How the Nascent Navy’s Nancy Armed the Army (episode 341)

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Transcript

Jake:
[0:05] Welcome to Hub History, where we go far beyond the freedom trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the Hub of the Universe.

Introduction to the Nancy’s Capture

Jake:
[0:14] This is episode 341, How the Nascent Navy’s Nancy Armed the Army. Hi, I’m Jake. This week, I’m talking about a small victory with big consequences. By late November of 1775, George Washington and the Continental Army encircling Boston faced a crisis.

Jake:
[0:38] The soldiers were staring down the barrel of a frigid New England winter, their enlistments were expiring, and they were critically short of guns and gunpowder and essential supplies. General Washington was desperate to strike at the British in Boston before his army melted it away, even contemplating the use of spears as a last resort against the world’s most powerful military. The Continental’s luck began to change when Washington commissioned a small squadron of six lightly armed schooners, the First American Navy, and ordered them to patrol New England waters. One of these schooners, called the Lee, was commanded by a Captain John Manley of Marblehead. Operating under Washington’s directive to harass enemy shipping, Captain Manley cleverly tricked and captured the British Ordnance Brigantine Nancy near Boston Harbor. Captain Manley cleverly tricked and captured the British Ordnance Brigantine Nancy near Boston Harbor on November 29, 1775.

Jake:
[1:44] This single ship that had strayed from the safety of a larger convoy proved to be an immense acquisition for the Patriots, yielding a treasure trove of military stores. Cannons, thousands of muskets, and perhaps most importantly, a cache of ammunition and gunpowder that, paired with Henry Knox’s noble train of artillery, would provide the Continentals with enough firepower to finally drive the British out of Boston.

Support from Our Listeners

Jake:
[2:12] But before we talk about the capture of the Nancy, I just want to pause and say a big thank you to everyone who supports Hub History financially. This time, I want to shout out a listener named Tom Inn, who’s been a Patreon sponsor for a long time. I just got a notification telling me that Tom doubled his monthly support for the podcast, which I, of course, deeply appreciate.

Jake:
[2:36] Patreon, where Tom helps us out, is the best way to support the show because a monthly commitment gives me stability to plan around. As Tom shows us, however, it doesn’t have to mean that you’re locked in forever. You can raise or lower the amount of your monthly support, pause it, or even cancel it. Although maybe I shouldn’t advertise that part. If you don’t want to commit to supporting the show on an ongoing basis, you can also use PayPal to make a one-time contribution that fits your budget. However you do it, your support is what makes it possible for me to cover the expenses of making this podcast as we close in on the 10th anniversary of Hub History. So to everybody who’s already supporting the show, thank you. And if you’re not yet supporting the show and you’d like to start, it’s easy. Just go to patreon.com slash hubhistory or visit hubhistory.com and click on the Support Us link. And thanks again to all our new and returning sponsors.

The Siege of Boston

Jake:
[3:39] By late November of 1775, the Continental soldiers who were surrounding Boston were resigned to the idea of a siege. On October 1st, they were ordered to start building barracks so they’d have someplace warm to spend the coming New England winter. By early November, they were worried about a firewood supply to last the winter, and their quartermasters were frantically searching for coats, blankets, and straw that could be used for insulation and bedding for both men and horses. Much of the army was scheduled to go home when their enlistments ran out at the end of the year. We’ve heard in recent episodes about the pressure George Washington felt to attack the British in Boston while he still had an army to attack them with. What he didn’t have, however, was gunpowder.

Jake:
[4:28] Especially after the massive set-piece battle at Bunker Hill in June, Continental Forces realized that he didn’t have enough ammunition to fight another one, or even to defend their lines effectively if the British marched out of Boston in force. Within weeks of taking command of the siege of Boston, George Washington was learning to make do with arms that didn’t require scarce gunpowder. Ordering in July, the commanding officers in those parts of the lines and redoubts where the pikes are placed will order the quartermasters to see the pikes greased twice a week. There to be answerable also that the pikes are kept clean and always ready and fit for service.

Jake:
[5:12] Pikes are just spears, a sharp metal blade on a wooden shaft that’s long enough to brace the back end on the ground. They’re a perfect weapon for an army that had neither powder and ball for their muskets, nor bayonets to mount on them. Keeping the pikes well greased meant that they would more easily penetrate a charging redcoat’s chest, and keeping them clean meant that they were always ready for action. Very resourceful, very spunky. They’d think that a bunch of farmers and shopkeepers were going to be able to fight off the most powerful army in the world with some sharp sticks.

