They Fired Once More and Proctor Kept a Runnin

Of course the tile is a parody, but like so many parodies, its far closer to the truth than the fairy tales we’ve been fed as it passes for the Canadian History of the War of 1812. And like so many stories written by Canadian history writers passing themselves off as historians they are just that, stories. And more often than not, they are repeated from earlier fairy tales and poorly researched historical vignettes.

Other than the brave effort put forth by major General Sir Isaac Brock, surrounded by Republican fools and sympathizers, in the opening stages of the War of 1812 on the north American continent, the land engagements and what there was of the so called fleet actions on Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, they were largely a string of one-act scenes of military stupidity. Ultimately, any success obtained from the jaws of defeat were obtained by junior Lieutenants, while senior officers were busy obtaining defeat from the hands of the Gods of Victory. One only has to read the notes from the Duke of Wellington on the efforts of senior officers in Upper Canada during the conflict.

The three main officers in question were of course Commodore Robert Heriot Barclay in command of the Lake Erie Squadron under Sir James Lucas Yeo based safely in Kingston, and two subaltern Colonels who weren’t worth their uniforms according to General Brock who subsequent to Brock’s untimely death in 1812 actually fighting in the field, a concept totally unknown to these two twerps, known now by the names of General Henry Proctor and General Roger “the Dodger” Scheaffe. Proctor was born in Boston and a Republican sympathizer from well before the war, and Scheaffe, was just a plain old fashion coward. Both of whom were “yanked” by the Duke of Wellington in 1814. In modern parlance these folks especially the later two would be called “dumb and dumber”.

One more point here as we prepare a very short discussion paper on the War of 1812, is the fact that all the commercial trade along the great lakes and well into the interior and beyond was controlled by the either the North West Company under John Richard and John Forsythe and William MacGillivray or their contemporary and at one time partner John Jacob Astor of the now South West Company. In many cases they shared the same trading posts and looked after each others commercial interests. The other factor was that in 1811 the British naval contracted with these companies for the supplies of their forces and to provide transportation from point to point for major personnel including the various Indian leaders. This is another story, but no less interesting in the host of characters that sailed on-board these ships and engagements they were involved in. This ad-hoc group of vessels and men involved were loosely called the Provincial Marine. To be more precise for the purist that reads these things, the Provincial marine was branch of the British Army Quarter-Master General’s department whose main tasks were to transport troops and supplies to various sites and/or engagements. The Provincial Marine was subsequent to the fiasco of Commodore Barclay’s little engagement on Lake Erie on September 10, 1813, absorbed by the Royal Navy.

Hence the executive express schooner of the North West Company known as the NANCY, the largest and fastest schooner on the lakes now became HM Schooner NANCY and one Lt Com Miller Worsley of the Lake Erie fleet, who some how escaped being “paroled” by the Americans subsequent to the loss and capture of the HMS Queen Charlotte, was sent on his way to take over the command of the NANCY. As to how and with whom and led by whom over how long and over which sequence of Indian trails to get to Matchdash Bay to assume command is a story for another time. Rest assured it is not in the rather sophomoric history books of our Canadian schools. There is one other fine point to be made here and that is that the NANCY carried six long four pounders and were also made of bronze. These weighed about a ton each, and because they were bronze could literally be fired all day long as opposed to the their iron versions. These my friends were the original “rifles” of their day, and very accurate at a greater distance than the iron versions. Once again, a story for another time and place and again one not taught in our Canadian history books. Ok so there we have it.

So the War of 1812 started out not too badly, our friend Brock was doing well and even then he had to suspend the right of habeas-corpus due to the large number of Republican sympathizers in his ranks and amongst the new comers to Upper Canada. Such were the times and natures of conflicts as I am more than sure they exist even in today’s environment and even amongst those for the Bi-Centennial efforts to “celebrate” as it were, the events of the original.

So with the untimely death of General Brock 1812 comes a new year and some old and tired faces for his replacements. The first is of course the Republican born Colonel Henry Proctor of Boston, who constantly pissed Brock off by arranging numerous armistices with the Americans on the Niagara frontier while he, Brock, was await attending to other duties. No surprise here. Next comes dear sweet Colonel Roger “the Dodger” Scheaffe who is now the idiotic General stationed at Fort York. Last but certainly not least is Commodore Robert Heriot Barclay. Totally uncomfortable on the deck of anything that floats. In their hands rests the fate of Upper Canada. God help us as they say, but then again even God knows when to leave. Even the Grand War Chief Roundhead [Blackbear]of the Ottawa along with Grand War Chief Blackbird of the Ojibwa after the death of Colonel Tecumseth and at the Grand Council on the 7th in the fall of 1813 called all three of these leaders “women among women” and never to be served or acknowledged again.

