Kings Pinnacle (18 page)

“
How do you get food and
other supplies?” asked Samuel.

“There’s supposed to be an
agent or a factor for the British Army quartermaster that buys food
and supplies from the local colonists and sells them to the British
Army to keep us supplied. But right now, we don’t have
one.”

“
How is this agent
hired?”

“I don’t rightly know. I
suspect that it would be handled out of General Gage’s headquarters
in New York.”

Samuel thought about the
possibilities that this situation presented and concluded that he
might be able to make a profit from it if he handled it correctly.
It would require a balancing act on his part. He would have to
develop friendly relations with the colonists who had goods to
sell. And he would have to hide from them the fact that he was
buying the materials and food for the British Army.

He figured he might just think of a way
to do that.

“
Drink up lads, I’ll buy
you another round,” said the smiling Samuel, who had just come up
with another plan to make his fortune in America.

* * * *

Robert and Hugh

“
You two can come out
now,” said Captain Hall as he stood in the hold with his hands on
his hips facing the tea chests.

The captain obviously knew
that Robert and Hugh were hiding in the hold, so after a moment’s
hesitation, Robert was the first one to push the lid off the tea
chest he was lying in and step out of it.

“You can come out now,
Hugh,” said Robert, and Hugh quickly followed suit.

“Well, well, what do we have
here? It looks like I’ve caught a couple of stowaways,” said
Captain Hall to the two men standing beside the tea chests that
they had been lying in.

“Weel now Captain, we was
just taking a wee nap when ye suddenly lit out with us on board. We
had nae time to get off the boat before she sailed,” said Hugh with
a grin.

“Sounds like yer spinning me
a yarn, lad. Right now we are about fifty miles out to sea on our
way to Boston. We don’t plan on going back to Larne, so you two are
safe from the authorities in Ireland. I don’t know why you were in
the Larne jail, but I was short two sailors on this trip. You two
have provided me with an easy way to fill out my crew out to full
strength. Do either of you have any sailing experience?” asked
Captain Hall.

“
How much does it pay?”
asked Hugh with another grin.

“You two lads are not going
to have to worry about pay for a long time,” said the captain with
a smile.

“Why is that?” asked
Hugh.

“Well, it looks like you two
lads just threw half the contents of two of my one hundred fourteen
chests of Bohea tea overboard back at the docks in Larne. When a
tea chest is full, each one holds four hundred pounds weight of
tea. In the colonies, Bohea tea sells for two shillings per pound.
You two threw eight hundred shillings or forty pounds cash money
worth of tea into the ocean. How are you two going to repay forty
pounds cash to the Boston consignee of the East India Company for
the tea you threw overboard?”

Robert didn’t say anything and for once
Hugh didn’t either.

“Sailor’s pay on the
Dartmouth is one penny a day. On that pay, you should be able to
save about one pound per year, if you are frugal. It’ll take you
two about twenty years of sailing each to work off your debt,” said
Captain Hall with a smile.

Hugh looked at Robert and
shrugged. Robert said nothing.

* * * *

Samuel

Samuel Ruskin booked
passage on a small trader’s vessel that was leaving Philadelphia
harbor on its route to New York. When he arrived in New York
harbor, he disembarked and contacted some of his acquaintances from
England. He was trying to gain an introduction to the quartermaster
that worked for General Gage, the British Army commander. It didn’t
take long for him to make the proper connections, and soon he had
an appointment with the quartermaster himself, Colonel Barton.
Samuel arrived at the quartermaster’s office at the appointed time
and was ushered into the office to speak with the
quartermaster.

“
My name is Samuel Ruskin,
Colonel Barton,” said Samuel shaking hands with the
colonel.

“Please have a seat Mr.
Ruskin,” said Colonel Barton. “How may I be of service to
you?”

“I think that I may be of
service to you, Colonel,” replied Samuel. “I understand that you
are having difficulty supplying your troops in
Philadelphia.”

“That’s true. It is almost
impossible to hire an agent in Philadelphia or any of the other
major cities here in the colonies for that matter. It’s also
impossible keep one in the job very long. Our factors soon become
disgruntled as their relationship with the colonists deteriorates
to the point where they can’t effectively do their job. The
colonists seem to resent the presence of the British Army even
though we are here only to protect them. General Gage has returned
to England for a short while, and I have to make decisions for the
good of the army without higher approvals while he is
gone.”

“
I understand your
difficulty, and yet the job must still be done if the British Army
is going to be fed and survive in the colonies,” said
Samuel.

“
Do you have a suggestion
that would help solve the problem in Philadelphia?” asked the
quartermaster.

“Yes I do. I propose that
you hire me as your agent in Philadelphia, but do not tell anyone
in your command that I am in your employ. I will represent myself
in Philadelphia as a merchant who buys food and other goods for
export and trade. I will lease warehouse space at the docks to
store the food and goods that I purchase. But rather than shipping
them for export or trade, I will move the goods and food under
cover of darkness or by other means to the British Army depot in
Philadelphia. The colonists will be none the wiser. They will be
supplying goods and food to the British Army and not be aware of
it.”

“
I don’t know if your plan
will work or not, but at this point, I am more than willing to try
anything.”

“
To further the ruse, I
intent to enlist in the Pennsylvania volunteer militia so that I
can establish more friendly relations with the colonists and make
the contacts I will need to buy the goods that your army requires,”
continued Samuel.

“
Your plan might
work.”

“It will depend on our
maintaining the secrecy of our arrangement. In addition, I might be
able to pass along some information from time to time that may be
of interest to the British Army regarding the civilian and military
situations in the Philadelphia militia and elsewhere.”

