Pelham Had "Whaleboatmen" Nearly 250 Years Ago, But They Were Not What You Might Think

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They were "whaleboatmen."  They were among the bravest ever to grace the region once known as the Manor of Pelham.

Let your imagination soar!  The term "whaleboatmen" evokes thoughts of whales, harpoons, courage, small boats, and Long Island Sound.  Imagine heroes who embraced the risk of death.  They were whaleboatmen! 

Yet, such heroes chased no whales in Pelham waters.  Instead, they chased true Leviathans.  Such heroes used long rowboats that remotely resembled real whaleboats to annoy monumentally-large, British Navy ships that deigned to ply Pelham waters during the Revolutionary War.  Occasionally, like mosquitoes, the pesky little Patriots who became known as "whaleboatmen" sucked British blood.

Today's Historic Pelham Blog article tells a story of such whaleboatmen.  It is a story told before in these Historic Pelham digital pages.  See:

Tue., Oct. 10, 2006:  Yet Another Account of the Capture of the British Ship Schuldham Off Pelham Shores During the Revolutionary War.

Fri., Jul. 14, 2006:  Capture of the British Ship Schuldham in Pelham Waters During the Revolutionary War 

Tue., Aug. 29, 2006:  Another Brief Account of the Capture of the British Ship Schuldham in Pelham Waters During the Revolutionary War. 

The story of the capture of the Schuldham in February 1777 is only a tiny part of the incredible story of Pelham during the Revolutionary War.  Preparations already are underway throughout Westchester County for the upcoming 250th anniversary of American Independence and the War for freedom from British tyranny.  Work by "Revolutionary Westchester 250" is well underway to ensure that celebrations of the 250th anniversary beginning in 2025 and 2026 will be spectacular.  

The Town of Pelham played critical and repeated roles in the history of the Revolutionary War.  Though most students of Pelham history think only of the "Battle of Pelham" on October 18, 1776 when they think of Pelham's role in the war, Pelham's contributions and the stories that can be told of the war that raged across Pelham for years are much broader and more important than a single battle.  Pelham was within the Ground-Zero of "no man's land" -- the so-called "neutral ground" between the lines of the two warring armies.  The British controlled New York City and north including much of today's Bronx.  Americans controlled northern Westchester and south to a line north of the Croton River stretching roughly from Peekskill to Connecticut and down to Long Island Sound.  Pelham and other nearby communities, of course, sat right in the middle of this no-man's land.  

British Loyalists and sympathizers in the region supported the "Cowboys" (or "Cow Boys"), a rampaging group of marauders led by two men hated by all Patriots:  Major Andreas Emerick and the detestable Colonel James DeLancey.  The Cowboys were so-named because the group rampaged across Pelham and the region and stole cattle to be taken to the British market to support British and German troops.  The Cowboys terrorized Pelham and the entire neutral ground, stealing cash and valuables and burning local homesteads including, it is believed, the old 17th century John Pell homestead that once stood near today's Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum.

Rival marauders known as "Skinners" were organized, supposedly in support of the Americans and to oppose the Cowboys.  In reality, however, the Skinners similarly terrorized and robbed nearly all who tried to remain within the neutral ground without regard to whether they were Loyalists or Patriots.  Both Cowboys and Skinners were documented to torture, murder, and rob many victims in the region.  Things became so terrible that local residents organized Ranger Corps, the principal purpose of which was to protect local residents from both Cowboys and Skinners.  In 1975, Pelham Town Historian Susan Cochran Swanson wrote:

"Although Westchester was called the 'Neutral Ground', it was neutral only in the sense that the inhabitants were liable to attack by Cow Boys or Skinners, British or American soldiers.  Some people left their farms and moved to other areas until the end of the war.  Most buried their valuables and tried to hide the few horses and cows they had managed to keep in the woods.  Few men of fighting age dared to sleep at home for fear of capture and imprisonment.  Women, children and old people stayed on to protect their property.  Almost every family had a secret retreat in which to hide during a raid or attack.

"Out of this chaos, where families often sacrificed greatly for the principles proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, many true heroes emerged.  Local men, for example, organized Ranger Corps to protect the county from Cow Boy and Skinner raids.  Trained by volunteer French and German officers in the art of saber fighting from horseback, they became a real match for the British trained Cow Boys of Morrisania."

Source: Swanson, Susan Cochran, Between the Lines:  Stories of Westchester County, New York During the American Revolution, pp. 3-4 (Pelham, NY:  The Junior League of Pelham, 1975) (Copyright Susan Cochran Swanson).