So what are we celebrating during the Bi-Centennial of the War of 1812 on the Canadian side after the glorious days of 1812. 1813 and 1814 of course. So here we go from east to west.
1. Fort Henry and the Naval Base in Kingston. No problems here other than the fact that the vessels in the “fleet” were the recipients of a multitude of name plates to scare the Americans away. And no engagements of note.
2. Fort York. April 27, 1813. After an embarrassingly brief [and as previously arranged] engagement between General Roger “the Dodger” Scheaffe and the two American Generals Zebulon Pike and Henry Dearborn. Scheaffe was the great coward of the war that we have and after a short skirmish marched a out of Fort York as fast as he could all the way back to Kingston. Even the Americans were totally disgusted with his actions. Fort is burned to the ground and only after 2 days of the American killing a raping everything in sight is it brought to an end by Bishop Strachan. Thank God the North West Company supply warehouse remains in tact thanks to prior arrangements with the Astor family in New York. It should be noted that during the up-coming Bi-Centennial celebrations that the Federal Government will be spending in excess of $4 million to celebrate this wondrous event and make the American feel right at home. After all we do want to keep them happy and have continuous access to their markets for our goods.
3. Fort George. May 25, 1813. What can I say. Brigadier General John Vincent having taken over Brock’s two regiments, the 8th Kings and the 49th merrily proceeds to lose the fort in a much honoured and timely fashion to the more skill full American one General Jacob Brown. Oddly enough the supply base for the NWCo remains in tact.
4. Fort Erie. From January 13, 1813 to June 9 1813 the Americans simply walker over the “border” and took this stone fort. They eventually abandoned it out of boredom. On July 3, 1814 the Americans returned under the command of General Jacob Brown and after no more than 20 minutes the British Commander Major Thomas Buck “surrendered”. The Americans later totally demolished the place. No surprise there. For these last two forts outside of the Lundy’s lane skirmish the Federal Government via Parks Canada is spending in excess of $10 million. There are plenty of military and militia bodies yet to be exhumed and properly buried all along the escarpment, but we don’t honour them with a proper burial. All well documented by others.
5. Fort Amherstburg. This was the largest combined military – naval base west of the Fort Henry complex in Kingston. Major General Sir Isaac Brock’s pride and joy in the wilderness at the western end of Lake Erie and at the base of Lake St Clair. From here Brock controlled the Michigan/Wisconsin territories with nearly 2000 men. This was also the NANCY’s main operational base at Moy outside of her base at Matchdash Bay just to the east of modern day Port McNicoll. Brock was here while Colonel Proctor dallied and dillied with the Americans on the Niagara frontier.
6. So then after September 10th, 1813, General Brock is now long gone and with our friend Commodore Barclay’s defeat on Lake Erie, General Henry Proctor takes over matters as the senior military commander and without so much as “a how do you do” to the American General, one William Henry Harrison, does what comes naturally, he simply abandons the entire well defended military/naval complex and like his close friend and confidant Scheaffe who quick marches out of York to Kingston, Proctor marches/floats up the Thames River Valley. Only God knows where this clown was headed. It certainly wasn’t Fort York. At the battle of the Thames we of course have the disgusting battle involving three American Generals along with Proctor and Tecumseth. Only one ran away and abandoned the battle after only a few minutes. Guess who? You know, the guy born in Boston. After that the Americans simply walked into Fort Amherstburg, which by the way was also named after Lord Amherst just like the village in PEI, the Americans renamed the Fort, Fort Malden. Proctor’s reputation was so bad that the Americans said they wanted nothing to do with him even if they did catch him.
7. Fort St Joseph. This regrettable story actually starts and finishes on July 16, 1812. This Fort lies between Fort Malden just to the west and which is part of the HM Schooner NANCY saga and what was later called Fort Drummond on Drummond island just to the west. All three were situated on an archipelago of individual islands at the western tip of Grand Manitoulin Island all of which belonged to the Grand War Chief and now General Blackbird of the Ojibwa Nations. He was the primary and chief spokesman for the Three Fires Confederacy during the war including the Grand War Chief of the Michigan/Wisconsin Sauk and Potawatoni nations, one Chief Blackhawk. The third Grand war Chief of the Three Fires Confederacy was Chief Blackbear. These were their sacred meeting islands.
In any event, a rather young British commander by the name of Captain Charles Roberts withdraws the entire command at the Fort included his Indian allies, who should have known better, to attack Fort Michlimacquinac on the main land which is just opposite Fort Mackinaw across a short body of water on an island. Roberts was so noisy about his intensions that the Americans knew about it long before he set out and arrived later the following morning and took over an empty Fort St Joseph. At which point the Americans simply torn down the fort and blew up the fortifications and magazine. They also knew that this was a sacred meeting island of the Ojibwa and likewise proceeded to destroy the Indians operational base and sacred cemetery there as well. Hence the unanimous support of the Three Fires Confederacy for the rest of the war all because what happened from July 16 1812 to July 19, 1812. Such is history.

Such is the history of the War of 1812 in Upper Canada. It was all down hill from the fall of 1812 onwards. There were no forts, or “fleets for that matter” west of Fort Henry other than the rubble left behind by the Americans. The only thing left was the very effective North West Company executive schooner NANCY now HM Schooner NANCY, her crew of professional royal navy gunners from the naval base at Fort Amherstburg and her six foot bronze “rifles” and new her new “baker rifles” to replace the old worn out Tower Muskets and all the “non-paroled” men and officers who could make it north in time, and of course her allies with the Three Fires Confederacy.

One point here is that the Indian leaders of the Three Fires Confederacy said that they would never serve with any British officer above that of Lieutenant ever again. But that is another story for another time.

The one and only major story is that of the NANCY, she never lost a running engagement, and more often that not, against a superior enemy force. Any nation worth its salt would be proud to have the NANCY as part of their history. When all the senior officers failed, the junior officers won the day. She served in every major water borne engagement and from Fort Erie to Fort Meigs, Detroit, Amherstburg, Malden, Michlimacquinac, St Mary’s, Fort Joseph and deep into Saginaw Bay, and her Indian allies loved her as their “great and proud war canoe”. She, along with her commander Alexander MacIntosh, her owners Richardson/Astor never failed their Indian allies in nearly 25 years of service and they in return acted as her ears and eyes on land from the Niagara Peninsula all the way to the Saint Mary’s River and her mid-operational base in Matchdash Bay at the east end of Georgian Bay. But that too is another story for another time.

