Remember the NANCY

There are moments in time of incredible bravery and heroism. There are moments in history when a few brave men and their indian allies stand up to be counted. Here they draw the line and say they will stand and fight. Their stand may be small in comparison to the great battles in which thousands perish. Yet perhaps they achieved even more through their spirit, their courage and their determination. When principles hold fast against huge and overwhelming odds no matter what the outcome, victory is theirs. The storyof the little NANCY, her crew and her allies between August 14, 1814 to August 31, 1814 was truly one such moment in time.

Once such battle stands out above all others during the War of 1812 and that battle took place in the northern theater of the Great Lakes on Georgian Bay when all the other fleet actions had failed including the land based skirmishes at forts surrounding the Lakes.
The battle of the NANCY, H.M. Schooner NANCY was a desperate fight that probably only lasted a few short hours at the most. Every moment must have seemed a lifetime for those of the crew of the NANCY, her Ojibwa allies and those inside the beleaguered little fort on the banks and at the mouth of the Nottawasaga River on the south shore of Georgian Bay. Here, less than two hundred men and Indian warriors held out against overwhelming odds and firepower for as long as they could. In the end the NANCY crew lost their ship but no their running battle against a superior foe. Their bravery and heroism has endured to this day.

Perhaps they believed, at first, that help would come. Most likely those who fell, knew in those closing hours of the day that they would
die. Among them were the crew of the NANCY, soldiers of the 49th Regiment, Northwest Company voyageurs and their Ojibwa allies. Side by side heroes and characters from the great frontiers prepared to make their defence. Among them were Lt. Commander Miller Worsley, late of HMS Queen Charlotte of the Lake Erie Squadron under Commodore Barclay, Captain Alexander MacIntosh, from Moy Hall, Scotland, now Moy Hall north of Fort Malden, Ships Master Jacob Hammond and the crew including naval gunners from HMS Aeolus of the Halifax Squadron, men of the North West Company, voyageurs and kings of the wild frontier and of course the Ojibwa of the Grand Manitoulin Island Confederacy under the Grand War Chief Assigniack [Black Bird] later General Black Bird and the command of Lieutenant Ramsay Livingston.

The NANCY Discovered
The Americans enroute from Fort Michilimacquinac were commanded by Commodore Sinclair commanding two 20 gun frigates, the
USS NIAGARA, the USS Lawrence, and three new war schooners, the Tigress, the Scorpion and the Ariel which guarded the Christian Island straights blocking the NANCY’s escape route to her main supply base in Matchdash Bay at the entrance to the Severn River. On their way south they discovered the NANCY which had attempted to hide up the mouth of the shallow Nottawasga River. 700 men against 200 and the six gun schooner NANCY. The outcome for that day was a foregone conclusion but only resulted in the loss of their proud little ship and three men Their sacrifice, bravery and heroism would be remembered forever. Here in the last few hours of that fatefull day on August 13th, 1814. These were the opening actions that ended on August 31st, 1814 and by which history would judge them. Yet those few men could hardly have known the importance of what they were about to do for the future nation of Canada. Nor would they ever know the victory that would one day be theirs.

The NANCY Avenged
Two weeks later, with the NANCY’s longboat and twelve new bateaux, on August 31, 1814 Worsley, Mackintosh and Livingston with their men, after picking up additional supplies and reinforcements from Matchdash Bay and paddling and rowing for 360 miles up the North Channel, reached Michilimacquinac. Enroute to their old base at Fort Joseph to retake Fort Mackinaw on Mackinaw Island, they had quietly bypassed the American schooners Tigress and Scorpion just to the south at Detour Passage. On September 3, Worsley and 92 men, including 26 Ottawa and Ojibwa in four bateaux with their oars muffled returned to surprise and capture the Tigress at midnight anchored in Detour Passage. On September 6, the Scorpion returning from her cruise was lured into position and was also captured. Both vessels were then taken to assist and carry additional Provincial marines and members of the 49th Regiment to retake Fort Mackinaw across from Fort Michilimacquinac. The USS Tigress was renamed HMS Surprise for the manner in which she was captured. Similarly, USS Scorpion was renamed HMS Confiance in honour of the ship which was captured from the French by Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo, Commander of the Great Lake Squadrons.

