USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay > The shipping days of old Boothbay from the revolution to the world war : with mention of adjacent towns > Part 2
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The Tyrannicide, one of the State vessels of Massachusetts' navy, was closely identified with the Revolutionary War history of Boothbay. She was built at Salisbury as a large sloop, but later had another mast stepped and her rig altered to that of a brigantine.
Her most noted commander was Captain Jonathan Haraden or Herrinden of Gloucester. The name is spelled variously in old records, but evidently refers to the same family. In the decade before and dur- ing the Revolution several families of that name resided on Westport and across the river on the western borders of Boothbay. Nehemiah Harrenden, one of the organizers and first elders of the Reverend John Murray's church, served in the years 1775 and 1776 in companies organized for seacoast defense of the Boothbay region. While there is
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
no direct proof, possibly Captain Haraden was related in some degree to the Sheepscot River family. However, there is evidence that several seamen from this vicinity served on the Tyrannicide, and the vessel was no stranger in adjacent waters.
Jonathan Haraden served ashore as second lieutenant of Captain Benjamin Ward's company in 1775, but after the Tyrannicide was fitted out with fourteen guns and a complement of about seventy-five men, Haraden was commissioned first lieutenant in June 1776, under Captain John Fisk. They put to sea on a cruise and captured, after resistance, the British schooner Despatch of eight guns, twelve swivels and crew of thirty. The English commander and a sailor fell in the action and seven were wounded; the American loss was one killed and two wounded. While cruising in July, the armed ship Glasgow with thirty men was captured. Still at sea in August, the Tyrannicide fell in with and captured the brig Saint John and the schooner Three Brothers.
Lieutenant Haraden succeeded to the command in February of 1777, and soon sailed for the West Indies. Homeward bound in April, one of the crew, Samuel Wylie of Boothbay, was lost overboard. Of a pioneer family, his two sons were destined to be lost at sea. Another cruise followed, during which Captain Haraden took a ship bound to Quebec. At the end of a cruise in 1778 he was discharged. Haraden con- tinued his notable career in the privateer Pickering, fighting off the Spanish town of Bilbao during the summer of 1780 a naval duel, which may be likened on a smaller scale to that of the Bonhomme Richard- Serapis action. Later his ship was reported captured in the West Indies, but Haraden was soon afloat in the Julius Caesar, to which he had been appointed in May 1782. That ship arrived in Salem the last of the year, forty-three days from Nantes; during which she captured a vessel of 400 tons, a store-ship in Lord Howe's fleet.
The Tyrannicide, after making a few unimportant prizes, was driven ashore in a storm, sustaining slight damage. In March of 1779 came a desperate sea fight off Bermuda. Captain Allen Hallet with a crew of ninety engaged the British brigantine Revenge of fourteen guns and eighty-five men, commanded by Captain Kendall. The vessels were of about equal force, and Captain Hallet carried the enemy by board-
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MARITIME EVENTS DURING THE REVOLUTION
ing after a spirited and determined resistance of over an hour. The deck was a scene of carnage, with many of her crew killed and wounded and two guns dismounted. The Tyrannicide had eight wounded, some severely.
In summer time of the same year she lay in the harbor of Boothbay in company with a number of other armed vessels destined for the Penobscot expedition. The most imposing of the squadron in the ren- dezvous was the 32-gun frigate Warren, one of thirteen warships built by order of the Continental Congress and flagship of Captain Dudley Saltonstall. Another was the armed brig Active, Captain Allen Hallet, late of the Tyrannicide, which was under Captain John Cathcart.
The troops for the expedition, mostly raw militia and those, old or young, who could be persuaded by threats or otherwise to join, were commanded by General Solomon Lovell. Paul Revere had charge of the artillery. The General ordered Lieutenant Andrew Reed of Booth- bay and his company to commandeer all cannon and boats fit for the use of troops that could be found between the rivers Sheepscot and Damariscotta; consequently Captain Joseph Reed's ninety-ton sloop Sally, sloops Townsend, Nancy and others were assembled for trans- ports, together with a fleet of small boats and skiffs. The harbor dotted with fifty sail presented a lively appearance with boats filled with men, a few in uniform, plying to and from shore. The weather being easterly and threatening, the fleet remained in port, and the time was improved in holding a drill and parade in the hamlet, to the great delight of small boys who, like many of their elders, had never before witnessed such a spectacle.
