On this day 250 years ago, Governor Dunmore’s British fleet departed Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay sailing to Lynnhaven Bay near the mouth of the Chesapeake. Dunmore’s original fleet had comprised over 100 vessels, but had been reduced to a few more than 70 ships. A few ships had been lost in storms, and others were so damaged by combat with the Americans that they need to be scuttled, but most of the scuttled vessels were deemed not to be seaworthy or were destroyed because there were insufficient experienced sailors to take them out into the open ocean — the next destination for the fleet. Dunmore also left behind on the shores of Virginia and Maryland the bodies of over a thousand people who had been part of his fleet Most were Blacks who had joined Dunmore to escape slavery only to perish from smallpox, but also including some White Loyalists as well as a few British Army soldiers and Royal Navy who died from combat wounds in skirmishes with Virginia and Maryland militia. Tangier Island would be the last foothold in Virginia under even temporary control by the British for the next two years.

Source: Wrike at 100

On this day 250 years ago at the Tappan Sea on the Hudson River in New York, five small American boats commanded by Lt. Col. Benjamin Tupper attacked 5 British ships but were driven off.

Sources: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/benjamin-tupper/; https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/1775-1783-naval/