The return of the NANCY was set for the Bi-Centennial in 2012 and we had raised a commitment of $2.9 million from developers in Toronto for her reconstruction. We asked for a small Federal shipbuilding grant of 5% to 15% to unlock our private sponsorship but they, from the Conservative Government Caucus down were unimpressed. In the end we asked to seek approval from the local government appointed Bi-Centennial group who after we called in 2009 never returned our call. As it turns out our project was simply too large and they felt threatened by it. I am sure we are not the only private group to be ignored. The Toronto developer was even less impressed and who may very well have bailed before I was aware of it. However we thank him for his interest while it lasted. It was great fun.

Like major General Sir Isaac Brock and Chief and Colonel [General had he lived] Tecumseth of the great Shawnee Nation, we did what we could. Enjoy the Bi-Centennial for what it will be and for what it won’t be.

Muskets and Tomahawks - HMS NANCY and the War of 1812

Muskets and Cutlasses - Arrows and Tomahawks

As a historian, and in terms of the subject at hand, being the importance of the adventures of HMS NANCY or as some would have it HM Schooner NANCY during the war of 1812, it goes without saying that all borders between countries have been established at the point of a musket. This is true the world over. It is also true for Mexico and the United States at the famous Alamo in Texas as it is for the British Dominions of Upper and Lower Canada and the United States with the success of the Nancy. Indeed it is still important as both countries continue to wrangle over economic and fishing treaties and the navigational rights in the far northern waters off Canada’s coast and the “North West Passage”

The War of 1812 was no different for Britain under King George III and the United States under President Madison. For the Americans, they saw it as a great opportunity to annex some land while the British were distracted with the conflict in continental Europe. Anything would do for an excuse and the forced boarding of American ships provided just that.

The history of the War of 1812 is well told, but what is less well told is the success of HMS NANCY AFTER the Battle of Lake Erie between Commodore Robert Heriot Barclay and one Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry on September 10th 1813. The battle itself is another story where the British forces lost the battle. But did we really, one wonders.

What is important is that the heavily armed war schooner NANCY now representing in its entirety the British fleet in the northern Lakes now received her commission and became HM Schooner NANCY along with her new commanding officer Lieutenant Miller Worsley, late of the Lake Erie squadron frigate HMS QUEEN CHARLOTTE who arrived on-board later the following spring of 1814 to join in with the captain of the now commission schooner one Captain MacIntosh of Moy Hall in the employ of the North West Company. The story of Alexander MacIntosh, the NANCY and the North West Company is yet again another story.

So the last surviving “ship” of the lake Erie squadron having lost her southern operational base at Moy Hall and hence Fort Malden sails back to her base in Matchdash Bay at the head of what is now called Severn Bay at the southern terminus of the North Channel below the head of the French River fur trade route, and what is interesting in today’s terms within sight of the replica HM Schooner NANCY’s new home at Port McNicoll.

So now then the Americans with the efforts of General Harrison [another story] and Commodore Perry control the trade on Lake Erie from the ruins of Fort Erie to the ruins of Fort Malden with Port Dover in the middle. The fiasco at Fort York [another sad story of ineptitude] now means that HMS NANCY is to be supplied via Montreal to Kingston to York up the Holland River past Kempenfelt bay to lake Couchiching to the Severn cut into Matchdash Bay or alternatively across the Ottawa River to the French River and down into Matchdash Bay. The Americans were well aware of the movements of HM Schooner NANCY and that she was armed with six long 4 pounders, and more importantly that through her efforts and “her associates” that she controlled the Upper lakes and “the Michigan territories”. Not good news.

And so it begins anew. Commodore Perry who won the day on Lake Erie is now with the Atlantic fleet and it is now up to Commodore Sinclair to “clear the lakes once and for all” of that pesky HM Schooner NANCY. To do this he brings both the American frigates into action up into Lake Huron, the USS NIAGRA and the USS LAWRENCE. More than that the American commander, in order to make sure of success against the “little NANCY” brings up three new war schooners, the USS SCORPION, the USS TIGRESS and the USS ARIEL. More than a fair fight I am sure. For the NANCY’s reputation as a fighting ship crewed by professionals and the fact that she never lost against superior odds even in running engagements, from Fort Erie and Fort Stevens all the way to Fort Malden was to be totally respected.

What happened is another story and we all know from the American texts in our schools that on that fateful day on August 13, 1814 the little HM Schooner NANCY was cut off from her exit route between the main land and what is now known as Christian Island into Matchdash Bay and destroyed up the mouth of the Nottawasaga River by the overwhelming American forces. It should be noted that it took the Americans the whole day to do this with all their firepower. But they quickly found out to their dismay that the crew and some of her allies had just received the new Baker Musket/Rifle which had been ordered expressed shipped from the Duke of Wellington’s quartermaster in London to Montreal to York and on up to Matchdash Bay. During the battle HM Schooner NANCY was stripped of all her arms and all taken to her base, having done that she was set on fire to prevent her hull from being taken by the Americans. The battle itself is another story where the British forces lost the battle. But did we really, one wonders.

