The British army, besieged in the City…

October 1775 CE

The British army, besieged in the City of Boston, following the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, are supported and supplied by the Royal Navy under the command of Vice-Admiral Samuel Graves, who is under Admiralty instruction to suppress the burgeoning rebellion.

Under his orders, vessels are searched for military stores and potential military communications.

Laid-up vessels are stripped of their masts and rudders to prevent their use by privateers and military equipment is salvaged from readily-accessible recent wrecks.

Captain Henry Mowat had been in the port of Falmouth (present-day Portland, Maine) in May 1775, during Thompson's War when local Patriots captured several ships carrying supplies for Boston and weaponry from Fort Pownall at the mouth of the Penobscot River.

Graves' Admiralty orders (issued in July 1775 and received by him on October 4) require that he "carry on such Operations upon the Sea Coasts ... as you shall judge most effective for suppressing ... the Rebellion".

Graves orders Mowat to "lay waste burn and destroy such Sea Port towns as are accessible to His Majesty's ships ... and particularly Machias where Margueritta was taken".

Locations
Portland Cumberland Maine United States View →

People
Samuel Graves View →

Groups
Thirteen Colonies, The View → Massachusetts, Province of (English Crown Colony) View → Britain, Kingdom of Great View → Patriots (American Revolution) View →

Topics
American Revolutionary War, or American War of Independence View → Falmouth, Burning of View →

Subjects
Watercraft View → Labor and Service View → Conflict View → Government View →

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