This Discharge Was Returned by a Musket

One of the tenants of the G.R.C. is the dissemination of knowledge on the widest range of topics of interest. The first installment in our knowledge series is one which is very close to the G.R.C.'s heart, Rhode Island history. The history of our state is characterized by staunch independence, maritime tenacity, johnnycakes, and stubborn resistance to authority. Today we are going to nail three out of four by delving deep in the revolutionary annals to examine one of the first acts of violent resistance against the British, the destruction of the schooner Gaspee...

On the 9th of June, 1772, Captain Lindsey left Newport for Providence, in his packet, at about noon, the wind blowing from the South. The Gaspee, whose commander did not discriminate between the well-known packets and the strange vessels that came into the harbor, had often fired upon the former, to compel their masters to take down their colors in its presence – a haughty marine Gesler, requiring obeisance to its imperial cap. As Captain Lindsey, on this occasion, kept his colors flying, the Gaspee gave chase, and continued it as far as Namquit (now Gaspee) Point. The tide was ebbing, but the bar was covered. As soon as Lindsey doubled the Point, he stood to the westward. Duddington, commander of the Gaspee, eager to overtake the pursued, and ignorant of the extent of the submerged Point from the shore, kept on a straight course, and in a few minutes struck the sand. The fast ebbing tide soon left his vessel hopelessly grounded. Captain Lindsey arrived at Providence at sunset, and at once communicated the fact of the grounding of the Gaspee

At dusk, a man named Daniel Pearce passed along the Main Street, beating a drum, and informing the inhabitants that the Gaspee lay aground on Namquit Point; that she could not get off until three o’clock in the morning; and inviting those who were willing to engage in her destruction to meet at the house of James Sabine. The boats left Providence between ten and eleven o’clock, filled with sixty-four well-armed men, a sea captain in each boat acting as steersman. They took with them a quantity of round paving-stones. Between one and two in the morning reached the Gaspee, when a sentinel on board hailed them. No answer being returned, Duddington appeared in his shirt on the starboard gunwale, and waving the boats off, fired a pistol at them. This discharge was returned by a musket from one of the boats. Duddington was wounded in the groin, and carried below. The boats now came alongside the schooner, and the men boarded her without much opposition, the crew retreating below when their wounded commander was carried down. The Gaspee was set on fire and at dawn blew up...