Combat· American Revolutionary War
Hopkins's New Providence Expedition
Commodore Esek Hopkins took the first Continental fleet to New Providence in the Bahamas to seize the powder and warlike stores belonging to the Crown.
The eight ships passed Cape Henlopen on February 17, 1776, with 234 Marines under Captain Samuel Nicholas. On March 3, the Marines and 50 sailors made the first amphibious landing executed by Continental Marines and took the deserted Fort Montagu. Around midnight, 162 barrels of gunpowder from Fort Nassau were loaded on two vessels, which sailed for St. Augustine. On March 4, the Americans took Fort Nassau without firing a shot. Marines and sailors loaded the captured cannon and ball aboard the fleet, which sailed on March 17. On the voyage north the fleet met the British frigate Glasgow off Block Island in the night of April 5 to 6, and she escaped badly damaged. The dead included Second Lieutenant John Fitzpatrick of the Alfred and two Marines of the Cabot, Patrick Kaine and George Kennedy. The fleet anchored off New London on April 8.
Record no. 166