BtS: Connecting Mayhew to History (Mild-Spoilers for Chapter 13)

This Behind the Scenes post delves a bit into the writing of Mayhew's backstory and contains light spoilers for Chapter 13. If you haven't yet played through Chapter 13 or Build 0.10, you may want to hold off on reading this for now. Hyperlinks are provided in the text to some source material.

Since I first began thinking about who Luke Mayhew was, how he became an elder, and his relationship with the other elders, I knew he began his own change while aboard a sailing vessel. My original idea was that he was emigrating from England and the vessel disappeared or arrived off the North American coast as a ghost ship, but I also wanted to ground that in a real-world event.

So, when the time came to write Chapter 13, I wound up doing a fair amount of research, looking for ghost ships or mysteriously lost vessels in the North Atlantic generally but, particularly, off the coast of what would become the United States. And I say "what would become" on purpose, as my original concept was that he became an elder in the 1600s or 1700s.

As I looked for interesting stories about ships that had disappeared, I came across the story of the Patriot. Mayhew relates the story rather accurately. It was a famously fast ship originally built to ferry pilots from the harbor to incoming vessels, then served as a privateer preying on English shipping.

Theodosia Burr, the daughter of the former vice-president Aaron Burr, was living in South Carolina as she was married to the state's governor, John Alston. Aaron Burr had convinced his daughter, who was despondent over the recent death of her son, to come to New York for the holiday. I've found conflicting sources as to whether it was Aaron Burr or John Alston who convinced the British to let Theodosia through the blockade, but someone did... and the British agreed.

However, that return trip was to be aboard the Patriot which had just returned from raiding British vessels and its hold was filled with lucre. I don't know how infamous the Patriot as a privateer had become among the British fleet, but the crew did take steps to conceal her identity:  stowing the guns and painting over her name.

The Patriot was able to sail out of the harbor without incident... but never arrived in New York. And her wreck has never been found.

There are various theories as to what happened to the Patriot, her crew and passengers. Some suspect pirates, others the British fleet. A common explanation is that she simply succumbed to bad weather. We may never know.

As for Burr and Hamilton, Mayhew offers a few of his personal opinions on both men, but particularly Hamilton. Folks better versed in history than I am can certainly better explore and explain the nuances and details -- both of these men are complicated and not easily pigeon-holed -- but it is true that Hamilton was deeply skeptical of pure democracy and proposed having the president and senators elected for life, something that prompted many to brand him as a monarchist sympathizer. (The was also an infamous quote attributed to him in which he is alleged to have said the people are "a great beast," but modern scholars seem to chalk this up to a calumny spread by pro-slavery opponents.)

I won't profess to know the "truth" about Hamilton nor that Mayhew's views are entirely accurate. But his quick summary of Burr's life was accurate (I think!), and his opinions about Hamilton actually being somewhat hostile to notions of democracy (or, at least, extremes of it) were not uncommon.

Regardless, once I had the tie-in to the Patriot and Theodosia Burr, I saw an opportunity to delve a little into Aaron Burr, the duel with Hamilton, and poke a little fun at the musical (which I actually love).