 |
| where guests can have their say about... anything they want! |
PULASKI
by John Fitzhugh Millar
The British occupied Savannah, Georgia in 1778 because they assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that most of the people of Georgia would rise up to welcome them. When the French entered the war on the American side in 1779, Admiral the Comte D’Estaing brought his fleet of battleships (with several thousand additional troops embarked aboard) into the Savannah River, and an American army marched to the outskirts of Savannah.
The idea was that the enormous guns of the battleships could pulverize Savannah into surrendering. As it happened, the British 20/24-gun frigate ROSE (now known to many as the replica ship 'Surprise' and Helen's 'template' for the Sea Witch) was moored in Savannah as the city’s guard-ship.
 |
| The ship on Helen's covers of the Sea Witch Voyages series is the replica Rose/Surprise |
She had previously made a name for herself in Boston in the 1760s with the PITT Packet Episode, whereby John Adams had his first major success as a lawyer (not mentioned in McCullough’s book); in 1774-6 at Newport RI, where her anti-molasses/rum trade activities caused Rhode Island to push through Congress the bill that founded the Continental Navy on 13 October 1775 in order to get rid of her; and in New York in August 1776, where she accompanied other vessels up the Hudson River to show that they could easily get behind Washington’s troops. Such a puny ship could have no effect in fighting the giant French battleships, but if she were to be sunk in the channel several miles downriver from Savannah, the French ships would never get close enough to fire their cannons.
After the French and American forces went away, the British worked hard to salvage what they could of ROSE, such as the ship’s bell and many of the cannons, and then they blew up the rest of the wreck in order to open the channel for merchant ships to trade with Savannah.
Over the years, a few pieces of the ship were recovered from dredging operations near Five Fathom Hole, close to Fort Jackson, including two cannons that have for long been on display at the Ships of the Sea Museum in Savannah. In February 2021, dredgers were increasing the channel depth so as to permit larger ships to come to Savannah, and they recovered three cannons, part of an anchor, and some timbers that had survived in the mud. These remains are believed to have come from the ROSE.
In 1969, 24-year-old John Millar (myself!) of Newport, Rhode Island raised the money to build a full-size copy of ROSE as part of the observances of the nation’s 200th birthday. He sold the ship in 1984 to Kaye Williams of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who hired Captain Richard Bailey to restore and operate the ship for sixteen years in an East Coast sail-training program for as many as 31 paying people per week.
In the summer of 1996, Bailey took ROSE to Europe, where they visited the historic port of Rochefort, France, and Mayor Frot there decided to build a similar ship, the frigate L’HERMIONE. Having access to very little money, Frot spun the normal construction time out from 8 months to 17 years, and paid for the ship by charging admission to watch – over $30 million; when completed, the French ship made a tour of Eastern North America in the summer of 2015.
In the year 2000, ROSE was the star at Operation Sail, New York, and then she was bought by Fox so she could star with Russell Crowe in Master & Commander. She is now on permanent display at the San Diego Maritime Museum, but under her movie name of SURPRISE.
Just after I built ROSE, I built the 12-gun sloop PROVIDENCE, the first ship authorized for the salt-water Continental Navy, and she is now permanently an exhibit in Alexandria, Virginia. I am now trying to raise money to build several smaller important American ships from the Revolution (65 feet long on deck and 21 feet beam, each carrying 12 paying trainees) for a year-round sail-training program tied to the USA-250th coming in 2026. If you are interested in helping, contact me at newporthse@widomaker.com.
Back to Savannah in 1779: even though the French and Americans had more than twice as many soldiers in the siege of Savannah as the British, without the big guns of the French ships to assist, the attack failed. Among the Americans was Polish-born cavalry Brigadier-General the Count Casimir Pulaski (pronounced Puwaski), who died there of his wounds.
 |
| Pulaski (Wikipedia) |
Pulaski, who had had a flamboyant cavalry career at home, came to America in 1777 at the request of Lafayette, asking to be commissioned in the Continental Army. Serving in the meantime as an unpaid volunteer, he performed so well that Congress made him a Brigadier General on 15 September 1777. His American service was a bit checkered, but during the French assault on Savannah he was placed in charge of both American and French cavalry there. While leading a cavalry charge, Pulaski was struck by grape shot and removed from the field unconscious to refuge aboard a ship, but he died two days later, having never recovered consciousness.
For a long time his burial place was not widely known, but when his old friend Lafayette toured America in the 1820s, the burial place on a bluff outside the city was publicized. Lafayette publicly dedicated the cornerstone for a monument to Pulaski in Monterey Square, Savannah in 1824, but the monument was not complete until 1854, at which time the body was reburied there.
The monument erected over his grave needed major repairs in 1996, so while the monument was lying dismantled forensics experts took the opportunity to examine the general’s remains. It was announced in 2019 that DNA samples and other physical evidence (such as a skull wound) proved that the skeleton really was Pulaski’s, but the pelvis was the shape and size of a woman’s, so HE was really a SHE, in spite of an outrageous [fake or female facial hair?] moustache. The general had probably adopted the moustache because most people will not look any further than distinctive facial hair to confirm that the man is who he says he is. Women are usually the best riders for horses, so it makes sense that Pulaski was a woman, but it can make people wonder how many other Revolutionary War heroes may have been women in disguise?
Pulaski’s friends in Williamsburg, Virginia established the Pulaski Club, which still exists; it sponsors three wooden seats arranged in a conversational U opposite historic Bruton Parish Church on Duke of Gloucester Street. The club’s bylaws specifically state that membership is open only to males – Oops!
Until now, the US Army’s first female Brigadier-General was Anna Mae Hays in 1970, but she may have to share that crown with Pulaski from almost two centuries earlier.
Pulaski was not the only woman in disguise to fight and die at the siege of Savannah: A South Carolina woman, Sally St. Clair, born about 1757, was fighting in disguise so as to be near her boyfriend when she was killed. She was described as looking like a mulatto woman with black curly hair.
© John F Millar
 |
| Helen and a friend enjoying breakfast, hosted by John, at Newport House |
Visit John at Newport House, Williamsburg for an entertaining, comfortable and enjoyable B & B stay located just outside Colonial Williamsburg. Highly Recommended!
website: https://www.newporthousebb.com/
email: newporthse@widomaker.com
* * * * * *
Helen's Latest Release
a prequel to the Sea Witch Voyages
 |
A new edition with new additional scenes |
When the only choice is to run, where do you run to?
When the only sound is the song of the sea, do you listen?
Or do you drown in the embrace of a mermaid?
Throughout childhood, Jesamiah Mereno has suffered the bullying of his elder half-brother. Then, not quite fifteen years old, and on the day they bury their father, Jesamiah hits back. In consequence, he flees his Virginia home, changes his name to Jesamiah Acorne, and joins the crew of his father’s seafaring friend, Captain Malachias Taylor, aboard the privateer, Mermaid.
He makes enemies, sees the ghost of his father, wonders who is the Cornish girl he hears in his mind – and tries to avoid the beguiling lure of a sensuous mermaid...
An early coming-of-age tale of the young Jesamiah Acorne, set in the years before he becomes a pirate and Captain of the Sea Witch.
“I really enjoyed the insight offered into Jesamiah's backstory, and found the depiction of our teenage hero very moving.” Anna Belfrage, author
*** ***
Helen's cosy mystery set in 1970s north London
 |
| The first in a new series of quick-read, cosy mysteries set in the 1970s. A Mirror Murder https://getbook.at/MirrorMurder |
Eighteen-year-old library assistant Jan Christopher’s life is to change on a rainy Friday evening in July 1971, when her legal guardian and uncle, DCI Toby Christopher, gives her a lift home after work. Driving the car, is her uncle’s new Detective Constable, Laurie Walker – and it is love at first sight for the young couple.
But romance is soon to take a back seat when a baby boy is taken from his pram, a naked man is scaring young ladies in nearby Epping Forest, and an elderly lady is found, brutally murdered...
Are the events related? How will they affect the staff and public of the local library where Jan works – and will a blossoming romance survive a police investigation into murder?
“Lots of nostalgic, well-researched, detail about life in the 1970s, which readers of a certain age will lap up; plus some wonderful, and occasionally hilarious, ‘behind the counter’ scenes of working in a public library, which any previous or present-day library assistant will recognise!” Reader Review
Fascinating read - thanks John and Helen!
ReplyDeletethanks Annie
Delete