Bob Jannoni and Lou Cook at the Burial Hill monument to the General Arnold
casualties. (Emily Wilcox/Globe Correspondent)
Posted on 08/21/2008 6:00:57 AM PDT by Pharmboy
Bob Jannoni and Lou Cook at the Burial Hill monument to the General Arnold
casualties. (Emily Wilcox/Globe Correspondent)
The brigantine General Arnold was heading south out of Boston, carrying supplies and reinforcements to struggling Revolutionary War troops in the Carolinas, when, on Dec. 25, 1778, a northeaster hit the New England coast. Hurricane-force winds and blinding snow forced Captain James Magee to seek shelter in Plymouth Harbor.
It was a mistake.
The ship ran aground on White Flat, a treacherous sandbar half a mile from shore and safety. There, as the storm raged on over the long Christmas weekend, 72 sailors and officers died, most freezing to death on board, as icy waters flooded the hull.
Rescuers later found the frozen bodies of men clutching one another in a desperate attempt to keep warm on the open quarterdeck. Fewer than a third of those on board survived. snip...
"Abraham Lincoln said, 'A nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.' "
Jannoni, Cook, and Turk urged anyone with information regarding the sailors' identities to contact them through their website, briggenarnold1778.com, or via e-mail at bobbarb123@comcast.net.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
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Thanks Pharmboy. Let's get some more working on the problem. Of course, chances are many of the sailors were young and childless, so no descendants. |
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Thank you, SC. They could not have known the future, but in retrospect, naming a ship after Benedict Arnold turned out to be a baaaad idea.
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