As history would have it, within two weeks the British forces along with her “allies’ had taken two of those new American schooners now called HM Schooner SURPRISE and HM Schooner CONFIANCE. We were in better shape than we were just a couple of weeks earlier. And crewed by the NANCY’s crew. Defeat … hell no! And still we are not finished. Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo based at Fort Henry in Kingston was thrilled. The Montreal Gazette was equally delighted with the results. Especially after the NANCY’s crew and her Ojibwa allies along with Lt McDouall and Lt Livingston later took and held Fort Mackinaw, the Gibraltar of the north from the Americans.

Equally thrilled was the Duke of Wellington, disgusted by the efforts of Commodore Barclay, General Scheaffe and General Proctor finally saw the success of true professionals led by junior officers on those distant lands and Lakes of the Canadas.

This brings us to the Treat of Ghent, initially signed on December 24, 1814. Initially because sailing on the Atlantic in winter was to be avoided and the numerous other skirmishes of the War of 1812 had yet to take place, including the Battle of New Orleans on January 18, 1815. The treaty had to be re-affirmed in later that year. In fact tussle around the border continued for many years after that including the boundary treaty of 1818. In fact when the British finally relinquished Fort Mackinaw in 1815 they established Fort Drummond on Drummond Island right across from it and held onto it until 1823 long after the Treaty of Ghent, its boundary provisions and that of 1818 and 1826.

The point here is that by the efforts of HM Schooner NANCY and her crew and “allies” that by holding onto Fort Mackinaw, it gave the British negotiators the co-ordinates to mark out the 49th parallel. Overt the years including the boundary Treaty of 1818 this line of demarcation was extended due west all the way out to what became the future province of British Columbia.
In conclusion then, we ask the all-important question, so then just how important was HM Schooner NANCY during the War of 1812 to the Canadas and to the future of indeed Canada. The answer to that question my friend, is that HM Schooner NANCY was as important to the future of Canada as the Alamo was to Texas and the future of the United States.

There are songs about the little NANCY but I doubt if we will ever seen her emblazoned on our coinage. Perhaps with the return of HM Schooner NANCY this could be changed. The support of the Royal Canadian Legion came grudgingly like the admission of the Korean veterans to the Legion. The recognition of the NANCY by the American Legion and the President of the United States was almost instantaneously given. To this day the history of “the pesky little schooner” is well known in the United States. But what of our own Canadian history and our Canadian history teachers. That too may change one day. Ask the likes of Jack Grannestein and Pierre Berton and Sir William Stevenson.

Please support the return of the little NANCY. You won’t be disappointed. Thank you all.

