The Gaspee affair

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A Rhode Island monument to the men who burned the Gaspee

The Gaspee affair occurred in Rhode Island, a small New England colony reliant on shipping and notorious as a location for smuggling. In June 1722, a group of Rhode Islanders opposed to British taxation policies attacked and destroyed a customs ship that had run aground in Narragansett Bay. Though relatively minor, the incident inflamed tensions between Britain and its American colonies. British demands for information and arrests went unheeded and nobody involved in the attack on the Gaspee was ever brought to justice.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island was the smallest of the 13 British colonies both by territory (a little over 3,000 square kilometres or 1,200 square miles) and population (approximately 58,000 people in 1770). Despite its name, it was not actually an island, instead sharing significant land borders with Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The colony of Rhode Island was settled in 1636 by Roger Williams, a London-born Puritan. Williams emigrated to Boston in 1631 but soon became embroiled in a series of disputes over his political and religious teachings. In 1636, Williams was expelled from Massachusetts. With a group of followers, Williams travelled west and settled on land on Narragansett Bay.

Rhode Island and its capital, Providence, were thus founded as a refuge for those fleeing religious persecution. When Williams later travelled to London and secured a royal charter for the colony (1663) it specifically mentioned religious tolerance.

A haven for smuggling

The tiny new colony lacked the good arable land of its larger neighbours – but it did have the advantage of Narragansett Bay, a large natural harbour with several entrances, sheltered moorings and ready access to freshwater.

As a consequence, Rhode Islanders became less focused on farming and more on shipping, ship maintenance and manufacturing. By the mid 1700s, its ports had grown into bustling but sometimes lawless places, filled with grizzled sea captains and drunken, rowdy sailors.

Needless to say, this was not a group inclined to abide by British mercantile laws. Rhode Island became a haven for smugglers moving French contraband from the Caribbean through the waterway of Narrangansett Bay, dodging British customs officials along the way. This continued even in the late 1750s, as Britain was at war with France.

During the taxation debates of the 1760s, Rhode Islanders held similar sentiments to those in neighbouring Massachusetts. In September 1765, the Rhode Island assembly passed six resolutions opposing the Stamp Act, declaring that it alone held:

“The only exclusive right to lay taxes and imposts upon the inhabitants of this colony, and that every attempt to vest such power in any person or persons whatever other than the General Assembly aforesaid is unconstitutional, and hath a manifest tendency to destroy the liberties of the people of this colony.”

Lieutenant Duddingston

The Gaspee was a two-masted British schooner tasked with collecting customs duties and enforcing the terms of the Navigation Acts. It was one of several British vessels sent to Rhode Island for this purpose, the first being the Squirrel in 1764.

The Gaspee‘s captain was Lieutenant William Duddingston. Barely in his 30s and Scottish-born, Duddingston looked down on the Americans as traitorous provincials. He was not a man to be taken lightly and was fond of rough speaking and dispensing corporal punishment.

Duddingston also aggravated local farmers by seizing food supplies from them to provide for his own crew (a privilege available to all British sea captains, though few ever risked attempting it).

Under Duddingston’s exuberant command, the Gaspee became notorious for apprehending smugglers, seizing their ships and cargo and bringing their crew to justice. On February 17th 1772, the Gaspee encountered an American merchant sloop called Fortune in Narragansett Bay. Fortune, like many colonial merchant ships, was carrying undeclared sugar and rum. As a consequence, she was seized.

Tensions grow

Naturally, the ship’s effectiveness at carrying out its duties and the zealous conduct of its captain attracted public attention and notoriety. This led to public complaints. In March 1772, Rhode Island’s royal governor wrote to Duddingston, noting:

“A considerable number of the inhabitants of this colony have complained to me of your having, a most illegal and unwarrantable manner, interrupted their trade by searching and detaining every little packet boat plying between the several towns.”

Another contemporary log notes that the “general irritation” of the colonies was “aggravated by the supercilious behavior of the king’s representatives and officers, military, naval, and civil … the captain of the royal armed schooner Gaspee was noted for his brutality.”

The Gaspee stranded

Despite these complaints, the Admiralty continued to support Duddingston, warning that anyone who interfered with his work would be treated “as pirates”.

In June 1772, the Gaspee ran aground near Rhode Island while in hot pursuit of the Hannah, a ship captained by Benjamin Lindsey and suspected to be engaged in smuggling. During the chase, Lindsey changed course across a section of shallow water and the larger Gaspee ran aground near Namquit Point.

News of this mishap quickly spread by word-of-mouth through Providence. That evening, a band of men, some belonging to a local chapter of the Sons of Liberty, met at Sabin’s Tavern in Providence. From there, they boarded several longboats and proceeded to row six miles to the stranded Gaspee.

The ship destroyed

Well into the night, the group approached the stricken ship and open fire with muskets, one shot wounding Duddingston. They board the Gaspee, remove the crew and set the ship alight. Over several hours, it burns to the waterline.

Back onshore, Duddingston and his crew subjected to some manhandling and abuse then kept under guard in a cellar. The Rhode Island governor declared the burning of the Gaspee a crime against the Crown and offered a 100-pound reward for the arrest of those responsible.

The British response

As might be expected, the British response was both outraged and immediate. On August 26th 1772, George III issued a royal proclamation promising the distribution of justice to those responsible for destroying the ship. It read in part:

“For the discovering and apprehending the persons who plundered and burnt the Gaspee schooner, and barbarously wounded and ill-treated Lieutenant William Duddingston, commander of the said schooner… We [intend] that said outrageous and heinous ofenders may be discovered and brought to condign punishment… If any person or persons shall discover any person or persons concerned in the said daring and heinous offences above mentioned… shall have and receive as a reward for such discovery the sum of 500 pounds.”

In January 1773, the Royal Navy established a commission of enquiry. Tellingly, this commission did not include or consult colonial courts, prompting more allegations that the rights of the colonists were being overlooked or undermined.

Outcomes

Despite the commission of enquiry and a wide-ranging investigation, royal officials were unable to learn the names of the culprits who boarded the Gaspee illegally and destroyed it.

The commission’s report was completed in June 1773, almost a year after the incident. In it, the commissioners observed that many Rhode Islanders were unwilling to participate or provide useful information to the enquiry, while others gave only confused or contradicting evidence.

William Duddingston faced a court martial for the overseeing the destruction of one of His Majesty’s ships, though the charge was soon dropped. After a period of convalescence, Duddingston was given command of other Royal Navy vessels and participated in naval operations during the Revolutionary War. He eventually reached the rank of rear admiral.

The Gaspee affair and its aftermath were watched with interest in the other American colonies. The incident only heightened concerns about the unfair imposition of British taxes and customs duties, the provocative behaviour of some royal officials and British threats to remove suspects for trial in England rather than their native colonies.

“The attack on a ship and a uniformed officer of His Majesty’s Navy shocked the British authorities, exciting even the personal attention of the monarch. The news traveled slowly but the incident seemed to grow in infamy as the weeks went by. In August, Alexander Wedderburn, the attorney-general for Great Britain, pronounced the Gaspee affair to be a crime of ‘five times the magnitude of the Stamp Act riots’. The Earl of Dartmouth termed it ‘an offense of much deeper dye than piracy… an act of high treason, levying war against the king.”
Charles Rappleye, historian

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1. The Gaspee affair refers to the sinking of British ship by a gang of unknown men in Rhode Island in July 1772.

2. Rhode Island was a prominent location for smuggling and the Gaspee had been deployed there to better enforce the Nagivation Acts.

3. The Gaspee‘s commander, William Duddingston, was a young officer known for his disregard for colonials and brusque, often brutish manner.

4. When the Gaspee ran ground near Providence, gangs of locals rowed out, detained and removed the crew and set the ship alight, destroying it.

5. The incident caused outrage in Britain, prompting a royal proclamation and a commission of enquiry. The culprits, however, were never identified or brought to justice.

Citation information
Title: ‘The Gaspee affair’
Authors: Jennifer Llewellyn, Steve Thompson
Publisher: Alpha History
URL: https://alphahistory.com/americanrevolution/gaspee-affair
Date published: July 16, 2019
Date updated: November 22, 2023
Date accessed: March 19, 2024
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