The maritime marauders were members of the Abenaki, the Micmac and Beothuk tribes. For more than two years in the 1720s these tribes out witted and out fought the Colonists.

Dangerous Waters

It started when fishermen, working alone in summer fog, were suddenly surprised by natives who silently paddled bark canoes. . Fishermen working the Banks alone in summer fog were suddenly surprised by braves who silently paddled bark canoes. Settlers who stooped for a moment too long over their fish weirs beside a river bank looked up at red-daubed faces, musket muzzles and death. Crews back from Caribbean voyages reported being met at sea by craft that Indians sailed mounting swivel guns, and the braves were eager to close with the white men.

By the middle of June 1724, Indian sea fighters had taken eleven fishing vessels, with a total complement of forty-five men of which twenty-two were killed in combat and twenty-three made prisoner. Ships and men were held for ransom, and the Indians stated their terms: £50 apiece for the vessels, and £30 each for the men.

All talk; No action      

The news excited intense fury in Boston. Two ships were fitted out at once for punitive action and given crews of twenty-five men each. Then they were sent to the eastward on an Indian hunt and were to make rendezvous with two other strongly armed ships from New Hampshire. The New Hampshire ships carried crews of twenty men apiece, and it was the hope of the authorities that the combined Squadron could meet and overcome the Indians, free the captives. But on July 13 there was news that an Indian-manned schooner had seized a shallop and possibly other vessels. Boston fishermen talked of pursuit of the schooner yet did not leave the harbor.

Armed Reaction & Dismal Defeat            

A pair of Maine shipmasters, Dr. George Jackson, who sailed a schooner, and Sylvester Lakeman, in command of a shallop set out on a Search and Destroy mission. The Maine vessels were manned by seasoned crews of twenty sailors.

            While cruising off the mouth of the Penobscot, they met a big Indian schooner. She was armed with two swivel guns and did not attempt evasive tactics of any sort. Jackson sailing the bigger and faster of the ships, pointed her on an intercept course that would allow his gunners to rake the Indians broadside.

As the ships approached, the Indian commander came around and ran across Jackson’s bow at close range. It was the classical battle maneuver and flawlessly executed. While the native craft leaned to the wind her gunners in their breechclouts and war paint thrust the slow-match embers against the touch holes of the swivel guns.

          The round shot took the mainsheet and the shrouds out of Jackson’s schooner. Her mainmast shivered and almost snapped. Indian musketeers raked the white crew with a volley of swan shot. An Indian sharpshooter with exceptional aim struck the mate with a musket ball. Sailing past the foundering schooner, the Indian commander rounded up and went on an inshore course. The Indian vessel was last seen as she sailed swiftly into the upper reaches of Penobscot Bay.

Logistics

Following this action there were other seaborne attacks and violent victories, but they diminished. It was a matter of logistics. Unable to win at sea, the colonist began burning Native American settlements the length of the northern coast, thus destroying their food sources.

Also, the Indians did not have a home port where they could repair their ship hulls, or easy means to replace worn-out cordage, broken spars or smashed blocks. There was a shortage of powder and slow matches and the danger that when cannon with a worn-thin bores was overheated they exploded.

Defeat          

The. Abenaki, the Micmac and Beothuk braves who with their families had made the sea their final refuge fought to the end. A fisherman named James Marsh gave word that on July 6, 1725, the fishing fleet was attacked while off Cape Negro, Nova Scotia. There where one hundred warriors in the canoe assault, and they took five ships, imprisoned the crews. Then they manned one of their prizes and pursued March, He escaped them only because of the head start they allowed him when they transferred to the new vessel and the fact he had a fast sailing vessel under his feet.

There were other attacks and violent victories. They diminished, though, and the white men were able to defend themselves, keep clear. The Indians did not have a home port where they might careen and repair their ship hulls. There were for them no shipyards, no ropewalks, no sail lofts. When a spar was shot away in action it was renewed only with vast difficulty and the replacement taken from another vessel. Blocks wore out or were smashed; rope frayed, was spliced, respliced and spliced again; anchors were needed, and cable and tar, pitch and paint; gunners spoke about the shortage of powder and slow matches and the danger when a cannon with a worn-thin bore was overheated and exploded.

The braves at last accepted defeat. They had lost the sea, as well as the land. Nothing was left to them except the distant inland regions of northern Canada. They left their ships and retreated to it, hope gone.

Source: Carse, Robert, The Seafarers, A History of Maritime America 1620 – 1820, Harper, Row, Publishers, New York, 1964