What do you think?
Rate this book
The Wreck of HMS Speedy: The Tragedy That Shook Upper Canada
The sinking of HMS Speedy in 1804 off Presqu’ile Point was more than a tragic loss of the twenty souls on board—it had shocking and far-reaching repercussions for the young colony of Upper Canada.
At the centre of it all is Ogetonicut, a Mississauga First Nations man charged with murdering John Sharp, a white trader. As Ogetonicut’s trial drew near, it was moved east to Newcastle for fear of angering the indigenous community that was gathering at York. With the shipping season coming to a close, the HMS Speedy set sail with the accused and the legal elite of the young colony on board. But on the night of October 8, the Speedy was lost in a violent storm; there were no survivors and the ship could not be found.
The mystery surrounding the ill-fated vessel has continued for more than two centuries, despite the efforts of commercial diver Ed Burtt, who began a search for the Speedy in the early 1990s. Were the remains he located at the bottom of Lake Ontario from the lost ship? Were valuable copies of the Statutes of Upper Canada on board? What evidence lay in the untouched artifacts Burtt found?
Based on unparalleled access to archival documents and to all Ed Burtt’s unpublished research and records, this is a meticulously researched look at a fascinating episode in Canadian history—the story of the ship and those who sailed her, the modern-day search for the wreck, a First Nations protagonist and perspective, the legal personalities and colonial government of the time—and a unique social history of early Canada.
At the centre of it all is Ogetonicut, a Mississauga First Nations man charged with murdering John Sharp, a white trader. As Ogetonicut’s trial drew near, it was moved east to Newcastle for fear of angering the indigenous community that was gathering at York. With the shipping season coming to a close, the HMS Speedy set sail with the accused and the legal elite of the young colony on board. But on the night of October 8, the Speedy was lost in a violent storm; there were no survivors and the ship could not be found.
The mystery surrounding the ill-fated vessel has continued for more than two centuries, despite the efforts of commercial diver Ed Burtt, who began a search for the Speedy in the early 1990s. Were the remains he located at the bottom of Lake Ontario from the lost ship? Were valuable copies of the Statutes of Upper Canada on board? What evidence lay in the untouched artifacts Burtt found?
Based on unparalleled access to archival documents and to all Ed Burtt’s unpublished research and records, this is a meticulously researched look at a fascinating episode in Canadian history—the story of the ship and those who sailed her, the modern-day search for the wreck, a First Nations protagonist and perspective, the legal personalities and colonial government of the time—and a unique social history of early Canada.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2020
4 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Dan Buchanan
4 books5 followersDan Buchanan is “The History Guy of Brighton, Ontario.” He is engaged in many projects related to local and Ontario history, working from his home in Brighton.
The History Guy is an author, with four books published as of February 2024. His first book, published in 2015, was "Murder In The Family: The Dr. King Story", which tells the fascinating true story of Brighton’s infamous murder case in 1859. The twist is that the murderer is a relative of the author, so this is family history too.
The second book, in 2018, was "38 Hours To Montreal", which tells the unique story of William Weller’s record-breaking sleigh ride from Toronto to Montreal in 1840. This is a road trip that places the reader on the sleigh with Mr. Weller as he passes through every town and village along the Kingston Road, now Number 2 Highway. It’s a snapshot in time – in 1840.
Then, in August 2020, came "The Wreck of HMS Speedy: The Tragedy That Shook Upper Canada". This book presents the story of HMS Speedy, the British gunboat that disappeared in a terrible storm near Presqu’ile Point in 1804. These dramatic events are followed by new information from the diver who believed he had found the remains of the Speedy. Is the mystery solved?
The fourth book is "A History of the Murray Canal", released in February 2024. It explains the long history of no canal being built, then the decision to fund the canal in 1881. We see how the canal was built, including the problems that delayed the work. This will be the only full historical record of the Murray Canal.
The History Guy of Brighton has also produced several videos, including a 5-part series on HMS Speedy, and a video with Sean Scally about the history of the Carrying Place and the Murray Canal. These are on YouTube and links to them are on Dan’s web site.
Dan is also the creator and manager of the genealogy web site www.treesbydan.com, a database of well over 100,000 individuals. It includes details about early settler families in the area of Prince Edward, Hastings and Northumberland counties. Those who populate his stories can be found here.
Dan is a member of the Brighton Heritage Advisory Committee and works closely with the Brighton Digital Archives, a volunteer group supported by the municipality that collects historical documents and pictures for display on the web site http://vitacollections.ca/brightonarc....