The Pine Tree Flag

Jake:
[5:50] And very, very lucky for the Continentals, they found an accidental solution to their shortage of guns and ammunition before they ever had to use those pikes for real.

Jake:
[6:02] Our story starts, in a way, with a pine tree. This particular pine tree is on a flag. The tree’s green, the flag’s white, and the motto, an appeal to heaven, usually appears across the top of the flag, above the tree. I feel like most Americans had never heard of a flag like that until multiple rioters carried it during the attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol in 2021, and then Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flew it over his house to announce his support for the insurgents. But in fact, the pine tree flag had a happier first act before being co-opted by right-wing religious extremists.

Jake:
[6:44] On October 20th, 1775, George Washington ordered flags of this design to fly over the six schooners that the Continental Congress commissioned and Washington personally funded. The design might have been based on banners flown on the floating batteries that the Continentals used to defend the Charles River from raids by British boats, though the origins aren’t exactly clear. These six schooners formed the original squadron of the Continental Navy, but the Massachusetts Naval Militia adopted the same flag when it was formed just a few months later. These initial schooners were named the Hancock, the Lee, the Franklin, the Harrison, the Lynch, and the Warren.

The British Convoy

Jake:
[7:29] One of them, the Lee, would end up solving the ammunition problem that had plagued the Continentals for months, allowing George Washington to write this note to John Hancock on November 30, 1775. Last evening, I received the agreeable account of the schooner Lee, commanded by Captain Manley, having taken and carried into Cape Ann a large brigantine bound from London to Boston, loaden with military stores, the inventory of which I have the pleasure to enclose you.

Jake:
[8:01] The British ship HMS Nancy was a lightly-armed brigantine, a medium-sized, two-masted ship designed for carrying more cargo than a sloop or schooner could carry, faster than a sloop or schooner could sail. The Nancy sailed from England on September 8th as part of a convoy. There were two heavy transports that were each carrying all the arms and ammunition for two companies of artillery, which would have solved the Continental’s gunpowder problems for much of the rest of the war, if they could have been captured. One of these heavy transports was named the Charming Nancy, which, when combined with the Brigantine Nancy, made research for this episode especially fun. There are also three ordnance store ships in the convoy, including the Plain Old Nancy and another ship called the Juno. The convoy also included six ships carrying cargos primarily of food and basic supplies. Remember, the Americans had Boston surrounded, so there was no way for the British to get food for themselves and their horses except by sea. And there was also one troop transport from Ireland.

Jake:
[9:10] These 12 ships would be escorted across the Atlantic by HMS Phoenix, a 44-gun ship of the line. Sending unarmed or lightly armed transport and cargo ships to sea in a tightly grouped convoy with an armed escort was a tactic that didn’t change much from the first Spanish treasure fleets in the early 1500s to the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II.

Jake:
[9:36] Later in the Revolution, the British might have sent a larger escort ship. But in the fall of 1775, a fifth or eighth ship of the line was considered… fine. After all, the Americans didn’t even really have a navy. Just these six little schooners that sailed out of Marblehead and stayed near the Massachusetts coast.

The Storm at Sea

Jake:
[9:57] The Atlantic Ocean had other plans for the convoy, though. Two months into the voyage and almost within sight of the New England coast, they ran into a storm that scattered the convoy across the waves and out of the protection of the Phoenix. By November 9th, Vice Admiral Samuel Graves, the longtime commander of all British naval forces in North America, was worried. Writing to a subordinate officer who just arrived in Boston, As I hourly expect a number of transports and victuallers to arrive, who having parted from their convoy and dropping in singly and unacquainted, will be in danger from the Rebel cruisers. I would have you go to sea again for a fortnight longer and then anchor in Nantasket.

Jake:
[10:45] The same day that was written, most of the reunited convoy made it safely into Boston Harbor, where the guns of the British warships anchored there would protect them. But not without some drama in the last hours of the voyage. An officer on the ship Charming Nancy recorded, Thursday, November 9th. Rainy morning, but moonlight between 12 and 1. The watch on deck saw another sail bearing towards us, on which we was all ordered to our quarters in order to receive them in case of an attack. But after viewing us for some time, they stood off, on which our men was ordered between decks and to be ready with their arms on the shortest notice. At eleven came to an anchor, on account of having no wind, in Nantasket Road in Seven Fathoms, and about seven miles from Boston. One of the ships which we saw yesterday evening was the Phoenix, and the other, the Juno, an ordnance store ship which came to anchor last night in Nantasket Road, as likewise the King George Victualer and Whitby came to an anchor in the above place. Wade Anchor, in company with the Williamson, about 4 p.m., came to an anchor in Boston Harbor. That report alone accounts for five of the convoy ships, plus their escort, the Phoenix.

