The battle schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

 or gunboat HMS Speedy sank in a blinding snowstorm in Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...

 south of Brighton, Ontario

Brighton, Ontario

Brighton is a town in Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Toronto and west of Kingston. It is intersected by both Highway 401 and the former Highway 2. It is on the West end of the Bay of Quinte on the entrance of the Murray Canal....

 and west of Prince Edward County

Prince Edward County, Ontario

Prince Edward County is a single-tier municipality and a census division of the Canadian province of Ontario.-Geography:Prince Edward County is located in Southern Ontario on a large irregular headland or littoral at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, just west of the head of the St. Lawrence River...

, on 8 October 1804, with the loss of all hands. The sinking changed the course of Canadian history because of the prominence of the citizens of the tiny colony of Upper Canada lost in the disastrous event.

The ship was built in 1798 at the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard

Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard

The Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard from 1788 to 1853 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, at the site of the current Royal Military College of Canada.-History:...

 and transferred as government vessel.

History

HMS Speedy was one of five warships rushed into service, quickly built from green timber at Cataraqui in 1798, to help defend British Upper Canada from the perceived threat from the newly formed United States of America. That threat was later realised as the War of 1812

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

, but Speedy would not survive to see service in that conflict. Speedy carried four-pound guns and had a 55 foot, two-masted hull plus a 20+ foot bowsprit, bringing her close to 80 feet in total length. In spite of her name, Speedy was considered quite slow for her era. Because she was constructed from improperly seasoned green timber, she almost immediately began to suffer problems with leaks and dry rot after her commissioning

Ship commissioning

Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...

.

Circumstances

The schooner was set to sail from York

York, Upper Canada

York was the name of Old Toronto between 1793 and 1834. It was the second capital of Upper Canada.- History :The town was established in 1793 by Governor John Graves Simcoe, with a new 'Fort York' on the site of the last French 'Fort Toronto'...

 (population 345), present day Queen's Quay, Toronto (York) - the young capital of Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

, to the district town of Newcastle (population 20) on Presqu'ile Point (now Presqu'ile Provincial Park

Presqu'ile Provincial Park

Presqu'ile Provincial Park is a park in southeastern Northumberland County on the north shore of Lake Ontario near the town of Brighton in Ontario, Canada. The park occupies an area of ....

) for a prominent murder trial ostensibly to 'legitimize' a newly-built district courthouse.

Ogetonicut, a member of the Ojibway tribe, was accused of having murdered trading post operator John Sharpe near Lake Scugog

Lake Scugog

Lake Scugog is an artificially flooded lake in Scugog Township between the town of Port Perry, Ontario and the town of Lindsay. The lake has been raised and lowered several times over its history. Though not technically part of the Kawarthas due to its shallow depths, it is often geographically...

 exacting revenge for his brother; Whistling Duck murdered at the hands of said trading post operator. Although Ogetonicut was arrested near York, the crime had allegedly been committed in Newcastle District, and under British law of the time one had to be tried in the jurisdiction in which the crime was purported to have been committed.

Speedy was also carrying six handwritten copies of the new Constitution of Upper Canada, supplies, a Royal surveyor, John Stegman, a former Hessian soldier, to help in the planning, construction and expansion of the fledgling district town, which consisted of nothing more than the three-story courthouse/jail, a handful of residences and a survey plan.

Sir Robert Isaac Dey Grey (of Bruce-Grey county fame) first solicitor-general for the fledgling province-of-Ontario provincial government.

The first provincial law-enforcement officer to lose their lives in the execution of office was also to be found aboard the Speedy. "High Constable Fisk was transporting a prisoner to court in Newcastle on the "HMS Speedy". The boat never arrived and the officer and prisoner were never heard from again. It is believed that the boat sank in a storm.
Constable Fisk had 2 years service at the time of his disappearance."

Because of the location and geography of the area, as well as its location closer to the key community of Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...

, there was speculation that Newcastle would eventually be designated the new capital of Upper Canada. York was deemed unsavory and unsuitable for such office. As it was populated as many fledgling British outposts were; by "convicts and prostitutes."

