Of the areas where Rhode Island doesn’t get enough respect, I’ve long thought the most maddening could be the Gaspee.
That was the British tax ship burned to the bilge by local patriots, yet that silly tea party in Boston gets all the billing.
Even more galling is the claim that the alleged first shot of the Revolution was at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, after Paul Revere’s ride.
Emphasis on “alleged.”
Providence’s Bob Burke has had it with that.
On Monday, he went to file a legal action to stop the madness.
His counterclaim: Three years before the Paul Revere saga, the revolution’s real first bullet was fired here, at the Gaspee’s captain, with considerable result.
Why, Burke wants to know, isn’t that remembered as “the shot heard round the world”?
Aside from owning Pot Au Feu restaurant downtown seemingly since Colonial times, the bow-tied Mr. Burke is a rhapsodist of Rhode Island history, having created a walking tour called the Providence Independence Trail.
Bob is also the kind who perhaps should try the decaf, because before I could even ask a question when I called him, he excitedly launched into a Gaspee history oration. I had to jump in to slow him down.
250 years after colonists burned the Gaspee,will they find signs of the wreck?
Bob, I asked, what about this cease and desist thing? Is that real?
Completely, he said.
“This is a clear case of identity theft. Massachusetts stole our identity. ”
“So you’re mad?” I asked.
“Mad as hell.”
And he’s taking...
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