Jake:
[12:07] Over the next few days, six more stragglers found their way safely into the anchorage at Nantasket Roads in Boston Harbor. That just left the Nancy unaccounted for. After three days, Admiral Graves informed British General William Howe that I have sent Mr. Moad orders to put to sea immediately to look for the Brig Nancy, and have given directions to set her on fire if found in Cape Ann Harbor, and she cannot be cut out. If she is not there, Lieutenant Moad is to cruise for her and bring her in. But I’m inclined to think she stood to sea in the late thick weather, and the strong northerly winds since have prevented her getting in.

Jake:
[12:49] Cape Ann Harbor basically means Marblehead, so the Admiral was saying that he had ordered a ship to go looking for the Nancy, and if she had been captured and taken into Marblehead, to try to get her back out if he could, and to burn her if he could not.

Jake:
[13:05] Lieutenant Henry Moat was considered an effective leader, having commanded the fleet that burned Falmouth, today’s Portland, Maine, a few weeks before.

Search for the Missing Nancy

Jake:
[13:14] His search for the Nancy was fruitless, however, and news of the missing ship and the military treasures it carried soon reached the Americans. After the war, Loamy Baldwin would go on to be one of America’s first civil engineers. We talked about him a good bit back in episode 225 about the construction of the Middlesex Canal. In 1775, he was a major, and he led the Woburn militia to reinforce the Americans during the Battles of Lexington and Concord. By November, he was stationed in Chelsea, where he was able to gather intelligence from people leaving occupied Boston by water. On November 26th, he wrote to George Washington with one piece of that intelligence. The officers in Boston, in particular the Admiral, are under great concern about a brig from England laden with all sorts of ordnance stores, who are informed that she was taken and carried into Plymouth. At which news, the Admiral said, If so, we are undone. I understand that she cannot make any defense. If it could be ordered so that some of our privateers could come across and bring her in to us, it would give us great advantages over them this winter, as their chief dependence seems placed on our cargo.

Washington’s Orders

Jake:
[14:35] The general acted immediately, ordering his navy, which, again, consisted of just six small ships that were very lightly armed, to patrol the New England waters in search of this lost brig. A letter from General Washington written on November 27th notes, A ship well-fraught with ordnance, ordnance stores, etc. Is missing, and gives great uneasiness in Boston. Her convoy has been in a fortnight. I’ve ordered our armed vessels to keep a good lookout for her.

Jake:
[15:07] One of the armed vessels that got this order was the Lee, named after General Charles Lee, the dog-loving Virginian friend of Washington. Before the war, it had been the Marblehead Merchant Schooner Two Brothers, but Washington renamed it when he leased it as one of the first Continental armed vessels. A 1926 article by Lt. H.E. Dow in the Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute describes the Lee as A half-decked, top-sail schooner of 72 tons, carrying 10 swivels and 4 cannon. Her crew consisted of 50 men of Colonel Glover’s Amphibian Regiment, so-called because they were equally at home on sea or land, being all fishermen or sailors from the Essex County coast towns. Since coming into continental service on October 27th, the Lee and her amphibian crew had been commanded by Captain John Manley.

Jake:
[16:06] Manley was a native of England, Old England, whose early years are clouded by rumor. As a young man, he immigrated to Marblehead, where he lived for decades under the assumed name John Russell, even having his wife take the name Russell after their marriage. As John Russell, he worked as captain of a merchant ship until the day he enlisted in Colonel Glover’s regiment after the outbreak of war. Glover recommended Manley to Captain one of the armed schooners, and Washington signed an officer’s commission on his say-so, with standing orders to take and seize all vessels bound to or from Boston on the service of the ministerial army.

Jake:
[16:49] The schooner Lee was ridiculously lightly armed. She had four four-pounders and two two-pounders, referring to the weight of the shell they fired, plus ten small-caliber swivel guns on deck. She carried a total of 20 rounds of ammunition for each of these small-bore cannons. This lightly-armed schooner would have had no chance against the Phoenix, with her full complement of six, nine, and eighteen-pounder cannons. But a cargo ship? A cargo ship was a different story. When the Phoenix and the remains of her convoy had sailed into Boston Harbor two weeks earlier, they were met by a local harbor pilot in a small boat and had been ordered by Admiral Graves to bring them into the inner harbor.

