As devised in London, the plan was to send Walker’s Fleet up the St. Lawrence River to rendezvous at Quebec with a British and Colonial Army force marching northward from Albany. Southack was quick to realize the flaws in the scheme: He had never sailed up the St. Lawrence, and knew of no reliable pilot who had. While Walker’s Fleet was formidable, it wanted in shallow draft vessels to lead the way up the notoriously treacherous River; Insufficient thought had been given to the problem of sustaining the Expedition through the harsh Canadian Winter to come.Heeding Southack’s advice, the Admiral spent the late Spring and early Summer in Boston, looking for potential pilots and awaiting the gathering of additional provisions throughout the Colonies. Also, on July 8th, he wrote New York Colonial Governor Robert Hunter: ‘...the two Frigates, Leostoff and Feversham attending that Colony (and which by Her Majesty’s Instruction I am to have with me) not being within my reach, is a very great Inconvenience to the Expedition; because they are the only light Frigates I trusted to, and which we want extremely, and if you could any way reach them with your orders to join me here, or off Cape Breton, it would be of great use to use going up the River Can-ada [The St. Lawrence] having only great Ships with me, and some too big.' 

Neither ship, however, was immediately available, for Hunter had previously ordered both to different ports in the Southern Colonies to pick up accumulated foodstuffs, part of the added provisions requested earlier by the Admiral. In response, the Governor wrote on July 14th: ‘I am afraid the Feversham and Leostoff will not be here time enough to join you; tho’ I expect both every Day, for the Eversham is not half man’d, and I was obliged to get Men from the outward bound Merchant Men, upon Promise to send then back at her Return hither, before I could send her to Virginia for the Provisions.‘On July 22nd, a week before the Fleet sailed from Boston for Quebec, Admiral Walker wrote Governor Hunter: ‘...I am sorry that Feversham is so ill mad’d; however, if she can any way be enabled to join me off Cape Breton, she will be of use .. '. Enclosed with the letter were orders to Captain Robert Paxton of HMS Feversham from Admiral Walker; ‘You are hereby required and directed to proceed with her Majesty’s Ship under your Command off Cape Breton, and keep Cruizing off there till you are joined by me, or meet some of my Ships under my Command with Orders'.

Shrewdly, while Cyprian Southack had openly offered the Admiral both the use of his home and the benefit of this nautical experience, he chose to remain behind in Boston conveniently awaiting repairs on the Province Galley. Thus, Southack distanced himself from the disasters that were to follow; His reputation remained unscathed, while Walker’s suffered complete ruin. Ironically, when Southack proudly published his series of charts entitled ‘The New England Coasting Pilot’ more than twenty years later, plate number eight included a notation showing where HMS Feversham was lost.

On the 14th of August, the Admiral wrote to New York from the mouth of the St. Lawrence, requesting Feversham sail promptly for Quebec with all available food transports.’ Then, during the night of August 23rd-24th, Southack’s concern became a frightening reality. A combination of bad weather and navigational confusion resulted in disaster in the St. Lawrence River. The Fleet lost eight ships and more than nine hundred men. After milling around the River for five days attempting to save as many men and supplies as possible from the shipwrecks, Walker decided it was impractical to continue upriver, and withdrew to Spanish Harbor (now Sydney), on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Walker promptly sent out reports of his circumstances, but they reached New York one day too late to save HMS Feversham.

HMS Leostoff was delayed on her mission southward, and didn’t return to New York until after news of the disaster arrived. Not so Feversham, which returned on or before August 31st. For related items please visit my Store

HMS Feversham was a 32 gun frigate, built in Shoreham, England in 1696. She displaced 372 bm (tons), with a length of 107 feet and a width of 28 feet. Fifth rate in size (first rate being the largest man-of-war of over 100 guns), her capacity and function in an early 18th Century fleet was roughly equivalent to today’s destroyer escort. She rated a compliment of 190 Royal Naval officers and sailors. However, when she sailed on her final voyage, she had only 150 men aboard, at least some of whom were impressed merchant seamen. Earlier in the year, she had been, ‘almost unmann’d by ye death, disertion k sickness of her crew', and Governor Hunter had been forced to ‘borrow’ men from the other ships in port. There is no way to determine if this lack of quantity or quality contributed to her loss.

