Background
Seth Harding was born on April 17, 1734, at Eastham, Massachusetts, United States, the son of Theodore and Sarah (Hamilton) Harding. He was of old Plymouth stock, a great-great-grandson of Joseph Harding who died at Plymouth in 1633.
Seth Harding was born on April 17, 1734, at Eastham, Massachusetts, United States, the son of Theodore and Sarah (Hamilton) Harding. He was of old Plymouth stock, a great-great-grandson of Joseph Harding who died at Plymouth in 1633.
Harding's youth was spent among seafaring folk and his education was nautical rather than academic.
In his early twenties Seth Harding moved to Norwich, Connecticut, and engaged in trade with the West Indies, commanding several merchant vessels during the hazardous periods of the French and Indian Wars. In 1771 he removed to Liverpool, Nova Scotia, and acquired moderate wealth and political preferment, but the outbreak of the American Revolution caused his prestige and reputation to suffer in a community whose views were radically opposed to his own, and he therefore returned to Connecticut, where he offered his services to the governor.
Commissioned to command the Connecticut brig Defence, Captain Harding consummated in June 1776 the most brilliant exploit of the American navy up to that time. During the night of June 16, he pursued two armed transports up Massachusetts Bay, ran his ship in between them, and called upon them to strike their colors. “Yes, I’ll strike !” was the reply, as the British ships delivered broadsides at the Defence. Harding replied with port and starboard broadsides and after a hot engagement of an hour and a half compelled both ships to surrender. The following day by adroit maneuvering he captured a third transport. The capture included 466 officers and men of the 716t Highlanders and an invaluable stock of small arms and military stores, of which the army under Washington was in sore need.
Harding commanded successively the Defence (a new ship of the same name) and the Oliver Cromwell of the Connecticut state navy, making many valuable captures of British warships and armed merchantmen. In September 1778 Congress appointed him to command the Continental frigate Confederacy, yet to be constructed at Norwich, Connecticut. In October 1779 Harding was ordered to carry to Europe John Jay, newly appointed minister to Spain, and M. Gerard, the returning French envoy. Ten days out, the Confederacy was completely dismasted in a gale off the Newfoundland Banks, and only by the most skillful seamanship and good fortune were passengers and crew brought safely into Martinique, whence the former were transhipped to Spain.
After a tedious period of refitting, the Confederacy engaged in raiding merchant vessels and in convoy service between United States and West Indian ports until it was captured by a superior British naval force on April 14, 1781. Exchanged in the following year, Harding assumed command of the letter of marque Diana but was soon captured and taken to Jamaica by a British warship. After his release he was picked up by Capt. John Barry at Cape François and voluntarily accepted the position of second in command on the Alliance. On March 10, 1783, the Alliance encountered three British ships off the Florida coast. The engagement was indecisive. Harding was wounded but stuck to his post and participated with Barry in firing the last gun of the Revolution.
After the close of the war, he resumed his activities in the merchant marine, trading largely with the Danish West Indies, where he acquired Danish citizenship for conveniences of trade without sacrificing his allegiance to the United States. Ill health, the effect of his wounds, forced him to retire from the sea, however, and left him with the barest means of livelihood. Congress was periodically petitioned for relief, but none was granted until 1807 when he was awarded half pay of a captain in the navy. His declining years were spent in Schoharie, New York, where he died.
Quotes from others about the person
“There is no one who can man a ship more expeditiously than him, from the opinion which the seamen in general entertain of him. ” - Gov. Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut
“Capt. Harding is a man of more dispatch than vanity. ” - President Laurens
At nineteen, April 27, 1753, Harding was married at Easthampton to Abigail Doane, who died after a few years. He was married a second time, at Norwich, November 24, to Ruth Reed.