STEPHEN HOPKINS by John Fitzhugh Millar
" Stephen Hopkins formerly identified as John Hopkins," drawing by John Trumbull.
In SH35 we ran a story about the Stephen Hopkins' sinking of-and sinking by-the Gennan raider Stier. The Stier was the most heavily armed German surface unit to be sunk by any American vessel during World War II. Here, John Millar recounts the exploits of the gallant American patriot who was the Liberty Ship's namesake.
In past issues of Sea History several references have been made to the World War I1 Liberty Ship Stephen Hopkins and the heroic way in which she met her end. However, it is safe to assume that even her officers and crew knew very Little about the man for whom their ship was named. The bare bones of Hopkins' life are easily found: he was born in Cranston, Rhode Island, to a Quaker famil y in 1707, and entered Providence politics at an early age. He was Speaker of the Rhode Island General Assembly and subsequently Governor and Chief Justice of the colony. Elected one of Rhode Island 's two delegates to the Continental Congress, he appears in Trumbull's painting of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence (although he is not, as many have believed, the man in the back row with the wide hat, but seated in the front row , as befits a man of his accomplishments). He died in 1785 after a long bout with Parkinson's Disease. While in the Continental Congress, he was responsible for founding the US Postal Service, although they have never seen fit to issue a stamp in his honor. Hopkins earned fame in his own day as one of the most active champions of American rights . His opportunities for this resulted from the liberal charter granted Rhode Island by Charles II in 1663. This guaranteed not only religious but political liberty, as it provided that all Rhode Island officials be subject to election in Rhode Island and that no Rhode Island officials could be appointed from England . Early in the eighteenth century , Rhode Islanders took advantage of the charter by making smuggling their chief industry . British colonies were normally permitted to purchase rum and molasses only from other British colonies, who greedily raised their prices. French West Indian sugar planters were not allowed to make their molasses into rum for fear of harming the French brandy industry , so the French planters had large quantities of molasses (a by-product of sugar refining) they were willing to sell at a low price. Rhode Island ships bought all they could, knowing that the local customs inspector, appointed by the elected governor, would pretend not to see the illegal imports. Because Rhode Island was so small , officials in London chose to overlook Rhode Island 's behavior, until the Seven Years War. During that war (1756-1763) , British officials were full of prai se for the vigor with which Rhode Island privateers captured French ships. In this period , it was the custom to repatriate prisoners of war on cartel ships which were exempt from attack by either side, and which were even permitted to trade in the enemy port to pay for the voyage. The British , however, were annoyed but helpless when Governor Stephen Hopkins authorized fifty Rhode Island cartel ships to go to the French West Indies, each with one French pri soner aboard , rather than one ship with fifty prisoners, an authori zation he granted repeatedly . He thus prevented the ruin of the Rhode Island economy which depended so heavily on French molasses . After the war, the British tried to lower the boom on Rhode
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Island by sending Royal Navy ships to intercept the smugglers before they could be " cleared " by the Rhode Island customs officers. When the 8-gun schoone r HMS Saint John began her work , Hopkins fearlessly convened his Council and ordered Fort George on Goat Island at the entrance of Newport Harbor to sink the schooner. The schooner was damaged by some of the 18-pounder shots but was able to escape. A plaque commemorating this first act of resistance agai nst British authority in America on 11 July 1764 was un veiled on Goat Island by former Secretary of the Navy, J. William Middendorf Il , in 1979. The British made sporadic atte mpts to continue where HM S Sa int John left off, but local mobs took countermeasures before the guns of Fort George could be ordered into ac tion: inspired , no doubt , by Hopkin s' lead , mo bs burned the Royal Navy ' s schooner Maidstone Tender on 4 June 1765 , the sloop Liberty on 19 Jul y 1769 and the schoo ner Gaspee in 1772. While Hopkins was temporarily out of offi ce in 1765, he took the most practical course available to oppose the Stamp Act: he got the Providence Town Meeting to invite representati ves from the other colonies to a Stamp Act Congress, the colonies' first political action of national scope. In 1773 , after a serious British error in the inves tigation of the burning of Gaspee, Hopkins built on this national constituency by establishing the Committees of Correspondence. When the Briti sh overreacted to the Boston Tea Party, Hopk ins was again responsible for inviting the other colo nies to a Continental Congress, and Rhode Island promptly elected him a delegate. The Rhode Island delegation introduced a resolution fo r the creation of an American fleet and , despite vigoro us opposition fro m southern delegates, primaril y, o n 13 October 1775 , the Congress agreed to fit out two vessels to intercept British storeshi ps . Hopkins took the responsibility for findin g an appropriate commander-in-chief for the ne w Navy. He first approached Jahleel Brenton of Newport, the highest-ranking American officer in the Royal Navy . Brenton declined and Hopkins turned to hi s seafari ng brother Esek Hopkins. Congress confi rmed the appointment on 5 November. Hopkins also made sure that a di sproportionate nu mber of the Continental Navy's officers came from Rhode Island , including Esek's son John . This was in part a political favo r for fr iends at home . But it was also a realistic reflection of the fac t that Rhode Island depended more on the sea for her livelihood than did any of the other continental colonies a nd thus produced a disproportionate number of excellent seamen. As earl y as 1774, Hopkins was reported to have said , " Powder and ball will decide thi s question. The gun and bayonet alone will fini sh the contest in which we are engaged , and any of you who cannot bring your minds to thi s mode of adjusting the question had better retire in time.'' This courageous and far-sighted man , who ordered the first shots of resistance against British authority in America, who fo unded the Stamp Act Congress, the Committees of Correspondence, the Continental Congress and the Continental Navy, was ranked by his contemporaries with Washingto n, Franklin and Jefferson . Yet he is almost virtually unknow n two centuries later. That a Liberty Ship was named after him was simply due to the fact that Hopkins had been a Signer of the Declaration of Independence . What an extraordinary coincidence that this ship should distinguish herself from her many sisters by the same kind of bravery as her namesake had shown at the birth of our country! J,
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John Millar, an historian living in Williamsburg , Virginia, built and sailed the replica ship HMS Rose (see Ship Notes). His latest book, Early American S hips, has just been published by Thirteen Colonies Press. SE~ A
HI STORY, AUTU M N 1986