Pelham also was in the cross-hairs of the British and Germans during the War because of its strategic location and its (then) lengthy shoreline on Long Island Sound.  The passageway between the East River that extended alongside Manhattan and Long Island Sound was strategically important to the defense and safety of New York City which was held by the British.  Pelham's shores stood nearly at that passageway that threaded between Throggs Neck on the mainland and the Great Neck / Kings Point region of Long Island.  Thus, the British kept a substantial naval presence in the waters off the shores of Pelham and southern Westchester County for most of the war, constantly harassing local shipping.  The British also stationed troops on local islands like today's City Island (then part of the Town of Pelham).  Although there was naval activity throughout Long Island Sound off the shores of both northern Westchester and southern Westchester, such activity was very concentrated near the shores of Pelham and the strategically-important island known today as City Island.  Hence, today's story of the American capture of the British ship Schuldham in Pelham waters.  

Indeed, among the countless stories of heroism and patriotism in Pelham during the Revolutionary War is the story of the capture of the Schuldham in February, 1777.  During 1777, Americans throughout our new nation were inspired by the gallant exploits of a group of American Patriots who captured a massive British gunboat serving as a guard-ship off the shores of City Island in the Manor of Pelham.  A small group of Patriots reportedly from Darien, Connecticut successfully executed a daring capture of the Schuldham, a British guard-ship that patrolled near Hell Gate and the "entrance" from Long Island Sound to the East River route to New York City.   

An account of the event was published in 1886.  It said: 

"It was near City Island that a daring and successful enterprise was accomplished by a few of the Americans in the year 1777, being no less than the capture of a British gun-boat used as a guard-ship, and stationed at the mouth of East Chester Creek. The particulars, as related by one of the party engaged in the capture to an aged citizen of Pelham, now in his ninety-second year, and by him communicated to the writer, are as follows: 

'The guardship 'Schuldham' was one of several vessels stationed by the British along the shores of the Sound, through whose instrumentality most of the hardships complained of by the Americans, such as those referred to in the petition by Benjamin Palmer, were inflicted. The officers and crews of these vessels often treated the inhabitants of the towns and villages along the shore with great severity. They were consequently regarded with no friendly feelings by the oppressed people, and plans for their capture were frequently discussed. 

'A party of whale-boatmen from Darien, Connecticut, were fortunate enough to carry enough such a design into execution. They conveyed their boat by hand across the Neck, and took possession of the market sloop which plied regularly between East Chester and New York. From the master of this sloop they ascertained that on his weekly passages to the city he was sometimes hailed from the guardship, and requested to sell them fresh provisions, such as eggs, chickens, vegetables, &c., for which, to insure their delivery, he was liberally paid. These Connecticut whale-boatmen, to the number of ten or twelve, armed, concealed themselves in the hold of the sloop. Their leader, however, remained on deck, and forced the owner to lay his craft alongside the sloop, as if for the purpose of furnishing the usual supplies. It was early in the morning, before daylight, and the moment the two vessels touched, the boatmen rushed up from below, boarded the British vessel, and took the crew prisoners before they were fairly awake. They then compelled some of the prisoners to help navigate the vessel, and making sail on the prize, ran her into the port of New London.'"

Source:  See Lindsley, Charles E., Pelham [Chapter XVII] in HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NEW YORK, INCLUDING MORRISANIA, KINGS BRIDGE, AND WEST FARMS, WHICH HAVE BEEN ANNEXED TO NEW YORK CITY, Vol I, p. 705 (Scharf, Thomas, ed., Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co. 1886).  See also Weigold, Marilyn, THE LONG ISLAND SOUND - A HISTORY OF ITS PEOPLE, PLACES, AND ENVIRONMENT, p. 26 (NY and London: New York University Press 2004); Mullaly, John, NEW PARKS BEYOND THE HARLEM WITH THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP DESCRIPTIONS OF SCENERY NEARLY 4,000 ACRES OF FREE PLAYGROUND FOR THE PEOPLE, p. 88 (NY, NY: Record & Guide 1887).

This brief account published in 1886 relates the capture of the British gunboat, but does little to reveal the true nature of the violent encounter and the amazing courage of the Americans involved.  A more recent account based on interviews with the whaleboatmen involved in the courageous exploit contained in the famed McDonald Papers published in 1923 by the Westchester County Historical Society tells the story of the capture of the Schuldham in greater detail.  