Feversham’s Captain, Robert Paxton, reported to Governor Hunter upon his arrival in New York. Paxton had served in the American Colonies as early as 1695, and was apparently a respected professional. He was advised, as per Admiral Walker’s last known request, to make ready to escort the transports Neptune, Mary, and Joseph to Quebec. In 1711, a Royal Navy ship was permitted to draw cash from an Executive Department Colonial Office for necessary provisions if the request was signed by captain and pursor, both of whom were responsible for later disclosing ‘in detail how the money was spent and what prices had been paid for supplies'. On September 4th, Feversham’s pursor presented a requisition signed by Captain Paxton to the New York Victualling Office of the British Treasury. He received ‘569 pounds, 12 shillings, 5 pence Sterling for provisions‘ (Two similar withdrawals had been made in June, prior to the voyage to Virginia and Maryland). While Government accounts were listed in Pounds Sterling, the only cash permitted in use was ‘Colonial Currency’, issued at a weight ration of 1.55 to 1 in relation to Sterling. It was a blend of silver coinage which had evolved from intra-colonial and international trade and smuggling, and was discounted because of its variety of sources and suspect silver content. All indications are that Feversham’s coins are the balance remaining aboard in ship’s money after provisioning. As such, they are the only known example of a typical cross section of New York’s change in the Colonial era. On September 12th, Governor Hunter reported in a letter to London: ‘I have now in this port, the Feversham with transports having on board a thousand and odd barrills of pork, and as much bread, flower, butter, pease, rum and tobacco as they can carry; which are to saile for Quebeck the first wind that offers, which I hope will make all easy.' Two days later, the Governor issued formal written orders to Captain Paxton, and on Spetember 17th, Feversham and the transports Neptune, Mary, and Joseph cleared Sandy Hook for the last time.

Within twenty-four hours, word of the disaster and withdrawal from the St. Lawrence finally reached New York, HMS Feversham never got the news and continued on a path to her own disaster. While Feversham was in New York innocently preparing to rush to his assistance, Admiral Sir Hovendon Walker decided, after conferring with his officers, to abandon any further hope for a Canadian offensive in 1711. Sending the Colonial contingent to Boston from his anchorage at Cape Breton on the eastern end of Nova Scotia, the bulk of the Fleet sailed eastward for Great Britain at dawn on September 16th. Walker’s reputation and career never recovered from the stigma of his 1711 nightmlare. While he was never formally charged with any wrongdoing, he was quietly dismissed from the Service in 1715, and later died a bitter and broken man. Making an uneventful crossing with favorable winds and weather, the Fleet’s lookouts spied the British Isles at noon on Sunday, October 7th. All the Fleet’s officers and men, Walker excepted, felt immense relief at arriving home safely. As the day moved westward across the Atlantic, Feversham’s lookouts, through the rain and spray of a powerful storm with gale force winds, first observed the rocky shore of Scatari Island at 11:00 am that same Sunday. In stark contrast, the sense of impending doom must have been all pervasive. There followed a frantic attempt to steer far enough to skirt the Island before the storm surge and howling wind pushed them northward onto the rocks. They almost made it, but that night she ‘went broadside upon the very pitch of the cape'º, while the three transports were wrecked in the bay to the west. Considering the location and conditions, it is remarkable that 49 men survived the terror of that night. Captain Paxton and his purser were among the approximately 100 who lost their lives. If you studied a map of North America, looking for the precise spot which marks the extremity of the Continent, your eyes would focus on the eastern end of Nova Scotia. By scanning the more detailed maps of the areas, your search would narrow itself down to the southeastern tip of Scatari Island, off Cape Breton.

 This is the exact location of HMS Feversham’s remains. You would be hard pressed to find a more vulnerable and exposed place on the Continent, jutting out into the North Atlantic as it does. An 1850 British Royal Navy map of the Island describes its eastern interior as high barren moors, and its western highlands as scantily wooded. Scatari is deserted, windswept, boulder strewn, and sits in rocky desolation about a mile offshore southeastern Cape Breton.Despite salvaging plenty of food and supplies from the wrecks, the survivors were far from comfortable. They were on the edge of enemy territory in wartime, and Winter was coming. In late October, out of desperation, they offered the captain of a passing French fishing boat 200 pounds to take them to New York. Captain Dennis Courtin de St. Aignian of the ketch La Talente decided to accept the overture, and dumped his load of fish. Whether motivated by outright greed, genuine humanitarian concerns, or a combination of both, it is impossible to determine. Their arrival in New York on November 12th was later heralded on the front page of the weekly Boston News-Letter (which began publishing regularly in 1704 as the first Colonial newspaper). Regardless of his rescue of over 80 men from desperate circumstances, Captain Courtin and his ship were unjustly detained in New York over the Winter. After two petitions from the Captain and statements from witnesses, Governor Hunter finally permitted La Talente to sail on March 7th, 1712. The record doesn’t show if Courtin was allowed to take his 200 pounds with him. In England in May 6th, 1712, after hearing testimony from Lieutenant Jeremiah Townes and Gunner John Know, the Admiralty Inquiry into the loss of HMS Feversham determined it was due to a ‘a mistake in the judgement of the Pylot", thus posthumously finding blameless Captain Paxton and the other officers. In June 1712, to prevent the French from acquiring any cannon or equipment from the Scatari Island site, HMS Saphyr was sent to ‘save as much as can be of the wreck of her Majesty’s ship Feversham and the three Transports''. Upon her return in July, Saphyr’s captain reported that ‘after Diligence search made found that there was no probability to get any gunns or stores off without Eminent Danger: the place being full of Rocks with shoall Water...’". More than two and a half centuries passed before advances in diving and salvage techniques enabled whatever remained of HMS Feversham to be recovered from her watery grave without ‘Eminent Danger’. A native New Yorker now residing in Florida, Philip Masters is a professional shipwreck researcher and avid diver. Proud of his investigative efforts on the Feversham, he also takes pleasure in having brought up the lone NE shilling offered herein, which is believed to be the only one ever recovered from a shipwreck."


1. Graham, page 196
2. ibid, page 209
3. ibid, page 210
4. ibod, pages 211-12
5. O’Callaghan, Documents, Vol. 5, page 254
6. ibid
7. Nettels, page 187
8. P.R.O., Treasury Board Papers, vol. 139, no. 48, page 14
9. O’Callaghan, Documents, Vol. 5, page 254
10. P.R.O., Admiralty 5269
11. ibid
12. British Museum, Sloan Manuscript Collection, folio 3607 13. ibid


SOURCES:
Boston News-Letter, 12-19 November, 1711.
British Museum, Sloan Manuscript Collection (from transcripts in the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.)
British Public Record Office, London.
Cooledge, J. J., Ships of the Royal Navy: An Historical Index, Vol. I, New York, 1969.
Graham, Gerald S., Editor, The Walker Expedition to Quebec, 1711. Navy Records Society, 1853.
Hitchings, Sinclair, Guarding the New England Coast: The Naval Career of Cyprian Southack, from Seafaring in Colonial Massachusetts, The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Boston, 1980.
Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Washington, D.C.
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England.
Nettels, Curtis P., The Money Supply of the American Colonies before 1720. New York, 1964.
New York Colonial Administrative Records [British], Vol. 55 through 57, New York State Archives and Records Administration, Albany.
New York Public Library, Fifth Ave. and 42nd St. Research Library, New York.
O’Callaghan, E. B., Editor, Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State, Albany, New York, Part 2, Albany, 1866.
O’Callaghan, E. B., Editor, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, Vol. 5, Albany, 1855.