Remembrance Day - HMS NANCY

HM Schooner NANCY
Memorial Speech
November 10th 2009

We come together again today filled with sorrow and remembrance as we do each year at this time of Remembrance Day to remember those who fought for this Country on this sacred soil of Canada, for those who served during that fatefull week from Saturday August 13 and 14, 1814 to Wednesday September 7 and 8, 1814 during the War of 1812. The little schooner HM Schooner NANCY never lost a running engagement during this entire conflict. We especially remember when the eighteen brave crewmen of HM Schooner NANCY and 50 men from a detachment of Major General Sir Isaac Brock’s 49th and 41st Regiment under Lt. Livingston and Lt. McDouall and 380 Potowatani and Ojibwa warriors under the joint command of General & War Chief Blackhawk [Michigan territories] and General & War Chief Blackbird [Grand Manitoulin Council] respectively who in the process of losing HM Schooner NANCY to overwhelming odds in turn took the USS SCORPION later named HMS CONFIANCE and the USS TIGRESS later renamed HMS SURPRISE to replace HM Schooner NANCY and the subsequent re-taking of the American Fort, Fort Mackinaw on Mackinaw Island at the headwaters of Lake Michigan. It was this running engagement under the commands of Lt. Commander Miller Worsley of the British navy, Great Lakes Command under Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo that won the boundary rights for all those of Upper and Lower Canada, now Canada’s the 49th parallel under the Treaty of Ghent ratified on February 17, 1815. We remember those who died during that engagement and remember with gratitude the lives that they led; and with a determination to honour them through the work we carry on today.
This is a time of war. And yet these brave Canadians did not die on a foreign field of battle. They were killed here, on Canadian soil, in the heart of this great country called Canada. It is this fact that makes their sacrifice and ultimate victory over enormous odds even more painful and even more incomprehensible.
For those families who had lost a loved one, no words can fill the void that was left to them. We knew these men and women as soldiers and caregivers. You come to know them and their heroic efforts through the history pages as mothers and fathers; sons and daughters; sisters and brothers.
But here is what you must also know: your loved ones endure through the life of our new nation. Their memory will be honoured in the places they lived and by the people whose lives they touched. Their life's work is our security, and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening as the sun sets on a glimmering Georgian Bay, a tranquil town; every day at sun rise as that flag is unfurled; every moment that an Canadian enjoys life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness - that is their legacy to us.
Neither this country - nor the values that we were founded upon from the days of the Magna Carta signed on June 15, 1215 - could exist without men and women like those eighteen Canadians onboard the little war schooner, the NANCY, and their allies. And that is why we must continue to pay tribute to their stories. Let us remember that crew today in their role call from the Procedings of the NANCY’s Log:
- Lt. Commander Miller Worsley RN
- Alexander MacIntosh - Captain
- Jacob Hammond - Masters Mate
- Richard Evans – Cook
- Jonas Butler Parker – Carpenter
- John Lamotte – Carpenter’s Mate
- Richard McGregor – Able Seaman
- John Morrison – Able Seaman
- Joseph Paquet – Able Seaman
- John Baptsite Tromp – Able Seaman
- Peter Jean Tromp – Able Seaman
- John Mears – Able Seaman – Chief Gunner
- Robert Warren- Able Seaman – Gunner
- John Fearson – Able Seaman – Gunner
- Evan Richards – Able Seaman – Gunner
- William Baker – Able Seaman – Gunner
- William Forier – Able Seaman – Gunner
- Andrew Lumsden – Able Seaman – Gunner
These brave men and native warriors came from all parts of the country. Some had long careers in the navy, the Provicial Marine and Provincial Militias and military. Some had signed up to serve in the shadow of the contineantal wars in Europe and some from right here in Upper and Lower Canadas when President Madsion decided to invade. Some had known intense combat on land with Wellington, some on the high seas with Nelson, and some cared for those did. Their lives spoke, and speak to us still, to the strength, the dignity and the decency of those who served, and that is how they will continue to be remembered today in peace with our cousins.
That same spirit of the soul which they exemplified will be embodied in the new HM Schooner NANCY and the communities she will again serve around Ontario (Upper Canada) and here at her new home base, at the NANCY HERITAGE RESOURCE CENTER here in Port McNicoll. The NANCY and her crew represented the best that we can be when called upon. This heritage will live on again in the new NANCY.
Again, these are trying times for our country. In the Persian Gulf and in Afghanistan and other foreign theaters of war, both as peace deliverers and as peace preservers Canadians continue to protect the interests of Canadians and our allies. We as Canadians are working to bring a war to a successful end and to allow us the gift to live as friends, but in each case this requires the soul of spirit that is so richly that of the Canadian people. The NANCY represented and will represent again all that is best of our naval and miltary historical traditions.
As we face these challenges, the stories of those men who served onboard and with the NANCY reaffirms the core values that we are fighting for, and the strengths that we must draw upon. Theirs are the tales of Canadian men and women answering an extraordinary call - the call to serve their comrades, their communities, and their country. In an age of selflessness, they embodied and embody still that keenly felt responsibility. In an era of division, they call upon us to come together. In a time of cynicism, they remind us of who we are as Canadians.
We are a nation that endures because of the courage of those who defend it. We saw that valor in those who braved the musket balls and cannon then and the bullets and roadside bombs now, just as surely as we see it in those who signed up knowing that they would serve in harm's way. We are a nation that believes in due process here and abroad and pray to be on the side of God.
Tomorrow is November 11, Remembrance Day. It is a chance to pause, and to pay tribute - for students to learn of the struggles that preceded them; for families to honour the service of parents and grandparents and their grandparents and our forebearers; for citizens to reflect upon the sacrifices that have been made in pursuit of a more perfect union, that which is Canada.
For history is filled with heroes. You may remember the stories of a grandfather who marched across Europe; a great granfather who fought in the Crimea or Boer War; a son who served in the Persian Gulf. But as we honour the many generations who have served, I think all of us - every single Canadian - must acknowledge that this generation has more than proved itself the equal of those generations who have gone before.
We need not look to the past for greatness, because it is before our very eyes. The NANCY returns.
In today's wars, there is not always a simple ceremony or single cenotaph or war memorial that signals the success of our service men - no surrender papers to be signed, or capital to be claimed. But the measure of their impact is no less great - in a world of threats that know no borders, it will be marked in the safety of our cities and towns, and the security and opportunity that is extended abroad. And it will serve as apt testimony to the character of those who served and serve, and the example that you set for Canada and for the world.
Here now, at Port McNicoll, we will pay tribute to those eighteen men who served us so well onboard the NANCY and their brave fellow service men and native warriors. They were but one community gathered then as we gather now, to remember the so few who accomplished so much in so short a time for so great a country.
Long after they were all laid to rest - when the fighting had finished, and the Canadas [our nation] had endured; when today's servicemen and women are veterans, and their children have grown - it will be said of that generation that they believed, under the most trying of tests, that they persevered, not just when it was a tough slog on the inland seas of the Upper Lakes far away from the main conflict and in the vastness of the great northern forests, but when it was hard; and that they paid the price and bore the burden to secure this nation’s future, and stood up for the values that live in the hearts of all free peoples. Remember in the Book of Prophets - Isaiah 6:1-8 “Here I am Lord, send me”.
Remember the NANCY

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.

Canadian History Revisited - HMS NANCY Project

Killing Canadian History
Or
What History?
Who’s History?
Which History?

One of my friends and long time dedicated supporters of the “NANCY Project” Jack Granatstein [one of the Curators of the National War Museum in Ottawa and long time historian] wrote a treatise on Canadian History in 1998 titled “Who Killed Canadian History” published by Harper Books of Canada. This book and mantra bears oft repeating, and should be required reading by all Canadian History teachers and professors prior to taking their degrees or their positions and most certainly before espousing their views to other newer and more impressionable minds in the class room, especially those who were foreign born, many of whom have in my mind and those of other Canadians a decidedly jaundiced opinion of the topic especially if they are Liberal and have been part of our Grandfather’s decision as to whom they will or will not let into the Country so many years ago. So with Jack’s permission I will espouse and re-visit portions of the first chapter in his book and for those who claim interest in the subject, I’ll leave the rest of his treatise to their devices, and will quote liberally [with some editing of course] as follows:

Conservatives falsify the past, socialists falsify the future, and liberals falsity the present, so someone once said. It may even be true – in most countries, Canada is different. Ours is a nation where everyone – conservative, socialist and liberal – seems to be engaged in an unthinking conspiracy to eliminate Canada’s past. The public schools and high schools scarcely teach history, so busy are they fighting racism, teach sex education, or instructing English as a second language for recent immigrants. Fewer and fewer university and college professors write history in anything but undigestible small chunks of history of interest only to themselves or to specialists and more often that not, in order to justify their tenure in a publish or perish mentality. [The history of the H.M. Schooner NANCY easily falls into this category] The media [both print and electronic mediums not to be outdone in this regard] use history only to search for villainy [to satisfy their imagined viewers needs] if they use it at all, or else they mangle it beyond all recognition [and out of context] to prove a perceived contemporary argument. [To them] there are no heroes in our past [as there most certainly are] to stir the soul, and no myths on which a national spirit can be built – or so we are told. The ordinary Canadian citizen, inundated by American media [and school texts] and Fourth-of-July rah-rah patriotism, vastly skewed films and media scarcely knows that Canada has a past. Wasn’t George Washington Canada’s first Prime Minister? Didn’t Davy Crocket settle the west? Weren’t the Iroquois our enemy?

Indeed, it sometimes seems that those Canadians [in charge of disseminating our history and setting what is left of history curriculum] have deliberately deconstructed our past, sacrificing it for the good of some ersatz mythical past hauled into the present. The French Canadians were brave voyageurs along with the Hurons who fought the English and their Iroquois allies, and posing in the middle of it all for Cornelius Krieghoff just long enough to paint their picture. The United Empire Loyalists were slaving holding Anglo-Saxons white males whose anti-democratic instincts were all too evident. Confederation was a scheme by railway investors to protect their profits for the east at the expense of the western farmers. The efforts to put down the Riel rebellion were attempts to thwart the efforts to crush the idyllic civilizations of native peoples and traders under the weight technology and speculators. If Canada participated in the two foreign world wars, it should not have, because Canadians are peacekeepers by nature. This ignorance [on a grand scale] bowdlerization, where it has any intention at all, serves a nation that today sees itself as a bilingual, multi-cultured, pacifist, and committed to social injustice, [at best for the very few at the expense of the great many].
These are not evil national goals, to be sure, however though they scarcely represent the Canada that most Canadians know and love. Even though each generation always writes its own additional chapter; the past is not supposed to be twisted completely out of shape to serve present ends at the expense of the whole for the sake of the very few. To do so, mocks the dead [our ancestors who built this country over hundreds of years for the most part] and truly makes fools of those who have inherited the land in the eyes of those who have newly arrived from Countries which have a rich history of their own. For Canada, it reduces the past to a mere perspective on the present; and it imprisons history in a cage of consciously constructed quasi-fabrications. As Germans, Japanese, and Russians surely know, nations have to overcome their histories.
Canada, thank heavens, to some has a relatively benign history, but where we consider it at all, [some take it upon themselves as they] struggle against the [perceived] past as if our forebears who had [in their personal view point gained abroad] committed atrocities and innumerable evils [in matters of immigration and the treatment of foreigners at times of wars] and regularly practiced genocidal behaviors [as viewed from the high-noon mentality of American westerns]. The obvious task then of the current generation(s) is to build on the past, to understand it [within its proper context], and, where necessary, to triumph over it. Most certainly not to ignore it. If we cannot, the fault is not what happened, one, two, or three centuries ago, but in ourselves.
History, [more often than not as it is seen in the mind of the beholder] is important because it helps people know themselves [their past and their Country]. It tells them who we were, [the thought processes of our previous generations of Canadians, and their concerns and worries for their Country and more importantly the world they lived in, and amongst others nations and our responses to what they were doing at the same time.] It also tells of the collective memory of humanity that situates them in their time and place; and it provides newcomers with some understanding of the society [which built this Country from scratch] in which they have now chosen to live in, having left their olde Country behind which they see as a “failed state”. [Hence the very reason not to support their old culture here in Canada, which is not a failed state!] Of course, the collective memory undergoes constant revision, restructuring, and re-writing only where necessary, but whatever its form it reveals anew to each generation [once assimilated] a common fund of knowledge, traditions, values, and ideas common to the whole to help explain our existence and the very few mistakes of the past along with the great many success stories of the past.
But what of the Canadian ethos, and what makes us tick? What is the reason for the current self-imposed vacuum in teaching Canadian history? To most Canadians, it is a fact that today’s students don’t talk about current events around the dinner table the way previous generations did. All we see on television these days are recent immigrants to Canada from around the world, claiming Canadian citizenship, and demanding that Canada do something to help their “homeland” and their “failed state” from which they have just immigrated from to do something. Or in many cases, new immigrants to Canada going back to their “homeland and failed state” to cause trouble, claiming that as Canadian citizens, that it is Canada’s duty to rescue them from their stupidity. This is not the Canadian way. The simple truth of the matter resulting in the above, is that Canada’s public schools and high schools [separate schools included] have not only stopped teaching most world history [context for Canadian history], but have also clearly given up teaching anything we might call or consider Canadian or National history.
[This give rise to the sentiment that if Canada doesn’t have or even espouse a history [culture] to newcomers, then why should I come here and give up mine. They are right, hence the rise of multi-culturalism. If you don’t want your, then why not take ours, and ours, and ours etc etc.]
As a result, a great many Canadian museums have lost their raison d’etre around the countryside and have been closing, one by one after years of being starved of either public attendance [or by public policy, or public funding as they “are no longer relevant to the public, and their mind’s eye/] It is little wonder then, that raising funds for Canadian cultural and heritage projects is a lost cause from the get-go. Canadians have always believed in “peace order and good government” as a public policy.
By extension, and summary of this brief extract then, this policy also means, and is equated to, that if anything of value is to be done in this area of history, culture and heritage, as certainly there is no corporate support for large scale projects such as is the case with the NANCY Project, then let the Government do it. But we already know the answer to this, don’t we.
The situation in Canadian universities is only and at best superficially better – certainly there are more Canadian historians employed and in training than at any other time in our past. Still, though, the survey courses increasingly reflect professional interests, and those whose interests tend away from national and political history – the basic nuts and bolts of Canadian historical knowledge – towards such areas as gender, labour, and regional or local history. As a result, national history is increasingly been left to journalists, publish-or-perish professors fighting for tenure to established private Foundations [such as the NANCY-GRIFFON Foundation Inc] to promote in the media [papers, radio and] on television to deal with Canadian history, and much of it correcting what was written and was not written or what was largely creative and non-factual.
One of the many supporters for the NANCY Project has been the Charles Bronfman Foundation through their support of the “Heritage Minutes” programme and their sister organization the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Foundation through their own heritage programme. These programmes were along with a few others designed to overcome Federal and Provincial complacency about Canadian history and its companion course in Canadian civics. All Canadian school aged children, and by corollary, all immigrants must study Canadian history, geography and civics in order to be a fully functional Canadain citizen and to participate in its national ethos.
In 1997, the Dominion Institute Survey, released in November of that year, showed that forty-five percent of Canadian adults questioned could not meet the standard requirements of the citizenship test for immigrants – to answer twelve of the twenty questions correctly.
Finally, as a historian, [of some fifty years of experience, and some thirty years as Director of the NANCY-GRIFFON Foundation Inc], I truly believe that an understanding of our history is important in and of itself [as a basic tenant of citizenship and as a basic instrument of public policy]. But history has a public purpose too, in creating Canadians who know where they want to go, and where they want to take their Country in the coming years because they [fully] understand where they have been. [To know their past is to know their future, as is oft quoted]. I believe that the achievements of the past, and even those years as having failed in some eyes from years gone by, can be a source of strength to meet not only today’s challenges but tomorrows too. If written and taught properly, history, our history is not myth or chauvinism, just as national history is not perfervid nationalism, but rather, history and nationalism are about understanding the Country’s past, and how the past has made our present and is shaping our future.
I believe moreover that the past can unite us without its being censored, purposefully being ignored, being made inoffensive to this group or that, or white washed to covered up some perceived sins of our forefathers in distant lands, from previous national affiliations, or deemed preferential immigration policy. If our history is to achieve this great national purpose [as it does for any other Country of note] then major changes are needed [in terms of policy and curriculum] in our schools, colleges and universities. One small step in this direction would be to remember the story and support the NANCY Project.

