H.M.S. SOMERSET 1746-1778

H.M.S. Somerset, the ship immortalized in Longfellow's poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere", was built in Chatham, England in 1746 and wrecked in a gale  3 November 1778 on the shoals of Truro. She participated in the battles of Louisbourg and Quebec during the French and Indian War, also known at the Seven Years War, and fought the French in the Mediterranean. She was part of the fleet in the Delaware River in 1777 , which cleared obstacles in the river and captured Forts Mifflin and Mercer so that British ships could reach British-held Philadelphia where the army was to spend the winter. That winter Washington and his army were at Valley Forge.

According to the British Admiral Samuel Graves, "it was the Somerset alone" that allowed the British to return to Boston after their fateful march to Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Had the ship not been anchored in the ferry way between Charlestown and Boston, the British troops would not have had any protection and would not have been able to return to the safety of British-occupied Boston.

On Cape Cod many myths and legends about the Somerset have been passed down during the last 230 years. Unfortunately, most are totally  untrue including the following:

1. The Somerset was a frigate. ( She was a third rate line of battle warship carrying 64 guns. A frigate was a much smaller vessel.)

2. The ship was stationed in Provincetown harbor. (According to the logs of the Somerset she was NEVER in Provincetown Harbor.

3.The ship's chaplain  was sent into the town to preach and in that way pay for the supplies the ship's men had confiscated, including all the horses and cows. (Totally false. It would not have been safe for them to come ashore as they were enemies.)

4. Cape Cod girls were courted by the British officers on the Somerset. (Also totally false. Even if she had been anchored at Provincetown, no American male or female would have associated with the hated British sailors who captured our ships and destroyed the economy of Cape Cod.)

5. The surgeon of the Somerset, Dr. William Thayer, married Lucy Rich of Provincetown. (The surgeon of the ship was Henry Watson according to the log and the muster roll.  Dr. Thayer was a resident of Truro who married Lucy Rich several years before 1775. In addition, he  was one of the men who  claimed salvage of the ship and shared in the proceeds when her contents were auctioned.)

6. The captain's name was Curry, Aurey or Bellamy and was pictured as a black bearded pirate. (The captain was George Ourry. Bellamy was the captain of the pirate ship Wydah.)

7. Two-hundred men from the ship died coming to shore. (Capt. Ourry stated that twenty-one men died coming ashore when their boat overturned in the surf according to the letter he wrote to the British admiral explaining how he lost his ship)
8. The officers sailed to Boston as prisoners of war, and the seamen walked. (They all walked.)

9. Provincetown men guarded the prisoners all the way to Boston where they remained prisoners until the war ended. (The militias of each town escorted the men to the militiamen of the next town. The men were later exchanged for American prisoners of war. Because he lost his ship Captain Ourry was brought up before a court-martial in New York harbor on 31 March 1779 aboard H.M.S. Rainbow; his jury consisted of fellow captains. After he returned to England he was given command of the 90-gun H.M.S. Ocean.)

Many interesting events occurred to the ship and her crew after she was wrecked and can be found in contemporary records. Some events include the following:

1. The march to Boston in cold November weather in a hostile land whose inhabitants had suffered severely due to British warships, was particularly difficult for those who were ill or had been injured coming ashore. The towns and private families had to provide food and supplies to the approximately 480  men on their march to Boston, a hardship for the population of these very  small towns.

2. Simeon Spencer of Provincetown went onboard the ship and claimed salvage. When Captain Ourry came ashore he surrendered to Isaiah Atkins, a Truro selectman.

3. The men of Provincetown and Truro took what they could carry off the ship to their homes. However, the Council in Boston ordered the sheriff of Barnstable County to go into the houses and barns of these men and recover the stolen goods. The ship's contents were very valuable for use by the Americans in fighting the British because the colonies did not have the capability to produce many of these needed items. The Council sent ships from Boston to bring the contents to Boston for use in the war.

4. Simeon Spencer and others claimed that they owned the contents of the ship. As a consequence two Maritime courts were held to determine who would receive the money from the ship's auction. During the trial  21 men, 1 woman , and 9 crewmembers gave depositions regarding the events at the time of the grounding.

5. After the second Maritime court was held in Ipswich on 15 June 1779, Massachusetts was allowed one-half, Simeon Spencer et al one-sixth, Silvanus Snow et al one-twelfth, Seth Nicherson et al one-fourth out of which one-twelfth was to go to 30 others.

6. After expenses caring for the crew until they  were exchanged, the hire of vessels to go to Truro to bring back the contents, the Maritime court costs of £1,000 or more, wages to the men who guarded the prisoners from Cape Cod to Boston, plus other  costs including a large sum to John Greenough for his work as superintendent of the wreck, Massachusetts probably received more in supplies than in money.
7. Lt. Col. Paul Revere, who had so carefully rowed past the Somerset to give the alarm to Concord and Lexington, was given her guns which were to be used to fortify Castle Island in Boston Harbor!

A copy of the non-fiction book, "H.M.S. Somerset 1746-1778" by Marjorie Hubbell Gibson, was written from the ship's logs, muster rolls, courts-martials, repair records, and many primary sources. It was printed in 1993 and is available via inter-library loan from several Cape Cod libraries. 

The chapters include: Construction and Armaments, Life on Board, The Crew, The Missions, The Aftermath 1 - The Wreck, The Aftermath 2 - The Crew, The Aftermath 3 - The Ship and Contents.  Also included are: Notes and references, Legends about the Somerset - fact or fiction?, Courts-martial of Captain Ourry and a 1st Lt., Ourry's letter to Admiral Gambier describing the loss of the ship, Gambier's letter to the Admiralty, statistics from the last muster roll, names of some of the officers from 1755-1778, and the names of about 196 Truro and Provincetown men who  received money when the contents were finally sold.

The Somerset made her mark on the events and politics of her century and was instrumental in changing the history of North America. Some of her timbers are still under the sands on Cape Cod National Seashore property while others were removed when the sand was washed away in 1886 and 1973. They can be seen today. The bones of some of her crew were buried in Newport, RI, others were cast into the sea.