Fort Sewall is a 15 minute walk from my front door. It is tough to gauge if the site is more cliche or more beautiful. I don't use cliche as a pejorative, just to simply explain how "sleepy, seaside New England" it is. You turn left on Front St and pass The Landing, great Butterscotch Martini, Notorious Annie's Waterfront Inn, and then pass The Barnacle, stop in for a White Cap. The street starts to incline as you reach a clearing, and to your left lays a stone fort built into the hillside overlook the mouth of Marblehead Harbor.
It was actually originally established by the British in 1644 and is among the oldest shoreside forts in the United States. It was federally coopted after the Revolution and was in an instrumental conflict in the War of 1812. On the 3rd of April, 1814, the USS Constitution, the most famous American war ship ever to sail, was being pursued by two British frigates, the Tenedos and the Endymion. The Constitution took cover under the cannons of Sewall. What is fascinating is that Sewall was in no way practically equipped to fight off two British naval frigates, given the fact that they were short on ammunition and gun powder, but they bluffed the ships into retreating. The exterior is impressive, but what caught my attention was the interior.
I can't imagine the men who were stuck in this tiny barrack, sleeping on top of each other, huddled around a fireplace in the middle of winter, waiting on pins and needles for someone to attack. The fort's namesake, Judge Samuel Sewall, was a local benefactor who would eventually become a Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.
I think your post is great! I particularly liked learning that that the Sewall wasn't equipped to handle attacks of such magnitude and, even being short on gun powder and ammunition, the Americans "bluffed the ships into retreating." It reminds me of the rebels fighting the British at Lexington and Concord - they were outnumbered but the American spirit and fight in them to prevail and defend the United States was too strong to defeat. Very fascinating and well written blog.
ReplyDeleteWow, I love the pictures of the inside of the fort. I ride my bike there sometimes but have never explored the fort, which I will do next time.
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