Combat· American Revolutionary War
Maryland Marines repel HMS Otter's boats, Patapsco River
In March 1776, the British sloop of war Otter made a demonstration with boats in the Patapsco River, which produced alarm in Baltimore.
The Marines of the Maryland warship Defence assisted in driving off the marauders and capturing five boats. The Defence, the largest ship of the Maryland Navy, was built in Baltimore under Captain James Nicholson. The Maryland Convention authorized a company of Marines on January 14, 1776, before the ship was launched. The first four Marine officers appear to have been Captain Garrett Brown and Lieutenants Thomas Walker, Joseph Smith, and William Morris. The Defence was in the river on the morning of March 9, 1776, although her full complement of Marines does not seem to have been on board. Captain Samuel Smith's infantry company from Baltimore had gone on board as volunteers, apparently to augment the Marine detachment. Maryland effected a new Marine establishment in 1782, and its captain of Marines, Levin Handy, was captured off Tangier Island that November in the Battle of the Barges.
Record no. 130