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USS/HMS Chesapeake / Chesapeake Mill
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Chris



Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 4

Post Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 5:52 pm    Post subject: USS/HMS Chesapeake / Chesapeake Mill Reply with quote

Not so much to promote my new book as much as the subject matter:

Most know that the HMS Chesapeake, which served in the Royal Navy without distinction 1813-19, was the prize USS Chesapeake taken by the HMS Shannon in the battle that yielded "Don't Give Up the Ship!" off Boston Light June 1, 1813. The HMS Chesapeake, was sighted back in the Chesapeake Bay in July, 1814, and, launched in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1799 (my location), she was broken in Portsmouth, England in 1819. An unknown, but fairly large, portion of her timbers and other wood was used virtually uncut and unaltered in the construction of a new watermill in Wickham, Hants, still standing.

Almost 200 years later the role of the Chesapeake in US/UK/Canadian history stands out in a number of respects: her 1807 and 1813 confrontations with the British, and the resulting effects on morales and mindsets of the two nations; her place in the human history of Halifax, Nova Scotia up to the present day; and the questions she has posed recently about the concept of historic preservation of old sailing ships. The Chesapeake timbers have been preserved as they were within the walls and roof of an industrial building since 1820. It's not unreasonable to ask if after 200 years of constant restoration and rebuilding with new materials of more notable historic naval ships in the US and UK, she might not be the most still original of them all, though in the form of an old English grain mill.

Website for the book is http://www.theusschesapeake.com
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Roy Adkins



Joined: 28 Mar 2007
Posts: 26
Location: Devon

Post Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 1:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello, I just looked your book up on Amazon (UK), which is only selling it through its marketplace sellers. It says it is published by the History Press - is this a US publisher? I look forward to seeing the book, as this is a fascinating story. Lesley and I wrote about the Chesapeake attacked by the Leopard (1807) and the Chesapeake v. the Shannon in our book 'The War for All the Oceans', including a description of how the timbers were used in building houses at Portsmouth (England) and in the Chesapeake Mill at Wickham. We also had an article on this published in the American Quarterly Journal of Military History (summer 2008). We also send out occasional newsletters to anyone who cares to sign up for them on our website (www.adkinshistory.com), and our latest one was sent out two days ago and included the story of the Chesapeake v. Shannon, because we were recommending the village of Wickham and Chesapeake Mill for traditional, old-fashioned Christmas shopping! The story deserves to be told at length, and so your book is very welcome. Good luck with it.

Roy
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Chris



Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 4

Post Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:07 pm    Post subject: Book publisher Reply with quote

Thank you, Roy

The book is published by the History Press US / UK, though not well distributed in England, a situation we are trying to remedy. It is as much about English, Portsmouth and Hampshire County history as it is about US history. And the geographic center of the story is in Halifax. It's available through Amazon UK and I've seen it on some other more obscure British online sellers. We'll continue to work on the distribution gllitch there.

Chris
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Tom Halsted



Joined: 01 Dec 2009
Posts: 5
Location: Gloucester, MA, USA

Post Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 4:32 pm    Post subject: Chesapeake vs. Shannon: Author's Query Reply with quote

I am writing a biography of James F. Curtis (1797-1839), who served as a midshipman aboard USF Chesapeake in her battle with HMS Shannon, was imprisoned in Halifax, exchanged, then reassigned to USF Constitution on which he served for the remainder of the War of 1812. He was in the prize crew that took HMS Cyane to New York at the end (actually after the end) of the War of 1812. Curtis stayed in the Navy until 1824, fighting pirates in the Med and Caribbean (he led a dramatic expedition into the Cuban jungle to wipe out a nest of pirates, and was "mentioned in dispatches" for his action. He went on to leave the Navy in 1824, managed textile mills in Mane and New Hampshire (where he ordered the mill girls' wages cut from 58 cents a day to 52 cents; the first women's strike in American labor history took lace as 800 mill girls walked out -- and then slowly came back at the new, lower wage, when they realized there were no other jobs available). He later (1835-1839) was the first superintendent of the Boston and Worcester Railway, and died on April 13, 1839, when his head hit an obstruction as he leaned out the window to inspect the roadbed after a torrential rainstorm.

I am looking for letters, diaries, logbooks and any other anecdotal material that might shed might on the life of this man. Several of the books on the Chesapeake/Shannon battle mention him in passing, but I would be interested to learn if there are any logs, letters or official reports that might shed more light on this dramatic and almost certainly pivotal experience in his life.

(Long time readers of this website's predecessor may recall that Michael Phillips, its dedicated creator, had a section on the site on Chesapeake vs. Shannon in which he reported the receipt of a tantalizing letter from a reader in the US, who said he owned the log of a Chesapeake midshipman that Phillips would find of interest. If such a log actually existed, it may have been acquired improperly by his correspondent, since Phillips' - and my - efforts to get in touch with the writer came to naught).
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Chris



Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 4

Post Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nothing about the Navy expereince, but some good information here
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ydt7AIKFenkC&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=James+F.+Curtis+navy&source=bl&ots=VhdTFa2eS2&sig=whVQwQO3v0jaVnqD_FV3K4BHNV0&hl=en&ei=cHkVS-anN8PHlAfY6vTABQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CA0Q6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=James%20F.%20Curtis%20navy&f=false

The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families
Page 30

Doesn't seem to have been a very pleasant fellow. I'll keep an eye out.

C
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Tom Halsted



Joined: 01 Dec 2009
Posts: 5
Location: Gloucester, MA, USA

Post Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:17 pm    Post subject: James F. Curtis Reply with quote

Thanks, Chris, I was aware of the book and its depiction of Curtis as a hard-hearted tyrant.

Confession: Curtis was my great-great grandfather (another was Nathan Appleton). Other sources explain that the Cocheco mill, a family owned and operated enterprise, was failing; the owners went to Boston, hat in hand, for a bailout and management assistance. Curtis was picked by the Boston bankers for the job; quite possibly, his experience at Navy discipline was a contributing factor. Contrary to the characterization in The Belles of New England, he was considered by others to be considerate, generous and imaginative. The truth may lie somewhere in between. He certainly ran into no such labor problems on the railroad (but there were no female employees; could that have been his problem?), which he ran successfully for five years before his death, at a time when the managers were virtually inventing railroading as they went along.
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Chris



Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 4

Post Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Tom

Re the point of your question:

A lot of papers, books, other writing passed before my eyes while researching http://www.theusschesapeake.com/Home_Page.html in three countries.

I've only seen three first hand accounts re. Chesapeake/Shannon, and Melville Island which would have been the prison in Halifax. All are online, but I think all they can do is give you a sense of James' life during that time. They are:

Diary of Benjamin Palmer
http://books.google.com/books?id=hiRCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=benjamin+palmer#v=onepage&q=melville%20island&f=false

Ned Myers
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/9788

Benjamin Waterhouse
http://books.google.com/books?id=Wrs8AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Strongly suggest that you get lost in Google books, which seems to hold everything ever writen by everyone in one way or another, but you have to keep digging with diffeent keywords and strategies. I'd be interested to know what books mention him in passing, which might give you clues to further digging. Forgive me if you know all of this already.

I'm working on another project with Chesapeake savants here and in England, I'll ask what they may know about crew logs.

Chris
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Tom Halsted



Joined: 01 Dec 2009
Posts: 5
Location: Gloucester, MA, USA

Post Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 12:56 am    Post subject: Chesapeake and Shannon Reply with quote

Chris, I've sent off for your book, which I look forward to reading. I've read a few others, e.g., H. F. Pullen's The Shannon and the Chesapeake, Poolman's Guns off Cape Ann, and Peter Padfield's "The Great Sea Battle," in American Heritage, Dec. 1968, the best of the three, IMO. And of course there's Patrick O'Brian's Fortunes of War, which faithfully follows the details in the official accounts, with the added participation - or presence, at least -- of his characters Aubrey, Maturin and Villiers. Poolman's version has my ancestor in there for a good bit of the action (he was Lawrence's Aide- de Camp, by his side through much of the action, (though we're only talking about 11 minutes or so -- trying and failing to free a jammed staysail, trying and failing to get the bugler to sound the call for boarders. And testifying at Cox's court martial. Curtis was just fifteen at the time, and I wonder if his voice had broken when he threw down the bugle in disgust and tried to shout, "Boarders away!" At any rate, no one heard him -- or at any rate, chose to. Poolman's understanding of ship handling is shaky at best, with a few bloopers any devotee of the Age of Nelson would spot in an instant.

I live on Cape Ann, within sight of the battle area, and have sailed through those same waters many a time -- which may be why I am intent on getting this part of his the story right--and hoping my subject is less of a jerk than the Dover mill girls found him to be.
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