Late in July anchors were weighed, sail made and the fleet stood to the eastward with hopes of success and glory awaiting them. There was little but disaster, for such it proved to be. On arrival in Penob- scot Bay the transports were anchored out of range of the fort and prep- arations made for landing. There was a delay on account of heavy surf, but later it was accomplished under cover of fog, although not without resistance. Had the fort, erected to protect a convenient naval base, been stormed at once probably it could have been carried, but to the commanders it appeared too strong and that, with the lack of suf- ficient co-operation between the military and naval forces, as is usual
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
when the command is divided, caused a delay and invited the disaster which followed.
Time passed in fruitless conferences, and then heavily armed war- ships hove in sight, which on nearer approach proved to be the squad- ron of Admiral Sir George Collier. There was no delay on his part, however, for he sailed in ready for action with the 64-gun ship-of-the- line Raisonnable, three frigates and other vessels. The light-armed Colonial vessels and the transports fled up the river in panic, and to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy a number were destroyed the next morning. The Tyrannicide and several transports were blown up or burned near the mouth of the river Kenduskeag, while the frigate Warren, called a beautiful vessel by Sir George, 'was committed to the flames at Oak Point cove, half a league above Frank- fort village.' The Boothbay transports shared a like fate in the disaster, and in 1782 Joseph Reed was awarded 665 pounds sterling for loss and hire of his sloop Sally. Samuel Howard, owner of Industry, and also the owner of the Townsend were reimbursed for the loss of their local sloops.
A squadron commanded by Henry Mowat of the Royal Navy, con- sisting of the Albany, Nautilus and the old brig North, stationed in the narrows before the arrival of Admiral Collier, was a factor in delaying the attack. Captain Mowat truly stated: 'It was positively the severest blow received by American Naval force during the War.' Many years later several cannon were salvaged from the wrecks as mementos of the largest naval expedition fitted out by Massachusetts in the Revolution.
The year 1780 began with very cold weather and six feet of snow on the level, consequently there was a brief respite. With the advent of spring hostilities were resumed from the naval base in Penobscot Bay. There lay the Albany, the sloop of war Nautilus and two others. To Captain James Ryder Mowatt of the King's Rangers came an order from the senior officer:
You are hereby impowered and directed to take by Force of Arms, all Vessels and Craft that may fall in your power, belonging to the Subjects of the Kings of France and Spain, and also those belonging to the Rebells of America, and you are to order all Captains to this Port or to some other place In Nova Scotia.
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MARITIME EVENTS DURING THE REVOLUTION .
Given on board the Albany in the River of Bagaduce 17 May 1780.
H. Mowat.
Soon after the junior officer in charge of two of the Albany's whale- boats captured to the eastward of Boothbay a small schooner, the Sukey, landed two hands and sent her to Penobscot Bay. Proceeding close inshore, he managed to seize a sloop belonging to Joseph Reed who, in a petition for redress, wrote:
That on the 22 ult. [May] the sloop Ranger of ninety tons, as good as new, the property of your Petitioner alone, sailed from Townsend Har- bour in said town, and before she had got out of the sound fell into the hands of a party of the British forces stationed at Penobscot commanded by James Ryder Mowatt a Capt. of the Kings Rangers, so called. That your Petitioner, with a few of his neighbors then ashore, embarked in a sloop at anchor in the harbour & gave chase to the said enemies; and on the 23d took the armed boat in which was the said Mowatt and nine others, & brot them from Penobscot bay into the harbour of Townsend aforesaid. That soon after the Capture was made, the said Mowatt, as Commander of the party, made offers to restore said sloop, in the same order in which she was taken, together with a new schooner of 25 tons, taken by him the foregoing day; on condition that he, with the other prisoners, should be set at liberty, & consented to remain with us as a hostage until said vessels were delivered.
Mowatt, chagrined at his capture, refused parole and on the journey to Boston attempted to escape, but was caught on the Isles of Shoals. His offer of exchange was approved eventually, and Reed received the vessels. Another local sloop, David Reed's Patty, was captured off the mouth of the Sheepscot in July by Albany's tender Mermaid; the crew escaped.
Mention should be made of Ship Island, now Sawyer's and named after Benjamin Sawyer. It took its first name because there mast-ships loaded tall straight pines from virgin forests for England's navy. Ear- lier still one Patten lived there, and in 1746 a Samuel Barter deeded his part of the island to Joseph Patten who, with his daughter Alice, resided there when the county of Lincoln was established in 1760.
