Memorial Day is about those who died in uniform but there was one Revolutionary war hero who helped a nation not yet born. There were countless times people needed to be at the right place at the right time to capture certain things to push toward independence. The 26-year-old Marblehead captain James Mugford Jr. got the biggest prize of that war, the Hope. He captained one of Washington’s cruisers.
The hero flew one of the first flags
Mugford captained Franklin, the cruiser, with the first flag “Appeal to Heaven”. The Hope was a British 282-ton transport ship carrying a huge amount of 1,500 barrels of priceless gunpowder. It mysteriously disappeared May 10, 1776 after sailing the Atlantic for five weeks.
The disappearance was suspicious. The flotilla commander received a letter questioning the loyalties of the ship’s master, Alexander Lumsdale.
A week later, Captain Mugford spotted the ship headed toward Boston. Mugford had set out a couple days prior in the Washington cruiser the Franklin with just a skeleton crew.
The hero had to deal with the times
His crew was small due to pay being held up. It’s tough recruiting mariners when the newly established prize courts hold pay back so Mugford financed his crew with his own funds.
He saw the Hope so the Marbleheaders put up the Franklin’s sails to head toward it. The “Appeal to Heaven” flag fluttered in the breeze.
Congress and Washington were taking aggressive steps toward being independent so a flag with a white background, a green tree and the “Appeal to Heaven” went along well. The book “The Indispensables: Marblehead’s Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware” is among others that tell the story about the band-of-brothers regiment that came from Marblehead, MA that helped change the course of history.
The hero boarded the ship
Regardless the four- and six-pound swivel guns and were shocked to find themselves evenly matched with a crew of 18. The second shock was Captain Mugford demanding the manifest.
It was indeed a prize. It carried one thousand carbines, stacks of bayonets, five gun carriages, piles of cartridge boxes, and an amazing 1,500 barrels of gunpowder that could carry either army for a month.
It appeared Divine Providence was with them and it continued. The Hope ran aground just outside the Boston harbor. This was an answer to prayers for colonial churchgoers. Two months earlier, Congress had declared this day one of fasting and prayer. People emerged from their houses of worship to find this captured ship in the harbor and excitedly relieved it of its contents.
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Author: Patti Walbridge
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