North Carolina's Benedict Arnold - Michael Quinn

This weekend, the North Carolina Maritime History Council held their annual meeting in scenic and historic Edenton, NC. Lectures included shipwrecks, tombstones and noted figures from Edenton's past. However, one lecture that caught my eye was presented by Dr. Larry Babits with ECU's Maritime History Department and Josh Howard with the NC Department of Cultural Resources titled "Our Captain Quinn: The British Raid in 1781 on Edenton". Dr. Babits' portion of the presentation dealt with the wreck of one of the ship's raided by the General Arnold, a row galley commissioned by the British and captained by Captain Michael Quinn, formerly of the NC Continental Line. Josh took over at this point and told the history of Captain Quinn, detailing how he went from an officer in the 5NC to switching sides and commanding a boat that terrorized Edenton and the surrounding area during 1781. Why did he switch sides? As he served during a period of British successes, he may have felt that the American cause was doomed and wanted to make sure he was on the winning team. This and other questions remain a basis of supposition with nothing written in stone. What is written in stone is the fact that after he was captured in Edenton bay and subsequently imprisoned at Halifax, NC, he was eventually murdered by guards under the command of a Continental Line officer who had served with Quinn. Murder and mayhem, who knew it happened in our backyard! Keep a lookout in future issues of the NC Historical Review for rest of Josh's story!