USS Scourge (1812)
Sail plan of the USS Scourge.
| |
History | |
---|---|
Canada | |
Name | Lord Nelson |
Builder | James Crooks |
Launched | Niagara-on-the-Lake, Upper Canada, May 1, 1811 |
Fate | Illegally seized by US Navy |
United States | |
Name | USS Scourge |
Acquired | by custom seizure, June 9, 1812 |
Fate | Sunk in squall, August 8, 1813 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Schooner |
Tonnage | 110 long tons (112 t) [1] |
Complement | 45 to 50 |
Armament |
|
Notes | 42 lost;[3] 8 saved |
USS Scourge was an American warship converted from a confiscated Canadian merchant schooner. She and the American warship Hamilton foundered at 2:00am on Sunday, August 8, 1813 during a squall on Lake Ontario.[4] during the War of 1812.
Scourge began its career as the schooner Lord Nelson, named after the famous British Admiral
The US Navy commissioned the schooner at Sackets Harbor and renamed it USS Scourge. For naval service it was armed with four 6-pounder cannons and four 4-pounder cannons, and fitted with
About 84 men perished when the Hamilton and Scourge sank during a sudden squall off-shore from Fourteen Mile Creek, east of present-day Hamilton, Ontario around 2:00 am on Sunday August 8, 1813. Scourge was under the command of Sailing Master Joseph Osgood. According to a Letter of August 1813 after both ships were lost, a total of sixteen members of the crews survived.[6] A survivor of the Scourge, Ned Myers, told his story to James Fenimore Cooper.[7] According to Myers about eight men from the Scourge were saved, and about 42 were lost.
The site of the sunken ships was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1976.[8][9] The Ontario Heritage Act was amended in 2005 to provide special protection to the shipwrecks of the Hamilton, the Scourge, and the SS Edmund Fitzgerald because of their historical and cultural significance and because they contain human remains.[10]
After the war, the schooner's original owner James Crooks, resumed his claim for the schooner. On July 11, 1817, the Court of Northern District of New York, determined that the vessel had been seized illegally. Despite the court's decision, compensation to the Crooks family was not paid because the clerk of the court had embezzled the funds. Crook's descendants persisted and finally won compensation for the schooner 97 years later, in 1914, thanks to the determination of Henry James Bethune. The award was $5000, plus 93 years of interest.[11] Total compensation came to $23,644.38, reduced to $15,546.63 after deduction of legal expenses, and was paid by the United States government to the 25 descendants of James Crooks.[12]
References
- ^ US NAv Source
- ^ The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships reports armaments as 1 × 32-pounder; 8 × short 12-pounders. See [1], but this is incorrect - this was actually the armament of the USS Hamilton; see Hamilton-Scourge website at [2]
- ^ 21 known names are listed of the crew of the USS Scourge at the cenopath memorial in Hamilton, Ontario,Canada
- ^ The two schooners had spent all Saturday (August 7) chasing the enemy. An account of the sinking in the Buffalo Gazette on August 17, 1813 stated: "It is with deep regret that we record the following facts: about 2 o’clock on Sunday morning last, a most dreadful accident happened in Commodore Chauncey’s squadron off Forty Mile Creek on Lake Ontario; the schooners General Hamilton, Lieut. Winter, and Scourge, Sailing Master Osgood, were upset and lost…
- ^ "History of the Ships Before the War", The Hamilton and the Scourge, National Historic Sites
- ^ August 1813 letter by Capt. Chauncey reporting the loss of Hamilton and Scourge
- ^ Survivor Ned Myers account of the sinking
- ^ Hamilton and Scourge, Directory of Designations of National Historic Significance of Canada
- ^ Hamilton and Scourge, National Register of Historic Places
- The Blade. Toledo, Ohio. Archived from the originalon February 24, 2006. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
- ^ HENRY JAMES BETHUNE (GREAT BRITAIN) v. UNITED STATES (Lord Nelson case. May 1, 1914. Pages 432-435.) https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:oypoVPNM9-AJ:untreaty.un.org/cod/riaa/cases/vol_VI/32-35_Henry.pdf+Henry+James+Bethune&hl=en&gl=ca&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiFdc9MukHryadF7MrM0KdAh8kyEplO7pq_q__gVwW2kpnFCz78dFflAyu-x542abyrTGfbrW9OkdNAof-XdE1HlOm9sHcTUweSWdsPsa33wXcBDH58Hmo0v-HjREQFkk3H5Umx&sig=AHIEtbRwpl8af6r-BbKoSfk4QgZtSCN3VQ
- ^ "James Crooks: Original Owner Before the War", The Hamilton and the Scourge, National Historic Sites