The bleak naval history underlying Hill House Comics’ ‘Sea Dogs’
The DC Comics feature Sea Dogs imagines Patriot forces attempting to change the course of the American Revolution by secretly embedding werewolves aboard a British warship. The comic, written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Dan McDaid, with colors by John Kalisz, is serialized in the last pages of every title published by DC’s horror imprint, Hill House Comics; curated by Hill, the imprint includes Basketful of Heads and The Dollhouse Family, with The Low, Low Woods, Daphne Byrne, and Plunge scheduled to debut in coming months. In addition to its horror premise, Sea Dogs makes use of its bleak historic setting to enrich the comic’s intensity.
The comic opens in May 1780 in the basement of what is identified as a “secret rebel stronghold” in Upstate New York; readers see the feet of three unidentified people standing next to bloody, eviscerated animals as a distinguished-looking gentleman descends stairs to meet them. Significantly, this man is identified by one of the mysterious trio as “Mr. Bolton,” although the man clarifies: “I am for the moment. I expect I shall have to be someone else by dinnertime.”
The use of “Mr. Bolton” as an alias, as well as the character’s admission of his clandestine work in the war, suggests that Bolton is the actual historic figure Benjamin Tallmadge, leader of the Culper Ring, a New York-based spy network for the Continental Army; as a spy, Tallmadge was referred to by the alias “John Bolton.”
Bolton outlines the stakes of the mission he has in mind for the trio, noting America’s naval setbacks in the past year:
“The Royal Navy has ravaged our coast these last twelve months. They sank a hundred vessels in Chesapeake Bay. A hundred more on the Penobscot. And then Charleston. My God, they used us harder in Charleston than one of the little boys their sailors pass ‘round when they’re bored.”
Bolton summarizes his argument: “Not to put too fine a point on it: this Revolution is fucked.”
Given the historic setting, Bolton’s pessimism is justified, and reflects actual Patriot anxiety regarding the war’s outcome during this period. A few years prior, the Patriot victory against British forces at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 had changed the course of the war; Patriot morale soared as British resolve weakened. Furthermore, France was inspired to declare war against Britain, providing supplies and military forces to assist the Patriots. But by 1780, two military disasters referenced by Bolton — Penobscot and Charleston — had a significant impact on Patriot morale and maritime military capabilities.
The Penobscot Expedition in July and August of 1779 was a shocking defeat for the Patriot cause. In response to the British effort to establish a fort on the Bagaduce Peninsula in Penobscot Bay (in what is today Maine), Continental land forces (under the command of Solomon Lovell) and ships (under the command of Dudley Saltonstall) besieged the British fort. Although Saltonstall’s fleet had numeric superiority to the British ships protecting the fort, disagreements on strategy between Lovell and Saltonstall, as well as Saltonstall’s reluctance to press the attack against British forces, led to defeat when British naval reinforcements arrived and counter-attacked. In total, over forty Patriot vessels were captured or destroyed, and approximately five hundred Patriots were killed, wounded, or captured.
The British siege and capture of Charleston, South Carolina in May 1780 was even more devastating; not only did the Patriots lose a key port, but also the 5,000 Patriot soldiers and sailors that had surrendered. Additionally, every Patriot vessel under the command of Commodore Abraham Whipple during the siege of Charleston had been destroyed or captured, effectively ending the Continental Navy; for the remainder of the war, the Patriots would rely on the French Navy for maritime military support.
It is in this same month of the greatest Patriot military defeat in the war that Bolton recruits the three mysterious people in the basement. Bolton reveals that he wants the trio to use their talents to sabotage a British ship of fearsome reputation, the HMS Havoc, under the command of Captain Merlin Wolstencroft. Bolton states that American towns are reluctant to receive supplies from America’s French allies, in fear that the Havoc will attack their ports; he goes on to note that the British press loves Wolstencroft, the “Sorcerer of the High Seas,” as readers see one British broadsheet refer to him.
Wolstencroft is an intriguing fictional character; for readers, his first name likely conjures associations with mythic fantasy, or perhaps his last name’s closeness to “Wollstonecraft” suggests connections to an iconic horror novel, and his distinctive background as an astronomy professor indicates great intellect while reminding some of another British professor that once wrote about the dynamics of an asteroid long before he bedeviled Sherlock Holmes. Wolstencroft’s fictional qualities aside, it is tempting to ponder whether the captain was inspired by an actual historic figure.
In terms of the fear that Wolstencroft inspires in America’s port communities, one historic inspiration may be Captain Henry Mowat. In 1775, Mowat, at that time a lieutenant, commanded a four-ship squadron that attacked and burned the town of Falmouth, the site of what is today Portland, Maine, as part of a planned campaign to terrorize ports that supported the Patriot cause. The burning of Falmouth outraged the American public, and the Continental Congress approved the creation of a Continental Navy. The British eventually abandoned the strategy of burning port towns, although Mowat would remain despised by the Patriots, and he was in command of the ships defending the British fort at Penobscot in 1779.
Regardless of his possible historic inspirations, Wolstencroft appears to be a formidable adversary, and Bolton believes that the captain’s horrific defeat could be a turning point for the Revolution:
“It would be mud in their eye to lose him. To lose Havoc. But losing the ship isn’t enough. Tragedy isn’t enough. I want a nightmare. I want so much blood on the deck they’ll never scrub out the stains. I want every sailor in the British Navy scared to go to sleep for fear of what might come to them by the light of the moon. I want Royal Marines pissing themselves every time they hear a dog bark.”
Bolton never explicitly identifies his recruits as werewolves, although the comic’s imagery and text make this clear. Bolton states that his plan is the “last throw of the dice” for a “desperate rebellion,” and given the historic period, the plan — not so much a significant military tactic as it is a propaganda operation to hurt British morale — has merit.
At this time, public support for the war was waning on both sides. In America, the defeats at Penobscot and Charleston hurt Patriot morale, and the economic distress caused by inflation of the Continental dollar resulted in violent mobs challenging Patriot leaders, while in England, a strong anti-war sentiment against what had become an expensive, global war for the British Empire continued, despite the victory at Charleston. In this historic context, the horrific destruction of a notable captain and his warship would likely have a huge influence on each side’s resolve to continue the war.
The fantasy elements of Sea Dogs are set in a crucial historic period of desperation and anxiety, in a conflict that both sides seem weary of fighting, where one act of horror can have a significant impact. While the creative team does not rely on readers’ knowledge of historic events to create an atmosphere of suspense and dread, such knowledge provides additional context to the story’s events.
NOTES AND FURTHER READING — The author used the following sources in writing the above article:
Give Me a Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America’s Revolution at Sea by Tim McGrath (NAL Caliber, 2014)
If By Sea: The Forging of the American Navy — From the Revolution to the War of 1812 by George C. Daughan (Basic Books, 2008)
“The Penobscot Expedition, America’s Forgotten Military Disaster” (The New England Historical Society, February 23, 2017)
“The Worst U.S. Naval Disaster You’ve Never Heard of” (NPR.org, November 20, 2010)
Basketful of Heads #1 (DC Comics, December 2019)
The Dollhouse Family #1 (DC Comics, January 2020)
Basketful of Heads #2 (DC Comics, January 2020)
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