Importance of Fort Mackinaw and HMS NANCY
The importance of the actions of the HMS NANCY, her crew, the men of the 49th Regiment, the indian allies under Lt. Livingston and Lt. McDouall on the Upper Great Lakes after all else had failed on the southern Great Lakes on both land and water, was that with the closing of the Continental theater of war in Europe and with the Duke of Wellington bringing his divsions home and with Commodore Barclay and General Proctor and General Shaeffe having been recalled home in disgrace, Wellington was about to taske over full command of the north American theater of war and ship 5 battle seasoned battalions to Upper Canada in the spring of 1815.
Lt. Commander Miller Worsley being from the Isle of Wight was personal friend of the Duke of Welington as was Sir major General Issac Brock of the 49th Regiment who was from the Isle of Gurnsey.
Wellington was well aware that Barclay, Proctor and Shaeffe had lost everything and that all the forts west of Fort Henry was lost and destroyed by the Americans. Only the efforts of the little NANCY, “his little fleet on Georgian Bay” had carried the day along with their indian allies.
When time came to settle the border between British Upper Canada to the west and the United States, it was decided at the Treat of Ghent in 1815 that it would be a commemorative border based on the efforts aasociated with H.M. Schooner NANCY under Lt. Commander Miller Worsley and the 49th Regiment of Foot under Lt Livingston and originally under General Isaac Brock.
If the Americans didn’t agree then Wellington was more than prepared to settle matters once and for all with his battalions from the campaigns against one Napoleon Bonaparte.
The history of the little war aschooner NANCY is as big and dramatic as the Province itself. It is impossible to think of the Canadas today without thinking of Ontario and the west as an integral part of it. Yet before the running battle of the NANCY from August 14th to August 31st 1814, Upper Canada [Ontario] had been a bitterly fought over territory and everything west of the Niagara peninsula was under the control of General Harrison [later to be an American President]. On an epic scale it had been subject to strategic occupation by British indian agents Robertson and Livingston who allies the Ojibwa under Grand War Chiefs Assigniak of the Grand Manitoulin Island and Grand War Chief Black Hawk of the Michigan territoies the Potawatomi and Sauk controlled all of Michigan from Fort Dearborn in the south to Fort Mackinaw in the north and beyond to the head of the Great Lakes. Due to the actions of the NANCY running supplies and materiels to the indians allies and fur trade forts prior to 1811 [North West Company of Montreal and the South West Company of John Jacob Astor of New York] and all who supported this Upper Geat Lakes fleet, now with HMS Surprise and HMS Confiance under Worsley, Livinsgton and McDouall the Michigan territories were swapped for the territories of Upper Canada [Ontario] to the Lake Kenora district and beyond. No one else!

The NANCY herself was originally a North West Company fur trading vessel built and financed by the merchant and fur trading firm of Richardson Forythe and her two owers John Richardson and John Forsythe from Aberdeen, Scotland. Over the years, trading vessels like the express schooner NANCY, the the Brigs, the Caledonia and Perseverence, the sloops the Mink and the Otter, along with the schooners, the Ellen and the Beaver served the fur trading supply routes of the North West Company of Montreal from 1786 to essentially 1821 before being “taken over” by the Hudson’s Bay Company out of London England. Long before the war of 1812 began, these ships and their crews, their commanders and families along with their wives and children were already hard at work building this great country that would eventually become the great nation of Canada. But in the span of a few years during 1812 to 1815 it could have all been very well lost. But it wasn’t thanks to men that served aboard the little ships that saved a nation wereas the big ships and the big actions had failed miserably. Much likened to the Corvette navy of Canada during the seond world war.

After the War of 1812 was settled, settlers poured into the Canadas by their thousands, while a desperately poor and unstable fledgling Canadian democracy under a General Assembly in its infancy tried to cope with the opening up of the land and dealing with a grasping nation to the south. Their metal was soon tested under the guise of “Manifest Destiny” time and time again and the efforts of the NANCY, her crew and all those who served this land won time and time again. How little this has changed even in the 21st century. They shall and will not be forgotten.

Every rational reason points to the fact the NANCY’s actions in and of themselves were well worth defending. Yet some strange force seems to dictate that the stand there was inevitable. Before the US republic even declared war, the Provincial Marine was filling up with a mixed crew of sailors, soldiers, voyageus, settlers and of course the native Ojibaw, Ottawas and the western Cree of the northern Lakes. There were not even two thousand, with women and children among them along with the fifity thousand indians. But they all came together to form a special bond among them.

For 16 days, from the August 14th to August 31st 1814 Lt. Miller Worsley and his forces were surrounded and besieged their small war schoner and tiny compound built at the mouth of the Nottawasaga River. We can only surmise what the thoughts and prayers of those on-board and inside the fort were as they were bombarded. We do know that Worsley was able to get word out through indian couriers to Matchdash Bay to build new bateaux and to prepare for the long paddle north to avenge the loss of his ship. They braved the American scouts and rangers sent ashore to find them only to escape during the night back up the Nottawasaga River and across to the safety of Matchdash Bay and reinforcements waiting there. One of Worsley’s famous letters, survives the running battle and ensuing engagement. His words should be in the heart of every Canadian.