The quartermaster leaned
forward in his chair and folded his hands in front of him, with his
elbows resting on his desk, to consider Samuel’s proposal. After a
few moments of thought, he made his decision.

“I am willing to give your
plan a trial run to see if it will work. After six months I should
know if our relationship will work or if I want to modify it or
scrap it entirely.”

“That sounds fair to me. I
will need a cash advance in order to procure warehouse space and
set myself up in Philadelphia as a merchant.”

“
That can be arranged,”
said the quartermaster.

The two men then leaned over the
quartermaster’s desk together to work out the details of their
arrangement.

* * * *

Robert and Hugh

The Dartmouth was a trim
eighty foot brig built in New Bedford Village, Massachusetts in
1767. She was originally designed to be a whaling vessel. Her
maiden voyage consisted of carrying a cargo of whale oil to London.
Nantucket was her home port, but she had been chartered by the
Boston consignee of the East India Company. Her charter was to haul
a cargo of tea owned by Davison, Newman and Co. of London, and some
other goods, from Great Britain to Boston with a stop in Larne to
pick up a load of Irish whiskey.

Captain Hall was a good
captain and treated his men fairly. He was well liked by all the
crew and by the ship’s owners. Robert and Hugh learned their ship’s
duties rapidly. They soon became friendly with the crew and fit
into the daily shipboard routine seamlessly. The voyage from
Ireland to Boston was smooth sailing and passed by quickly for the
brothers. Shipboard life seemed to agree with Robert and Hugh. They
had taken the attitude that there was nothing they could do about
their situation for the present, so they might as well enjoy it. So
they did. Hugh was always a lot of fun to be around and soon became
one of the crew’s favorites. He always seemed to have a funny story
to tell or was playing a practical joke on another member of the
crew.

No one on board the ship
knew about the trouble that was brewing in the American colonies,
except perhaps Captain Hall. The Tea Act of 1773 had lowered the
price of legally imported Bohea tea from China below the price of
smuggled Dutch tea. But there was still discontent about taxation
without representation and the extent of the British Parliament’s
authority over the American colonies. The Tea Act had given the
East India Company a monopoly over the tea trade to the colonies.
That did not sit well with a number of colonists, who feared that
the tea monopoly might be extended to a monopoly on other goods as
well.

It was a cold winter day
when the Dartmouth arrived in Boston harbor on November 29, 1773.
It was piloted by the captain to a mooring a few hundred yards off
of Griffin’s Wharf. As soon as the anchor was dropped, a group of
men who called themselves the Sons of Liberty assembled on the
wharf to prevent the cargo of tea from being unloaded from the
Dartmouth and two other ships. British law in the colonies required
that the Dartmouth unload the tea and pay the duties and customs
fees within twenty days or the customs officials could confiscate
the cargo.

Everyone on board The
Dartmouth knew about the twenty day deadline, so there was a lot of
anticipation and a lot of betting about what would happen when the
deadline expired. Robert and Hugh spent their time loafing on board
the ship with the other sailors who didn’t have shore leave. They
were not allowed shore leave because Captain Hall feared that they
might run away as soon as they got to land. The captain made sure
that one or more of the experienced and trusted sailors were with
Robert and Hugh at all times, just to make sure that they didn’t
jump ship and swim to shore. The water in Boston harbor was ice
cold, so it would have been a long, cold swim anyway. It was
unlikely that Robert and Hugh would attempt it in the winter, but
Captain Hall was a wary sort and took appropriate
precautions.

On the evening of December
16, 1773, which was the deadline for unloading the tea, at about
seven o’clock in the evening, Robert and Hugh were lounging at the
rail and talking. They were looking toward Griffin’s Wharf when
they saw a band of almost one hundred men dressed up in Mohawk and
Iroquois costumes walk out on the dock. The men were armed with
tomahawks or small hatchets, pistols and clubs, and their faces
were disguised with black soot or boot polish. They divided up into
three groups and requisitioned boats to row out to the three ships
loaded with imported tea and anchored in Boston harbor. One of the
three groups rowed out to and boarded the Dartmouth. The leader of
this group was a man named George Hewes. After George climbed the
ship’s ladder, he asked for Captain Hall and was directed to him by
one of the sailors.

“We are the Sons of Liberty
and we are going to dump your cargo of tea into Boston harbor,
Captain. Please give me the keys to the hatches and a dozen
candles,” said George Hewes.

“I will be happy to comply
with your request, but please ask your men to do no damage to the
other cargo, the ship, or its rigging,” replied Captain
Hall.

“If you comply with my
request, I will comply with yours,” said George Hewes, after which
Captain Hall handed George Hewes the keys to the hatches and
gathered up a dozen candles for him.

Hewes then walked down the
deck to the hatch covers and began fumbling with the cover locks.
Hugh, who had observed the events and the conversation with Captain
Hall, walked up to George Hewes to see what he was
doing.

“Guid Sir, do ye mind if I
asked ye what is it that ye are doing?” asked Hugh.

“
Stand aside lad, while I
figure out how to open these hatches,” said George.

“Allow me to help ye, sir,”
said Hugh, as he took the keys from George and began opening the
hatches for him.

“When I get these hatches
open for ye, what is it that ye and these men plan on doing?” Hugh
continued.

“We plan on throwing the
cargo overboard.”

“Ach, nae, yer not planning
on throwing all that Irish whiskey into the harbor, are ye?” asked
Hugh, somewhat aghast.

“Nae lad, just the tea goes
into the water.”

“Thank the Almighty. I was
going to suggest that we drink the whiskey rather than throw it in
the briny,” said Hugh with a smile.