Raid of Nassau

Hopkins' fleet consisted of Alfred, Hornet, Wasp, Fly, Andrew Doria, Cabot, Providence, and Columbus. In addition to ships' crews, the fleet carried 200 Continental Marines under the command of Samuel Nicholas.[6] In spite of gale force winds, the fleet remained together for two days, when Fly and Hornet became separated from the fleet. Hornet was forced to return to port for repairs, and Fly eventually rejoined the main fleet at Nassau, after the raid took place. Hopkins did not let the apparent loss of the two ships dissuade him; he had intelligence that much of the British fleet was in port due to high winds.

The desperate shortage of gunpowder available to the Continental Army led the Second Continental Congress to organize a naval expedition, with the intention of seizing military supplies stored at Nassau.[3] While the official orders issued by the Congress to Esek Hopkins, the naval officer selected to lead the expedition, included only instructions for patrolling the Virginia and Carolina coastlines and raiding British naval targets, additional instructions may have been given to Hopkins in secret meetings held by the Congress' naval committee.[4] The instructions that Hopkins issued to his fleet's captains before it set sail from Cape Henlopen, Delaware, on February 17, 1776, included instructions to rendezvous at the Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas

Background

A French engraving of Esek Hopkins

When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, Lord Dunmore, the colonial governor of Virginia, ordered Royal Navy sailors under his command to remove the gunpowder from the Williamsburg gunpowder magazine to the island of New Providence in the British colony of the Bahamas, in order to keep it from falling into the hand of Patriot militia. The colonial governor of the Bahamas, Montfort Browne, was alerted by British general Thomas Gage in August 1775 that the American Patriots might make attempts to seize the gunpowder stored in the Bahamas

The fleet departed Cape Henlopen, Delaware, on February 17, 1776, arriving at the Bahamas on March 1. Two days later, two hundred Continental Marines came ashore, seizing Fort Montagu but not advancing upon the town, where the gunpowder was stored. Governor Montfort Browne had most of Nassau's gunpowder loaded aboard ships sailing for St. Augustine. On March 4, the marines captured Nassau.

Occupying Nassau for two weeks, the Americans seized any remaining military supplies they found before departing. The fleet engaged in an unsuccessful action on April 6 with HMS Glasgow before returning to New London, Connecticut. Though the raid was successful, the failure to capture Glasgow and crew complaints led to several investigations and court-martials, and Hopkins was censured and dismissed in 1778.

The Raid of Nassau[a] (March 3–4, 1776) was a naval operation and amphibious assault by American forces against the British port of Nassau, Bahamas, during the American Revolutionary War. The raid, designed to resolve the issue of gunpowder shortages, resulted in the seizure of two forts and large quantities of military supplies before the raiders drew back to New England, where they fought an unsuccessful engagement with a British frigate.

During the American Revolutionary War, the Patriot forces suffered from a shortage of gunpowder. In response to such shortages, the Second Continental Congress ordered an American fleet under the command of Esek Hopkins to patrol the Virginia and Carolina coastlines; secret orders were possibly given to Hopkins instructing him to raid Nassau, where stocks of gunpowder removed from Virginia had been sent.