The execution of Ogetonicut - in the new town square - following his trial - would bring attention and renown to the area and define it as a centre for strong governmental jurisprudence.

Final journey

The schooner left York on 7 October 1804 at the insistence of autocratic Lieutenant-Governor Peter Hunter

Peter Hunter

Lieutenant-General Peter Hunter was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. He was eldest son to John Hunter laird of Knapp and Euphemia Jack of Longforgan, Perthshire, Scotland....

, despite the reluctance of the ship's captain, Lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 Thomas Paxton. Paxton, an experienced British Naval officer, was concerned about an incoming storm and the condition of the ship.

Although only six years old, Speedy suffered from extensive weakening of the hull from dry rot due to the timber used in her rushed construction. Two of Speedy's crew were required to constantly operate manual bilge pump

Bilge pump

A bilge pump is a water pump used to remove bilge water. Since fuel can be present in the bilge, electric bilge pumps are designed to not cause sparks. Electric bilge pumps are often fitted with float switches which turn on the pump when the bilge fills to a set level. Since bilge pumps can fail,...

s in order to keep her afloat for the journey. Under threat of court martial, Paxton departed. Almost immediately upon her launch, she ran aground in the harbour due to the heavy load she was carrying, resulting in a six hour delay.

After freeing herself, she sailed due east - this on the evening of October 7 - Speedy stopped briefly at Port Oshawa

Oshawa, Ontario

Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario approximately 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of both the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe. It is now commonly referred to as the most...

 to pick up the Farewell brothers who were business partners of the murder victim and key witnesses for the prosecution, a handful of natives who were also to provide testimony. Interestingly the Farewell brothers refused to board the ship, expressing concern that it was already overloaded, crowded, and unsafe. They elected to accompany Speedy in a canoe

Canoe

A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...

.

Speedy and the canoe were separated as the storm deteriorated into blizzard

Blizzard

A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...

 conditions during the afternoon and evening of 8 October. The wind had turned and was blowing out of the north-east. By the morning of 9 October, the brothers managed to reach Newcastle's harbour, not so for the Speedy. Soon the schooner was sighted passing Presqu'ile Point at dusk on the 8th. The crew fired one of her cannons to signal her situation and position. In response; shoreline bonfires were lit ostensibly to guide her to safety.

Unfortunately, the schooner vanished on approach to the mouth of the bay. All that was found of the ship, her passengers, cargo, and six-man crew were a chicken coop and compass box. These washed up on the beach opposite the bay.

This inspired a great deal of speculation about her fate. Theories ranged from sabotage by parties wishing to prevent the establishment of new fledgling provincial capital of Newcastle, to those promoting a supernatural hypothesis - one of alien abduction ultimately - the ship having effectively been scooped off the face of the earth by parties unknown.

Disaster

Evidence suggests that Speedy, unaware that she was in the area now known as the Sophiasburgh Triangle

Marysburgh vortex

The Marysburgh Vortex is an area of eastern Lake Ontario with a startling record of shipwrecks which has fueled theories of paranormal explanations and drawn comparison to the Bermuda Triangle...

 where poorly quantified magnetic anomalies purportedly exist and prevent proper compass operation. Unable to sail directly into the north-easterly wind because she was a square-rigger, tacked

Tacking

Tacking may refer to:*Tacking or coming about, a sailing maneuver*Tacking , a technical legal concept relating to competing priorities between security interests arising over the same asset...

 across the mouth of Presqu'ile Bay to avoid Bald Head Island and angle her way into port. Unable to navigate using celestial markers or spot the signal fires due to the storm-induced white outs, the captain was completely reliant on the ship's compass to navigate and struck the mysterious Devil's Horseblock (or Hitching Post), a stone column that extended up from depths unknown to within a mere 20 cm of the surface.

The area was dragged with hooks in a government-sponsored effort to establish what had actually transpired. It was established that the mysterious monolithic Horseblock shoal had also vanished. Some suggesting the 200-ton Speedy as capable of up-ending - of toppling over this unusual formation.

