The Reluctant Patriot Author:Roger F. Duncan In 1775, on the eve of the American Revolution, the British schooner Halifax was wrecked off the Maine coast. Since she was steered by a colonial seaman who had been impressed into the Royal Navy, Revolutionaries wanted to believe the ship's pilot, Christopher MacDonald, purposely grounded his vessel, but in that tense time, MacDonald ... more »was determined not to choose sides. Washed ashore as a baby from the wreck of a Spanish brig and brought up in Machias, Maine, he had been born neither American nor British. Derided and shunned for his small stature and dark complexion, and married to a half Indian girl, he stubbornly sailed his own course. But dramatic events, including a confrontation with British soldiers, the wreck of the Halifax, and the arrival of the British warship at Machias convinced him to fight with the patriots in the first naval battle of the Revolution.« less