Gaspee Day

Floor Speech

GASPEE DAY -- (Senate - June 24, 2008)

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, every student of American history knows the story of the Boston Tea Party, the men who crept onto British ships moored in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773, to destroy shipments of tea that the English sought to tax. They were patriots who yearned for liberty, for "no taxation without representation,'' and who stepped into history.

Only a few miles south and more than a year earlier, however, another group of men had engaged in another act of patriotism--yet these men are largely forgotten outside my home State of Rhode Island. Every year, in their memory, Rhode Islanders celebrate Gaspee Day. This is their story.

During the buildup to the Revolutionary War, as tensions between England and its American colonies grew increasingly strained, King George III stationed the HMS Gaspee, under the command of LT William Dudingston, in the waters off Rhode Island. Its mission was to search incoming ships for smuggled goods and enforce the payment of taxes.

On June 9, 1772--16 months before the tea party in Boston--the sailing vessel Hannah was traveling from Newport to Providence when it was intercepted by the Gaspee and ordered to stop to allow a search. On board the Hannah, Captain Benjamin Lindsey refused and continued on his course, despite warning shots fired by the Gaspee. The smaller and more maneuverable Hannah then raced up Narragansett Bay and into the safety of Pawtuxet Cove. The hulking Gaspee tried to chase the Hannah but ran aground in the shallow waters of Namquid Point. The Gaspee was stuck, awaiting the higher tides of the following day.

Meanwhile, Captain Lindsey proceeded on his course, and upon arriving in Providence he met with John Brown, a community leader who later founded Brown University. The two men arranged for a meeting of local patriots at Sabin's Tavern, in what is now Providence's East Side, later that day. At the meeting, the assembled group of Rhode Islanders decided that action must be taken. Gaspee was a symbol of their oppression, and she was helplessly stranded in Pawtuxet Cove. In short, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

As night fell on June 9, 1772, there was no moonlight on the waters of Pawtuxet Cove. The Gaspee lay silent on the sand bar at Namquid Point. But just a few miles away in Providence, a team of about 60 men led by John Brown and Abraham Whipple was preparing for an assault that would soon break that silence. They armed themselves, boarded longboats, and set course for the Gaspee.

After paddling the longboats 6 miles down the dark waters of Narragansett Bay, the men reached the Gaspee and surrounded it. Brown called out and demanded that Lieutenant Dudingston surrender his vessel. Dudingston refused and instead ordered his men to fire upon anyone who attempted to board the Gaspee.

True to form, these brave Rhode Islanders seized the challenge. They forced their way aboard the Gaspee, and a struggle ensued. In the melee Lieutenant Dudingston was shot in the arm by a musket ball: Rhode Islanders had drawn the first blood of the American Revolution, right there in Pawtuxet Cove.

Brown and Whipple's men took control of the ship from the British crew and transported the captive Englishmen safely to shore. They then returned to the abandoned Gaspee for one final act of defiance to the crown. The men set fire to the Gaspee and watched as its powder magazine exploded, leaving the whole ship burning down to the water line. The place was eventually renamed Gaspee Point.

If that is not an act that defines the American struggle for independence, then I don't know what does.

Since that night in June when the Gaspee burned, Rhode Islanders have marked the event with celebration. This year, as I do every year, I had the good fortune to march in the annual Gaspee Days parade in Warwick, RI.

And every year, I think about what it must have felt like to be among the 60 men hauling on those longboat oars, as they paddled toward destiny.

While it is doubtful that many of those patriots could fully grasp the place they were about to take in history, there must have been a feeling of deep satisfaction known only to those who, in the face of tyranny, have stood up for home, for family, and for country. It is the same feeling that must have accompanied the soldiers of General Washington as they crossed the Delaware, the delegates of the Continental Congress as they signed the Declaration of Independence, and indeed those men in Boston who emptied a shipment of tea into the ocean. I hope that the brave Rhode Islanders that gave us Gaspee Day will be remembered with those other giants of the Revolution, and given their due place in our Nation's history.

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