Nancy (1789 ship)
.jpg) The recovered wreck of Nancy
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain | |
| Name | Nancy |
| Namesake | Nancy Richardson |
| Builder | Richardson Forsythe and Company |
| Laid down | June 1789 |
| Launched | 24 November 1789 at Detroit |
| Fate | Commandeered for the Provincial Marine |
| United Kingdom | |
| Name | Nancy |
| Acquired | Commandeered 1812 |
| Fate | Transferred to Royal Navy 1814 |
 Great Britain | |
| Name | HMS Nancy |
| Acquired | 1814 |
| Fate | Burned and sank, 14 August 1814 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 67 (bm) |
| Length | 80 ft (24 m) |
| Beam | 22 ft (6.7 m) |
| Depth of hold | 8 ft (2.4 m) |
| Propulsion | Sails |
| Sail plan | two-masted schooner |
| Armament |
|
44°31′09″N 80°01′12″W / 44.519214°N 80.019951°W
Nancy was a schooner, built in Detroit, Michigan and launched in 1789. She served for several years in the fur trade on the Great Lakes, but is best known for playing a part in the Anglo-American War of 1812. She served for several years as a vital supply ship for the Provincial Marine. The Royal Navy took over the Provincial Marine in 1814 and so acquired Nancy. After HMS Nancy was blocked in by an American fleet near the mouth of the Nottawasaga River, her crew set her on fire on 14 August 1814 to prevent the capture of the ship and the cargo she carried. Forgotten for many years, the wreck was re-discovered in July 1927 and raised to form the centrepiece of the Nancy Island Museum.
Construction
Nancy was built 6 miles (9.7 km) south of
The ship was constructed out of
John Richardson, one of the partners in the company, travelled to the trading post at Detroit to begin construction, accompanied by a master carpenter and six other carpenters. Construction began in late June 1789. On 23 September 1789, Richardson wrote:The schooner will be a perfect masterpiece of workmanship and beauty. The expense to us will be great, but there will be the satisfaction of her being strong and very durable. Her floor-timbers, keel, keel-son, stem and lower futtocks are oak. The transom, stern-post, upper futtocks, top-timbers, beams and knees are all red cedar. She will carry 350 barrels.[5]
The
War of 1812
Nancy was at MacIntosh's wharf at Moy Avenue (
On 30 July 1812, Nancy sailed to
On 9 September 1813, while Nancy was in Lake Huron on a trip to Fort Mackinac (which had been captured by a British force in the first few days of the war), the Americans won the decisive Battle of Lake Erie, capturing all the British armed vessels on the lake. Nancy was the only British ship remaining on the Upper Lakes. On 5 October, as Captain MacIntosh returned to the Detroit River, he sent some of the crew ashore to discover the situation. A storm blew up and MacIntosh entered the river anyway, as his anchors and cables were defective. A group of American militia on the river bank demanded that the schooner surrender. Instead, once the wind allowed, MacIntosh weighed anchor and sailed back up the river and into the lake. Although two American armed schooners and a gunboat were lying in wait for him further down the river, Nancy was damaged only by musket fire from the shore.
On Lake Huron, the schooner was further battered by storms. Her sails and cables were too badly worn or damaged to withstand any more bad weather, so she sailed to Sault Ste. Marie, where she was laid up, and refitted by her crew during the winter.
By recapturing Detroit, the Americans had cut the principal route by which the British at Fort Mackinac and other posts in the North West were supplied. During the winter, the British opened an alternate route overland from
Destruction of Nancy
During one of the ship's supply trips to the Nottawasaga, in July 1814, an American force left Detroit, intending to recover Fort Mackinac. Their frontal assault was defeated in the
At the Nottawasaga, Lieutenant
On 13 August,[11] Captain Arthur Sinclair led three American vessels (Niagara, Scorpion and Tigress) into Nottawasaga Bay. The Americans believed that Nancy was still out on the lake and heading back to the Nottawasaga, and intended to wait in ambush for her in the bay. However, Sinclair landed some of his embarked troops to make an encampment on the spit of land between the river and the lake shore, and some wood-cutting parties discovered the schooner's hiding place.
