The Battle of Gloucester, fought on August 8, 1775, between the British sloop of war HMS Falcon and Gloucester townspeople, resulted in a resounding American victory. Many British seamen and marines were captured, with casualties on both sides, before the British warship broke off the fight and departed. The result of the clash proved to be yet another embarrassing black eye for the British navy.
Fought in Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts, approximately thirty miles up the coast from Boston, Mass., the action was more a skirmish. However, its importance was rooted in yet another moral boost to the rebellious colonists. The American success was attributed to the determination by passionate rebellious patriots and a British captain’s compounded errors; either due to zeal, pomposity, over confidence in under estimating the enemy, or simply put – ineptitude.
Boston and New England Coast in 1775
The action occurred a little less than four months after open hostilities erupted at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. A swarm of New England militiamen had responded to the call to arms and chased a large detachment of British regulars back to Boston. This bottled up the British Army, under General Thomas Gage, within the confines of Boston, resulting in the Siege of Boston. Two months before the fight at Gloucester, on June 14th, the same militiamen of undisciplined citizen soldiers morphed into the Congressional appointed Continental Army. And just two days later, the decisive Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17th, was the point of no return, proving to be among the highest number of casualties of the entire war. And on July 3rd, the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army arrived at Cambridge.
However, the British were not docile. England continued to rule the waves. Gage had ordered expanded patrols to intercept merchant ships bound for rebellious Americans. But supplying over 6,000 British troops confined to Boston by supply ships alone was proving to be a challenge. He ordered raiding parties of infantry and navy to forge for food and livestock along New England’s coastline. But this too proved problematic for England.
At Falmouth, Mass., now Portland Maine, on May 9th, labeled Thompson’s War, Brunswick militiamen captured a British naval officer and threatened to destroy a patrol vessel. The Battle of Chelsea Creek, May 27-28, occurred on Boston’s islands to the northeast. Newly formed Continental soldiers thwarted Gage’s attempt to forge livestock and hay by driving off cattle and torching the barns. And at the Battle of Machias, Maine, June 11-12, considered the first naval action of the war, Sons of Liberty Whigs captured a patrol vessel and her crew, after fatally shooting the captain.
Prequel to Battle
British Vice-Admiral Samuel Graves orders to Captain John Linzee of HMS Falcon:
“You are hereby required and directed to put to Sea as soon as possible in his Majesty’s Sloop under your Command and cruise between Cape Cod and Cape Anne in order to carry into Execution the late Acts for restraining the Trade of the Colonies And to seize and send to Boston all Vessels with Arms Ammunition, Provisions, Flour, Grain, Salt, Melasses, Wood, &c. &c. And you are here by required and directed to look into the Harbor within the Bay of Boston, and anchor therein and sail again at such uncertain times as you think are most likely to deceive and intercept the Trade of the Rebels. . . .”
On August 5, 1775, sloop of war HMS Falcon, launched in 1771 and carrying 14 six-pounder cannon, captained by John Linzee, sailed into Ipswich Bay and hove to at Squam Harbor at the mouth of the Annisquam River. He sent a barge of about fifty sailors and marines ashore to capture a flock of sheep grazing on Major Coffin’s farm at West Gloucester. Coffin spotted the barge and hastily gathered about half a dozen armed men. They concealed behind sand mounds and when the navy men landed, Coffin’s men kept up such a brisk fire, that the raiders thought they faced a large detachment of militiamen. They immediately gave up foraging and returned to the Falcon.
Captain Linzee continued to patrol off Cape Ann for the next few days. While stopping ships searching for contraband, Linzee was always keen to acquire crewmen. He impressed several local seamen, including sending boats into port to round up additional hands. On August 8th, at around 8 AM, he intercepted two West Indiamen making sail for Salem, Mass. He captured one without incident and put a prize crew aboard. The other ran and he gave chase.
The captain of the second schooner was apparently familiar with the waters and brought his ship deep into Gloucester Harbor where he grounded it on flats between Pearce’s Wharf and Five Pound Island shortly after noon. Falcon, along with the captured schooner, continued the chase and both the Falcon and her prize ship followed the second schooner into the harbor. Linzee proceeded cautiously as he was unfamiliar with the water’s hidden shoals. By luck he spotted a local dory fisherman, Willaim Babson of Gloucester. Babson was taken onboard and forced to serve as pilot. Seeing the schooner grounded on the flats, Linzee decided to refloat and take possession of her as a prize. He ordered his ship to anchor between the headland called Stage Head and Ten Pound Island.
