Valcour Island (cont.)
11-12 OCTOBER 1776
250th ANNIVERSARY
VALCOUR ISLAND (cont.)
Arnold boldly hoisted sail on his flagship row galley CONGRESS and in company with three other row galleys and the 12-gun schooner ROYAL SAVAGE, charged at the enemy. His goading had the desired effect, the British turned! (Had they simply anchored and waited for the wind to shift, Arnold’s fleet would have been trapped). And seeing the British turn, Arnold scurried his boats back into line athwart the mouth of Valcour Bay. Only the square-rigged ROYAL SAVAGE had trouble moving back against the wind. She fell behind, and around 1100 she was hit by accurate British shot. She grounded against Valcour Island.
By masterful seamanship LT James R. Dacres, RN, in HMS CARLETON, 12, successfully approached the American line. Rounding only 350 yards off, he anchored and opened fire. Spring lines on his cables allowed him to warp his ship back and forth presenting port, then starboard broadsides in continuing succession. In Arnold’s words the action now became, “general, and very warm.” American fire concentrated on Dacres, who gave back equal measure. Dacres himself was felled unconscious by flying debris, but not before his gunners holed several American gunboats. Then a Patriot shot cut CARLETON’s spring lines and she swung bow-on to American guns. MGEN Carleton ordered her towed off.
On came the British for several hours, but tacking upwind presented them to Arnold in piecemeal fashion. Wind and shot beat back each British warship as she approached. Both sides took a pounding through the day. At 1700, the British moved the artillery bateau THUNDERER into position. Her six 24-pounders were the biggest guns on the lake, and in concert with eight smaller guns, opened on the Americans. Sunset merciful ended this heavy pounding. Arnold’s men had suffered grievously, but neither side had won a victory.
Unsure when the winds would shift, Arnold had his men muffle their oars and slip through a break in the British line that night. Morning brought a blessed south wind, against which Carleton now had to tack in pursuit. CONGRESS fell off to delay the enemy, and after a second two-hour battle with HMS NFLEXIBLE, 18, MARIA, 14, and the repaired CARLETON, a battered CONGRESS and four gundalows were run aground and burned in Ferris Bay. From there Arnold’s men walked twenty miles to Fort Ticonderoga.
Arnold’s “suicide fleet” had been successful. Despite losing 13 of 17 gunboats he had convinced the overcautious Carleton that Patriots in the area would not be easily beaten. Now late in the season, Carleton changed his plans and retreated back to Canada. Fort Ticonderoga was reinforced over the that winter.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 18 OCT 26
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
The American Revolution, Vol 3: “Washington and Arnold”. New York, NY: A&E Television Networks (Videocassettes), 1994.
Martin, James Kirby. “The Battle of Valcour Island.” IN: Sweetman, Jack, ed. Great American Naval Battles. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998, pp. 3-26.
Seelinger, Matthew. “Buying Time: The Battle of Valcour Island.” Army Historical Foundation website, www.armyhistoryfind.org/ armyhist/research, 13 August 2004.
Site visit. Valcour Island and Bay, Valcour, New York, 26 August 2004.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Arnold’s full fleet consisted of three row galleys: CONGRESS, TRUMBULL, and WASHINGTON; the schooners LIBERTY, ROYAL SAVAGE, and REVENGE; the sloop ENTERPRISE; the cutter LEE, and nine gundalows: BOSTON, CONNECTICUT, JERSEY, NEW HAVEN, NEW YORK, PROVIDENCE, SPITFIRE, SUCCESS, and PHILADELPHIA.
Despite the cold temperatures that preserve her artifacts, Lake Champlain has been slow to give up evidence of this battle. In 1935 PHILADELPHIA was recovered from the lake and is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution. The wreckage of CONGRESS was located in Ferris Bay in 1984, and in August 1997 the wreckage of one of Arnold’s four boats to survive the battle (yet unidentified as either PROVIDENCE, SPITFIRE or NEW HAVEN) has been discovered in southern Lake Champlain waters.
James Dacres would figure in another famous US Navy battle three decades later. On 19 August 1812 (now) CAPT Dacres commanded HMS GUERRIERE in her famous duel with USS CONSTITUTION–the battle in which Constitution earned her moniker “Old Ironsides.”
