HMS Speedy (1798) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids History |
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.svg){kind=small} Great Britain |
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| Name | HMS Speedy |
| Builder | Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard, Kingston |
| Commissioned | 1798 |
| Fate | Sank on 8 October 1804 |
| Notes | Provincial Marine vessel |
| General characteristics | |
| Length | Roughly 80 feet (24 m) |
| Sail plan | 2 masts |
| Complement | 6 |
The HMS Speedy was a schooner, a type of sailing ship, that sank in a big snowstorm on Lake Ontario on October 8, 1804. Everyone on board was lost. This tragic event changed history for the small colony of Upper Canada because many important people were on the ship.
The ship was built in 1798 for the Provincial Marine, which was a naval force. It was built at the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard and was used to carry government officials and supplies.
Contents
About the HMS Speedy
The HMS Speedy was one of five warships quickly built in 1798. They were made from "green timber," which means wood that was not properly dried. This happened in Cataraqui (now Kingston). These ships were meant to protect British Upper Canada from the new United States.
The Speedy had four-pound guns. It was about 55-foot (17 m) long with two masts. It also had a 20-foot (6 m) bowsprit, making it almost 80 ft (24 m) in total length. Even with its name, Speedy was actually quite slow. Because it was built with green timber, it soon had problems with leaks and wood rot after it was put into service.
The Final Journey of the Speedy
The schooner was supposed to sail from York (now Toronto), which was the capital of Upper Canada. Its destination was Presqu'ile Point for an important murder trial. The trial was meant to make a new courthouse seem official.
Important Passengers on Board
The Speedy was carrying many key people. These included the first police officer in the province to die while on duty, High Constable Fisk. He was taking a prisoner named Ogetonicut to court. Ogetonicut, a member of the Ojibway tribe, was accused of a serious crime.
Also on board was Justice Thomas Cochrane, the judge for Ogetonicut's trial. The accused's lawyer was there too. The ship also carried six copies of Upper Canada's new Constitution. Supplies and a royal surveyor named John Stegman were also passengers. He was helping to plan the new district town. Sir Robert Isaac Dey Grey, a top legal officer, was also on the ship.
Setting Sail in a Storm
The schooner left York on October 7, 1804. The Lieutenant-Governor, Peter Hunter, insisted it sail. However, the ship's captain, Lieutenant Thomas Paxton, was worried. Paxton was an experienced officer. He was concerned about a coming storm and the ship's poor condition.
Even though it was only six years old, the Speedy was very weak. Its hull was rotting because of the bad timber used to build it quickly. Two crew members had to constantly pump water out to keep the ship afloat. Captain Paxton was forced to leave under threat of being court-martialed. Right after launching, the ship hit the bottom in the harbor because it was so heavily loaded. This caused a six-hour delay.
The Storm Worsens
After getting free, the Speedy sailed east. It stopped briefly at Port Oshawa. There, it picked up the Farewell brothers, who were important witnesses for the trial. Some Native people who were also witnesses boarded the ship.
However, the Farewell brothers refused to get on the ship. They thought it was too crowded and unsafe. They decided to follow the Speedy in a canoe instead.
The Speedy and the canoe got separated as the storm turned into a blizzard on October 8. The wind was blowing strongly from the northeast. By the next morning, the Farewell brothers reached Newcastle's harbor in their canoe. But the Speedy was gone.
The schooner was last seen near Presqu'ile Point at dusk on October 8. The crew fired one of its cannons to signal their trouble. People on shore lit bonfires to guide the ship to safety. The schooner then disappeared as it approached the mouth of the bay. All that was found of the ship, its passengers, and crew were a chicken coop and a compass box. These washed up on the beach.
The Investigation into the Sinking
The captain could not see the stars or the signal fires because of the storm. He had to rely completely on the ship's compass. It is thought that the Speedy was in an area now called the Sophiasburgh Triangle. In this area, magnetic forces can make compasses work incorrectly.
Also, the Speedy was a square-rigger, meaning it could not sail directly into the strong northeast wind. This made it hard to steer. It's possible the Speedy hit a mysterious stone pillar called the Devil's Horseblock. This pillar was said to be only 20 cm below the water's surface.
The government tried to find out what happened by dragging the area with hooks. They found that the mysterious Horseblock shoal had also disappeared. Some people thought the 200-ton Speedy might have been strong enough to knock over this unusual rock. The Speedy was one of nearly 100 ships lost in the Sophiasburgh Triangle since the 1700s. This made people fear the area was too dangerous for a major port.
The Legacy of the Speedy Disaster
Because of this disaster, Presqu'ile was considered a bad place for a district town. The sinking was called "a disaster felt by the Bench, the Bar Society, the Legislature and the Country." The new settlement at Newcastle was abandoned. The district center was moved to Amherst (now Cobourg) in 1805. A new town named Newcastle was built about 50 years later, in a different spot.
Every summer, the story of the Speedy is told through a history play. This is part of Presqu'ile Provincial Park's education program. The story is also shown in an interactive video at the Lighthouse Interpretive Centre. A special plaque, put up by the Ontario Historical Society, also marks the event. A play about the sinking was performed in Toronto in 2017.
Search for the Wreck
Ed Burtt, a wreck hunter, searched for the Speedy wreck. He claimed to have found it in 1990. He hoped to bring up items from it under maritime laws. Burtt recovered some items that might have identified the wreck. He kept the location a secret, planning to show the items in an exhibit. Burtt passed away in 2017 without telling anyone where the wreck was. Other divers plan to keep searching for it.
People Lost on the Speedy
Records are not clear about how many people were on board. It was somewhere between 20 and 39 passengers, plus the 6 crew members. We may never know the exact number of lives lost. Those known to have been on board included:
- Lieutenant Thomas Paxton, Captain of HMS Speedy
- John Cameron, Speedy crew member
- Francis Labard, Speedy crew member
- Ogetonicut, the accused prisoner
- Angus Macdonell, defense lawyer and a member of the Upper Canada government
- George Cowan, a fur trader and interpreter for the government
- Justice Thomas Cochran, the trial judge
- Robert Isaac Dey Grey, the prosecutor and a top legal officer
- Simon Baker, a slave of Dey Grey
- John Anderson, a law student
- John Stegman, a land surveyor, possibly a trial witness
- James Ruggles, a Justice of the Peace, possibly a trial witness
- Two or three unnamed First Nations men and women, who were trial witnesses
- John Fisk, High Constable of York, the first police officer killed on duty in Ontario and Canada
- Jacob Herchmer, a well-known merchant and fur trader
- Two young children, who were sent on the "safer" Speedy by their parents