Speedy became the latest of nearly 100 ships The Sophiasburgh Triangle had claimed since the beginning of the 18th century, adding to fears that the area was too dangerous for a major port.

Aftermath

In part due to this disaster, Presqu'ile was deemed an inappropriate and "inconvenient" location for a district town. The incident was called "a disaster felt by the Bench, the Bar, Society, the Legislature and the Country." http://www.uppercanadahistory.ca/pp/pp5.html Newcastle was abandoned and the district centre was moved to Amherst (now known as Cobourg, Ontario

Cobourg, Ontario

Cobourg is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Southern Ontario 95 km east of Toronto. It is the largest town in Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is located along Highway 401 and the former Highway 2...

) in 1805.

In addition to the accused, many of the souls lost with disappearance of the Speedy were prominent United Empire Loyalists, government officials and important members of the small colony.

The disaster likely changed the course of Canadian history, as it was believed that the new capital of the colony would be moved to Newcastle once the town was established. Those plans were abandoned due to the sudden loss of so many significant members of Upper Canada society.

Lost souls

Records are not clear, listing somewhere between 20 and 39 passengers aboard Speedy, along with her crew of 6. It may never be known exactly how many were killed in the sinking. Those lost included:

• Lieutenant Thomas Paxton, Captain of HMS Speedy
• John Cameron, Speedy crew member
• Francis Labard, Speedy crew member
• Ogetonicut, accused murderer
• Angus Macdonell
  Angus Macdonell
  Angus Macdonell was a lawyer and political figure in Upper Canada.He was born in Inverness-shire, Scotland, the son of Allan McDonell and brother of Alexander Macdonell, and came to the estate of William Johnson in the Mohawk Valley of New York in 1773 as part of a large emigration by members of...
  
  , defense lawyer and member of the Upper Canada House of Assembly
• George Cowan, Coldwater-based fur trader and interpreter employed by the government's Indian Department
• Justice Thomas Cochran
  Thomas Cochran (judge)
  Thomas Cochran was a lawyer and judge in Prince Edward Island.He was born in Halifax, the son of Thomas Cochran. He studied at King's College, then at Lincoln's Inn and was called to the bar in 1801. In that same year, Cochran was appointed Chief Justice for Prince Edward Island. In June 1802, he...
  
  , the trial judge, Judge of the Court of King's Bench of Upper Canada
• Robert Isaac Dey Grey
  Robert Isaac Dey Gray
  Robert Isaac Dey Gray was a lawyer, judge and political figure in Upper Canada.He was probably born in New York, but came to Canada with his parents at the beginning of the American Revolution. He studied law and was called to the bar in 1794. In 1795, he became Solicitor General for the province...
  
  , prosecutor and the first Solicitor-General of Upper Canada
• Simon Baker, servant of Dey Grey
• John Anderson, law student
• John Stegman, land surveyor of the Surveyor-General's Office, possible trial witness
• James Ruggles, Justice of the Peace, possible trial witness
• Two or three unnamed First Nations
  First Nations
  First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
  
   men and women, trial witnesses
• John Fisk, High Constable of York, first Canadian police officer killed in the line of duty in the Ontario, Canada area
• Jacob Herchmer, prominent Loyalist merchant and fur trader, Lieutenant in York Militia
• Two young children, sent on the "safer" Speedy by overland-travelling parents who could not afford passage for themselves

Memoriam

Each summer the story of the Speedy is told through a history play as part of Presqu'ile Provincial Park's

Presqu'ile Provincial Park

Presqu'ile Provincial Park is a park in southeastern Northumberland County on the north shore of Lake Ontario near the town of Brighton in Ontario, Canada. The park occupies an area of ....

 Natural Heritage Education

Natural Heritage Education

Natural Heritage Education is an educational program offered by Ontario Parks in some provincial parks in Ontario, Canada. It is designed to provide education focusing on the natural and cultural heritage of the park its surrounding area...

program. The story is also told by an interactive video display at the point in the Lighthouse Interpretive Centre. The point is also home to a commemorative plaque, erected by the Ontario Historical Society.