The History Guy is an author, with four books published as of February 2024. His first book, published in 2015, was "Murder In The Family: The Dr. King Story", which tells the fascinating true story of Brighton’s infamous murder case in 1859. The twist is that the murderer is a relative of the author, so this is family history too.
The second book, in 2018, was "38 Hours To Montreal", which tells the unique story of William Weller’s record-breaking sleigh ride from Toronto to Montreal in 1840. This is a road trip that places the reader on the sleigh with Mr. Weller as he passes through every town and village along the Kingston Road, now Number 2 Highway. It’s a snapshot in time – in 1840.
Then, in August 2020, came "The Wreck of HMS Speedy: The Tragedy That Shook Upper Canada". This book presents the story of HMS Speedy, the British gunboat that disappeared in a terrible storm near Presqu’ile Point in 1804. These dramatic events are followed by new information from the diver who believed he had found the remains of the Speedy. Is the mystery solved?
The fourth book is "A History of the Murray Canal", released in February 2024. It explains the long history of no canal being built, then the decision to fund the canal in 1881. We see how the canal was built, including the problems that delayed the work. This will be the only full historical record of the Murray Canal.
The History Guy of Brighton has also produced several videos, including a 5-part series on HMS Speedy, and a video with Sean Scally about the history of the Carrying Place and the Murray Canal. These are on YouTube and links to them are on Dan’s web site.
Dan is also the creator and manager of the genealogy web site www.treesbydan.com, a database of well over 100,000 individuals. It includes details about early settler families in the area of Prince Edward, Hastings and Northumberland counties. Those who populate his stories can be found here.
Dan is a member of the Brighton Heritage Advisory Committee and works closely with the Brighton Digital Archives, a volunteer group supported by the municipality that collects historical documents and pictures for display on the web site http://vitacollections.ca/brightonarc....
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 13, 2020
This was interesting but I wanted more information.
February 6, 2021
I am interested in this time-period of history in Ontario, so of course I am interested in the book! The HMS Speedy sank in 1804 in Lake Ontario, carrying Ogetonicut (an indigenous Mississauga man) about to be tried for murder, and the Solicitor General, a lawyer (both of whom were also members of the House of Assembly), the Judge, the police Constable, a merchant, a surveyor, an "Indian interpreter", a student in the law, the boat captain, and two children. All lives were lost, and the trial never happened. This was early enough in our colonial history that interpretation was still necessary for indigenous people and settlers to communicate! There have been (according to the preface) more than 45 accounts of what happened in 1804. The author of this book benefited from all the records of underwater explorer Ed Burtt after he passed away, after years of searching for the wreck of the Speedy at the bottom of Lake Ontario. So this is the book to read for an update on the search (see the last chapter, entitled "99.99% Sure"). However, I personally am more interested in the context around the administration of justice for indigenous people in Upper Canada, which was discussed in the 1992 book "Speedy Justice: The Tragic Last Voyage of His Majesty's Vessel Speedy" by Brendan O'Brien, but most of that context is missing in this book.
July 12, 2021
The Wreck of HMS Speedy lays down a detailed picture of life in Upper Canada in the early 1800s. There are a lot of well-sourced facts and stories of people connected to the HMS Speedy disaster, but there are also a lot of creative liberties that seem to be taken to create more of a story for the reader. I didn't mind that but some people might.
After the wreck we fast-forward to recent history, of the efforts to find and uncover the mystery behind the wreck of the Speedy. I was a bit disappointed to find that not much really has been solved or discovered. It all bakes down to "we'll never truly know, but we're fairly confident".
An insightful read, more about the life and times of people in York than information regarding the Speedy or its disaster. I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed after so much detailed backstory leading up to the actual Speedy voyage. I guess that's sort of how history works though.
After the wreck we fast-forward to recent history, of the efforts to find and uncover the mystery behind the wreck of the Speedy. I was a bit disappointed to find that not much really has been solved or discovered. It all bakes down to "we'll never truly know, but we're fairly confident".
An insightful read, more about the life and times of people in York than information regarding the Speedy or its disaster. I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed after so much detailed backstory leading up to the actual Speedy voyage. I guess that's sort of how history works though.
February 17, 2021
More a scholarly book than story. I admit that I did not investigate the footnotes or index which took up about 1/3 of the book. An interesting historical event from early Canada.
February 5, 2021
Dan Buchanan's "The Wreck of the HMS Speedy" is an interesting narrative of how the sinking of the HMS Speedy resulted in the deaths of several Upper Canada elites in 1804 and strained the relationship between York and the Mississaugas. While the book covers a fascinating subject and offers some insight into a little explored topic in Canadian history, there are some methodological concerns that need to be addressed.
