It was natural that Bermuda should be closely concerned in the Revolution as in other phases of American history. From the early days of Sir George Somers the Islands served as a safe harbour for ships battered by storms bound from England to the Virginian colonies. Even then, as now, Bermuda relied heavily on food imports and supplies from the US mainland.
With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War America announced a trade embargo with British colonies effectively cutting Bermuda off. Though the House of Assembly was busily passing bills and measures to ensure a food supply, the inhabitants found it necessary to adopt the hazardous, but extremely effective method of carrying on their former trade, patriotic legislation notwithstanding.
Because many Bermudian families were related to the earlier Virginian settlers, there was naturally a strong sympathy for the American cause and therefore reasonable motive for supporting Washington against the Mother Country.
Shortly after the battle of Bunker Hill, George Washington was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental army which was then besieging Boston. He found his army in a dire state: they had only enough ammunition to last a few hours and no clear way to get more. Worried that the British might launch an attack while his soldiers were defenseless, Washington wrote to Rhode Island’s Governor Cooke saying, “the case calls loudly for the most strenuous efforts of every friend of his country, and does not admit of the least delay. No quantity, however small, is beneath notice, and should any arrive, I beg it may be forwarded as soon as possible.”
In the same letter Washington formulates a daring plan inspired by information from a Mr. Harris, who had recently arrived from Bermuda. Harris told him about a considerable powder magazine in St George’s and that the Bermudians would probably assist in removing the powder were an armed ship sent to procure it.
Washington begs Governor Cooke to dispatch one of two ships, then docked at Rhode Island, for this important enterprise. The Governor agreed, and a Captain Abraham Whipple volunteered to undertake the mission.
Washington then wrote the following letter:
To the Inhabitants of the Island of Bermuda
Camp at Cambridge, 6 September, 1775.
GENTLEMEN:-
“In the great conflict, which agitates this continent, I cannot doubt but the assertors of freedom and the rights of the constitution are possessed of your most favourable regards and wishes for success. As descendants of freemen, and heirs with us of the same glorious inheritance, we flatter ourselves, that though divided by our situation, we are firmly united in sentiment. The cause of virtue and liberty is confined to no continent or climate. It comprehends, within its capacious limits, the wise and good, however dispersed and separated in space or distance.
“You need not be informed, that the violence and rapacity of a tyrannic ministry have forced the citizens of America, your brother colonists, into arms. We equally detest and lament the prevalence of those counsels, which have led to the effusion of so much human blood, and left us no alternative but a civil war, or a base submission. The wise Disposer of all events has hitherto smiled upon our virtuous efforts. Those mercenary troops, a few of whom lately boasted of subjugating this vast continent, have been checked in their earliest ravages, and are now actually encircled within a small space; their arms disgraced, and themselves suffering all the calamities of a siege. The virtue, spirit, and union of the provinces leave them nothing to fear, but the want of am-munition. The application of our enemies to foreign states, and their vigilance upon our coasts, are the only efforts they have made against us with success.
“Under these circumstances, and with these sentiments, we have turned our eyes to you, Gentlemen, for relief. We are informed that there is a very large magazine in your island under a very feeble guard. We would not wish to involve you in an opposition, in which, from your situation, we should be unable to support you; we knew not, therefore, to what extent to solicit your assistance, in availing ourselves of this supply; but, if your favour and friendship to North America and its liberties have not been misrepresented, I persuade myself you may, consistently with your own safety, promote and further this scheme, so as to give it the fairest prospect of success.
Be assured, that, in this case, the whole power and exertion of my influence will be made with the honourable Continental Congress, that your island may not only be supplied with provisions, but experience every other mark of affection and friendship, which the grateful citizens of a free country can bestow on its brethren and benefactors.
I am,
Gentlemen,
With much esteem,
Your humble servant,
G. WASHINGTON
This letter was entrusted to Captain Whipple, who sailed from Rhode Island on September 12th, 1775, and arrived off the West end of Bermuda, which, with no proper roads to St. George’s where everything centered, was considered more or less, an outpost. Whipple presented his credentials and delivered the letter, but some patriotic Bermudians had already acted – news of the powder’s arrival in Philadelphia reached Washington just days later.
There are many tales of how this powder was taken on the night of August 14th, from the magazine situated not far from the old Government House in St. George’s. The keys were stolen from under the Governor’s pillow – presumably while His Excellency was asleep – and the magazine plundered of one hundred kegs, which, it is said, were then rolled down the hill to the beaches of Tobacco Bay. One version is that the barrels were loaded into boats and carried to two ships lying outside North Rock; another account states that the ships were anchored in Mangrove Bay and received their pilfered cargo there.
The daring theft created a tremendous sensation and the Bermuda House of Assembly offered a reward of £100 – a significant sum at the time – for evidence to catch the culprits. They also expressed concern about the act amid the colony’s financial struggles saying, “We are deeply concerned to find that so flagitious an act should have been committed at this time of universal distress.”
However, this reaction was mild compared to the rage of Governor James Bruere who harbored a deep animosity toward “the rebels” (as Americans were then called then) and mistrusted Bermudians greatly. He was bitterly disappointed that many people in the colony, both influential and ordinary, had allowed his salary to go unpaid for sometime. In his message to the House of Assembly, informing them of the powder theft, he phrased it as a “most heinous and atrocious crime.”
The rankling fact that such audacity had found him sleeping, actually and figuratively, did not improve his mood. From then on he made it a point to accuse the islanders – regardless of their social standing – of disloyalty and treason. But when he died in 1780, nothing new was known and years of investigations uncovered little of this closely guarded secret.
It would appear, though, that several members of the House of Assembly who voted so willingly and unanimously on the matter of the reward, might have told the governor more if they hadn’t felt compelled to stay silent because of the potential consequences. The following quotation from the minutes of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, dated August 26th, 1775, seems to indicate that at least some of these powder stealers were prominent men: “A letter was this day received by Captain Ord of the Lady Catherine, from Henry Tucker, chairman of the Deputies of the several Parishes of Bermuda, enclosing an account for 1182 Ibs. of gunpowder shipped by him aboard said vessel, amounting to £161-14-8, that currency.”
This was, of course, the stolen powder and the mention of Henry Tucker is significant. The Tucker family in Bermuda were closely related to the Tuckers of Virginia and one branch of the family was then living in Somerset. If two ships did anchor in Mangrove Bay, to await the arrival of the powder from St. George’s, and sailed away to avoid detection at dawn, only influential people like the Tuckers could have arranged the necessary lights and pilots to guide the ships safely through the tricky channels at night.
Among the rumours and theories that have grown into legend over the years, none appear to have much evidence to support them. All fail to disclose any details of what was undoubtedly a well-planned and skillfully executed conspiracy.
While various stories, spiced no doubt with scandal, were whispered on every Bermudian veranda during the warm, summer evenings, Washington was already making good use of his advantage. He erected batteries to command the whole of Boston and its harbour, forcing General Howe with his army and about a thousand loyalists, to evacuate the city and sail for Halifax on March 17th, 1776.
But even with his victories, Washington remained loyal to those who helped him. He didn’t forget or betray his Bermudian allies. He publicly acknowledged their support to the Continental Congress, which, on November 22, 1775, approved sending supplies to Bermuda in exchange for salt. This was his way of properly rewarding those who, despite risking persecution, had helped him lay the foundation of a new nation.
Adapted from an original piece by E.C. McLaughlin written for The Bermudian, November, 1931