The next day, three companies of American regular infantry, supported by a 5.5-inch (140 mm) mortar and the guns of Sinclair's ships, attacked Worsley's position. Faced with overwhelming odds, Worsley determined to scuttle Nancy to prevent the enemy from capturing her or her valuable stores. A line of powder was set running to Nancy and from there to the blockhouse. At four o'clock, Nancy was set alight,[11] which in turn by way of the powder train, set off an explosion in the blockhouse. The blockhouse explosion surprised Sinclair, causing him to think that one of the howitzer's shots had found its mark.
After the action, the gunboats Scorpion and Tigress were left to guard the river to prevent canoes and
Aftermath
After the war, the
The Detroit River incident of 5 October 1813 was the basis for the song "The Nancy" by Canadian singer/songwriter Stan Rogers on his From Fresh Water album.[12]
Nancy Island
An island grew over the remains of the ship as silt was deposited by the river around the sunken hull. The hull remained visible under water. It was discovered on 1 July 1911 by C. H. J. Snider, a noted Canadian marine historian and editor of the Toronto Telegram, but drew little notice until after 1924. In August of that year, Snider, Dr. Alfred H. Macklin, C. W. Jefferys and Dr. F. J. Conboy began a fund-raising campaign to assist with the recovery of the wreck the following year.
In the process, the recovery crew found numerous valuable artifacts including an assortment of 24-pounder and 6-pounder shot. Following further explorations by C. H. J. Snider and his salvage crew, the hull was excavated. Nancy's figurehead, ship's cutlery and numerous personal artifacts were recovered from both the bottom and the banks of the Nottawasaga River. Dr. Macklin and C. W. Jefferys persuaded the Government of Canada to provide a World War I-style metal military storage building for the museum. In 1923, the site was designated a National Historic Site by Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada and a cairn was erected in 1954.[13]
In 1927, the remains of Nancy were raised and relocated onto the island. The Nancy Museum was opened on the island on 14 August 1928 to recognize the ship and its major contribution to the war effort.
References
- ^ Bamford 2007, p. 120.
- ^ Gough 2006, pp. 25, 27.
- ^ Bamford 2007, pp. 120–121.
- ^ Gough 2006, p. 19.
- ^ Cruikshank, Ernest: An episode of the War of 1812: The Story of the Schooner Nancy; in Zaslow (ed), p. 143.
- ^ Bamford 2007, p. 121.
- ^ Gough 2006, p. 21.
- ^ Gough 2006, pp. 33, 41, 50.
- ^ Gough 2006, p. 50.
- ^ Gough 2006, pp. 50, 59.
- ^ a b Gough 2006, p. 139.
- ^ Baxter-Moore.
- ^ a b The Canadian Encyclopedia.
- ^ a b Collins 2006, p. 269.
Sources
- Bamford, Don (2007). Freshwater Heritage: A History of Sail on the Great Lakes, 1670–1918. Toronto: Natural Heritage Books [Dundurn Group]. ISBN 978-1-897045-20-6.
- Baxter-Moore, Nick (Winter 2005). "Recording the War of 1812: Stan Rogers' (Un)sung Heroes". College Quarterly. 8 (1). Toronto: SenecaPress. ISSN 1195-4353.
- Collins, Gilbert (2006) [1998]. Guidebook to the Historic Sites of the War of 1812 (Second ed.). Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 1-55002-626-7.
- ISBN 1-55002-569-4.
- "Nancy Island Historic Site". The Canadian Encyclopedia (Online ed.). Historica Canada. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
- Zaslow, Morris, ed. (1964). The Defended Border. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada. OCLC 592355645.
External links
- Wasaga Under Siege
- The NANCY project to build a new NANCY
- Friends of Nancy Island Historic Site
- HM Schooner Nancy
- MA Thesis, Christopher R. Sabick, University of Texas
