The Raid

• Author: Craig Forcese
• Pages: 37-47

37

Chapter 6

The Raid

A party left the British shore,

Led on by gallant Drew, sir,

Who set the Yankee boat on f‌ire

And beat their pirate crew, sir.

The Yankees said they did invent

The eamboat f‌ir of all, sir,

But Britain taught the Yankee boat

To navigate the Fall, sir.

—      

   1

T   to the Caroline’s arrival was swift.2

Drew’s memoirs describe MacNab turning to his naval com-

mander upon observing the boat’s passage down the Niagara

River, and saying (using the naval term for a covert raid designed to

seize a vessel from its anchorage): “This won’t do. I say, Drew, do you

think you can cut that vessel out?”

Drew responded with a spontaneous conf‌irmation that he could

do so. He would later wonder at his ready belief that the task would

be straightforward. Writing decades after (and at a time when he

was anxious his role be more widely acknowledged), he observed,

“although I had said hastily there was nothing easier, . . . in reality it

was a service of such extreme danger, that it may well be questioned

whether anyone could be justif‌ied in undertaking it.”3

But MacNab was clearly pleased with his officer’s reply: in

response to Drew’s conf‌irmation, MacNab reportedly asserted, “Well,

then, go and do it,”4 adding to do so wherever the boat might be

found.5 As MacNab later explained: