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From: bbaillod
Category: Shipwreck Research
Date: 13 Jan 2004
Time: 19:29:36
Remote Name: 66.84.199.26
Jason, you may already have this but it gives some good background on the Peel incident:
Sir Robert Peel Steamboat. L/B/D: 161 × 30 × 4 (49.1m × 9.1m × 1.2m). Comp.: 350. Built: Brockville, Canada; 1837.
Named for the founder of Britain's Conservative Party and three-time prime minister, Sir Robert Peel was a passenger steamer built for service on Lake Ontario. The steamer's owner was Canadian John B. Armstrong, who was considered a spy by members of the Canadian Refugee Association, an underground group seeking to form an independent state for Upper and Lower Canada (now Ontario and Quebec) and based in New York. Seeking retribution for the destruction of the Caroline by Canadian troops, at 0300 on May 29, 1838, twenty-two members of the association seized Peel as the vessel stopped for wood on Wells Island en route to Oswego. Under Commodore William Johnson—Patriot Admiral of the Lakes, or Pirate of the St. Lawrence, depending on one's point of view—they rousted the fifty-nine passengers from their slumbers and sent them ashore. The vessel was plundered, towed into the stream, and burned. Peel capsized and was a total loss. Following the incident, government forces on either side of the border were reinforced in an effort to suppress the rebellion and relieve the threat to peace and commerce between the United States and Canada.
Musham, "Early Great Lakes Steamboats: The Caroline Affair.".