Not on our WATCH
On the bar of the Old Brewhouse restaurant in Scotland’s scenic east coast town of Arbroath, there is an iron cannon ball mounted on a wooden plinth. Few customers can be aware that this is a relic of a minor incident of the American Revolutionary War.
Minor, that is, for everyone except those living in Arbroath at the time.
On 23 May 1781, an unfamiliar vessel appeared in the bay of Arbroath. It hoisted the white fleur-de-lis flag of France and proceeded to capture a merchant ship of Aberdeen in plain view of the inhabitants. The French ship then anchored off the harbour and two men were spotted rowing ashore.
A crowd of townsfolk gathered at the harbour to watch but scattered when a cannon shot was fired over their heads.
The ball landed in a street called Lady Loan, narrowly missing a prominent merchant of the town, Mr William Fitchett. A partner in a leading firm of flax weavers and a member of the town council, Mr Fitchett was knocked to his knees by the wind of its passing.
The boat’s crew were prisoners from the Aberdeen vessel, and they, registered in the French port of Dunkirk, but better known by its English name of . A cutter, armed with 18 four-pounder guns and a crew of 100, she was captained by a notorious English smuggler and pirate named 64 Scotland William Fall. Why was such a man commanding a French ship and engaging in acts of war against British subjects?