In 1975, Pelham Town Historian Susan Cochran Swanson published a book entitled Between the Lines:  Stories of Westchester County, New York During the American Revolution (Pelham, NY:  The Junior League of Pelham, 1975) (Copyright Susan Cochran Swanson).  In it she included a chapter with a brief but exciting account of the capture of the Schuldham.  Her account is quoted below.

"Yankee Whaleboatmen Capture British Gunboat
February, 1777

Whaleboatmen of Westchester County and Connecticut villages along Long Island Sound usually went out in groups of two or three boats.  Each boat carried eight to ten oarsmen, a helmsman and a man to handle a swivel gun on the bow.  Commissioned by the Governors of New York and Connecticut, the whaleboatmen were really rowboat privateers preying on Tory farms and sloops headed for the British food markets in New York.

The most famous whaleboat exploit was the capture in February, 1777, by Major Samuel Lockwood's crew of about twenty men, of the ten-gun British guardship Schuldham, anchored near Minneford Island (City Island) in Eastchester Bay.  It is retold here from the stories of two of the crew, Isaac Quintard and John Dibble, and the widow of another crew member, Andrew Mead.

*          *          *          *          *

Early on a cold February afternoon in 1777 Major Samuel Lockwood of Stamford, Connecticut, stood in the bow of his whaleboat straining to spot familiar landmarks along the shore.  His upraised hand signaled silence to the men rowing soundlessly behind him.

'Good!  This thick mist is a perfect cover,' he thought.  Slowly the whaleboat slipped around the north end of Hunter's Island and moved into Pelham Bay at the head of Pell's Point in Long Island Sound.  The two whaleboats behind slowly edged toward the beach and slid softly into the mud.  Wordlessly the men pulled their long whaleboats into the tall marsh grass that hid them completely from view.

Isaac Quintard stretched his legs.  It felt good to walk again after hours of rowing.  At the Major's signal he hurried over to join the crew.

'I'm calling off our original plan to take the Fort at White Stone Ferry,' Major Lockwood announced.

'Why, Sir?' Andrew Mead spoke up.  A good man when action was involved, he had been looking forward to attacking the fort.

'I received some news from Fade Donaldson last night, in New Rochelle,' continued the Major.  'There's a brig and another armed vessel tied up alongside the fort now.  It's too risky. 1  [Footnote 1, below.]  Besides, I've got a better idea.  How would you like a real prize this time . . . something more than just intercepting a few chickens or pigs bound for his Majesty's soup kettles in New York . . . something that would put some real silver in your palms?'

'Aye, that's what we need!!' Isaac exclaimed.

'Fade tells me that a Tory market sloop called the Little Stanton plies between East Chester and New York.  She sells fresh vegetables and poultry to the Schuldham, that guardship off Minneford Island.  The Little Stanton is due back in a couple of hours.'

'We haven't taken a Tory prize all day,' said Andrew Mead.  'Perhaps the Captain of the Little Stanton would like a holiday in Connecticut -- in jail!'

'I've got a better idea,' said Lockwood.  'Johnson, you and your crew stay here on Pell's Point and keep watch.  DeForest, you and I and our crews will carry out boats across Pell's Neck to Eastchester Bay.  The master of the Little Stanton doesn't know it yet, but we are going to borrow his sloop and use it as bait to catch us a nice fat fish!'

'You don't mean we are going to try to take the Schuldham?' exclaimed John Dibble.

'Why not?' broke in Andrew Mead.  'If we can catch the crew while they are still asleep, I bet we could do it!'  

'Are you willing to give it a try?' asked Major Lockwood.

'You bet!' cried the men.

'We'll give those British sailors a taste of real Yankee fighting!' 

Leaving Johnson and his crew to keep watch, Lockwood, DeForest and their men hoisted their whaleboat on their shoulders and set off.  When they reached the other side of the narrow neck of land, they stopped an peered cautiously through the tall marsh grass.  Through the mist they could just see the dim outline of the Schuldham.

They launched their boats and hugging the shore to keep out of sight, rowed from Eastchester Bay into the narrow Hutchinson River.  Then, hiding the boats in the marsh, Lockwood and his men waited an hour, shivering.  A small sloop sailed into Eastchester Bay.  It was the Little Stanton.  

With the precision of long practice the whaleboatmen swung into action.  Pulling alongside the sloop, Lockwood leaped on board, pointed his pistol at the Tory captain's head and said 'We'd like to borrow your sloop for the night, Captain.  If you don't give us any trouble, neither you nor your boat will be harmed.'  The Captain gave in without a struggle.

