from the schooner Royal Savage to the galley Congress, making the latter his flagship. Arnold sent Wigglesworth out in a yawl boat to track the enemy's movements. He
Arnold consulted with his chiefofficers, General David Waterb ury, second in command, and Colonel Edward Wigglesworth, third, who joined him aboard the schooner
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A British map made shordy after the Battle of Valcour Island shows the disposition ofthe British and American fleets on 11 October 1776 Royal Savage. Arnold asked for opinions on how the battle should be fought. Waterbury contended that the "fleet ought to Com to Saill," stand out of the harbor and meet the enemy, "Not Ly Where We Shold Be Surrounded." Waterbury wor ried that the British would divide their forces. One division might approach from the north, down the passage between the northern end of Valcour Island and the mainland and attack the American fleet from wi ndward, while another wo uld come the other way around the island and hit them from the south. The Americans would be trapped between them, caught in a crossfire with no escape route. It was a valid concern, and the British may well have contemplated such a move. James Hadden, a British army arti llery officer, complained that the British fleet's racing into battle "lost to us the opportunity of going in at the upper end of the Island and attacking the whole at once." On the American side, Arnold h ad to weigh that possibility again st the near certainty that his fleet would be crushed in a ship-to-ship duel on open water. Arnold declined Waterbury's suggestion and dismissed the war council. It was time to prepare to fight. Arnold transferred 16
ordered Royal Savage and the galleys Trumbull and Washington underway and formed h is gondolas up into a defensive line.
"One of the Enemies Vessels was discover'd ... " Why Arnold sent the schooner and galleys out is unclear, unless it was to lure the British into a fight and prevent them from simply bypassing the fleet. At lOAM Wigglesworth returned and reported the British fleet running down the east side of Valcour Island. The instant they spied the British fleet approaching, they hauled their wind and began to beat back to the American line of battle in Valcour Bay. " [A] t my return," Wigglesworth wrote, "the three galleys and two schooners were under sail standing across the lake, between the island and the main." Arnold 's counterpart, Commodore Thomas Pringle, RN, gave his subordinates no particular instructions regarding the
sailing order of his fleet; he also gave no orders regarding the manner in which his fleet wo uld attack. Rather, like a pack of hounds, they all took off in chase of the American. "The pursuit of this vessel was without order or regularity," Lt. Hadden, recalled, lending credence to Pringle's officers' later accusations of "neglect. .. proceeding from want of capacity or want of inclination." To get at the Americans, the British had to run past the southern end ofValcour Island, come about, and wo rk their way to windward in the face of the rebels' fire, m aking Arnold's position such a good one and so brilliantly chosen. The gunboats came in first. Since they could be rowed, they were not as h ampered by the strong northerly wind as were the larger ships, and they plunged into the fight with their bow guns blasting away. The American galleys, Congress, Washington and Trumbull, rigged with weatherly lateen sails, managed to get back to Valcour Bay and take their place anchored in the line of battle before the shooting started. Not so Royal Savage. The schooner had never been a good sailer, and she was struggling to get to windward, just like the British ships . Pascal DeAngelis, serving under his stepfather Seth Warner in the Trumbull galley, was three days shy of his fourteenth birthday. He watched as the schooner "Misstayed Several times and could not Git up to the Line." As she tried to gather way, British shot damaged Royal Savage's mast and cut up her rigging, making her even more unmanageable. Twelve- and twenty-four-pound round shot slammed into her hull-a hull not built to withstand that sort of abuse-and continued to cut her up aloft. Unable to get up with the rest of the fleet and being mauled by the gunboats, her captain ran the schooner hard aground on the southwestern tip ofValcour Island. It was still before noon when the fight devolved into a brutal slugfest between the American ships and the British gunboats and longboats. "Our attack with about 27 batteaux [gunboats]," wrote Pausch, "became very fierce; and after getting to close quarters, very animated." Arnold wrote, "the engagement, became General, &verywarm." As the gunboat fleet jockeyed around, the British found that
SEA HISTORY 117, WINTER 2006-07