First, the book relies heavily on Buchanan's inferences and assumptions. There are numerous occasions when he assumes how individuals behaved or reacted to events, despite not having any primary source evidence to support these points. For instance, Buchanan states that the presence of the Mississaugas camped out on Gibraltar Point caused uneasy rumors and speculation to spread throughout York, yet he does not cite any primary sources which support this claim. While it is necessary for historians to infer what people in the past may have felt about an event, it is highly problematic to speculate without evidence.
Second, there some occasions in which this book feels like an unfinished draft. For instance, pages 148 and 149 merely consists of two large quotations from Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation's website with little to no context or analysis. The pages read as if the author simply forgot or gave up on finishing the chapter.
These concerns ultimately hinder what would otherwise be a fascinating look at at a tragic event in early Ontario history. The book does provide some interesting details on the history of York, Scugog and Oshawa, and Buchanan is diligent in presenting both Indigenous and British settler accounts, but his problematic methodology leaves one feeling skeptical and slightly unsatisfied. 2.5 Stars.
First, the book relies heavily on Buchanan's inferences and assumptions. There are numerous occasions when he assumes how individuals behaved or reacted to events, despite not having any primary source evidence to support these points. For instance, Buchanan states that the presence of the Mississaugas camped out on Gibraltar Point caused uneasy rumors and speculation to spread throughout York, yet he does not cite any primary sources which support this claim. While it is necessary for historians to infer what people in the past may have felt about an event, it is highly problematic to speculate without evidence.
Second, there some occasions in which this book feels like an unfinished draft. For instance, pages 148 and 149 merely consists of two large quotations from Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation's website with little to no context or analysis. The pages read as if the author simply forgot or gave up on finishing the chapter.
These concerns ultimately hinder what would otherwise be a fascinating look at at a tragic event in early Ontario history. The book does provide some interesting details on the history of York, Scugog and Oshawa, and Buchanan is diligent in presenting both Indigenous and British settler accounts, but his problematic methodology leaves one feeling skeptical and slightly unsatisfied. 2.5 Stars.
January 9, 2021
This book was entirely captivating! Lieut. Thomas Paxton--father; husband; citizen of both York (now Toronto) and Kingston, Canada--was the Captain of several ships in the Royal Navy all over the world and on Lake Ontario, but it was to be the HMS Speedy which not only sealed his fate but left Canada in shock when his ship sank in October of 1804 amid an early winter storm with many important government officials and documents on board.
The story engagingly tells of the local Indians involved and brings you in to their world so that you better understand how two murders led to so many officials being on that ship that particular night, even though Lieut. Paxton did not want to sail because he believed a storm was brewing. You learn about Lieut. Paxton and the wife and children he left behind, and Ogetonicut, the Indian at the center of all. What I liked the most was how Mr. Buchanan made the characters come alive for me. I was drawn into their stories, and the mystery of where the HMS Speedy sank. Even today, people are still looking for the wreck, and if you travel to Presqu'ile Point and Presqu'ile Provincial Park, they will gladly talk to you about it .
If you like maritime stories, mysteries, shipwrecks, and early 19th century Canadian life, you will love this book. For me, an added bonus was that Thomas Paxton is my 5x great-grandfather and I got to read about this moment in his life, and what led up to it, in such a captivating and touching way. I learned how he lived, and how his family was severely affected by his death. I also learned how this shipwreck completely changed where the capital of Upper Canada was located, which I never knew. All in all, a fascinating story I highly recommend! A little piece of Canadian history lost to time that deserves to be in the spotlight again.
The story engagingly tells of the local Indians involved and brings you in to their world so that you better understand how two murders led to so many officials being on that ship that particular night, even though Lieut. Paxton did not want to sail because he believed a storm was brewing. You learn about Lieut. Paxton and the wife and children he left behind, and Ogetonicut, the Indian at the center of all. What I liked the most was how Mr. Buchanan made the characters come alive for me. I was drawn into their stories, and the mystery of where the HMS Speedy sank. Even today, people are still looking for the wreck, and if you travel to Presqu'ile Point and Presqu'ile Provincial Park, they will gladly talk to you about it .
If you like maritime stories, mysteries, shipwrecks, and early 19th century Canadian life, you will love this book. For me, an added bonus was that Thomas Paxton is my 5x great-grandfather and I got to read about this moment in his life, and what led up to it, in such a captivating and touching way. I learned how he lived, and how his family was severely affected by his death. I also learned how this shipwreck completely changed where the capital of Upper Canada was located, which I never knew. All in all, a fascinating story I highly recommend! A little piece of Canadian history lost to time that deserves to be in the spotlight again.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews