HMS Nancy (1789)

HMS "Nancy" was a schooner, built in Detroit 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, serving as a vital supply ship for the British. She was sunk by an American force near the mouth of the Nottawasaga River on August 14, 1814 and forgotten for many years. The wreck was re-discovered more than 100 years later, and raised to form the centrepiece of the Nancy Island Museum.

Construction

The "Nancy" was built for the fur trading company of Forsayth, Richardson and Company of Montreal. (Although Detroit was by rights on American territory, it was not handed over to the United States until the Jay Treaty was signed in 1796.) At the time, larger sailing vessels were beginning to supplant canoes as the principal means of transport in the fur trade. Although not the first such vessel to be built on the Upper Lakes, the "Nancy" was probably the first to be built by a competitor to the North West Company, which had hitherto enjoyed a near-monopoly in the trade.

John Richardson, one of the partners in the company, traveled to Detroit to begin construction, accompanied by a Master Carpenter and six other carpenters. Construction began in late June, 1789. On September 23, 1789, Richardson wrote:Fact|date=July 2008

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.

The schooner was launched on November 24 that year. The following spring, she made her maiden voyage to Fort Erie, under the command of Captain William Mills, and in June, 1790, went to Grand Portage at Sault Ste. Marie with full cargo. For the next twenty-two years, the "Nancy" was engaged in the fur trade. The ship changed owners several times, being sold first to George Leith and Company, in 1793, and later to the North West Company. She changed commanders in 1805, when Captain Alexander MacIntosh replaced Captain Mills.

War of 1812

The Nancy was in MacIntosh’s wharf at Moy (Windsor) when the War of 1812 broke out between the United States and Great Britain. Moved for protection to Amherstburg, the ship was taken by the commander of the British garrison, Lieutenant-Colonel St. George, as a transport vessel. Before the war, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Elliott of the The Indian Department had surveyed the "Nancy" as part of an inventory of the means available in case of war. According to Elliott, the "Nancy" could mount six 4-pounder carriage guns and six swivel guns. The schooner was apparently armed with some 3-pounder guns. Most of these were dismounted from the schooner and used to arm several small gunboats patrolling the Detroit River. At some later date, the "Nancy" was armed with two 6-pounder guns and two 24-pounder carronades.

On July 30, 1812, the "Nancy" sailed to Fort Erie in convoy with the new Provincial Marine schooner Lady Prevost, returning with military supplies and 60 men of the 41st Regiment who had participated in the Siege of Detroit. After Detroit was captured by British and Indians under Major General Isaac Brock, the "Nancy" carried troops, stores and provisions between Fort Erie and Detroit during the late summer and autumn. The following spring, on April 23, 1813 the "Nancy" joined a small squadron in moving Major General Henry Proctor’s division from Amherstburg to Miami Bay, positioning them for what would be an unsuccessful Siege of Fort Meigs.

On September 9, 1813, while the "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 October 5, 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, the "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 York on Lake Ontario via Yonge Street to Holland Landing and the Holland River. From here, the route entered Lake Simcoe and led to the head of Kempenfeldt Bay (Barrie) where Nine Mile Portage led to Willow Creek, the Nottawasaga River and Lake Huron. Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDouall reached Fort Mackinac via this route on May 19, 1814, to take charge of the post and the surrounding area. McDouall was accompanied by Lieutenant Newdigate Poyntz of the Royal Navy, who took charge of the "Nancy". (MacIntosh was retained as a pilot.) Plans to turn the ship into a gunboat were discarded as unproductive, and the ship continued as a supply ship during that summer.

Destruction of the "Nancy"

During one of the ship's supply trips to the Nottawasaga, in July of 1814, an American force left Detroit, intending to recover Fort Mackinac. Their frontal assault was defeated in the Battle of Mackinac Island. However, they had learned of the location of the "Nancy" from a prisoner, and three of their vessels proceeded to Nottawasaga Bay.

At the Nottawasaga, Lieutenant Miller Worsley of the Royal Navy had succeeded Poyntz and taken command of the "Nancy", which was about to sail to Mackinac with 300 barrels of flour, bacon and other rations. He was warned of the American presence and had the "Nancy" towed two miles up the river, where he hastily built a blockhouse armed with three guns (presumably dismounted from the schooner). His force consisted of 21 sailors, 23 Indians and 9 French-Canadian voyageurs.

On August 14, Captain Arthur Sinclair led three American ships ("Niagara", "Scorpion" and "Tigress") into Nottawasaga Bay. The Americans believed that the "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 ecampment 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 mortar and the guns of Sinclair's ships attacked Worsley's position. Worsley, faced with overwhelming odds, determined to scuttle the "Nancy" to prevent her being captured by the enemy, with her valuable stores, but before Worsley's plans to destroy the ship could be completed, the ship was hit by an American mortar shell that set her on fire. Her crew escaped, but the "Nancy" sank.

After the action, the gunboats "Scorpion" and "Tigress" were left to guard the river to prevent canoes and bateaux from getting supplies to Fort Mackinac. Eventually the river mouth was blocked with felled trees, and the two gunboats proceeded along the north shore in the hope of intercepting fur-laden canoes on the lake. Worsley and his men removed the obstructions and reached Mackinac on August 31 after paddling and rowing for 360 miles. They subsequently surprised and captured both American gunboats in the Engagement on Lake Huron.

Aftermath

The North West Fur Company was compensated 2,200 pounds by the Admiralty after the war for the destruction of the ship in service, along with additional compensations for services between 1812 and 1814 totaling 1,743 pounds, 5 shillings.

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 July 1, 1911, but drew little notice until after 1924, when Dr. F.J. Conboy found another war artifact—an American 24-pounder round shot—in the area. Following Conboy's further explorations, the hull was excavated. The Nancy Museum was opened on the island on August 14, 1928 to recognize the ship and its contribution to the war.

References

* [http://www.battleofgeorgianbay.huronia.com/wasaga/historyhmsnancy.html Wasaga Under Siege]
* [http://www.wasagabeachpark.com/war1812.html Friends of Nancy Island Historic Site]
* [http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Ontario/hms_nancy.htm HM Schooner Nancy]
* [http://https://txspace.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/2190/etd-tamu-2004A-ANTH-Sabick-1.pdf;jsessionid=FBA6DF5BC7848012B8790C4ED9F5B355?sequence=1 MA Thesis, Christopher R. Sabick, University of Texas]