On this day 250 years ago, in the first naval battle of the Revolutionary War, about 50 Americans led by Captains Jeremiah O’Brien and Benjamin Foster in the Unity and the Falmouth Packet captured the HMS Margaretta off Machias, Maine. The British lost three killed, including their commander Midshipman James Moore, who was fatally wounded, with 8 others wounded. Two dozen British sailors were captured by the Americans, but two of them defected and went to work as shipwrights in Machias building ships for the Americans. The captured British sailors and Loyalists Ichabod and Stephen Jones would eventually be exchanged for American prisoners.
Joseph Getchell, John O’Brien, Samuel Watts, and Richard Earle (an African-American) distinguished themselves in the battle. Three Americans — Robert Avery (a pilot who had been kidnapped by the British as they tried to flee down the Machias River)ss, John McNiell and James Coolbroth were killed in the battle, and three more were badly wounded: John Berry (a musket ball entered his mouth and exited behind the ear), Isaac Taft, and James Cole. All these Patriots should be remembered for their heroism 250 years ago.
Sources: https://revolutionarywar.us/year-1775/; https://revolutionarywarjournal.com/battle-of-machias-first-naval-battle-of-the-american-revolution/; https://revolutionary-war.org/campaigns/boston-campaign/battle-of-machias; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Machias
On June 12, and on June 20 & 21, 2025, the people of Machias, Maine will commemorate and reenact the Battle of the Margaretta.
https://www.machiashistoricalsociety.com/margaretta-days
On this day 250 years ago in Rhode Island, Nicholas Cooke, the lieutenant governor, was acting as the chief executive of Rhode Island in lieu of Governor Joseph Wanton, who had tried to remain neutral in the conflict between America and Britain. The Rhode Island Assembly met in East Greenwich and passed a resolution asking Cooke to demand from Royal Navy Captain James Wallace the “reason of his conduct towards the inhabitants of this colony in stopping and detaining their vessels; and also to demand of him the packets which he detains.”
On that same day the Rhode Island Assembly
voted and resolved that the committee of safety be, and they are hereby, directed to charter two suitable vessels, for the use of the colony, and fit out the same in the best manner, to protect the trade of this colony… That the largest of the said vessels be manned with eighty men, exclusive of officers; and be equipped with ten guns, four-pounders; fourteen swivel guns, a sufficient number of small arms, and all necessary warlike stores. That the small vessel be manned with a number not exceeding thirty men. That the whole be included in the number of fifteen hundred men, ordered to be raised in this colony… That they receive the same bounty and pay as the land forces…” With this resolution Rhode Island created the first American Navy.
https://www.eastgreenwichri.com/196/History-Birth-Place-of-the-Navy
On This Day In The Revolution 