6/8 The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware by Patrick K. O'Donnell (Author)
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John Batchelor
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🗓️ 17 January 2023
⏱️ 9 minutes
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6/8 The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware by Patrick K. O'Donnell (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Indispensables-Marbleheads-Soldier-Mariners-Washington-Delaware/dp/0802156894
On the stormy night of August 29, 1776, the Continental Army faced capture or annihilation after losing the Battle of Brooklyn. The British had trapped George Washington’s forces against the East River, and the fate of the Revolution rested upon the shoulders of the soldier-mariners from Marblehead, Massachusetts. Serving side by side in one of the country’s first diverse units, they pulled off an “American Dunkirk” and saved the army by transporting it across the treacherous waters of the river to Manhattan.
In the annals of the American Revolution, no group played a more consequential role than the Marbleheaders. At the right time in the right place, they repeatedly altered the course of events, and their story shines new light on our understanding of the Revolution. As acclaimed historian Patrick K. O’Donnell dramatically recounts, beginning nearly a decade before the war started, and in the midst of a raging virus that divided the town politically, Marbleheaders such as Elbridge Gerry and Azor Orne spearheaded the break with Britain and shaped the nascent United States by playing a crucial role governing, building alliances, seizing British ships, forging critical supply lines, and establishing the origins of the US Navy.
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by Slack. With Slack, you can bring all your people and |
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| 0:21.0 | inside and outside of your company. Slack, where the future works. Get started at |
| 0:27.0 | Slack.com slash DHQ. |
| 0:35.0 | This is CBS Iron World. I'm John Bachelorette with Patrick O'Donnell, the author of the |
| 0:38.8 | new book The Indispensables, the story of the marble headers, the fishermen who become the |
| 0:44.8 | strength of Washington's ability to cross water in the turmoil of the Connell Army battle |
| 0:51.6 | with the British regulars, first-rate British soldiers. It is now December 25, 1776 at |
| 1:00.9 | Maconkey's Ferry of the Delaware River. Washington's 2400 volunteers in winter quarters are ordered |
| 1:10.0 | to cross the river to attack Trenton, but crossing the river means that you must deal |
| 1:16.2 | with ice flows in the Delaware and another nor Easter. Patrick, there's a painting at |
| 1:24.8 | the Museum of Art in New York of Washington's crossing. It is not necessarily accurate |
| 1:32.1 | because it was painted 0-780 years later, but it does convey the challenge of the river. |
| 1:40.7 | How did they do it, Patrick? Is there an explanation for how they cross that river with |
| 1:44.9 | those Durham boats? They had germs and flat bottom boats, John. It's the skill of the |
| 1:50.6 | marble headers. Once again, bring the Army to safety. All other attempts to cross the |
| 1:56.4 | river that night failed, John. None of them got across. It was only the marble headers |
| 2:02.4 | and their skill in the boats that were able to bring the Army across. This was a mission |
| 2:08.0 | impossible. The river was not cooperating. The currents, everything was going wrong. |
| 2:13.2 | It's the skill of the marble headers that they developed in the Grand Banks. It is also |
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