Talk:Black Maria

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'Person' section removed[edit]

I have removed the following content from this article, as it was entirely unsourced and seems dubious to me (most likely a myth). If anyone can provide a source for the following information, then feel free to add it back in. Terraxos 22:27, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"===Person=== Back in 1790 Alexander Hamilton, in asking Congress for "ten boats" for the protection of the revenue had specified that they be "armed with swivels". These were simply cannons mounted on a revolving base so they could be turned in any direction. Orders were placed for the construction of these 10 boats in various shipyards along the coast, and one shipyard that was building the Ferret (later to be renamed Scammel) was in Portsmouth New Hampshire. They had ordered the swivels from Philadelphia and they were to be delivered before the expected launching in October 1791.

The lower Delaware Bay region was at this time the hangout for smugglers and a group of these, learning that the "swivels" were to be delivered overland decided to hijack the shipment. This would have served a double purpose of depriving the soon launched SCAMMEL of these guns and reinforcing their own fleet with these guns.

The plan may have worked but for "Black Maria". Black Maria was a colored teamstress, named Maria Lee, employed by that company. She was a veritable "Black Bomber" who could take care of any six ordinary men, it was reputed, in a single fracas. In due course the smugglers, totally oblivious of the fate in store for them surprised the wagons braring the "swivels" on the Philadelphia-New York highway. After laying out six smugglers cold in their tracks she looked for the seventh but found no more on their feet. Mounting her wagon she proceeded on her journey unmolested. Thus Alexander Hamilton, by the grace of "Black Maria" got his swivels, Captain Hopley Yeaton, bearing his first commission issued to a seagoing officer of the United States, took command of the SCAMMEL.

For "Black Maria" her fame grew. She opened a sailor's boarding house in Boston and was of great assistance to the authorities in keeping the peace, the entire lawless element in that locality standing in awe of her. Whenever an troublrsome person was to be taken to the station house, "Black Maria" was the likely to be called upon. So frequently was her help required that the expression "Send for Black Maria" came to be synonymous with "Take him to jail" and in later years was also a nickname for the paddy wagon."

Rupert Colley: Black Maria[edit]

is missing, see for example http://rupertcolley.com/novels/the-black-maria/ – Fritz Jörn (talk) 06:08, 14 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]