In the Spring of 1746, the newly appointed Lieutenant General of the French Navy, Duke d’Anville took command of the largest military flotilla to the New World. Appointed by France’s Divine Right King, Louis XV, d-Anville was equipped with 80 warships, transports and 11,000 troops. His orders were to proceed to Boston and lay the town to ashes and then destroy all he could along the eastern coast. With no major English military presence, the American colonists were scattered and defenseless.
As news of the fleet’s imminent departure from France reached the colonies, Massachusetts Governor William Shirley declared a Day of Fasting & Prayer for October 16th, 1746. On that clear, calm morning, many citizens of Boston walked to their churches in pleasant sunshine to hear the words of their community pastors. From the Olde South Church pulpit, Reverend Thomas Prince prayed before his congregation. Standing at his pulpit, Reverend Prince implored,
“Deliver us from our enemy! Send Thy tempest, Lord, upon the waters to the eastward! Raise Thy right hand. Scatter the ships of our tormentors and drive them hence. Sink their proud frigates beneath the power of Thy winds!”
He had scarcely pronounced these words when the skies filled with rolling clouds, leaving the church in darkness. A sudden wind sprang up from nowhere, shrieking so forcefully that the church bell broke free and rang twice in what one diary described as “a wild an uneven sound…though no man was in the steeple”.
Then Reverend Prince, with both arms outstretched to heaven, paused in his prayer and announced,
“We hear Thy voice, O Lord! We hear it! Thy breath is upon the waters of the eastward, even upon the deep. The bell tolls for the death of our enemies!” He momentarily bowed his head, and looking up, with tears streaming down his face, he prayed, “Thine be the glory, Lord. Amen and amen!”
Soon the events of that day in the Old South Meeting House were heard all over the area, lending hope to the worried. However, the Governor, being a practical man, sent a ship named the Rising Sun northwards to find out what news there might be of the dreaded French fleet. They waited anxiously for the news to return.
In time the Rising Sun returned, barely escaping from the French fleet. Some of the men had posed as Indians and had infiltrated the French garrisons. What they learned amazed them.
They were told that the fleet ran into a dead calm off the Azores. Then a storm arose where several vessels were struck by lightning. One vessel’s magazine exploded killing and wounding over thirty men.
By the 24th of August, the expedition had been at sea for over two months and yet was still over nine hundred miles from their resupply point in Nova Scotia. They were running out of food and water.
On the 10th of September, lead elements of the expedition had arrived at their rendezvous point on Sable Island. However, three days later the vessels were scattered by a violent gale that seriously damaged some ships, which were consequently forced to return to France.
It was late September when Duke d’Anville’s expedition (now only 44 ships) finally reached Nova Scotia. Enduring a three-month voyage, over a thousand sailors & soldiers had died. Hundreds more were gravely ill with scurvy and typhoid fever.
Within six days of his arrival, d’Anville himself died of a fever induced stroke.
Two days later, after a discouraging attack on the British fort of Annalopis Royal, vice-admiral d’Estournelles, second in command, committed suicide.
The next to assume command of the expedition was the very capable Governor General designate of New France, Jacques-Pierre de Taffanel de la Jonquière. Under his command, attacks on Annapolis Royal intensified, even while men continued to die of disease.
By mid-October, 41 percent of the men were dead or seriously ill – 2,861 petty officers, 6,000 seamen and soldiers. However, under the Governor General’s command, the invasion would begin with Indian raiders supplementing the French losses.
On the very day of the colonist’s fasting, a hurricane struck sinking and scattering the entire remaining French fleet.
As a result of the news, Thanksgiving Day was observed on November 27, 1746. Reverend Thomas Prince was one of the many pastors who preached a sermon on that day. His sermon is still available for us and is entitled “The Salvations of God in 1746,” Here is a portion of that sermon.
“God alone put a total end to their mischievous enterprise. . . . Thus when on our solemn Day of General Prayer we expressly cried to the Lord, “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered, . . .” then his own Arm brought Salvation to us and his Fury upheld him. He trode down our Enemies in his Anger, he made them drunk in his Fury, and he brought down their Strength to the Earth. Terrors took hold on them as Waters: A Tempest bore them away in the Night: The East Wind carried them away, and they departed; and with a Storm he hurled them out of their Place. . . . Pharaoh’s hosts overwhelmed in the Red Sea were no greater a miracle”
These historical events were well known to previous American generations. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized the battle in the Ballad of the French Fleet:
Admiral d’Anville had sworn by cross and crown,
To ravage with fire and steel our helpless Boston Town…
From mouth to mouth spread tidings of dismay,
I stood in the Old South saying humbly, “Let us pray!”…
Like a potter’s vessel broke, the great ships of the line,
Were carried away as smoke or sank in the brine.
What Longfellow did not mention is on that day in October, at the Olde South Church, was, likely, a young man named John Adams, age twelve. So too, many of our Founders, as children, experienced the deliverance from the perspectives of their own parents. That experience undoubtedly shaped their faith and courage, 30 years later, to rebel against the greatest super-power of the time. Such is the faith of our Thanksgiving heritage from the perspective of our Founding Fathers. It reminds us of God’s faithful protection for a just nation of His People.
This is Dr. Robert James for a Christian Heritage Moment, reminding you that a Heritage Lost is an identity stolen for someone decided not to tell you Who You Are!
Till Next Time, May God and Liberty Bless.
Please consider sharing the forgotten history of our nation with friends and family.
Sermons from the Boston Old South Church pulpit by Reverend Price often focused on the divine relationship our Founder’s parents experienced. A compendium of his sermons can be found at https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book//lookupname?key=Prince%2C%20Thomas%2C%201687%2D1758
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