On this day 250 years ago at Nantasket Roads, off the coast of Massachusetts, the USS Franklin, a cruiser with four guns and 21 men commanded by Capt. James Mugford, captured the British supply ship Hope. The Hope mounted six cannon with a crew of 18 and had gotten separated from the convoy it had left England with. The ship was transporting gunpowder, weapons and supplies to Boston, not knowing that the British had evacuated the city two months earlier. In capturing the Hope, Mugford and his crew from Marblehead seized 1,500 barrels of powder, 1000 carbines, five gun carriages, cartridge boxes, entrenching tools and other supplies to Boston. This was one of the greatest naval prizes captured by the Americans in the entire War.
O’Donnell at 205; https://big250.substack.com/p/the-capture-of-the-hope; https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/1775-1783-naval/
On this day 250 years ago in Brunswick Town, North Carolina, 900 British Regulars commanded by Brigadier General Charles, Lord Cornwallis rowed up the Cape Fear River to burn Brunswick Town, which the British believed to be the base camp of the Continentals and militia who were firing on the British fleet from the banks of the Cape Fear River. Unfortunately for the British the town had been abandoned and there was only a small garrison of Patriot militia there.
American losses are unknown, but the British had one man killed. However the British captured no prisoners and only twenty bullocks and six horses in the raid.
Although Brunswick had been the capital of North Carolina until 1770, the town was never rebuilt. It is today a North Carolina historic site that you can visit.
https://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/revolution_brunswick_town_2.html; https://historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/brunswick-town-fort-anderson
On This Day In The Revolution 