Battle
The local populace of Gloucester had been alerted to the drama of a King’s ship pursuing the merchantman. Of more alarm, was the man-of-war with another merchantman in tow behind. As soon as the ships were spotted, a townsman had climbed to the steeple of the meetinghouse and rang its bell non-stop to signal danger and alert the militia to muster. The local militia companies began to muster, led by their captains Joseph Foster and Bradbury Sanders. As the Falcon anchored and began preparing to take possession of the grounded merchantman, several companies of militiamen had assembled and swarmed toward the stricken ship. They took positions on shore, across from Vinson’s Cove and on Pearce’s Wharf. There it was decided that they would defend the vessel at all costs.
Meanwhile Linzee, foreseeing no real threat from local inhabitants, calmly went about business to begin claiming and refloating the merchantman. Accounts differ on the number of long boats, or barges, sent by the Falcon, either two or three, and the number of sailors and marines involved differed, from twenty-two to thirty-six. It is noted that among the crews sent in these boats by Linzee were ten impressed American sailors, including four of them from Gloucester. The men were armed with muskets and swivel guns and placed under the command of Linzee’s first lieutenant. Swivel guns were very small, portable cannon that could be easily carried and mounted – found principally aboard sailing ships. They could be aimed in any direction to fire a small round ball or grape (collection of shot and jagged metal).
As the British small boats approached, the townsmen prepared to fire. Their weapons included muskets, perhaps some grove-bored rifle, and two aging swivel guns mounted on carriages, as these were popular among merchantmen used in defense against pirates. As the British neared the grounded vessel, they rowed faster, no doubt spotting the colonists along the shore. Sources generally agree that once the sailors began boarding the ship, with several having reached the deck, the Americans opened with a devastating volley. Three of the boarding party were killed and the commanding lieutenant wounded in the thigh. The fire from shore was so constant and accurate that the British were effectively trapped on the stranded vessel.
Linzee, witnessing his men pinned down on the grounded schooner, ordered the captured schooner with a prize crew, including some small boats (sources give no exact number of boats or men) to draw near the cove. They were under command to fire upon any ‘damned rebel’ within their range. While this action was taking place, an enflamed Linzee decided to distract the attacking colonists and draw attention away from his trapped men. He prepared to bombard the town with the ship’s six-pound cannon. Spring lines were bent upon the anchor cable which enabled the Falcon to winch around and deliver both port and starboard broadsides. Sailors aimed and fired toward the most thickly settled areas of the town. However, the buildings were spaced so far apart that the rounded shot had very little effect. A couple of buildings were damaged with one ball lodged in the Parish Meeting House. The only casualty was the demise of one hog. According to Linzee’s report, “the Rebels paid very little Attention to the firing from the ship.”
So too, when deciding to bombard the town, Linzee had dispatched a boat load of men to set fire to the village. This, like the attempted boarding of the grounded schooner, proved to be a disaster. Linzee wrote afterwards: “I made an Attempt to set fire to the Town of Cape Anne [Gloucester] and had I succeeded I flatter myself would have given the Lieut an Opportunity of bringing a Schooner off, or have left her by the Boats, as the Rebels Attention must have been to the fire. But an American, part of my Complement, who has always been very active in our cause, set fire to the Powder before it was properly placed; Our attempt to fire the Town therefore not only failed but one of the men was blown up and the American deserted. A second Attempt was made to set fire to the Town, but did not succeed.”
Reenactors similar to coastal residents and militiamen who attacked the HMS Fowler. Photos by Ken Bohrer. Visit Ken Here.
An exasperated Linzee watched from his quarter deck as one plan after another dissolved to naught. Not only did the bombardment have no desired effect, the men he sent to fire the town were captured soon after their efforts failed. As his report stated, he made a second attempt to distract the ‘rebels.’ The infuriated captain dispatched a boat load of men ashore at the promontory Fort Point to torch the fish-flakes near the beach. This foray continued to add insult to injury as the town’s militia saw through the attempt and quickly surrounded the site, capturing the entire British landing party. Meanwhile, the party on the grounded schooner could not float the vessel free of the flat as they were continually harassed by consistent fire from the shore.
