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Ontario History

Through Water, Ice & Fire: Schooner Nancy of the By Barry Gough Keith R. Widder

Forging Freedom: In Honour of the Bicentenary of the British Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade Volume 99, numéro 1, spring 2007

URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1065802ar DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/1065802ar

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Éditeur(s) The Ontario Historical Society

ISSN 0030-2953 (imprimé) 2371-4654 (numérique)

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Citer ce compte rendu Widder, K. R. (2007). Compte rendu de [Through Water, Ice & Fire: Schooner Nancy of the War of 1812 By Barry Gough]. Ontario History, 99(1), 115–117. https://doi.org/10.7202/1065802ar

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what is contained in Telling Our Stories is ing, values and daily practice are transmit- not available on the website, and the book ted incidentally in the course of describing has its own distinct charms. In its nine the actions and thoughts of the protago- chapters it focuses on particular themes: nists. I know of few books that so effective- origin stories, the Mi-te-wi-win (“shaman- ly transmit a cultural world as does this one ism”), early contact narratives, Cree versus in its combination of traditional tales, oral European weaponry, Christianity, and a histories, and commentary and explication moving account of a devastating epidemic. by an internal expert, Louis Bird. The stories in themselves are absorbing and Telling Our Stories will be a tremen- wTelling our Stories: Omushkego Legends and Histories from Hudson Bay engaging, well-told and rich in meaning. dous teaching tool for students of virtually wThrough Water, Ice & Fire: Schooner Nancy of the War of 1812 Most of the chapters have useful introduc- any age, from primary school to university. wUnder the North Star: Black Communities in Upper Canada tions by the University of Winnipeg re- In salvaging what knowledge he can, as the w B From Quaker to Upper Canadian: Faith and Community among Friends, 1801-1850 searchers who worked on the Omushkego forces of colonization and modernization wRevival in the City: The Impact of American Evangelists in Canada, 1884-1914 wDeath in the Queen City: Clara Ford on Trial, 1895 project, writing of their collaboration with pry the generations apart and impose the wThe Canadian Niagara Power Company Story Mr. Bird and providing historical and cul- English language, Louis Bird is attempt- wCanada and the First World War: Essays in Honour of Robert Craig Brown tural context. Mr. Bird himself contextual- ing primarily to preserve his culture for the wRockefeller, Carnegie, & Canada: American Philanthropy and the Arts and Letters in Canada izes the stories too, largely by describing Omushkego generations to come, hoping key aspects of the traditional Omushkego they will return to it. At the same time, lifestyle. He also explains the motivations he has offered the rest of the world access and concerns behind his project of record- to the thought, knowledge, struggles and ing as much Omushkego culture as possi- historical understanding of his Omushke- ble, focussing particularly on his fear that gowak people. the Omushkego language is disappearing and, with it, the wealth of stories it carries. Robin Jarvis Brownlie Louis Bird’s concern to save an ancient, University of Manitoba vital tradition frames the book and much of his narrative, but for the reader this is only one component of the experience. To Bibliography: a non-Omushkego, the reading experience Bird, Louis. Omushkego Legends. Omush- also includes a sense of being admitted into kego Oral History Project, Centre for the thought world and lived experience of Rupert’s Land Studies, University of Win- the Omushkegowak. In any one story here, nipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2006. See countless elements of belief, understand-

Through Water, Ice & Fire: Schooner Nancy of the War of 1812

By Barry Gough. : Dundurn Press, shed out in great detail the Nancy’s story 2006. 213 pp. $24.99 softcover. ISBN 1- that he began to tell several years earlier in 55002-569-4. Fighting Sail on and Georgian Bay. By placing the activities of one ship at hrough Water, Ice & Fire is a biography the centre of his narrative, Gough draws of the Nancy, a sailing vessel that played our attention away from more familiar Tan important role on the dur- players in the War of 1812 such as Tecum- ing the War of 1812. Barry Gough has fle- seh, , Oliver Hazard Perry and 116 ONTARIO HISTORY