"The enemy has demanded that we surrender at their discretion, otherwise the schooner and the small garrison will be destroyed if the fort is taken. I have answered their demands with cannon shot and our flag still waves proudly from the mast and the fort. As a British officer I shall never surrender nor retreat. I shall fight on”

And so it happened. After two fatefull weeks on the upper lakes and in the woods of northern Upper Canada far from the main theater of the war, this brave band of men eventually won and carried the day for the Canadas, this fledgling nation by refusing to give up or the unthinkable, to surrender. Before those fatefull two weeks began the men knew what they were facing. They had seen it all many times before in the preceding two years of conflict, this small remote corner of the War of 1812 as duly recorded by the Montreal Gazette and subsequent York Gazette.

Lt. Miller Worsley had repeatedly drawn a line in the dirt. He asked any man who was willing to stay and fight, to step over it, they all did. Before day break on the 14th August 1814, the first assaults of what became a two week engagement began. Thirty six cannon of larger bore against six six pounders, [two moved to the little fort]; 700 men with muskets against 250, thirty of whom had the new Baker rifle just delivered to them from Fort York under the instructions of Major William Allan [Allan Gardens] and Lieutenant Joseph Shepard [Sheppard Avenue] of the 3rd York Volunteer Militia both of whom were both managers for the North West Company [oddly enough on parole to the Americans subsequent to the miserable defeat at Fort York] and who saw to it that the NANCY and her crew received the best equipment possible from Montreal. All attacks were repelled but they knew they had to escape to fight another day. So after much regret, they set fire to their beloved little schooner, the NANCY [the fastest schooner on the Great Lakes and the pride and joy of John Richardson and named after his eldest daughter] to cover their withdrawal to safety. The first half dozen attacks were repelled, but late in the afternoon, they set the ship ablaze and rowed up-river and east across land to Matchdash bay. They fought bravely but the overwhelming forces swept across the sand bar to take what remained of the schooner and the little fort only to find everyone has left. The Americans knew the NANCY’s crew and they equally knew that they had not seen the last of them or their Ojibway and Ottawa allies. The fuse was lit.

The disparate numbers on both sides of the conflict of the War of 1812 would become a typically Canadian experience in the years to come. Both World War I and World War II saw Canadian forces greatly out-numbered but who carried the day even after armies from vastly larger countries had lost the day. Vimy, Passchendale and the Somme come to mind along with the Sicilian and Italian campaigns, Ortona, the landing at Normandy and deliverance of Holland later. They are well remembered even today and in our memorials and countless cenotaphs.

For the NANCY, fighting was vicious and hand to hand with muskets, rifles, war axes and swords. More than a hundred British, Canadians, voyageurs and indian allies perished from the opening of the conflict and covering 30 and more operations carried out by the NANCY, her crew and her allies. Every fighting man both onboard and accompanying the NANCY new their duty and they never lost a running engagement. The Amerixcans knew this, they new there was price to be paid and a butcher’s bill to be filled. Yes we lost the NANCY but we gained two new schooners and larger strategic presence in the northern great lakes. We held what became Canada west. If we handn’t held the Michicgan territoies with Fort Dearborn and Fort Mackinaw, much of Ontario today south of the 49th parallel would be in American hands. Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald being a fellow Scot alluded to it many times.

To this day the NANCY and those who served and died fighting as is well recorded in her annals and Logs and Masters Logs have become deeply enshrined in Canadian history books. Every year there is a new book about the NANCY being written by some University history professor. Those associated with H.M. Schooner NANCY, their names are synonymous with true heroes who made the ultimate stand more than once during those fatefull years from 12812 to 1814, and their sacrifice for generations to come. Their courage and their fortitude paved the way for a country that stood tall, proud and independent. Lt. Miller Worsley and his fellow officers and men in any running engagement were never defeated. The 49th parallel stands today as a testiment to their bravery and the history of the little NANCY. The sacrifice of the little NANCY, the heroes associated with her ultimately added twenty million square miles of territory to the future of British North American and evenutually the nation of Canada.

Their stance against tyranny and aggression, their bravery will never be forgotten. That is why we are such good neighbours now. Please remember the NANCY. Support the new commerorative coin to honour H.M. Schooner NANCY as part of the Bi-Centennial of the War of 1812 in 2012 to 2015.

Please give generously and support the building fund for the replica of H.M. Schooner NANCY. Thank you.