Log of the HMS Nimrod "Firing On the Town to Destroy It"

From the July 13, 2013, Cape Cod Wave Magazine  "Nimrod fans hope to save historic building."

Clara Hennessey Gilbert of West Falmouth, Massachusetts, has done a lot of research on the Nimrod Building and went to England and tracked down the HMS Nimrod's captain's log

"Captain's Log of His Majesty's Brig-sloop of War Nimrod" from January 28, 1814.

The log described the weather that day as "moderate breezes and fine."

It also describes the attack, noting that from 1 to 4:30 pm, the Nimrod was "firing on the town to destroy it."

The town was not destroyed, but damage was done.

That cannonball hole in the Nimrod building is part of that same bombardment.   The cannonball is long gone, but the hole remains.

--Brock-Perry

The Nimrod and the Salt Works

From "Cape Cod History" printed 1896.

In the early 1800s, New Englanders started a salt industry, making salt from sea water.  There were quite a few such salt works at Falmouth, Massachusetts.  One of the owners was John Crocker who I wrote about the last several days.

The Nimrod was after the guns captured by Captain Jenkins at Tarpaulin Cove and the frigate Nimrod (actually a sloop) approached the shore near the foot of Shore Street and bombarded the town when the Americans refused to turn the guns over.

Much damage was done including to the Congregational Church, a large house on Shore Street now owned by E.E.C. Short (then occupied by Captain John Crocker and thought to be the governor's residence).

--Brock-Perry

Historic Stonington Cannon (Possibly HMS Nimrod) Finds New Home on Cape Cod-- Part 1

From the Jan. 18, 2014, Stonington-Mystic (Connecticut) Patch "Historic Stonington Cannon Finds New Home on Cape Cod."

The Stonington Historical Society handed over an old cannon to a historical society on Cape Cod on January 18th as part of that group's plans to commemorate a British ship's bombardment of that town.

Stonington got the cannon in 2000 from the Kendall Whaling Museum (now part of the New Bedford Whaling Museum). It was part of the five recovered in 1981 from the water at Buzzard's Bay, west of Cape Cod. The guns are presumed to be from the British ship Nimrod, 18 guns, jettisoned while trying to navigate shallow waters. The Nimrod later joined a British fleet in bombarding Stonington Borough from August 9-12, 1814.

The Nimrod was a two-year-old Cruizer-class brig at the time and had joined the HMS Ramillies (74-gun ship-of-the-line), HMS Pactolus (44-gun frigate) and HMS Dispatch (22-gun brig) and bomb ship HMS Terror.

--Brock-Perry

Falmouth, Massachusetts

From Wikipedia.

I had never heard of this town (and at first thought it might be in Maryland) so had to look it up. It is in Massachusetts and on Cape Cod.

During the War of 1812, action took place there when several British frigates and ships of the line bombarded Falmouth Heights while Massachusetts militia hastily entrenched on the beaches to repel an expected landing that never came.

Also, in 1859, Katharine Lee Bates, author, poet and lyricist of "America the Beautiful" was born there.

Nothing about the Nimrod attack, though.

--Brock-Perry