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Samuel Leech (c. 1798–1848) was a young sailor in the Royal Navy and the United States Navy during the War of 1812. He became notable as one of very few who wrote an account of his experiences, titled, in the manner of the time, Thirty Years from Home, or a Voice from the Main Deck; Being the Experience of Samuel Leech, Who Was Six Years in the British and American Navies: Was Captured in the British Frigate Macedonian: Afterwards Entered the American Navy, and Was Taken in the United States Brig Syren, by the British Ship Medway. Leech's nautical career began in 1810, at the age of twelve, when Lord William FitzRoy agreed to take Samuel into his frigate HMS Macedonian, as a favour to FitzRoy's sister Frances, the wife of Francis Spencer, 1st Baron Churchill, Leech being the son of one of her servants. He was a powder monkey during Macedonian's duel with the United States in 1812, and would later vividly describe the carnage on board the British ship before she struck her colours. As a prisoner of war, he was due to be exchanged at some point, but when the captured Macedonian was brought into Newport, Rhode Island, Leech jumped ship.
While we lay in Boston harbor, Thanksgiving Day arrived. Some of our Salem men inquired if I was not going home to keep thanksgiving, for they all supposed I belonged to Salem. What they meant by “thanksgiving,” was a mystery to me, but, dissembling my ignorance, I obtained leave, determined to learn what it meant. The result of my visit was the idea that Thanksgiving Day, was one in which the people crammed themselves with turkeys, geese, pumpkin-pies, &c.: for, certainly, that was the chief business of the day, so far as I could perceive. With too many people, I believe that this is the leading idea associated with the day even now.