Included in the Nancy Project for the Bi-Centennial of the War of 1812 in 2012 is the request to the Royal Canadian Mint to have the image of HM Schooner NANCY on the Canadian Quarter [Coinage] to help raise the awareness of the NANCY which is Canada's most internationally famous vessel from the War of 1812. Thank you.

Support the replica program for HM Schooner NANCY and send your donation today.

Remembering HMS NANCY - Victoria Day Weekend

On behalf of the Directors of the NANCY-GRIFFON Fund Inc and the HMS NANCY Project I thank you for allowing me the honour of joining you here today. This is my first time visiting the new site for the replica of H. M. Schooner NANCY here within the future site of the new Collingwood Heritage Harbour on the beautiful southern shores of Georgian Bay of the great Huron nation, here at olde Wendake Bay. As I was driving up here from Barrie through the beautiful countryside settled by our forebears, I couldn’t help but thing to myself, that while the Directors, staff and the volunteers who are helping to make the new NANCY a reality, that I could help but think about the brave men and women who lived, served and offered succor to their new homeland and who are buried in innumerable small quaint little graveyards from Matchdash Bay to Collingwood and from Saulte Saint Marie to Amherstburg who served aboard this brave little schooner, the NANCY. While I am very proud of the many volunteers who have made this new site possible, I am true awed by the herculean efforts of the crew of H.M. Schooner NANCY, members of the Provincial marine and the land forces that helped to preserve this land during the fire storm that was the northern stage of the War of 1812 through to 1815 on these northern shores. Here among red and white maples, the sturdy red and white oaks and among the beech trees and pines along these magnificent shores and upon the blue and gray waters of the Lakes, both storm tossed and calm, over 1,000 Canadians now lay here, resting peacefully under the endless skies of Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. The Ojibway and Shawnee long give their praise to Gitchigomie their God of the Great Manitou for their fallen braves as well. They rest in silence. On a typical day, except for scattered footsteps or the soft gurgling of a stream, or cresting of a wave on shore, I imagine you could walk row after row of headstones, some no longer legible, some no longer seen, some no longer there, without hearing a single sound. But their spirit lives on in all of us.