The Lee’s Mission

Jake:
[17:36] This was a pretty typical arrangement for Boston Harbor. With a maze of narrow channels between dozens of harbor islands, crews who were unfamiliar with the safe passage of Nantasket Road or Kings Road were well advised to wait on somebody who did know the way.

Jake:
[17:54] When the Nancy finally found its way to the mouth of Boston Harbor on November 29th, that’s exactly what the captain intended to do. So, he thought he had incredibly good timing when a ship appeared on the horizon just at the right moment. Unfortunately for the British captain, the sails he spotted were not a local harbor pilot coming to help him out. They instead belonged to the Lee, which had just come from depositing the captured British sloop Polly safely in Beverly Harbor.

Jake:
[18:25] Volume 4 of the Dictionary of American Fighting Ships describes how Captain Manley was able to use a bit of trickery to capture the Nancy in its cargo without firing a single shot. After sending Polly into Beverly under a prize crew, Lee sailed off Boston, and at dusk the next day gave chase to the 250-ton brig Nancy, then beating her way into Boston.

Jake:
[18:50] Mistaking Lee for a pilot boat, Nancy later sails aback and sent up a string of signal flags. Captain Manley dispatched a boat with carefully picked men, ordering them to conceal their weapons as they rowed to and boarded Nancy. Taken by surprise, the Briggs surrendered without resistance, providing the Americans with a precious cargo of ordnance and gunpowder. A Trojan horse, or maybe a Trojan dolphin, saved the day.

The Capture of the Nancy

Jake:
[19:24] Before Admiral Graves and the dozens of British ships in Boston Harbor could act, Manley and his crew sailed the Nancy back into Beverly Harbor to start unloading the treasures within. In a letter the next day, George Washington reported, Instantly upon receiving the account, I ordered four companies down to protect the stores. Teams, meaning teams of horses, to be impressed to remove them without delay. And Colonel Glover to assemble the Minutemen in the neighborhood of Cape Ann to secure the removal to places of safety.

Jake:
[19:59] Word of the valuable capture spread quickly on both sides of the front lines, leaving some British officers reeling. An entry in the diary kept by Lieutenant John Barker of the King’s Own Regiment lays blame for the defeat squarely at the feet of the Phoenix and its captain. It is suspected that a storeship is taken by the rebels. If so, it would be a good prize for them, as she was loaded with mortars, guns, shot shells, and 400 barrels of powder. Captain Parker of the Phoenix had her and 12 other ships under his convoy, of which not one did he bring in with him, having left them one night in as fine weather as could be, and just when they were coming near this coast, the time when he was most required by them as there are a number of privateers about. This man ought to suffer for his behavior, and really, the Navy wants an example now to be made.

Jake:
[20:57] That isn’t exactly fair, as the Phoenix did bring in a handful of ships from its original convoy, and it was separated from the rest during a storm, not on a night with fine weather. It does beg the question of why the Nancy was left to fin for herself, however.

Jake:
[21:15] Even the highest levels of British military leadership were set on edge by the news of the Nancy’s capture. General William Howe, the top general in Boston and by this time, commander-in-chief of all British land forces in North America, following the recall of General Thomas Gage, expressed his concerns in a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, writing,

Reactions to the Capture

Jake:
[21:38] Boston, December 3rd. I learned the Nancy Brigantine, an ordnance transport, having on board 4,000 stand of arms, complete 100,000 flints, a 13-inch mortar with other stores in proportion, was taken in the bay last week by the rebels’ privateers. The circumstance is rather unfortunate to us, as they are now furnished with all the requisites for setting the town on fire. Having got a large quantity of round carcasses and carcasses here mean a type of incendiary artillery shell and other stores with which they could not have otherwise been supplied. The particular manner whereby she was taken is not ascertained but so many artifices have been practiced upon strangers under the appearance of friendship false pilots, etc. That those coming out with stores of any kind cannot be put too much upon their guard.

