Enterprise and Boxer: The Battle off Maine's Coast

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On September 5, 1813, during the War of 1812, the USS Enterprise, cruising the coast of Maine, encountered the brig HMS Boxer off Pemaquid Point and began a violent, brief battle which has entered US Naval lore and was memorialized in poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Although the Royal Navy had done little to blockade trade north of Cape Cod, as we shall see later, the Coast of Maine was nonetheless open to depredation by British warships and privateers. In once incident, linked to Harpswell, James Sinnett of Bailey Island and his brothers were engaged in fishing when hailed by a large vessel identifying itself as the US warship, Essex. When they came aboard, they were informed they were on the 18 gun HMS Rattler, and were prisoners! The captain loaded the Sinnett’s schooner with 20 Royal Navy seamen, who were then ordered to reconnoiter the coast. After a week, during which the brothers were well treated, their boat was returned and the Rattler sailed south.
In fact the Rattler sailed on into the mouth of the Merrimac River at Newburyport! The communities along the coast began to doubt the efficiency of the US Navy, and in response the Navy transferred the Enterprise to Portsmouth to patrol the area.
The Enterprise had recently returned from a mission familiar to today’s Navy. She had been engaged in combating pirates off the coast of Africa. Refitted as a brig and mounted with 16 guns, she was ready for business. The new captain, William Burrows, had recently arrived from Philadelphia and prepared her for sea.
In the meantime, the HMS Boxer, also rigged out as a brig and armed with 14 guns was making its way southwest from St. John, NB. Off the coast of Lubec, she sighted and captured a small sailing craft, which was “manned” by a group of women out for a sail. Samuel Blyth, the captain, had them brought aboard, informed them politely that perhaps they should confine their pleasure cruising closer in shore and released them, to return with stories of their adventures. By coincidence, one of the ladies was the wife of the militia commander in the area, who was so impressed with Blyth’s chivalrous behavior, that he placed advertisements in local newspapers announcing it. It is a poignant feature of this story is, that despite being at war, the combatants did not seem to hold any hostility towards one another.
Burrows left Portsmouth along the coast testing the speed and handling of his ship as he went. The winds were very calm, and the crew was engaged, from time to time in sweeping, and exhausting task, which involved the deployment of large oars from the side of the ship. On September 4, near Portland, the crew could hear cannon fire coming from the area near Sequin Island, but due to the calm weather, they were unable to close and determine its source.
By the morning of September 5, off Pemaquid, they sighted a ship at anchor in the harbor there. They watched as the strange vessel shook loose its sails and slowly came out to meet them. Lookouts in the masts saw three Union Jacks flying, and the crew of the Enterprise prepared themselves for a battle. But Burrows surprised them. He ordered the Enterprise to pull out to sea away from the approaching Britisher. His crew, spoiling for a fight, was outraged. However, they soon realized what their captain was up to: He was maneuvering his ship to get the wind advantage and test his own speed against that of the enemy. Around 2 PM Burrows ordered the “beat to quarters,” and the battle began with broadsides from both vessels. The black powder from the guns soon turned the area into a manmade fog bank.
Henry Wadsworth Longefellow’s poetic account tells of the citizens of Portland hearing the gunfire from the battle, but that was not true. From the top of the observatory, the keeper with a telescope could see the battle and called down its progress as he could see it. Inhabitants of Edgecomb and Wiscasset could hear the distant grumbling, however.
Aboard the ships life was a hell of fear and confusion. Lethal metal and wood fragments flew everywhere. Blyth was struck in the body and killed. Cpt. Burrows was hit in the groin by a musket ball fired from the Boxer’s tops and fatally wounded.
Using its superior speed, the Enterprise moved ahead of the Boxer, swung to starboard bringing its broadside to bear down the entire length of the doomed ship. The top of the enemy’s mainmast fell, bringing down much of the rigging. Pivoting the other way, the Enterprise raked the Boxer with another broad side.
It was evident the Boxer was finished. Second Lieutenant Tillinghast called across to his adversary asking if they were ready to quit. An officer shouted back they were not, but he was quickly pulled to the deck and a second officer declared they were. “Pull down your colors,” Tillinghast commanded. “We can’t.” came the reply, “They’re nailed up to the mast.” “Send some one up to cut them down. We’ll hold our fire.” And so the battle ended.
When presented with his dead adversary’s sword, the dying Burrows asked that it be returned to Blyth’s family and said, “I die contented.”
The Enterprise with Boxer following under control of a prize crew sailed slowly back passed Halfway Rock into Portland Harbor.
It is now known if any residents of Harpswell were down on the shore, for certainly anyone fishing off Bailey Island might well have been able to see the smoke and the distant thunder of the guns. That information, if it exists is not known.
In Portland Harbor, First Lieutenant Edward McCall, now in command of the Enterprise began the work of repair and personnel matters. He was quite surprised with he was approached by a local business man with a strange request. The gentleman represented a group of business people, he claimed, who had shipped in a boat load of English wool. They had engaged Blyth, while the Boxer was in St. John, and had in fact, given him a £100 note for protection. Their goods were aboard a Swedish vessel, Margaretta, and were escorted by the Boxer to the mouth of the Kennebec where, they had requested Blyth fire off a few cannon to make it appear that they had been chased into port. Would McCall sell them back the note for $500? The lieutenant was incensed at first, but the gentleman, obviously a smooth talker, convinced him that the wool was needed by the Army, and it was for that reason that this group of citizens was using the enemy’s navy for protection.
Yankee and English merchants were not adverse to continue trading with each other and a brisk trade apparently existed between Mainers and British ships hovering off shore. The commander of the fort built at Cundy’s Harbor at the time, for example, wanted to put a stop to it, and ordered all vessels leaving the Harbor pull in for inspection. One fishing vessel owned by a man named Dingley refused, and the guard at the fort fired, holing his boat, which barely made it back to shore. Whether that created more obedience to the rules, we do not know.
There were further prisoner issues to clear up. A group of fishermen from nearby Monhegan Island had approached the Boxer earlier, requesting that the surgeon come to the island to attend to an injured colleague. The kindly Blyth allowed him to go accompanied by two midshipman and an army officer passenger, who wanted to participate in some bird hunting.
Once they knew the battle was to be joined, they borrowed a rowboat to return, but were unable to catch up and had to return to the island where the inhabitants figured it would be a good idea to take their weapons, which were just fowling pieces. The four “guests,” watched the battle from the cemetery up the hill from the landing, and were returned to Portland to join their shipmates in captivity.
On September 9, both captains were buried side by side on Munjoy Hill in Portland with full military honors. The local authorities allowed their British prisoners to march in the parade and accompany their captain to his gravesite.
The Enterprise was repaired and ended her days in the Caribbean aground on a ledge, with no loss of life. The Boxer was also repaired, sold to private interests and ended her days as a merchantman.