The Miraculous Hurricane that Saved Boston

Note: This story was once included in Grammar School textbooks throughout America.  Although the story was well documented, it has been removed from most history books for religious reasons.  It is however, an important part of our American history and should be taught in our homes and churches.  Ten year old John Adams was in the church during this famous prayer and later declared, “That day, I became a patriot.”

In October 1746, French Duke of d’Anville sailed for New England, commanding the most powerful fleet of the time.  He had 70 ships with 13,000 troops. In fact, it was “the largest fleet ever to be sighted from American soil.” They started for Boston. The Duke intended that they avenge themselves for the loss they had suffered in Louisburg. They planned to recapture Louisburg, Nova Scotia, and destroy [all the English Colonies] from Boston to Georgia.

The situation was bleek for the Colonists. They had no chance of matching the power of the huge fleet on their own. Massachusetts Governor William Shirley gathered all the men, ammunitions and supplies he could find. He then turned the situation over to the Lord by declaring the 16th of October, 1746 a Universal Day of Fasting. He would have everyone pray and fast for deliverance.

Everywhere men observed it, thronging to the churches. In Boston the Reverend Thomas Prince from the high pulpit of the Old South Meetinghouse, prayed before hundreds. The morning was clear and calm, people had walked to church through sunshine. ‘Deliver us from our enemy!’ the minister implored. ‘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 the words when the sun was gone and the morning darkened. All the church was in a shadow. A wind shrieked around the walls, sudden, violent, hammering at the windows with a giant hand.  No man was in the steeple — afterward the sexton swore it — yet the great bell struck twice, a wild, uneven sound. Thomas Prince paused in his prayer, both arms raised. ‘We hear thy voice, O Lord!’ he thundered triumphantly. ‘We hear it! Thy breath is upon the waters to the eastward, even upon the deep. Thy bell tolls for the death of our enemies!’ He bowed his head; when he looked up, tears streamed down his face. ‘Thine be the glory, Lord. Amen and amen!’

… All the Province heard of this prayer and this answering tempest. Governor Shirley sent a sloop, the Rising Son, northward for news … she brought news so good it was miraculous — if one could believe it … the whole fleet was nearly lost, the men very sick with scurvy, or some pestilential fever. Their great admiral, the Duc d’Anville, was dead.

A week later the news was confirmed by other vessels entering Boston from the northeastward. D’Anville was indeed dead; it was said he had poisoned himself in grief and despair when he saw his men dying round him. Two thousand were already buried, four thousand were sick, and not above a thousand of the land forces remained of their fleet. Vice-Admiral d’Estournelle had run himself through the heart with his sword. The few remaining ships, half-manned, were limping off to the southwestward, headed it was thought for the West Indies.

Pestilence, storm and sudden death — how directly and with what extraordinary vigor the Lord had answered New England prayers! The country fell on its knees…. A paper with d’Anville’s orders had been found, instructing him to take Cape Breton Island, then proceed to Boston — ‘lay that town in ashes and destroy all he could upon the Coast of North America; then proceed to the West Indies and distress the Islands.’”  

Written by Catherine Drinker Bowen, John Adams, Grosset & Dunlap, N.Y., 1950, pp. 5, 10-11

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