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rfmcdonaldGardner W. Allen's A Naval History of the American Revolution (Boston: Houghton, 1913) does as good a job as any of providing an overview of the Continental Congress' naval efforts. Privateers, recruited from New England's depressed seaports, formed the bulk of this navy. As it happens, one of the first encounters of this naval force was made in Charlottetown.
For whatever reason, Allen doesn't go into muchg more detail. For that, the interested student can turn to Russell W. Knight's 1996 article in Marblehead Magazine, "The 'Headers In Life & Legend".
The sailors went on to loot the governor's residence, destroy the provincial government's headquarters, and take everything that was movable, including the Great Seal. Although Washington later apologized for the theft, he neither returned the stolen goods nor compensated the men for their private property. What's particularly interesting is that they were interested in Governor Callbeck's wife.
Why would untrained and ill-disciplined paramilitary rebels chase the attractive young wife of a governor representing a hated political power into a cornfield? Me, I suspect that the phrase "slitting her throat" was used by Islanders euphemismistically.
What does this mean? It certainly doesn't mean, say, that I as a Prince Edward Islander must burn with a desire to punish the Americans for their devastation of my home town. It does mean that the War of American Independence shouldn't be seen as a uniquely moral war. As I've said earlier, the mass flight of the Loyalists demonstrates that, although the United States turned out well and the revolutionaries weren't as nasty as they could have been, there was a decidedly nasty edge to the revolt. Anti-colonial wars of independence always are, especially when they're fought in the context of great power rivalries.
The Lynch and Franklin arrived in the Strait of Canso early in November and cruised in this neighborhood about two weeks, not being able to get further at that time on account of head winds. They took a few small vessels which were afterwards released, not being considered lawful prize. November 17 they appeared before Charlottetown, the capital of the Island of St. John's (Prince Edward Island). This was the farthest point they reached. Here the conduct of Broughton and Selman showed a singular want of propriety for which their only excuse seems to have been the information they had received that preparations were being carried on there for assisting in the defense of Quebec. They supposed they "should do essential service by breaking up a nest of recruits intended to be sent against Montgomery, who commanded our forces in Quebeck." In the excess of their zeal the Americans seized both public and private property and brought away as prisoners three prominent citizens, including the acting governor. Upon arriving at Cambridge, these men were promptly released and their property restored by General Washington, who severely reproved Broughton and Selman. Washington was disappointed and dissatisfied with the results of this enterprise, and believed that if they had gone farther and cruised in the mouth of the St. Lawrence, "all the vessels coming down that river must [have fallen] into their hands."
For whatever reason, Allen doesn't go into muchg more detail. For that, the interested student can turn to Russell W. Knight's 1996 article in Marblehead Magazine, "The 'Headers In Life & Legend".
A few days later, on November 17, 1775, the two schooners sailed into Charlottetown harbor. And as they came to anchor, a score of citizens including Phillips Callbeck, Charlottetown's governor, and his good friend Thomas Wright, the island's chief magistrate, strolled down to the beach. They thought the vessels were a pair of visiting fishermen, and did not dream that a conniving Marbleheader named John Selman had concocted a fantastic scheme and that they were to become his victims. Nor did they have any way of knowing that Selman had persuaded one of the French-Canadian pilots to help him carry out his little plot. Selman had won the poor man over to his way of thinking by employing the easiest and simplest of all methods. He had summoned the French-Canadian pilot and in a frank, honest and forthright Marblehead fashion told him that if he failed to carry out the orders he was about to receive, he -- Selman -- would personally cut his throat from ear to ear!
Understandably, Selman's words proved to be very convincing. So, it is not surprising to learn -- as Elbridge Gerry learned a few years later -- that Selman was able to tell him that the pilot acted in a "true and faithful manner!"
Due to all this, Governor Callbeck received the shock of his life. When he stepped forward with his hand outstretched, Selman's crew jumped him and took him prisoner! Struggling and protesting, the governor was shoved into a dory and hustled out to the Franklin.
The sailors went on to loot the governor's residence, destroy the provincial government's headquarters, and take everything that was movable, including the Great Seal. Although Washington later apologized for the theft, he neither returned the stolen goods nor compensated the men for their private property. What's particularly interesting is that they were interested in Governor Callbeck's wife.
Anne Callbeck was said to have been attractive, warm-hearted and winsome, a comely young lady whom Captain Selman was set on capturing. To this end, he and the crew of the Franklin searched every nook and cranny in Charlottetown for her, but to no avail. They never found Anne, who all the while lay concealed in a neighbor's field. And it was well she remained there, quiet as a mouse, until the search was abandoned. For her fate would have been sealed had she been apprehended. As Selman had but one object in mind (say the Islanders), and that was ... to slit her throat!
Why would untrained and ill-disciplined paramilitary rebels chase the attractive young wife of a governor representing a hated political power into a cornfield? Me, I suspect that the phrase "slitting her throat" was used by Islanders euphemismistically.
What does this mean? It certainly doesn't mean, say, that I as a Prince Edward Islander must burn with a desire to punish the Americans for their devastation of my home town. It does mean that the War of American Independence shouldn't be seen as a uniquely moral war. As I've said earlier, the mass flight of the Loyalists demonstrates that, although the United States turned out well and the revolutionaries weren't as nasty as they could have been, there was a decidedly nasty edge to the revolt. Anti-colonial wars of independence always are, especially when they're fought in the context of great power rivalries.
