Combat· American Revolutionary War
Whitehaven Raid
On the night of April 22, 1778, Captain John Paul Jones launched a raid from the Continental sloop Ranger against the English seaport of Whitehaven.
At midnight two boats left the ship with 30 volunteer Marines and seamen, reaching the harbor at dawn. Jones commanded one boat and Lieutenant Samuel Wallingford of the Marines the other. Jones and a few men scaled the walls of the southern battery and spiked the guns, while Wallingford's boat went to the northern end of the harbor to set fire to the merchantmen there. Both parties' lights burned out before any ship was fired. Jones obtained a light from a public house and had a fire built in the collier Thompson. A deserter woke the town, and by seven the raiders were back on board the Ranger. British loss estimates ranged from £250 to £1,250, but newspapers printed letters condemning the defenseless state of the coast. The Marine Corps history of the Revolution counts Whitehaven among the important raids in which Marines took part.
Record no. 138