00:00Mr. President, I take the Senate back to June 9th of 1772.
00:23And I read from Rory Raven's Burning the Gatsby,
00:31A handful of longboats glided across the water on a moonless night.
00:39The men, some at the oars, others nervously fingering muskets or clubs or hand spikes,
00:45were silent as they drew closer and closer to the silhouette of a schooner a short distance away.
00:51A white British ensign fluttered from the schooner's topmast in a humid breeze.
00:57A sentry on deck peered into the darkness, catching sight of the approaching boats.
01:02Who comes there, he called.
01:04The men in the boats bristled at the sentry's English accent.
01:08We mean to come aboard, replied a big man in the lead boat.
01:12You cannot, the sentry shouted back, you cannot come aboard.
01:16A moment later, the schooner's commanding officer came on deck.
01:21Roused from his bunk, he stood at the rail in his shirt sleeves.
01:24Raising a pistol, he warned the men not to come closer.
01:28Another man in another boat rose to his feet and declared,
01:32I am the sheriff of the county of Kent.
01:37That would be Kent County, Rhode Island.
01:39I am the sheriff of the county of Kent, God damn you.
01:43I have a warrant to apprehend you, God damn you.
01:47So surrender, God damn you.
01:51The officer drew his sword and repeated his warning.
01:54Some of the sailors under his command joined him, weapons at the ready.
01:58In one of the boats, a man turned to the friend seated next to him saying,
02:02Reach me your gun, I can kill that fellow.
02:06The gun was handed over.
02:08Shouldering the musket, the man took aim and the shot echoed across the waters.
02:13The officer doubled over and fell.
02:18The officer involved was Lieutenant Duddingston of the Royal Navy.
02:23The ship he was on was the HMS Gatsby.
02:27A naval vessel deployed as a revenue cutter to harass the trade of the Rhode Island colonials.
02:37There's a bit more of a story around this.
02:41Because before the challenge to the Gatsby,
02:47that led to that shooting,
02:50the Gatsby had been harassing other Rhode Island ship owners.
02:58One of them was a very prominent individual.
03:02The Gatsby seized a boat called the Fortune.
03:06And this reading from the chapter, The Dark Affair, The Gatsby Incident from Empire on the Edge by Nick Bunker.
03:19Unwilling to trust a local judge, he sent the fortune round to Boston, a step of doubtful legality that only made matters worse.
03:28Unwittingly, the Gatsby had antagonized a family of Rhode Islanders who embodied all the values for which the colony stood.
03:35The rum on board belonged to the Greens, Quakers with a farm or two, a sawmill and a forge for making anchors.
03:43The Navy had not the slightest idea who they were, or why it might not be wise to upset them.
03:50But one of the men who owned the cargo was Nathaniel Green, who would soon shed his Quaker beliefs to become the youngest general in George Washington's army and his closest aide from Bunker Hill to Yorktown.
04:03As Green wrote soon after the arrest of the fortune, the loss of her cargo created such a spirit of resentment that I have devoted almost the whole of my time in devising measures for punishing the offender.
04:17Well, of course, Nathaniel Green was not only George Washington's aide-de-camp and administrative officer, but he was also deployed to lead the southern campaign in the south,
04:29which caused Lord Cornwallis to write home to his wife to say, that damn Green is more dangerous than Washington.
04:36So the Gatsby launched that spirit of resentment that led to a General Green more dangerous than Washington, a Rhode Islander.
04:49The story of that day is fairly simple. July 9th, 1772. Another ship, the Hannah, is making her way north towards Providence when the Gatsby comes after her, seeking to stop and board her and seek to seize her cargo.
05:09Well, the Hannah was having none of it and continued sailing north. So the Gatsby gave chase. And in the course of the chase, the captain of the Hannah steered the vessel over a sandy spit that sticks out where a river comes into Narragansett Bay at a place called Namquit Point and delivers a column of sand.
05:32Now, the captain of sand. Now, the captain of the Hannah knew those waters well, and he knew the depths well, and he slid over the shallows in his later boat.
05:42The big armed Gatsby coming along behind foundered on the sand in a falling tide and was stuck.
05:51The despised Gatsby and the despised Lieutenant Duddingston became a target.
05:59The Hannah continued up to Providence that night. It was owned by the Brown family, who ended up giving their names to Brown University and were prominent merchants in 1772.
06:16And they rallied several long boats full of men who that night, presumably after some refreshment, rowed down from Providence, miles down to where the Gatsby was stranded.
06:35And that is where that incident began. It was those men in those long boats on that moonlit night who decided they were going to rid their beloved Narragansett Bay of the wretched and detested Gatsby.
06:50So they ended up shooting the captain of the vessel, Lieutenant Duddingston.
06:56He survived his wounds. They took the vessel. They captured the crew. They took everybody ashore.
07:03They saw that medical care was given to Lieutenant Duddingston. They came back out and they set fire to the Gatsby.