The late Hon. William D. Patterson recorded:
When the Proprietors of the Kennebeck Purchase from the Colony of New Plymouth ran out the lines in 1750-1751, they claimed to strike the
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
ocean near Pemaquid Point, and so Ship Island fell within that claim, and there is record of a deed of Ship Island and Indian Town Island, dated 23d November, 1762, from Silvester Gardiner, one of the Kennebeck Proprietors, to Benjamin Sawyer of Danvers. Also a deed from Gardiner to Israel Davis. Under these deeds Sawyer and Davis apparently took possession. Israel Davis of Danvers, so described in the deed, was a licensed innholder on the island for several years.
Booth Bay June 23d 1773
This day, we the subscribers have agreed to make a sale of Ship Island (if there don't any person appear before to advertise in public print) as soon as can be, the property as followeth. Said island layeth on the Easterly Side of Sheepscot River about 9 miles below Witch Casset Point laying over against the Upper Marsh Island, very pleasantly situated in plain sight of the Harbour, right before the house which has been a tavern house for a number of years, also a barn & saw mill belonging to said barn, & about 200 A. the biggest half cleared, has been for some years past 25 or more loads of good English hay cut from said farm, & the pastureing exceedeth the mowing; it is supposed to keep 12 cows & 4 large oxen & 30 or 40 sheep in best manner, about 2 miles from Rev. Mr. Murray's Meeting House, & in the way of meeting may go off dry at low water, and so narrow as there may be a bridge built across so that a team might go on & off-for four pounds lawful money; the benefit of fifth in sight of the door.
Whover has a mind to purchase by paying half down and may be credi- ted with the other half, to be on interest. Whover has a mind to purchase may apply to Israel Davis, which is now in possession, or to Benjamin Sawyer, Blacksmith, of Danvers, in County of Essex, either of them.
By Benjamin Sawyer Israel Davis
The editor of the Essex Gazette, in which the advertisement ap- peared, evidently was puzzled, for he appended a note: 'We have only time to correct the orthography; reader may correct grammatical errors himself.' Both Davis and Sawyer were prominent locally; the former in military affairs during the war, the latter in church life. In 1756 Sawyer was employed building boats at Lake George for the expedition against Crown Point, and while thus engaged seems to have met Ebenezer Jones, whose daughter Phebe he married. Captain Jones, a noted fight- er in the Colonial wars, was in 1758 ambushed and killed by Indians near Crown Point.
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MARITIME EVENTS DURING THE REVOLUTION
Deacon Benjamin Sawyer lived on the island during the war and thither, at daybreak of a winter morning early in 1781, came a landing party from an armed brig in the Sheepscot, and after robbing his house of everything of value set it on fire. After they departed the Deacon saved his home by his own exertions. The only act of consideration shown by the marauders was to one of the large family of children, a daughter ill in bed. The party proceeded to the home of one Herrington in Edge- comb and also abused and robbed him. The last mention found of patriotic Benjamin Sawyer appears in the census of 1790, when he lived in Boothbay. Four years before, in a petition for redress for cattle stolen, he wrote in part:
The while hostilities Continued between Britain and America he was exposed by his local situation to the ravages of the common foe; that his Uniform zeal and activity in the cause of his Country drew on him and his family a peculiar share of the enemy's vengeance; for this his house was plundered and robbed of his property to a considerable amount.
About the time of the Sawyer episode a British ship anchored in Townsend harbor and landed marines, who burned two sloops in David Reed's creek, so called, now a long narrow fresh-water pond at West Harbor. The long strife was drawing to a close, however, and depredations gradually ceased as the enemy's vessels were withdrawn for naval operations elsewhere.
CHAPTER II
EARLY SHIPWRECKS-PIRACY-SEA SERPENTS
EARLY SHIPWRECKS
I "N late fall of 1741 a snow* from Londonderry, Ireland, Rowan master, with 200 emigrants drove ashore on Grand Manan; many perished in the surf, others from exposure. Fifty survivors made their way to George's Fort and Pemaquid, and doubtless formed a part of the Scotch-Irish settlement in this locality. Apropos of this, in 1742 there is a record of an Andrew Reed at Pemaquid. The opening of 1762 lists the shipwreck on Cape Cod of a lumber-laden schooner from Sheepscot commanded by Benjamin Chapman. Late in 1768 two sloops were cast away with all hands, one from Pemaquid under John Nichols with two sailors and four passengers; the other was also lost on the coast with ten persons including the master, Patterson, and Robert Chapman. In 1786 a Damariscotta-Boston packet sloop with thirteen aboard was wrecked on Lovell's Island with the loss of eleven, includ- ing Henry Reed of Boothbay. Early in the following year a ninety-ton sloop from Sheepscot was lost on Bang's Island with the master, Moses Chase, and a boy. They were buried in Portland. Three sailors were saved by holding to wreckage.
Damariscove has been the scene of many shipwrecks, and on Christ- mas Eve 1785 a schooner from Boston for Muscongus was cast away on the island. The lost included William Kent of Bristol, Captain Hector McNeil of Boston, a woman, passengers and nine others. The only sur- vivor was John Morton, a brother of the master. Another shipwreck there the same winter in which all perished caused the people to peti- tion for a lighthouse on Damariscove. In January of 1797 the Wiscasset schooner Mary, Captain Appleton, sailed from Saint Croix for home, and soon afterward lost overboard the mate, William Seavey jr. While approaching the coast, she struck on the eastern part of Damariscove and went to pieces.
The schooner Frederick was commanded by Andrew Reed and manned by a crew of three men and a boy, all of Boothbay. The tragic
* A vessel similar to a brig.
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EARLY SHIPWRECKS-PIRACY -SEA SERPENTS
story of her last coasting trip was reported by Captain Lassell, master of the rescuing Kennebunk schooner, as follows:
-
At five P.M. on Friday January 8, 1790, I fell in with a boat forty leagues east of Cape Ann with Captain Andrew Reed and Thomas Ball alive in the boat and Nathaniel Sawyer dead. Captain Reed informed me that he buried William Booker out of the boat the day before; that he sailed from Boothbay on Monday night, the fourth, bound for Boston in schooner Frederick of that port with a pleasant breeze at the north and by an un- common gust of wind upset about nine miles distant from old York under a single reefed mainsail and jib. At three in the afternoon of Tuesday, find- ing the schooner sinking, the four above mentioned reverted to the boat. Daniel Herrin, a boy, was left on board in the cabin. Captain Reed in- forms me that they had nothing to eat or drink until taken up by our crew. Booker and Sawyer perished with the cold and the boy was drowned below.
The starving and half-frozen survivors were given every attention and carried to Townsend harbor. Anent this sad fatality the following excerpt from the diary of the Boothbay minister, the Reverend Jona- than Gould, is of interest. On January 13 1790 he wrote:
Ye young Captain at home to-day, having been cast away or rather over- set in Dr. Creamore's schooner-three persons drowned & froze and one man almost perished; they were in ye boat 3 days. O ye hardships of seamen.
David Reed owned and commanded the large sloop Sally. In the gathering darkness of a wintry February day in the year 1791 he was off Winter Harbor, when his vessel sprang a leak and filled so fast that all hands, mostly his sons, were obliged to abandon ship without extra clothing. The sloop soon foundered, leaving them exposed to the ele- ments in an open boat several miles from shore. The elderly Captain and crew suffered exceedingly during the bitter cold night. He and his eldest son, David jr., aged twenty-four, were clad insufficiently, and on landing were unable to walk without assistance because of fatigue and frostbite. The sequel to the disaster is related in the diary of the afore- said minister who, Monday February 14 1791 noted:
This night old Captain Reed arrived having had his vessel founder at
£
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
sca. He and his hands took to ye boat, froze himself and hands, one son especially very badly. So ye fate of winter coasting.
Tues., Feb. 15th. Did nothing all day-only heard of ye old Captain's misfortune. [Later Mr. Gould called at] ye old Captain's, stayed awhile and saw ye frozen people. Then set out with ye Dr. [Creamore], Capt. Reed, a boatfull & come across ye harbour-stopped at Capt. Paul Reed's, drank tea. Then came home. Ye old Captain has a bad time.
Sat., Feb. 19th. Ye old Captain's toes cut off & one foot-toes of his sons. To-morrow appointed for cutting off his leg.
Sun., Feb. 20th. Set out to ride to meeting but ye Esquire's mare would not ride double-went on foot. Predicated from i Jno. 4:2, a farewell sermon. This day David Reed jr. had his leg cut off. They were prayed for.