Running out of options, the day was proving a blight on both Linzee’s pride and ambitious career. At around 4 pm, the wounded lieutenant and a few of his men managed to escape the grounded schooner in one of the merchantman’s small skiffs, leaving the Falcon’s master in charge of the remaining crewmen.
By 7 pm, Linzee decided to send the prize schooner in to recover his men still on the grounded schooner. But fate continued to spoil Linzee’s efforts to salvage the day’s string of disasters. During the rescue attempt, a fierce fight took place aboard the prize for possession of the ship. Linzee would state in his report that he suspected the crew of the captured ship had taken the opportunity to overpower the prize crew and recover the ship. With little hope of relief, the Falcon’s master left in charge of the grounded schooner capitulated. The villagers triumphed by capturing the entire party aboard. According to Linzee’s report: “After the master was landed, I found I could not do him any good, or distress the rebels by firing, therefore I left off.”
Casualties
Casualties for the British varied by different sources. However most agree that of the Falcon’s sortie, three of the boarding party were killed and one wounded (the lieutenant in the thigh). Linzee reported that one of the raiders sent to fire the town had been blown up; however, he did not elaborate if it were one of his seamen, or one of the American’s pressed into service. Twenty-four sailors and marines were captured and marched off to the American camp at Cambridge. Over the next several months they would be exchanged. Of the several impressed Americans who were among the British raiders, they were sent home. Of Gloucester’s townsmen, two were killed. Benjamin Rowe, who died instantly by gun shot, and Peter Purvey, who was mortally wounded and died later from his wound. One other townsman had been wounded.
Aftermath
The morning after the cannonading, Falcon warped out of Gloucester harbor and sailed for Boston. The outrage at Gloucester Harbor by nothing more than a ‘gaggle of blasted rascals’ was the last straw for Vise Admiral Samuel Graves, commander of the British Fleet’s North American Station headquartered at Boston. Combined with increased activity by American privateers, Graves planned a series of punitive raids along the coast. The most ambitious was the bombardment and burning of Falmouth on October 18, 1775, in which over four hundred homes were damaged or destroyed. It was after this attack on Falmouth, that the Second Congress authorized and budgeted for the establishment of a Continental Navy.
Of interest, the attack on Falmouth was led by Captain Henry Mowat. He had been the captain who was captured by Falmouth residents on May 9th. Labeled Thompson’s War, he had been detained by the Brunswick militia under threat of destroying his vessel. Perhaps his command over the devastating raid was sweet revenge, helped to smooth Mowat’s ruffled feathers. Gloucester was left unharmed during this series of raids along the coast and throughout the rest of the American Revolution.
The centennial of this event was observed in 1875 by a grand patriotic celebration at Cape Pond grove. Governor Gaston and other notables were present and made fitting addresses. The sword of Captain Linzee crossed with that of Colonel Prescott, a Revolutionary patriot, may be seen at the rooms of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. Over the years, the battle has been reenacted by American Revolution enthusiasts. A hole from one round of the Falcon that had impacted the Unitarian Church in Gloucester can still be seen to this day.
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SOURCE
Babson, John James. History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann: Including the Town of Rockport. 1860: Proctor Bros, Harvard Univ. Digitized March 13, 2008.
Bell, William. Naval Documents of the American Revolution Vol. I. 1964: Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.
Boston Public Library. August 5-9: Gloucester.
Garland, Joseph E. The Fish and the Falcon. 2006: The History Press, Charleston, SC.
Gloucester Daily Times. “The British Still Lost.” August 12, 2018.
Pringle, James Robert. History of the Town and City of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Massachusetts. 1892: Published by the author, Gloucester, MA.
Spofford, Ainsworth R. Massachusetts in the American Revolution. 1895: DC Sons of the American Revolution, Washington, DC.
Stout, Neil R. The Royal Navy in America, 1760 – 1775. A Study of Enforcement of British Colonial Policy in the Era of the Revolution. 1973: University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI.