A Gaspee Affair: A History of the Burning Ship

There are few Rhode Islanders who are unfamiliar with the story of the Gaspee Affair. Doubtless most know how the British ship became stuck in Narragansett Bay by the town of Pawtuxet, and how a group of angry colonists burned it into the water. But, like much of history, to explain it away in a sentence does a disservice to the gravity of the event.

 The history of the Gaspee Affair began nearly twenty years before the actual destruction of the ship. After the end of the French & Indian War in 1763, Great Britain had racked up a massive amount of debt defending the American colonies, and therefore decided it only fair to tax the colonists to pay off this debt. That the colonists had shown apathy, and borderline antipathy, towards British troops during the war only served to further heighten the tensions between Great Britain and her colonies.

In response to the various taxes levied against the colonies, Rhode Island merchants found ways to avoid them, mainly by smuggling. While all of the American colonies smuggled goods to some degree, Rhode Island had become notorious due to their heavy dependence on sea trade; the various inlets and passages of Narragansett Bay made excellent hiding spots from British surveillance.

The British government was not ignorant of the illicit activities of the Rhode Island merchants, and sent two Navy warships, the Gaspee (a single masted sloop-of-war) and the Beaver, to assist local revenue officers in collecting taxes and snuffing out illicit trade in early 1772. The commander of the Gaspee was Lieutenant William Dudingston, who by most accounts was an arrogant British elitist who wasted no time in making his name anathema in Rhode Island. He searched all ships that entered Narragansett Bay, harassed and manhandled the merchants onboard, and sent those ships found in possession of contraband to Boston to be sold, where he would take a share of the profit.

The harassment became so intense that the governor of Rhode Island, Joseph Wanton, wrote to Lieutenant Dudingston’s superior, Admiral John Montagu, in protest. Admiral Montagu curtly responded by saying that anyone who impeded the duty of his officers would be hanged.

By June of 1772, the situation was becoming intolerable to the colonists. On the 9th of that month, a boat called the Hannah had hardly begun sailing up Narragansett Bay when the Gaspee had approached and demanded the vessel submit to being boarded. The captain of the Hannah, Benjamin Lindsey, having already made his manifest known in Newport, decided he was in no mood for this unnecessary action and, his being the much faster ship, fled from the Gaspee.

While staying just out of range of the Gaspee’s cannons, the lightweight Hannah had reached Namquid Point and passed over a sandbar well-known to Rhode Islanders. The Gaspee, ignorant of the sandbar, plowed into it, and the Hannah sailed along without further incident to Providence. Lt. Dudingston knew he had to wait at least until high tide at 3AM the next morning to free his vessel, so he had no alternative but to wait.

Once on land, Lindsey wasted no time contacting John Brown, a prominent Providence merchant, sea trader, and member of the Sons of Liberty. Brown, in turn, contacted one of his shipmasters and instructed him to round up eight long-boats and set them at Fenner’s Wharf. Brown also sent out the town crier to rally other Sons of Liberty to the cause of destroying the maligned Gaspee. After meeting at Sabin’s Tavern off of Fenner’s Wharf, the mostly unarmed men set off for the grounded ship, electing Captain Abraham Whipple in charge.

They rowed single file against the tide to minimize the chances of their being detected. Unfortunately, they were spotted by a crew member keeping watch, and Whipple announced he had orders to apprehend Lt. Dudingston. As the Gaspee crewmembers rallied to fight, one of the armed colonists, Joseph Bucklin, fired a shot that hit Dudingston in the groin. Dudingston would survive the wound, but such was the hatred the Rhode Islanders felt for him that they watched him bleed on deck while they rounded up the crew of the Gaspee. The ship was taken without a fatality, as their crew was outnumbered nearly 4 to 1 by angry colonists. All of the materials on board were confiscated and the crew relocated to Pawtuxet Village, including Lt. Dudingston, whose wound was treated there.

At approximately 5AM, the HMS Gaspee was set on fire as the long-boats rowed away. As the fire reached the powder magazines below deck, the ship suffered a series of explosions that sent the ship into the water.

That morning, the Rhode Island government raced to perform ‘damage control’; those responsible for the destruction of the Gaspee were instructed to keep silent. The Deputy Governor of Rhode Island, Darius Session, took the testimony of the Gaspee crew, and in turn informed Governor Wanton of the situation. Wanton responded by offering a letter of conciliation to Admiral Montagu, as well as a reward for information on those responsible for the attacks, feigning outrage on the destruction of the ship. All were terrified of losing their charter from King George III.

As the British government did not trust the Rhode Island court system, they sent a non-military Royal Commission of Inquiry, whose sole purpose was to find those responsible. This commission was to send suspects to Great Britain, where mounting a defense would be impossible, and they would almost certainly be convicted of treason. It was, in short, a ‘kangaroo court’. The Rhode Island government did everything in their power to delay, disrupt, and exasperate the commission, to great success. After a number of close calls, by June of 1773, the commission discontinued their investigation without being able to convict a single participant.

According to the British, the burning of the Gaspee was an event that not one colonist had heard or seen, performed as though by ghosts in the night. The actions of those men echo into the very history of the United States. While there had been violent incidents within the colonies before the Gaspee Affair (e.g. the Boston Massacre, et al), this was the incident that highlighted the need for unity against tyranny. The Inter-Colonial Committees of Correspondence was set up as a direct result of the Gaspee Affair, and its intention was to have colonies inform one other about potential threats to their liberties. This is often considered the first movement toward the unification of the colonies, and eventually, the formation of the United States of America.

So, as you enjoy the Gaspee Day parade with the company of your friends and family this year, pause for just a moment to reflect on the actions of those who burned a ship in effigy of an absentee ruler. Without their impudence, the American Revolution may have gone quite differently, and by definition, the republic we know and love.