," the Navy Department began to concentrate the fleet ships. Those in distant waters were ordered to stations in the North and South Atlantic, and it was necessary for the "Oregon" to make a run around Cape Horn to obey orders.
The "Oregon" was under command of Captain Charles E. Clark whose home was in North Easton, one of the boundary towns of Brock- ton. Under orders sent March 1, he had proceeded to San Francisco and taken on ammunition. He reached there March 9 and on March 12 was ordered to Callao in Peru.
Sailing from San Francisco March 19, the battleship made an aver- age speed of 10.7 knots an hour through the Pacific, arriving at Callao April 4. The "Marietta" had been sent from Panama to purchase coal, in readiness for the arrival of the "Oregon" by the time she reached the Peruvian seaport. Eleven hundred tons were transferred to the "Ore- gon" in record time, and April 7 Captain Clark was on his way to the Strait of Magellan. He telegraphed the Navy Department: "On account of navigation of Magellan Strait and reported movements Span- ish torpedo-vessel near Montevideo, I should recommend 'Marietta' to accompany this vessel. If required, I could touch Talcahauno, Chile, for orders six days after my sailing."
This message was received by Hon. John D. Long, Secretary of the Navy, a Plymouth County man whose home was in Hingham. He answered : "Proceed at once to Montevideo or Rio Janeiro. The Span- ish torpedo-boat 'Temerario' is in Montevideo. 'Marietta' has been ordered to proceed to Sandy Point, Patagonia, to arrange for coal. How many tons of coal will you require? The 'Marietta' and 'Ore-
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gon' to proceed together. Keep secret your destination. Keep secret this message."
Just before dark April 16, according to the report of Captain Clark, "the anchors were let go on a rocky shelf fringed by islets and reefs in thirty-eight and fifty-two fathoms of water, and they fortunately held through some of the most violent gusts I have ever experienced." A tremendous gale was blowing, the heavy rain making it impossible to see the giant, overhanging cliffs or the narrow winding channel of the Strait, but the battleship worked her way and reached Sandy Point the evening of April 17, having made an average speed of 11.75 knots.
"Wiping an Empire off the Map in Twenty Minutes" -- When Cap- tain Clark reached Key West, May 26, 1898, Admiral Cervera was some- where in the southeastern Caribbean, and Admiral Sampson was seeking him, giving orders to Commander Schley: "You should establish a blockade at Cienfuegos with the least possible delay." With Sampson watching the north coast of Cuba and Schley on the southern shore, almost opposite Havana, Admiral Cervera steered for Santiago, on the southeastern coast of Cuba. This was the situation of the North At- lantic Fleet when Captain Clark arrived at Key West. Sampson head- ed for Santiago May 29. Naval Constructor Hobson received his per- mission to carry out a plan which he had by sinking the collier "Mer- rimac," to block the channel and bottle up Cervera's fleet, and this was attempted June 3. It was a dangerous undertaking and volunteers were asked for. While the plan seemed possible of execution, it must be ac- complished under a withering fire from the Spanish fleet, as soon as the "Merrimac" should reach the place where it was proposed to sink her, and it was extremely unlikely that those who accomplished the task would ever return. Immediately volunteers were asked for, every man on every ship in Admiral Sampson's fleet volunteered.
The few men required were selected, the "Merrimac" was sunk, so that Cervera's fleet, when it was later forced to attempt to make a run for the open sea had to pass around the wreck with caution and at a terrible loss in time, contributing to the success on the part of the American fleet when the attempt to escape from the trap was frus- trated. Hobson and his men were taken prisoners.
The attempt to escape was made July 3, 1898. The Spanish fleet was destroyed. A few minutes after the "Maria Teresa," the first to come out, passed the sunken "Merrimac," Admiral Cervera's ships were on fire and sinking, and the Spanish sailors on them were dying. The American sailors, in the exultation of victory, started to cheer. Captain John Woodward Philip of the battleship "Texas" halted the expressions of joy on the lips of his men with the words: "Don't cheer, boys, the poor devils are dying."
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Fortunes Made by Early Mariners - When a ship sailed from Bos- ton there was very likely in command of her a mariner from Plym- outh, Norfolk, or Barnstable County, as all of the coast towns and many at a considerable distance from the coast contained the homes of shipmasters qualified to sail any vessel which ploughed the seven seas. Many of them were owned in Plymouth, Kingston, Duxbury, Marsh- field, Hingham, Scituate, the towns on the Cape and elsewhere. Some of them hailed from one of these towns, although the historical records credit them as sailing from Boston. From 1674 to 1714 New England- ers launched 1,332 ships. Lord Bellomont, the royal governer, said: "I believe there are more good vessels belonging to the town of Boston than to all Scotland and Ireland." The Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies built most of the ships for the colonies and carried the bulk of the commerce from Chesapeake Bay to England and from the southern parts of Europe. In 1676, Edward Randolph wrote concern- ing the ship owners of Massachusetts: "It is the great care of the mer- chants to keep their ships in constant employ, which makes them trye all ports to force a trade, whereby they abound with all sorts of com- modities, and Boston may be esteemed the mart town of the West In- dies."
The early seaman were an able lot, taking naturally to the life afloat. Many of them shipped at an age when they would now be in the junior high schools and by the time they reached thirty, or a little past the age when many young men of today are graduating from college and won- dering what they are to do for a living, were retiring to snug homes, their fortunes made, and with a wealth of experience and knowledge obtained from knocking about seldom paralleled, even in the complex life of the present day.
There was never any lack of initiative on the part of the early resi- dents of Eastern Massachusetts who thought in terms of ships and for- eign markets. Frederic Tudor looked at his father's ice pond in Saugus and thought what it would mean to the people of the West Indies to have a little cracked ice in their toddy. He decided to send a cargo and was ridiculed for his plan, as the wise men of his neighborhood said the ice would melt and swamp any vessel which attempted to transport it. Furthermore the people in the West Indies might view it with curiosity but it would be of no avail to attempt to educate them to use it for re- frigeration purposes. Tudor packed ice in white pine sawdust and sent one hundred and thirty tons to Martinique in a brig, to see who was right.
He learned that some of the things which had been told him were true but he stored the ice until people were willing to pay his price for it. He was forced to borrow $280,000 to carry on his plans and then
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the people in this vicinity were convinced that what they entertained as a possibility was true, namely that Frederic Tudor was crazy. The War of 1812 came and passed and Tudor secured from the British Gov- ernment a monopoly of the ice trade with Jamaica. He also obtained exclusive rights to Cuba and supplied the markets in Charlestown, Sa- vannah and New Orleans.
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