Though long past, this was no foreign war. This is our past, this is our collective heritage and conscience. The memories of loved ones speak to us so strongly that when we stop and listen, we can't help but hear life. And once a year on this day, in the fullness of spring, in the presence of those who never really leave us, it is their life that we honour, it is their deeds that we honour, it is their memory that we honour, its their land that we honour; it is from those hands the torch has been passed to ours so long ago. Lives of courage, lives of sacrifice, and the ultimate measure of selflessness - lives that were given to save others. What led these men and women to wear their country's uniform? What is it that leads anyone to put aside their own pursuit of happiness; to subordinate their own sense of survival, for something larger than they - something greater than they? Behind each stone is one of these stories; a personal journey that eventually led to the decision to fight for one's country and defend the freedoms we enjoy. Most of the Canadians who rest here were like my grandfather, a doctor, a WWI vet who volunteered to serve in the Royal Army Medical Corps, or my father another doctor and vet who served in WW11 in the Canadian Medical Corp but was lucky enough to came back in one piece, and went on to live well into his twilight years. My grandfather never boasted about it. He treated the fact that he served in the military like it was only a matter of fact. And so it is easy for us to forget sometimes that, like my grandfather, of the many men and women resting here who went before them, whose service spans almost two centuries of conflict from the War of 1812 to the Wars in Iraq and now Afghanistan , chose their path at a very young age. These were kids, and young men who went to war. Many from the naval service on the Atlantic conflictThey had a whole life ahead of them - birthdays and weddings, holidays with children and grandchildren, homes and farms and happiness of their own. And yet, at one moment or another, they felt the tug. Maybe it was a Commissioner’s call to fight for the Union Jack and to hold the land free from southern expansionists. Many had been tossed off their lands in the old country before, shouted “Never again”

Whatever the moment was, these men and women thought of a mom or a dad, a husband or a wife, or a child not yet born. They thought of a landscape both here and abroad, or a way of life, or a flag, or the words of freedom they'd learned to love. And they determined that it was time to go get the job done. They decided: "I must serve so that the people I love may live - happily, safely, freely." The “Canadians” who lay here beneath our feet and in our soil believed. And when they waved goodbye to their families so long ago - some for the last time - they held those beliefs close to their hearts as they served onboard the little NANCY in these sacred northern waters. They knew their destiny, while others mightier than they had failed, and failed again, they knew their schooner would never let them down. And they made us so very proud. Not so long ago. Their lives now live on in our history books, but unfortunately so far away from the very Canadian students who need to learn their stories of bravery and heroism. No matter how many “ghosts” you may meet, or how many stories of heroism you may hear, every encounter reminds you that through their service, these men and women had lived out the ideals that stir our Nation still - honour, duty, sacrifice and to hold steadfast. They're people like Lt Commander Miller Worsley and Captain Alexander MacIntosh. Like Major William Allan her supplier from Richardson Forsythe in York who made sure than the little NANCY received everything she needed. Others like Lt Livingston and Lt McDougall and a host of Ojibway and Shawnee Chieftains who were awarded commissions by King George 111 for their service. All now who lay beneath the soil of their beloved land.
It is this quintessentially quiet Canadian optimism that stands out in all their stories. To have meet these men and women, now only available to us in the story books, would give you a clear sense of the quality of person we had serving in the Provincial Marine of Upper Canada. Books written by Hutchinson and Berton to mention but a few.But today, on this Day there is a quiet restlessness that seeks the story of the little NANCY. It is time to bring her home and the story of those who served aboard her. She must sail the Lakes once again.

I won't begin to pretend that simple words of praise for the little schooner NANCY could or would ever be enough to bring her back. But we the people of this great Province of Ontario need to do that. To do so, is to understand her sacrifice and that made by her crew. Others far less informed cry havoc, others cry “small potatoes” from sites like Fort George on the Niagara that capitulated, or from Fort York where the military simply ran away and did so twice.

Really? Is this what our school system in Ontario teaches our children today? Forget and dishonour the service of past veterans. That out of sight is out of mind, has never been truer. That is why we must bring HMS NANCY back. This story needs to be told and told again. We must honour our past, we must honour our heritage. We must never forget! It is our duty to remember those who knew they duty, nothing less will ever do.
But I will say to those listening today and to parents of children who are listening for them, that the heroic service of the little NANCY and all those who served aboard her, they serve as a shining example of what's true and best in this land. As King George 111 remarked in 1815: “The solemn pride that must have been theirs to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom is truly impressive . I sincerely hope and pray that those who follow, cherish this scared memory of their love for Country and lost for ever"
Here on this hallowed ground and in ceremonies yet to come, we choose this day as HMS NANCY set out on her final voyage in 1814, to solemnly honour those costly sacrifices - sacrifices that were made on the Lakes of Ontario and in so many distant but not so distant places. It makes our hearts heavy; our heads bow in respect.
Honour and remember HMS NANCY as we honour the freedom of our lands.

www.thepeakfm.com/home/johnnicholsblog/tabid/1231/default.aspx

Well today was May 12th and we thoroughly enjoyed the interview with John Nichols on Collingwoods Peak 95.1 FM this morning.
"What a sight that would be out on Nottawasaga Bay, given the rich maritime history of this area as we reflect on the fact that so many Great Lakes vessels were built right here in Collingwood. I for one would sure like to see it come to fruition."
Thanks John.

www.thestar.com/article/628187

This is the link for the May 3rd Sunday edition of the Toronto Star article by Ken Kidd on the possibility of the NANCY coming home to Collingwood.

Remember the current programme is to write a Letter of Support for the Nancy Project and drop it off to or send it in to Mr. Peter Dunbar, Dept of Leisure, City of Collingwood, Ontario, L9Y 3Z5. Lets make it happen.

Thank you.