07:12And this painting, which hangs in my office, is a depiction of the Gatsby on fire that night.
07:23And as the fire burned, it came to the powder magazine and the powder magazine exploded.
07:29And the Gatsby was blown to smithereens across Narragansett Bay.
07:34And that was the end of her. Now, the episode got rather lost to history.
07:46And I'll put it in a time context. This is June 9th of 1772.
07:50This is more than a year before the Boston Tea Party up in Boston Harbor.
08:00On that occasion, Massachusetts colonials painted their faces and boarded a civilian vessel and pushed tea bags off it into Boston Harbor.
08:19That was Massachusetts.
08:22Rhode Island's effort, a year and a half before, was to trick the military vessel into grounding herself, come down the bay in longboats at night, shoot the captain, capture the crew, and blow the boat up.
08:45What more did we need to do to be in the history books?
08:52Well, we're getting there.
08:54I give this speech every year.
08:56Roy Raven wrote Burning the Gatsby.
09:00Burning of His Majesty's Schooner Gatsby by Stephen Park makes an entire book.
09:11And I just read from The Empire on the Edge an entire chapter, from an entire chapter on the Gatsby incident.
09:23What happened afterwards is nearly as interesting as the destruction of the Gatsby.
09:32King George was furious.
09:35Parliament was furious.
09:38An enormous bounty on the heads of the men in those longboats was offered by the king.
09:47Over $100,000 in today's money.
09:53And officials were sent from England to go and put on a trial, find these men, try them and hang them.
10:05No one would talk.
10:08About 60,000 people lived in Rhode Island back then.
10:14But it was a close community, gathered mostly around the shore.
10:18A very prosperous community because of its trading.
10:23And nobody would talk.
10:29There was never any satisfaction to King George for his rages.
10:34So, I will ask unanimous consent to put into the record the Washington Post article in which this photograph is.
10:49You can recognize the picture that I just showed you.
10:51It's in the article.
10:53And does quite a good job of putting into context this rebellious act by Rhode Island that took place over a year before the Boston Tea Party and yet is mostly overlooked by historians.
11:08Here's another version of the Gatsby aflame before it explodes.
11:16And here are the men in the longboats coming away from it, having lit that fire.
11:24So, it's important enough that I thought I might try a poetical hand to it.
11:34I've read this before and I'll read it again.
11:37Listen, my colleagues, and you shall see how Rhode Islanders blew up the Dread Gatsby.
11:45Great Britain was fearsome.
11:48She ruled the sea.
11:50But Rhode Islanders burned with the fire to be free.
11:54So, when George sent his frigate to tax our coast and its arrogant captain was heard to boast that he'd soon have Rhode Island under his sway.
12:03Well, a course was set for a fateful day.
12:08Narragansett Bay sparkled bright and blue June 9th of 1772.
12:14The trading ship Hannah was making her way with cargo for Providence that fine day.
12:20King George's Gatsby pursued in chase.
12:23But the Hannah decided to give her a race.
12:26Away fled the Hannah with wind in her sails as the Gatsby's cannon fired from its rails.
12:32Evading the Gatsby's cannonballs, the Hannah sailed for the Namquid Shoals.
12:37Fast and light, Hannah crossed the shallow.
12:41But when the Gatsby attempted to follow, she ran aground on the Warwick shore in a falling tide and could move no more.
12:50That night, dark long boats with muffled oars came slipping quietly down the shore.
12:56To rid our bay of the dread Gatsby.
12:59To show old King George that Rhode Island be free.
13:03The battle was fierce off Warwick neck.
13:06When the gun smoke cleared from the Gatsby's deck, the Rhode Islanders had her as their prize.
13:12And her crew bound up in chains and ties.
13:15When the crew was ashore, Patuxet's Rangers assured they'd present no further danger.
13:22Back to the bay in the dark of the night went the Gatsby raiders to set her alight.
13:27The fire spread through the raiders' prize till a blast filled the Narragansett Bay skies.
13:35The fire had reached the Gatsby's magazines and her gunpowder blew her to smithereens.
13:42Away sped the riders into the dark, leaving in the embers freedom spark.
13:49I want their names, King George demanded, and ordered the raiders be apprehended.
13:55But his call for hangings came to naught.
13:58His nooses hung empty.
14:01No charge was brought.
14:04Because never a traitorous tale was told.
14:07Rhode Island stood steady, silent, and bold.
14:12The spark that was struck in the Gatsby raid lit a flame that still burns in our hearts today.
14:18And the lesson from then is a lesson now that every American still will avow.
14:24However majestic your powers may be, you should heed our warning.
14:30Don't tread on me.
14:33So that is the tale of the Gatsby.
14:38And one day, it will get its appropriate notice in history.
14:45I yield the floor.
14:46Under the previous order, the Senate stands adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow.
