On June 13, 14, and 15, Wareham will celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the attack on the town by the British warship the HMS Nimrod. Did you know that the Nimrod was part of the fleet patrolling New England waters during the War of 1812? This war lasted from June, 1812 to February, 1815, and the attack on Wareham took place in 1814.

The President was James Madison, and the reason the United States declared war was because of the trade restrictions imposed (Britain was at war with France), the impressment of American merchant sailors to serve the British Royal Navy, and the British support of the American Indian tribes who were trying to prevent territory expansion.

Most New England states opposed the war and chose not to send militia or financial aid. Land battles were fought around the Great Lakes and in the southern states. Sea battles took place along the Atlantic coast. Quite a few of Wareham’s ship owners turned privateers, or private citizens who were authorized to use their own ships to capture enemy merchant ships. In the first four months of the war Americans captured some two-hundred nineteen British warships.

It was during this war at the Battle of Fort McHenry in 1813 that Francis Scott Key penned the words to the “Star Spangled Banner,” and the U.S.S. Constitution earned its nickname, “Old Ironsides.”

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