The whaleboats escorted the Little Stanton back to their secluded cove.  There they spent the night waiting for the tide to turn.  About five o'clock in the morning, Captain DeForest roused the men.

'Let's go, boys!  Time to catch our prize.  Ten dollars to the first man to board the Schuldham and five dollars to the second.  If we succeed there will be dollars aplenty for all of us!'  The crew hid down in the hold along with the sloop's 300 barrels of salt and twelve ten-gallon kegs of brandy.  With the Tory captain at the helm and Lockwood at the bow, the Little Stanton sailed down Eastchester Bay under a light breeze from the west.

Suddenly out of the grey dawn loomed the Schuldham.  She was completely encased in a net that reached ten feet up from the water to act as protection against small rebel boats.  She resembled a shrouded ghost in the morning fog.  The man on watch was real enough however, and wide awake.

'What ship is that?' he called.

'The Little Stanton,' answered Major Lockwood.

'The rebel boats are out tonight and I want to lie under your stern lee for safety.'  2.  [Footnote 2 is below]

Just at that moment, the bowsprit of the little boat rammed the Schuldham's netting.  The whaleboatmen swarmed up out of the hold.  Andrew Mead leaped to the bow and slashed at the netting with his cutlass.  The sentry fired his musket at Andrew.  Only grazed, Andrew fired back, but missed.

'Leave your muskets, men.  Use your boarding axes.  Follow me,' Major Lockwood yelled.  The men rushed forward.  Andrew Mead climbed the netting, hooked his boarding ax over the railing and pulled himself on board thus earning the ten dollar reward.

'Lock the hatches!  Keep the marines below,' shouted Andrew to the men following him over the rail.  But they weren't fast enough.

A British officer burst through the nearest hatch yelling, 'Kill him!  Kill him!'  Mead came face to face with the British Captain Roney with a pistol in each of his hands.  Mead lunged at Roney with his boarding axe, wounding him severely in the chest and side, but the Scotsman fired his pistols wounding Mead in each shoulder.  As the other whaleboatmen guarded the hatches, Andrew Mead, now barely able to support himself, called on the Captain to surrender.  The Captain, lying on the deck replied, 'If I must, I must!' and surrendered.

The battle was over.  But not one of the whaleboatmen knew how to man the stern topsail of the enormous Schuldham!  And so a bargain was struck with two British crewmen:  their freedom in exchange for their sailing knowledge.

'Even so,' Andrew Mead said later, 'we sailed that vessel very slowly and very awkwardly, like an old woman, all the way home!'  4.  [Footnote 4 is below]

Triumphantly the Schuldham entered Stamford harbor.  Isaac Quintard took Andrew Mead to his father's house to recover and Captain Roney went to Isaac's aunt's, the Widow Hubbard's house nearby.  The two men became quite friendly during their recuperation.

'Mead, aren't you well yet?  I have almost recovered.'  5.  [Footnote 5 is below]  Captain Roney would say to tease Andrew.  Suddenly, just when he seemed almost well, Captain Roney hemorrhaged fatally.  He was mourned by Andrew Mead who lived on to have many more adventures as a whaleboatman.  But not one of them ever equaled the day he helped capture the Schuldham!

Footnotes:

1.  McDonald, John, The McDonald Papers, MSS, Huguenot-Thomas Paine Historical Assoc., New Rochelle, N.Y., 1844, 586.
2.  McDonald, op. cit., 613.
3.  McDonald, op. cit., 71.
4.  Ibid. 
5.  Ibid."

Source:  Swanson, Susan Cochran, Between the Lines:  Stories of Westchester County, New York During the American Revolution, pp. 23-28 (Pelham, NY:  The Junior League of Pelham, 1975) (Copyright Susan Cochran Swanson).

The story of the capture of the Schuldham in Pelham waters early in the Revolutionary War is only a tiny part of the history of the region during the tumult of the war.  Yet, it is among the most thrilling exploits during that terrible time.

Detail from 1776 Map by Charles Blaskowitz Showing Area Where the

Schuldham Was Captured in February 1777.   Source: Blaskowitz,

Charles, A survey of Frog's Neck and the rout[e] of the British Army

to the 24th of October 1776, under the command of His Excellency the

Honorable William Howe, General and Commander in Chief of His

Majesty's forces, &ca, &ca, &ca. (1776) (Library of Congress Geography

and Map Division Washington, D.C. 20540-4650 USA; Digital Id g3802t

ar115200; Library of Congress Catalog Number gm71000648).

NOTE: Click to Enlarge Image.

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