William Henry Harri- ican enemies. Mack- son. Gough’s presenta- intosh had sailed tion enables us to see from Michilimacki- the interconnections nac unaware of Per- among the British mili- ry’s victory over the tary, the fur trade, mar- British fleet on Lake itime commerce, and Erie, and miracu- the changing fortunes lously made it back to of the War. He demon- Mackinac Island un- strates the importance scathed. The Nancy of shipbuilding, and es- needed repairs, how- pecially the Americans’ ever, and Mackintosh successful effort to refused the order of build a fleet powerful Captain Richard Bul- enough to win control lock, commandant of of Lake Erie. Gough , to sail makes it clear that it to Matchedash Bay mattered a great deal (at the foot of Geor- who controlled the wa- gian Bay) to procure ter routes through the badly-needed provi- Great Lakes and that sions. naval activity on Lake Erie and Lake Huron Gough is at his best as he recreates the needs to be part of the interpretation of fiery end of the Nancy. Lieutenant Miller events that took place during the War. Af- Worsley of the , who had taken ter all, Great Britain and the United States command on 2 August 1814, put up a fierce were engaged in a bitter conflict that both defense of his ship in the teeth of a blister- nations saw as a battle for hegemony in the ing American bombardment on 14 August region surrounding the Great Lakes. while the Nancy took refuge on the Not- Gough gives us a view from the water tawasaga River. When Worsley’s efforts of the western Great Lakes at war. We see proved futile in the face of a superior force, the Nancy’s courageous captain, Alexander he burned the Nancy to keep the Americans Mackintosh, carrying troops and arma- from capturing it and using it against the ments to support the unsuccessful British British. Fortunately, Gough does not end campaigns against Fort Meigs (near Toledo the story there. He recounts the efforts of today) in April and July 1813, and nearby William Wilson, C.H.J. Snider and Dr. F.J. at Fort Stephenson in July of that year. Conboy in keeping alive the memory of the The Nancy served as a lifeline, transport- Nancy. They finally located the charred -re ing goods and people between Amherst- mains, and parts of the ship ultimately found burg and Michilimackinac, and between their way into the Museum of the Upper there and St. Joseph’s Island and Sault Ste. Lakes on Nancy Island (in the Nottawasaga Marie. Gough takes us on the Nancy’s voy- River, near ) in 1968. age southward through Lake Huron in Many illustrations bring Through Wa- October 1813, and we watch the gallant ter, Ice & Fire to life. Portraits, manuscript crew keep the vessel afloat during violent maps, paintings and sketches help the storms and out of the hands of their Amer- reader to visualize the world as it appeared book reviews 117

to the crew of the Nancy and other people Through Water, Ice & Fire will be useful who took part in the struggle for naval su- to readers who are interested in the Great premacy on Lake Huron. The timeline that Lakes fur trade, the rivalry between Great appears at the beginning of the book will Britain and the United States for the deter- help readers keep track of a complicated mining and controlling the international sequence of events. Missing, however, is a border, and the naval and military history good map that identifies points visited by of these two nations. the Nancy on Lakes Huron and Erie, and important places on the land surrounding Keith R. Widder them. We are told that General William Michigan State University, East Lansing led an American force across the St. Clair River, first to invade Canada on 12 Bibliography: July 1812, and then to retreat several weeks Gough, Barry. Fighting Sail on Lake Huron later. (pp. 47, 55) Actually, Hull crossed and Georgian Bay: The War of 1812 and the River; more careful proofread- its aftermath. Annapolis, Maryland: Na- ing would have caught this error. val Institute Press, 2002.

Under the North Star: Black Communities in Upper Canada

By Donald G. Simpson. Edited by Paul Blacks during this period but also uses E. Lovejoy. A Publication of the Harriet this history as a catalyst for examining Tubman Resource Centre on the African the evolving nature of Canada-U.S. rela- Diaspora, York University, Toronto. Tren- tions, relations that could be particularly ton, N.J.: Africa World Press, Inc., 2005. strained when the protection of men, x + 500 pp. US$34.95 softcover. ISBN 1- women and children of colour was on the 592213-56-1. line. Following the foreword by Paul uring the antebellum period, fugi- Lovejoy (Director of the Tubman Cen- Dtives from American slavery were ad- tre), Simpson opens with brief accounts vised to follow the North Star and navi- of Black immigration to and slavery in gate their way to Canada. Since then, the Canada. He focuses on the Revolutionary North Star has become synonymous with era, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and Black freedom. It is fitting, therefore, for the years following the fugitive slave laws Donald Simpson to call on this historical of 1793 and 1850. Legislation initiated by image for his text. By his own account, Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe Simpson wrote Under the North Star in Upper Canada in 1793 helped ensure to offer a province-wide survey of Black that slavery, while not comprehensively settlements and communities during the abolished, would ultimately disappear. early days of Ontario (Upper Canada) Many Blacks were indeed escaping slavery, history prior to Confederation. Through but notable figures like the Shadds were six chapters of vastly different lengths he free people who left the United States be- not only uncovers the history of Ontario’s cause of the continued encroachment on