According to the account of Captain Patrick Kennedy of the Maryland Loyalists, the accident was due to gross neglect. The master reported the previous evening that he had seen land, and everyone imagined he would lay to during the night, the weather being tempestuous. He had left New York with an old suit of sails and had not above twelve men and boys to work his ship. While they were engaged in rigging and setting up a new main topsail, to replace one that had gone to pieces early in the night, the ship struck. Soon after the long boat was smashed by the fall of the mainmast. The cutter had already been launched. The captain now gave orders to launch the jolly boat and, to the surprise of everybody, having 363 repeatedly proclaimed that he would be one of the last to leave the ship, he jumped into her as she went over the side, rowed to the cutter, got into her, and inhumanly pushed off for the shore. The empty Jolly boat was turned adrift in full view of the unhappy people on board, the master turning a deaf ear to the solicitations of Captain Kennedy, who begged him to pull in toward the stern, in order to discuss some means of saving the lives of his passengers.
Another account of this tragedy has been preserved in the letter of Lieut. Michael Laffan, of Colonel Hewlett’s battalion, to his brother:—
St. Johns, Oct. 11, 1783.
Dear Brother.—Yesterday evening I had the good Fortune to arrive at this Place. On the 25th of September, about 4 o’clock in the morning, the “Martha” struck against a rock off the Tusket river near the Bay of Fundy, and was in the course of a few Hours wrecked in a Thousand Pieces. I had the good Fortune to get upon a Piece of the Wreck with three more officers, viz., Lieut. Henley, Lieut. Sterling, Dr. Stafford and two soldiers (all of the Maryland Loyalists) and floated on it two Days and two nights up to near our Waists in Water, during which time Lieut. Sterling and one of the Soldiers died. On the third Day we drifted to an island where we lived without Fire, Water, Victuals or Clothing, except the Remnants of what we had on, about one Quart of Water per man (which we sipped from the cavities in the Rocks) and a few Rasberries and snails. On the seventh Day we were espied and taken up by a Frenchman, that was out a fowling, who took us to his House and treated us with every kindness. We staid with him six Days and then proceeded to a Place called Cape Pursue, where we met with Captain Kennedy and about fifty of both Regiments, who were saved at Sea by some fishing Boats, about 36 Hours from the time the Vessel was wrecked. Capt. Doughty, Lieut. McFarlane, Mrs. McFarlane and Ensign Montgomery perished....
Lieut. Col. Hewlett’s letter to Sir Guy Carleton, announcing the arrival of the fleet at its destined port, is brief and to the point:
St. Johns, Bay of Fundy, 29th September, 1783.
Sir.—Agreeable to your Excellency’s orders I have the honor to inform you that the Troops under my command arrived at the River St. Johns the 27th instant, except the ship “Martha” with the Maryland Loyalists and part of the 2d Batt’n De Lancey’s, and the ship “Esther” with part of the Jersey Volunteers, of which ships no certain accounts were received since their sailings.
This day a small party of the Guides and Pioneers are landed, which proceed from the Falls up the River St. Johns tomorrow, if the weather permits.
I have given the necessary orders for the Troops to disembark tomorrow and encamp just above the Falls, from which place they shall be forwarded with all possible expedition to the place of their destination, but am much afraid the want of small craft will greatly prevent their dispatch.
I have the honor to be sir,
Your most obedient, humble servant,RICHARD HEWLETT, Lt. Col.
On the 13th October Col. Hewlett informed Sir Guy Carleton that the troops had all been disbanded by Major Augustin Prevost, and were getting up the river as speedily as the scarcity of small craft for conveying them would admit.
A large number of the officers and men of the disbanded regiments drew lots at Parrtown, and many remained at the mouth of the river during the winter. George Leonard, who was one of the chief directors of the settlement of the town, 364 says that the lots at first laid out were divided and subdivided, on the arrival of almost every fleet, to accommodate the Loyalists as they came. These proved to be so greatly in excess of what had been anticipated, that the lots of those who came at the first were reduced by degrees to one sixteenth part of their original dimensions. It was not until the 17th December that a complete plan of Parrtown was prepared by Paul Bedell. Meanwhile there had been much delay in laying out lands for settlement on the River St. John.
Colonel Morse, of the Royal Engineers, gives a summary of the causes of the delay in placing the disbanded troops upon their lands: “First their arriving very late in the season; Secondly, timely provision not having been made by escheating and laying out lands; Thirdly, a sufficient number of surveyors not having been employed; but Lastly and principally, the want of foresight and wisdom to make necessary arrangements, and steadiness in carrying them out.”
Lieut. Col. Edward Winslow, muster-master-general of the British American regiments, had been sent to Nova Scotia in the month of April to secure lands for the accommodation of the officers and men who wished to settle there. In this task he had the assistance of Lieut. Col. Isaac Allen, Lieut. Col. Stephen De Lancey and Major Thomas Barclay. Their instructions were to procure the lands required “in the most eligible and advantageous situation, paying strict regard to the quality of the soil.” They decided to make application for the vacant lands on the River St. John, and the Nova Scotia government agreed that the provincial troops might be accommodated “near the source of that river, leaving the lower part to the Refugees.” Lieut. Colonel De Lancey was greatly chagrined at this decision, and on the 11th July he wrote to Winslow: “If what I am informed is true, we might better be all of us in New York. It is that Conway, Burton, etc., are to be given to the Refugees, and that the lands to be given to the Provincials are to commence at Sunbury (or St. Anne) and go northwest to Canada or elsewhere.... This is so notorious a forfeiture of the faith of Government that it appears to me almost incredible, and yet I fear it is not to be doubted. Could we have known this a little earlier it would have saved you the trouble of exploring the country for the benefit of a people you are not connected with. In short it is a subject too disagreeable to say more upon.”
The decision to settle the Loyalist regiment some distance up the river obliged the Kings American Dragoons to remove from Lancaster, where they had at first pitched their tents. The intimation to move on came in the shape of a letter from Gen’l Fox’s secretary, to Major Murray, their commanding officer. An extract follows: