The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1932-07-28
LITTLE-KNOWN SHIPS
WHICH HELPED in
FOUNDING THIS
OLD COLONY
By LOUIS H. BOLANDER,
I'm the Baltimore Sunday Sum-


English-speaking world, the Santa
Maria that carried the ventursome
Columbus to a New World and the
Golden Hind that earned for Sir Fran
els Drake deathless glory, vie for hon
ors with the Mayfiower that brought
the Pilgrim Fathers to the "stern and
rockbound coasts" of New England.
Around these three little ships cluster
a wealth of associations dear to every
patriotic English and American heart.
New Englanders have perpetuated the
memory of the Mayhower in narra-
tive, song and story so that her name
has become a household word wher-
ever the English tongue is heard.
But who outside of Maryland ever
heard of two little ships called the
Ark and the Dove? And how few in
the Free State itself could give but
a sketchy account of their career?
Yet these two gallant little ships
brought the first band of settlers to
St. Mary's, and thus played their part
in shaping the destines of Maryland
and, ultimately, of the future United
States Of America.
Who built these two little ships or
when we do not know. Nor do the
British archives, as yet, reveal their
ultimate fate. Did they rot down at
some English wharf, or did they
founder in some sharp gale on the
Western Ocean? Or were they brok
Ell up to serve the purposes of
some mere landsman?
We do not know. 1t is quite posi-
bic that their timbers may still form
the framework of some barn or out
building in rural England, and their
present owner know nothing what
ever of their intriguing history. Such
a mundane fate has overtaken many
lordly bark that has outlived any
number of Atlantic gales. The i'll
fated Chesapeake, captured by the
British in the War of 1912, was con-
verted into the framework of a mill
still in use in rural Hampshire, her
timbers still showing the effects of the
Shannon's deadly fire. And even the
timbers of the Mayfower herself are
believed to form the framework of
barn some twenty miles from Lon
don.
Unlike the Mayhower, which was a
ship chartered for the specific purpose
of carrying the Pilgrims to the New
World, both the Ark and the Dove
seem to have been employed regularly
by George Calvert, the first Lord
Baltimore, and there is good reason
to believe that he owned a large share
of each of them.
These two ships make their debut
in history through the medium of a
letter written by Baltimore to the
Earl Of Baltimore, and a doughty
entrance it was. Baltimore had es-
tablshed a colony at Avalon on the
southeastern peninsula Of Newfound-
land sometime before his Maryland
project was thought of. In July, 1927,
he and his family paid visit to Av-
alon to see how his colonists were
making out. While he was there word
came that some English fishing YES
sells in a nearby harbOr had been at |
tackled by three French ships under
the command Of a Gallo adventurer
named De la Rade. Two of the Eng
lish fishing shaIIops had been cap
tured by De la Rade's men, and all
their fish and provisions confiscated.
Calvert was appealed to for protec-
ton and he responded with hearty
good will. He graphically describes
his future actions in letter to Buck |
ingham:
Send them assistance with two
ships of mine, one of $50 tons and |
twenty-four pieces of ordinance, !
another bark of sixty tons with
three or four small guns in her and |
about 100 men aboard US IN all. |
These ships being discovered to
move by a scout whom the French |
kept at the harbOr's mouth, they |
stayed not weighing anchor but let
slip their cables and away to sea as
fast as they could, leaving their
booty and sixty-seven of their own
men behind them on shore for
haste. We gave them chase, but
could not overtake them. &. Within |
a few days after advice was given
that De la Rade was gone into the |
Bay of Conception, some twenty |
leagues to the northward Of this !
place, and there committed more
spoil; whereupon | sent forth the !
great ship again, with all the sea-
men | had there and one of my |
sons with some gentlemen and !
others that attend me in this plan
tation.
These 1.-TWO ships of mine" were the
Ark and the Dove, and their first
"break" into history was when they |
forceI that gentleman of fortune De
la R; e to slip his cables and put to
sea i, such haste that he was forced |