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By Bill Stewart
The HMS Nimrod was a large sloop of the British Royal Navy that was launched in 1812 and was sent to the Americas in the War of 1812 under the command of Commander Nathaniel Mitchel. She sailed for North America in September. In 1813 she sailed from Newfoundland to Bermuda.
In March the Nimrod captured the American “private ship of war” Defiance off Morant Bay, Jamaica, for its first battle. The ship went on to capture many ships in the Atlantic ocean, including the brig Victor and the American privateer Yorktown. The Nimrod sailing alone or in squadrons, including with Maidstone and Sylph, captured over a dozen ships.
The Nimrod arrived in the fall of 1813 in New England waters, and the threat was alarming to New England ports and ships. New Bedford had word that English ships were coming, and they began strengthening Fort Phoenix in Fairhaven and stationing men in New Bedford at Clark’s Cove. This was where the British had landed in 1778 – the invasion of New Bedford.
The Nimrod cruised the coast as part of a squadron commanded by Commander Paget; his squadron also included the Recruit and the refitted, captured American ship Retaliation. The group began attacking American ships along Cape Cod. The attack of Falmouth was to acquire two cannons.
Captain John Crocker, a Falmouth citizen at the time, wrote an account of the attack the day after to the newspaper the New England Palladium: “I desire you to notice in your paper that yesterday morning the Nimrod brig came under sail from Tarpaulin Cove and at 10 o’clock anchored near this town. Shortly after she sent on shore a flag and demanded the two field pieces, and a sloop lying at the wharf, and in case of noncompliance, threatened to bombard the town…. About the time set, the cannonading began, and continued with very little intermission till night, and several guns in the night, making in all, about three hundred from their thirty two-pounders, besides their smaller ones. This morning at sunrise, she sailed westward, supposed to join a ship of war said to be in the Tarpaulin Cove. Fortunately, no lives were lost and no person hurt. The damage done to houses, outbuildings and salt-works has been considerable, the amount of which is not known. The greatest sufferer was myself, having eight thirty-two pound shot through my house, some through my outbuildings, and many through my salt-works. The greatest part of the furniture in the house was destroyed. The other principal sufferers were Elijah Swift, Silas James (Jones), Thomas Bourn, Jahabad Hatch, Rev. Henry Lincoln, Shubael Hatch, Jr., etc. etc., in damage done houses and salt-works.”
Houses that withstood the shelling of the Nimrod became historic landmarks. After evacuating women and children, Falmouth withstood 24 hours of shelling from the Nimrod and the town got off some shots before the Nimrod left to attack the town of Wareham. The people of Falmouth and Wareham have remembrance days to mark the destruction, but the heroes of the skirmish go down in history.
(Editor’s Note: Bill Stewart, who is better known to Saugus Advocate readers as “The Old Sachem,” writes a weekly column about sports – and sometimes he opines on current or historical events or famous people.)
