[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13604-13605]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               GASPEE DAY

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, every student of American history 
knows the story of the Boston Tea Party, the men who crept onto British 
ships moored in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773, to destroy 
shipments of tea that the English sought to tax. They were patriots who 
yearned for liberty, for ``no taxation without representation,'' and 
who stepped into history.
  Only a few miles south and more than a year earlier, however, another 
group of men had engaged in another act of patriotism--yet these men 
are largely forgotten outside my home State of Rhode Island. Every 
year, in their memory, Rhode Islanders celebrate Gaspee Day. This is 
their story.
  During the buildup to the Revolutionary War, as tensions between 
England and its American colonies grew increasingly strained, King 
George III stationed the HMS Gaspee, under the command of LT William 
Dudingston, in the waters off Rhode Island. Its mission was to search 
incoming ships for smuggled goods and enforce the payment of taxes.
  On June 9, 1772--16 months before the tea party in Boston--the 
sailing vessel Hannah was traveling from Newport to Providence when it 
was intercepted by the Gaspee and ordered to stop to allow a search. On 
board the Hannah, Captain Benjamin Lindsey refused and continued on his 
course, despite warning shots fired by the Gaspee. The smaller and more 
maneuverable Hannah then raced up Narragansett Bay and into the safety 
of Pawtuxet Cove. The hulking Gaspee tried to chase the Hannah but ran 
aground in the shallow waters of Namquid Point. The Gaspee was stuck, 
awaiting the higher tides of the following day.
  Meanwhile, Captain Lindsey proceeded on his course, and upon arriving 
in Providence he met with John Brown, a community leader who later 
founded Brown University. The two men arranged for a meeting of local 
patriots at Sabin's Tavern, in what is now Providence's East Side, 
later that day. At the meeting, the assembled group of Rhode Islanders 
decided that action must be taken. Gaspee was a symbol of their 
oppression, and she was helplessly stranded in Pawtuxet Cove. In short, 
the opportunity was too good to pass up.
  As night fell on June 9, 1772, there was no moonlight on the waters 
of Pawtuxet Cove. The Gaspee lay silent on the sand bar at Namquid 
Point. But just a few miles away in Providence, a team of about 60 men 
led by John Brown and Abraham Whipple was preparing for an assault that 
would soon break that silence. They armed themselves, boarded 
longboats, and set course for the Gaspee.
  After paddling the longboats 6 miles down the dark waters of 
Narragansett Bay, the men reached the Gaspee and surrounded it. Brown 
called out and demanded that Lieutenant Dudingston surrender his 
vessel. Dudingston refused and instead ordered his men to

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fire upon anyone who attempted to board the Gaspee.
  True to form, these brave Rhode Islanders seized the challenge. They 
forced their way aboard the Gaspee, and a struggle ensued. In the melee 
Lieutenant Dudingston was shot in the arm by a musket ball: Rhode 
Islanders had drawn the first blood of the American Revolution, right 
there in Pawtuxet Cove.
  Brown and Whipple's men took control of the ship from the British 
crew and transported the captive Englishmen safely to shore. They then 
returned to the abandoned Gaspee for one final act of defiance to the 
crown. The men set fire to the Gaspee and watched as its powder 
magazine exploded, leaving the whole ship burning down to the water 
line. The place was eventually renamed Gaspee Point.
  If that is not an act that defines the American struggle for 
independence, then I don't know what does.
  Since that night in June when the Gaspee burned, Rhode Islanders have 
marked the event with celebration. This year, as I do every year, I had 
the good fortune to march in the annual Gaspee Days parade in Warwick, 
RI.
  And every year, I think about what it must have felt like to be among 
the 60 men hauling on those longboat oars, as they paddled toward 
destiny.
  While it is doubtful that many of those patriots could fully grasp 
the place they were about to take in history, there must have been a 
feeling of deep satisfaction known only to those who, in the face of 
tyranny, have stood up for home, for family, and for country. It is the 
same feeling that must have accompanied the soldiers of General 
Washington as they crossed the Delaware, the delegates of the 
Continental Congress as they signed the Declaration of Independence, 
and indeed those men in Boston who emptied a shipment of tea into the 
ocean. I hope that the brave Rhode Islanders that gave us Gaspee Day 
will be remembered with those other giants of the Revolution, and given 
their due place in our Nation's history.

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