Noah Stoddard
Captain Noah Stoddard (1755–1850) of Fairhaven, Massachusetts was an American privateer who distinguished himself during the American Revolution by leading the Raid on Lunenburg (1782). In the raid, Stoddard led four other privateer vessels and attacked the British settlement at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on July 1, 1782.[1][2] In Nova Scotia, the assault on Lunenburg was the most spectacular raid of the war.[3]
American Revolution
Stoddard was involved in the first naval engagement of the American Revolution, Battle off Fairhaven, when patriots retrieved two vessels that had been captured by the British sloop of war, Falcon, in Buzzards Bay. On May 14, 1775, American Captain Daniel Egery and Capt. Nathaniel Pope of Fairhaven in the sloop Success (40 guns, 30 men) retrieved two vessels captured by the British crew of Captain John Linzee (Lindsey), Royal Navy commander of HMS Falcon (14 guns, 110 men).[4] Stoddard and the others took the first naval prisoners of the war, 13 British crew, two were wounded and one died.[5][6][7][8][9]
Stoddard's vessel, the Scammell, was commissioned in April 1782. Soon after, he rescued the 60 American prisoners on board HMS Blonde, which was wrecked on Seal Island, Nova Scotia. Stoddard allowed the British crew to return to Halifax in HMS Observer (which was involved in the Naval battle off Halifax en route).[10][11]
Afterward
In 1785, Stoddard was detained while visiting Halifax and sued in Halifax Supreme Court by the Cochran brothers for the theft of rum.[12]
Stoddard also participated in founding the New Bedford Academy (later named the Fairhaven Academy) (1800).[13]
During the War of 1812, Stoddard captured a traitor at Fort Phoenix.[5]
Stoddard died in New Bedford, January 29, 1850, aged 95, and is buried at the Riverside Cemetery, Fairhaven.[14]
References
- ^ Eastman, Ralph M. "Captain Noah Stoddard" in Some Famous Privateers of New England. 1928. pp. 61–63
- ^ p.7
- ^ Gwyn, p. 75
- ^ http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Egery-2
- ^ a b http://www.whalingmuseum.org/explore/library/publications/old-dartmouth-historical-sketches/odhs_no_6
- ^ See Captain Nathaniel Pope's manuscript and Ellis's History for accounts of this rebellion.
- ^ Recapture of Falcon’s Prizes: The First Naval Encounter of the War, 14 May 1775
- ^ First Naval Skimmish of the American Revolution
- ^ https://archive.org/stream/historyofbristol00hurd#page/269/mode/1up
- ^ Sacking of Lunenburg. Saga of the Seas, Archibald MacMechan, 1923
- ^ Thomas Head Raddall. Adventures of H.M.S. Blonde in Nova Scotia, 1778-1782. Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society. 1966.
- ^ http://www.oakislandtheories.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=100:sacking-of-lunenburg&catid=39:local-history&Itemid=59
- ^ History of New Bedford, p.152
- ^ Riverside Cemetery #33
Bibliography
- DesBrisay, Mather Byles (1895). History of the county of Lunenburg.
- Eastman, Ralph M. "Captain Noah Stoddard" in Some Famous Privateers of New England. 1928. pp. 61–63
- Gwyn, Julian. Frigates and Foremasts: The North American Squadron in Nova Scotia Waters, 1745–1815, University of British Columbia Press. 2003 ISBN 0774809116.
- MacMechan, Archibald (1923), “The Sack of Lunenburg” in Sagas of the Sea. The Temple Press, pp. 57–72.
- Invasion of Lunenburg in Acadie and the Acadians