Rebels Capture British Boats and Men at Gloucester, Massachusetts
British Captain John Linzee, aboard H.M.S. Falcon, was cruising off of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, when he spied two ships (schooners, actually) and chased them down to see what they were. They turned out to be merchant vessels from the West Indies. Their destination was Salem, Massachusetts, and if they got there, then the goods they carried would benefit the rebellious Americans.
Captain Linzee caught one of the schooners, but the other got away into Cape Ann Harbor. Linzee followed, and sent a number of his men in boats to capture her. He wrote later:
When the Boats had passed the Point of Rocks that was between the Ship and Schooner; they received a very heavy fire from the Rebels who were hidden behind Rocks and Houses and behind Schooners aground at Wharfs, but notwithstanding the Heavy fire from the Rebels, Lieutt [Lieutenant] Thornborough boarded the Schooner and was himself and three men wounded from the Shore. On the Rebels firing on the Boats I fired from the Ship into the Town to draw the Rebels from the Boats. I very soon observed the Rebels paid very little attention to the firing from the Ship, and seeing their Fire continued very heavy in the Schooner, the Lieutt had boarded, I made an attempt to set fire to the town of Cape Anne [actually Gloucester] and had I succeeded I flatter myself would have given the Lieutt an Opportunity of bringing the Schooner off, or have left her by the Boats, as the Rebels Attention must have been to the fire. But an American, part of my Complement, who had always been very active in our cause, set fire to the Powder before it was properly placed; Our attempt to fire the Town therefore not only failed but one of the men was blown up, and the American deserted.
(I think I would have deserted at that point, too, if I had been in that American’s shoes.)
Linzee’s men tried again to set the town on fire by bombarding it, but it didn’t work, and they didn’t do much damage. The fight continued from about 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the Americans ended up recapturing both of the schooners, as well as the four British boats and a number of Linzee’s men: the “Master” (an officer) and “the Gunner, fifteen Seamen, seven Marines, one Boy and ten prest Americans [that is to say, Americans who had been forced to join the Royal Navy].” Captain Linzee seems to have had some bad luck; a similar thing had happened to him in May.
Source
“Captain John Linzee, R.N., to Vice Admiral Samuel Graves,” Naval Documents of the American Revolution, vol. 1, pp. 1110-1.
The full map, entitled “A Map of 100 Miles round Boston”, can be found at https://www.loc.gov/item/gm71005471/