Then and Now: Historic Hindsight

One of the highlights is summer in Warwick is the Gaspee Days Parade. This colorful and exciting event brings visitors to the city from a number of areas in New England. Ironically, while enjoying the festivities surrounding the actual parade, relatively few are aware of the historical significance of the burning of the Gaspee. Like so many celebrations based on historical events, the history fades into the background. Over the years text books have increasingly given less attention to the burning of the Gaspee and we are losing knowledge of our heritage.

After the episode involving the sloop Fortune, agitation against the British imperialist attitude toward the colonists, the road to revolution became inevitable. To avoid being served with the writ, prepared by James Varnum on behalf of the Greenes, Dudingston stayed aboard his ship, Gaspee, for nearly three months and continued to harass small sloops in Narragansett Bay. Charles Carroll, in his Rhode Island: Three Centuries of Democracy, tells us, “The day of reckoning for Dudingston and the Gaspee came early in June….” On the eighth of June, 1772, a Providence sloop, Hannah, owned by John Brown and under the captaincy of Benjamin Lindsey, left Newport harbor for Providence. She was approached by the Gaspee, which attempted to overhaul her. Captain Lindsey had no intention of submitting to search while it was possible to outwit Dudingston and out-sail the Gaspee. Lindsey quickly began to outrun the larges British vessel. Besides the advantage of speed, the Providence vessel was of a “lighter draft” and could sail in shallow water. Lindsey realized that the Gaspee was recklessly chasing him and at Namquit Point, since known as Gaspee Point, Lindsey turned the Hannah “sharply to the west, seemingly to elude the Gaspee. Lindsey warily avoided shoal water and lured the larger vessel into a sandbar, where she ran hard aground.

Fortunately, Ephraim Bowen, who later became one of Warwick’s leading citizens and who took part in the burning of the Gaspee, has given us an eyewitness account of the events that took place during that historic action. Bowen did not write of the stirring events, however, until August 1839, when over 67 years had passed. Bowen, despite being 86 years of age, had excellent recall and his story, sharpened by frequent repetition, is accurate in almost every detail.

According to Bowen, Lindsey “arrived at Providence about sunset, when he immediately informed Mr. John Brown, one of our first and most respectable merchants, of the situation of the Gaspee.” Brown quickly realized this was an opportunity to destroy the British revenue schooner and issued a call for all who wished to join him in the move against the Gaspee.

Most historians believe that no disguises were worn and that John Brown was a member of the party. While there is no evidence in Bowen’s account that any men from Warwick were in the party, Horace Belcher believed “there is good evidence that at least one boat came from Pawtucket.” Captain Abraham Whipple, who led the party, carefully approached the Gaspee “bow to bow” to avoid a broadside from the batteries of the British vessel.

The bold and vigorous action of those who burned the Gaspee will continue in the next installment.