On this day 250 years ago in the Delaware River the British warships HMS Roebuck with 48 guns and Liverpool with 28 guns accompanied by tenders and captured prizes, were anchored off the mouth of Wilmington Creek (now called the Christina River). The British ships had chased the Continental schooner Wasp and a brig carrying bread and flour into Wilmington Creek where the brig ran aground. During the pursuit in the previous days the British had fired cannon shots at the Patriots in Lewes and in Wilmington while Delaware militia fired on tenders from the British ships when they tried to unload the cargo from the grounded brig and land to obtain supplies.

On this day 13 row galleys of the Pennsylvania Navy each carrying a single cannon, under the command of Commodore John Hazlewood and Captain Thomas Houston came down the Delaware River to attack the British fleet. For two hours the American galleys and the British ships exchanged between 300 to 400 shots with only minor damage to the Americans. During the battle the Wasp commanded by Captain Charles Alexander escaped from Wilmington Creek and captured the British brig Betsey. The battle raged across the Delaware River to the New Jersey side where the HMS Roebuck ran aground at Kearney’s Point (now Carney’s Point) just north of Deep Water Point. New Jersey militia from Salem County then joined the battle and the British ships cannonaded Salem County for two days before they could free the Roebuck. British casualties were not reported but the British clearly got the worse of the battle.

Sources: https://www.westjerseyhistory.org/books/battlesmunn/partone.shtml; https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/1775-1783-naval/; Desmarias, Norman, The Guide to the American Revolutionary War In Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, And North Carolina, Ithaca, New York: Busca, Inc. (2011) at 75-77.