Loss of the Betsey. This old-time ship was constructed at Hallowell in 1796 for David Payson and Captain Peter Bryson, and hailed from Wiscasset. The maiden voyage was to Liverpool, England, under James Kennedy, thence sailed for Boston. On the passage in October she was boarded by a French officer of a privateer from Saint Malo. He de- manded the ship's papers and inspected the cargo, but nothing was taken. Since a figurehead had been set and alterations made in Liver- pool the ship's appearance did not agree with her register, but the officer was satisfied she was an American vessel and permitted her to proceed. After thirty-three days' passage, good for the season, she ar- rived at Wiscasset. Alexander Cunningham, whose wife was Mary Payson, purchased Bryson's half of the ship and purposed to take com- mand the next voyage, but at the eleventh hour Captain Kennedy again took charge and was shipwrecked. On return to Wiscasset in May he wrote:
On the 26th of February [1797],- days after I sailed from this port, being then a violent gale, the ship sprung a leak and on the 27th she entirely filled with water. The weather still continuing very tempestuous we were obliged, as the only means of saving our lives, thirteen in number, to take to the tops and on the same night died Samuel Perkins, a boy. In this situa- tion the remaining twelve continued ten days exposed to the inclemency of the weather, without any sustenance but some raw pork and no kind of drink but what snow we could procure from the topmast rigging.
On the ninth of March a ship hove in sight and we made what signals we could to show our distressed condition. Before the ship got up with us
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EARLY SHIPWRECKS-PIRACY-SEA SERPENTS
the Betsey turned on her beam ends. She proved to be the ship Patsey, Captain Peacock, of and from Liverpool, England. A few minutes after the Patsey's boat came alongside the wreck, died a Dutchman and John Clif- ford, two of my seamen. With much difficulty six of us were got into the boat and carried on board the ship, but the sea running very high and night coming on, four men were unavoidably left on the wreck till next morning when they were happily relieved and brought on board the ship.
And I take this opportunity in behalf of my ship's men and myself to re- turn my most sincere and grateful thanks to Captain Peacock for his humanity and kindness in relieving us from the wreck at the risk of lives of those who were employed in the benevolent act, ... and next to a kind superintending Providence, we are indebted to him for our lives, health and the opportunity of again visiting our families and friends. In three weeks after being on board the Patsey, fell in with the ship Commerce of Boston, Captain Cleveland* and as Captain Peacock's provisions grew very short, myself and three people went on board the Commerce and arrived three weeks after at Alexandria.
An unusual incident occurred early in January 1798, when a Mar- blehead sloop, commanded by a Captain Brooks, struck on a reef at Heron's Island, and after futile attempts to get her off the master went ashore for aid. Two sons of Jonathan Farnham, John and Hansel, to- gether with James McFarland, agreed to assist him and paddled out to the stranded vessel in a dugout canoe. Thoroughly chilled in the wintry weather while freeing the sloop, they were invited on board, where all partook freely of liquor. They then departed in the canoe for home. The Kennebeck Intelligencer continues the tale thus:
John Farnham soon said he would lie down on some straw and take a nap, as he was fatigued and sleepy, while his brother and Mr. McFarland paddled the canoe up the Damariscotta River. His brother accordingly set Mr. McFarland ashore on the eastern side of the river where he lived and then attempted to paddle to the western side of the river where he and his brother dwelt, but the wind blowing fresh and strong against him in the growing dark, it is supposed he felt cold and stood up in the canoe to thresh his arms and staggered or fell overboard. His brother, who was asleep, never wakened till he was near two leagues outside the White Islands drifting to sea when he found his brother and Mr. McFarland
* Richard J. Cleveland, ancestor of President Cleveland.
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
missing and he alone in the canoe without either paddle or oar. After be- ing at sea four days and nights, without anything to subsist on excepting snow, the canoe drifted ashore on the Isles of Shoals, which being dis- covered by the inhabitants they repaired to the canoe and found him crawling on his hands and knees upon the rocks; they carried him to a house and gave him some refreshments which he feebly partook of and then some people brought him to Portsmouth on the same day, but in a very weak situation.
Here the unfortunate man met Captain Foster from home, who, with another master, paid his expenses and obtained passage for him in a vessel bound direct to Boothbay, Farnham insisting that the canoe be taken on board. On arrival he was received as one from the dead, since the mystery of his disappearance and that of the canoe had been un- explainable. It had drifted at least seventy miles.
In his eighties Captain William Reed wrote: 'Your story in regard to the Farnham canoe is very correct. This canoe was dug out of a big pine tree. It was over twenty feet long and from three to four feet wide and quite high sided. It was very able.'
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