THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

Captain Henry Green was one of Sag Harbor’s most noted and successful whaling masters. Aside from his storied whaling career, he is also known for helping repel the British raid on Sag Harbor during the War of 1812, and for leading a company of fortune seekers out to California during the Gold Rush of ’49. But on August 26th 1839 he made history of a different sort.

On this date Green and his friend Captain Peletiah Fordham were out in Montauk hunting by Fort Pond Bay when they came across four African men dressed in nothing but blankets, only one of whom knew a very little bit of English. The men asked what country they were in, and if was a slave country. Four other black men soon joined them, and eventually they made it clear they wanted Captain Green to come aboard their ship (which was lying off Fort Pond Bay) and sail them to Sierra Leonne. For his services, they would give Captain Green a great deal of money that they had on the ship. Slightly suspicious, Green suggested instead the ship be brought into port. As night was approaching, the men refused, but agreed the ship could be brought to port the next day. Green then asked for proof he would be paid. Some of the men went back to the ship and returned with two trunks. Upon opening them, Green found himself staring at over 400 Spanish doubloons.

It is hard to imagine how history might have changed that day if Green and Fordham had encountered these men a little earlier in the day, or even if the wind had been blowing from a different direction. As is was, the US Revenue Cutter Washington sailed into view and took control of the situation, with her commander Lt. Gedney seizing the “suspicious vessel,” the Africans and the chests of gold as well, leaving Captain Green empty handed.

Although arguably the first on the scene, Captain Green would become a mere footnote in time, as the story soon became an international affair that would change the course of American history.

The name of the vessel was - the Amistad.