The ship’s sails were set, and it moved out to sea. Thirty-year-old Samuel Blythe, commander of the Boxer, quickly recalled the shore party. It turned out the British mariners simply wanted to pick blueberries.Īfter a time, a lookout aboard the Boxer shouted that a tall ship was approaching from the west. Not wishing to provoke the British commander into firing his guns in anger, Captain John Sproul signaled his approval. That morning the crew of the Boxer had signaled to a company of Maine militia gathered on the grounds of old Fort Frederick that they wished to come ashore under a flag of truce. During that time, it boarded and inspected American vessels it encountered with impunity. The Boxer’s crew had patrolled the Maine coast for two months unchallenged by American warships. The gun-brig HMS Boxer was anchored on the morning of September 5, 1813, at the mouth of Pemaquid Harbor. Seagulls wheeled overhead, seals sunned on seaweed-covered ledges, and the ocean pounded rocky headlands. The late summer day began like many others on the Maine coast.
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