May 1776: Boom! There They Are!!
| On May 8, 1776, two massive vessels of the British Royal Navy, the HMS Roebuck and HMS Liverpool, entered the Delaware Bay. Between the two ships, they carried a total of 72 guns. They also carried a lot of men. And those men needed a lot of water. Which forced the ships to continue upstream, until they reached fresh water at a narrow point between Wilmington, Delaware and Carney’s Point, New Jersey. Reports of their arrival quickly reached Philadelphia, with many folks understandably freaking out that a British invasion – which everyone had been anticipating since the British had evacuated Boston on the previous March 17 – was about to begin. In panicked response, the Pennsylvania State Navy was ordered to defend the city. Downstream came thirteen “small row galleys” that were each a mere 60 feet long, and powered by a combination of two sails and a line of oars. Most notably, they were shallow drafted, so they were fast and nimble. And they would need to be, as each ship carried only one small gun. To everyone’s amazement, the rebel ships were able to defend their waters, weaving between and around the massive royal ships, pestering them with sporadic fire. The HMS Roebuck became overwhelmed, tried to disengage and ran aground off Helm’s Cove near Penns Grove, New Jersey. It spent a nervous night stuck in Jersey mud, but the Pennsylvania ships could not take advantage, as they had ran out of ammunition. In the morning, the HMS Liverpool was able to help extricate its partner, and the two ships tried and failed to follow the rebel galleys up into shallower water. Instead, the Royal ships retreated into Delaware Bay, shadowed by the Pennsylvanians, and at nightfall on May 9 they decided to head back out to sea. On May 12, John Adams wrote his wife Abigail, “There has been a gallant Battle, in Delaware River between the Gallies and two Men of War, the Roebuck and Liverpool, in which the Men of War came off second best—which has diminished, in the Minds of the People, on both sides the River, the Terror of a Man of War.” And so, on this date, 1776, 250 years ago, the Royal Navy arrived in New Jersey, the “Crossroads of the American Revolution.” |