squadron ancho red in the lee of the Palisades, about four miles north of Manhattan. One fireship grappled to Phoenix just as her captain , Jo hn Fosdick, lit off her powder train. For a harrowing twenty minutes Parker's men fought to disengage Phoenix from the fireship. T he courage of the crew and a providential wind saved Phoenix fro m certain disaster. T he tender Charlotta, mistaken for Rose, was destroyed. Thirty-seven days afte r he had entered the lowe r Hudso n, Parker was again obliged to run the American batteries at New York. H e found a co mpleted fort ato p Mount Washington and also noted that the ri ve r abreast of the fort looked to be "quite blocked up. " But from the sm all boat activity close to the Manhattan shore, Parker co ncluded co rrecrl y that a passage there could be fo rced . O n 18 August he led his squadron through the suspect gap and rejoined the main British fleet off Staten Island. Because the British ships passed within a few hundred yards of the Manhattan sho re, the American gunners at Fo rt W as hingto n co uld not aim their heavy ca nnon low eno ugh to hit them at that short ra nge. T he American failure to trap the British ships no rth of the forts was not due to lack of effort. Troo ps of the 3rd and 5th Pennsylva nia battalions worked them selves to exhaus tion completing Fort Washington and sinkin g the chevaux, along with con fisca ted hulks, to block up the river. The site chosen fo r obstruction lay between Burdet's Ferry below Fort Lee and the tip of a small peninsu la, Jeffrey's Hook, on the New York side just so uth of Fort Washingtona dista nce of more than 3,000 feet, today spanned by the Geo rge Washington Bridge. T he first obstructions we re sunk o n 5 August 1776, and the project co ntinued through ea rl y October. It proved to be a decided ly nontrivial task. To hurry the process alo ng, the America ns determin ed to sink two hulks at a time by joining th em at the sterns with heavy logs. Other logs we re embedded in the ballast at a ngles of abo ut 45 degrees, positioned about 20 feet apart. T hese projecting logs were topped off wit h heavy cast iron sp ikes o r plowshares ("frisework"). When the hulks were finally configured for sinking, C hristopher Prince, who superintend ed the operation, wrote that "[s] uch a sight was never seen in Am erica as
SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 200 I
~~ t)
i:i:
~E
•POUGHKEEPSIE
~~ 0
NEW JERSEY 1. Fort Washington 2. Fort Lee 3. Fort Clinton 4. Fort Montgomery 5. Fort Independence 6 Fort Constitution was seen in them ships." One British observer, who viewed them through a telescope, found that "all the industry of malevo lence" had been used in their "peculiar co nstruction ." Insurin g that two ships of unequal tonnage yo ked at their sterns would sink at the same rate on a relatively even kee l was far from easy. In the words of one responsibleAmerican officer, it posed nothing less than an "abstruse problem of hydraulics ." From early August until the project was abandoned in October, the Hudson tides propell ed a number of hulks downriver, prompting Major General William Heath to ask " how th e rapidity of the current should be just now discovered. " The ultimate fa ilure of the plan to obstruct the river arose from an underestimation of the depth of the river in the immedi ate vicinity of]effrey's Hook, where the
LONG ISLAND
depth in creased precipitously to 72 feet (12 fathoms) from the 42 feet (7 fatho ms) o n whi ch the Americans had relied. It was not until 17 September that the o ri gin al soundin g data we re called into official question. Instead of abandoning the project, New Yo rk authori ti es proposed acq uiring six additional hulks for sinkin g "to the no rthward " of the obstructions on which such a prodigious labor had been expended . This fin al effort was apparenrly underway by 6 October 1776 . Ifso, it had no effect o n the Royal Navy's second penetration of the Hudson on 9 October. Afte r mid-September, when the British drove the Ame ri cans out ofNew York C ity and lower Manhattan Island, Was hington ordered a force of 8,000 troops to defend the northern third of the island. His purpose was still to keep the Royal Navy from
9