The Penobscot Expedition Disaster

Castine, Maine from GoogleMaps

A few months ago I wrote a post called,  Castine: Maine History at Every Turn in which I recounted the story of our country’s worst naval defeat.

The Fort: A Novel Of The Revolutionary War By Bernard Cornwell Hardcover, 480 pages Harper List Price: $25.99

Now it seems the rest of the world is looking back at this battle, and they are doing a much more thorough job. I should narrow that down to author Bernard Cornwall and NPR All Things Considered correspondent Guy Raz, who interviewed Cornwell. This interview can be read at the NPR website here or you can play the podcast below.

To recap, on July 28, 1779 an American force of 19 armed vessels and 24 transports stormed the peninsula, with orders to oust the small  British presence.  Colonel Paul Revere was in charge of the munitions. The outcome of this battle was not one of America’s proud military moments, as the overly-cautious commander Dudley Saltonstall gave the order to retreat. British ships soon arrived and chased Saltonstall’s fleet up the Penobscot River, where he ran them aground and set them all ablaze. His troops then headed back to Boston by foot. Revere was acquitted of any wrongdoing in this debacle, but his reputation suffered. This has been long known as the greatest defeat of the American side in New England during the Revolutionary War, and our greatest Naval defeat of all time. All but one American ship was burned and by some accounts, 500 Americans were killed or went missing.

Cornwell has fleshed this story out and added a full measure of creative fiction. For American history lovers, it’s a good read. For Maine visitors, stop by Castine for a visit of this historic town on your way to Acadia National Park.

The NPR story is titled, “The Worst U.S. Naval Disaster You’ve Never Heard Of”, but you heard of it here on 8/21/10.
Here’s the NPR audio: 20101120_atc_05

Related Posts:

• Castine: Maine History at Every Turn