Jake:
[22:37] On the other side of the line, Continental Judge Advocate General Billy Tudor wrote to his old mentor, John Adams, also on December 3rd. Long before the receipt of this, you’ll have heard of the important prize we have made in the capture of the Brig Nancy, loaded with ordnance stores for the Army at Boston. Orders were given that she should be unloaded with all possible expedition. We have the greatest part of her cargo safely housed in the laboratory here. The loss must be very great to the enemy, but the acquisition is immense to us. There are many things which money could not have procured us. I heard Colonel Mason say that, had all the engineers of the army been consulted, they could not have made out a completer invoice of military stores than we are now in possession of. That complete invoice of military stores contained almost everything an army needs. For small arms, the Patriots recovered 2,000 muskets, 100,000 musket flints, 75 carbines with bayonets, 5,000 carbine flints, 31 tons plus 500 pounds of musket shot, and 1,200 pounds of buckshot.

Jake:
[23:56] They also got an assortment of brass and iron cannons, from large 24-pounders down to 4-pounders, as well as one giant 15-inch brass mortar. This one mortar alone is said to have weighed 10,000 pounds.

Jake:
[24:14] The real treasure, however, was in the ammunition and supplies that were liberated

The Treasure Within

Jake:
[24:18] for use by the Continental Army. 3,000 round shot for 12-pounders, 4,000 round shot for 6-pounders, 50 round carcasses, again meaning incendiary rounds, made to fit that 15-inch mortar, 100 oblong carcasses of 8 inches, 4,056 round shot and 2,864 case shot fixed-to-wood bottoms, 20,000 iron round shot for 1-pounders in 200 boxes, 8,440 fuses, 61 sponges and rammer heads from 3 to 24-pounders, and 7 ammunition wagons. Along with all the arms and ammunition, the Nancy’s cargo included a wide variety of warlike supplies, To wit, Bellows, barrels, brushes, wheel-and-hand barrows, calipers, canvas, chalk, carriages, funnels, hammers, harnesses, hides, 150 camp kettles, copper ladles, melting ladles, lanterns, copper nails, olive and train oil, coils of white rope, sheepskins, scissors, scales, spikes, thread, twine, watchcoats, etc. That’s… That was a real mouthful.

Jake:
[25:41] On December 7th, the New England Chronicle reported from Cambridge, The mortar is fixed upon its bed before the Continental Laboratory. It is called the Congress, and is pronounced to be the noblest piece of ordinance ever landed in America. Indeed, the acquisition of it at this juncture renders the value of it almost inestimable. Abigail Adams passed by the Congress as she wound her way through Cambridge on the way to visit General Sullivan on Winter Hill, and wrote to John, Tis a most grand mortar, I assure you. However grand she thought it was, and however valuable the New England Chronicle thought it would prove, this mortar didn’t last long. The very moment the Continentals opened up on Boston with that enormous gun, it burst. One of three mortars to explode during the first cannonade that masked the movement of troops under Dorchester Heights. With George Washington commenting, To what cause to attribute this misfortune I know not, whether to any defect in them or to the inexperience of the bombardiers.

Jake:
[26:51] Between the arms and ammunition that were captured on the Nancy and a large store of gunpowder that had been liberated from a royal battery in Bermuda earlier in the summer of 1775, the Continentals would not have to worry about having enough gunpowder.

The Aftermath of the Capture

Jake:
[27:06] At least not for a while. And when Henry Knox arrived from Ticonderoga at the end of January, having dragged 59 heavy cannons across the mountains, the Americans would finally have enough ammunition for them to drive the British out of Boston forever.

Jake:
[27:25] To learn more about the valuable capture of the Nancy, check out this week’s show notes at hubhistory.com slash 341. I’ll have a lot of primary sources for your reading pleasure, many of which are collected in the multi-volume set titled The Naval Documents of the American Revolution, which I’ll have a link to. I’ll also link to a series of letters to and from George Washington, which are presented by the Library of Congress as part of the Founders Online Collection. Along with those, we’ll have a link to the Adams Papers, which of course are digitized by the Mass Historical Society, as well as British Lieutenant John Barker’s diary. Along with those primary sources, I’ll also include links to that 1926 article about Captain Manley by Lieutenant H.E. Dow, and to the Dictionary of American Fighting Ships.

Jake:
[28:19] If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hubhistory.com. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as hubhistory, and over on Mastodon as at hubhistory at better dot Boston. For an ongoing conversation, your best bet for contacting me via social media is Blue Sky. Over there, you can find me by searching hubhistory.com. Or, just go to hubhistory.com, the actual website, and click on the Contact Us link. While you’re on that actual website, which, again, is hubhistory.com, hit the subscribe link, and be sure that you never miss an episode. If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, I hope you’ll consider writing us a brief review. If you do, write me a little note, and I’d love to send you a Hub History sticker as a token of thanks. That’s all for now. Stay safe out there, listeners.