Goodwill at Penetang: Schooner Days MCXXVI (1126)

by C. H. J. Snider

THEY had a nice big Stars and Stripes flying from what is left of the sternpost of H.M.S. Surprise, the captured schooner Tigress of the United States navy, in neat and new Museum Park.

It was a well meant expression of goodwill and friendship for American visitors—but unwittingly lefthanded. What is going to be said next is an equally sincere expression of goodwill and friendship for the flag raisers, if it is equally lefthanded.

The flag at the stern of any vessel — wreck or racer — indicates only one thing, her national registry. A native Chinese junk on British register should not fly the Chinese ensign at the stern, but the red ensign of the British mercantile marine. This is more than etiquette. It is law.

Where should that American ensign have been shown?

Amidships in the Tigress' skeleton, where the 3-lb. cannon ball was found in her timbers.

Or at the forward end of the wreck, above what is left of the stem. A flag flown forward is an indication of courtesy towards visitors or visitees. When Kingarvie last went into the old American naval base of Sackets Harbor we had the British ensign waving proudly at the stern, and the Stars and Stripes at the forestay. That 100 per cent. American Matthew H. Knapp of Syracuse, N.Y., the King Neptune of Storr's Harbor as well as of Sackets, gave us a royal salute, and put off in his barge of state to greet us.

When Kingarvie goes into an American yacht club the yachts there don't hurry to hoist British ensigns at their taffrails. But they do—put up the Union Jack or a Canadian flag forward. And we wear the Stars and Stripes there when at the home moorings, if American yachts are visiting.

It would have been poor courtesy indeed towards visitors to have had the British naval ensign above the Stars and Stripes at the stern of the Tigress, although that is the way she first came to Penetanguishene — an American prize, taken in a boarding battle by Lieut. Miller Worsley, R.N., Sept. 3, 1814.

This was a notable Canadian victory in an old war, whose scars have been healed for a hundred years. Miller Worsley sleeps the long sleep beneath the remains of an old black cherry tree in the cemetery of the service church of St. James-on-the-Lines, at Penetanguishene. Canadians may well be proud of his gallant deed, but we have fought so well in so many wars since that we do not have to gloat over capturing two invading destroyers in three nights 139 years ago. Nor do we have to be ashamed to show our colors.

The White Ensign of the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy, or the Canadian Red Ensign should be worn over the battered sternpost of the former Tigress, when any other flag is shown on the remains. We do not forget that from Sept. 6, 1814, to this day, the Tigress has been His Majesty's Ship Surprise, so renamed in honor of Worsley's exploit.

American visitors are more attracted by the White Ensign or the Red Ensign, or the Union Jack, on a visit to Canada, than they are by the Stars and Stripes. They really have "plenty" of the Stars and Stripes at home, from the day they start to school.

Friend Johnston, MPP for Simcoe South, made his well-meant goodwill gesture too, at the "raising" on Aug. 29.

The first sizable piece of wreckage which saw the light of day through the teeth of the clam-dipper, was supposed to be the Tigress' consort, the Scorpion. She also became a British man-of-war after capture. Mr. Johnston said that if the United States asked for these old vessels, he, for one, had no objections to their being returned. He must have had in mind the generosity of the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt in sending back in 1934 the mace looted from the Parliament Houses, Toronto, in 1813, when Fort York was captured in battle and the buildings were burned.

Taking the MPP literally, a U.S. tourist proceeded to help himself to souvenir timber of the recovered wreck still dripping.

"You can't do that," said Penetang. "All this wreckage is in the custody of the Chamber of Commerce Museum Committee."

"I'm an American citizen" retorted the tourist. "Ain't this our own boat? Didn't we build her at Erie, Pa., in 1813?

"Mebbe you did, Pa," said Penetang, "but we took her from you in 1814 in fair fight, and we've still got her."

Before the cold war developed atomic bombing, grapevine ticker-tape announced that the wreckage recovered wasn't the Scorpion's at all, but a Canadian built man-of-war's probably HMS Tecumseth's.

If it had been the Scorpion's — and she will be recovered yet—it would still be a British man-of-war's. The Scorpion became HMS Confiance immediately after capture, and was the flagship of the British fleet based upon the Penetang establishment. Who can "give away" the King's ships?

The squabble recalled that recipe for jugged hare:

"First catch your hare."

It is well to make sure that what you have caught is a hare. And before sending your neighbor a dish of rabbit stew as a goodwill gesture, to make sure that what you have caught is your hare, not someone else's; and not a hair, nor an heir, nor a porcupine.