A Forgotten Battle on Boston Harbor (episode 186)

Intro And Outro

Jake:
[0:04] Welcome To Hub history, where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston. The Hub of the universe.
This is Episode 186 The forgotten Battle on Boston Harbor Hi, I’m Jake.
Today. I’ll be talking about a battle that took place 245 years ago this week when provincial militia fought Royal Marines in what’s now East Boston.
The engagement that we now called the Battle of Chelsea Creek was sandwiched between the Battle of Lexington and April and Bunker Hill in June, and it’s often overshadowed by those larger battles in our memories.
While the casualty counts in frankly, the stakes were lower than it. Those familiar battles this skirmish over livestock was an important testing ground for the new American Army.
It proved that the militias of different colonies could plan together and fight together.
It confirmed the wisdom of maneuvering and firing from cover instead of facing the red coats head on, and it bolstered provincial morale with a decisive victory.
The ragtag American army even managed to destroy a ship of the Royal Navy in the fighting.

[1:14] But before we talk about the forgotten Battle of Chelsea Creek. It’s time for this week’s Boston Book Club pick and our upcoming historical event.

[1:23] My selection for the Boston Book Club this week is an article on Universal Hub titled The Elevated Origins of a Lowly Building in Chinatown, at the corner of Harrison and Beach streets.
Within sight of the Chinatown gate, there’s a nondescript single story building with storefronts for a Vietnamese sandwich shop in a bakery.
As writer Adam Gaffin in points out, it’s normal in every way, except that it’s the only single storey building and a dense, built up neighborhood in uncovering the reason behind the buildings.
Surprising compactness Gaffin in tells the story of three decades of transit development in Boston, he says.
When the building went up, it couldn’t reach higher because elevated train tracks ran right above it,
carrying trains on a sharp curve from Harrison Avenue on to beat Street as part of a waterfront loop that was for three decades possibly as close as we’ll ever get to a North South rail link.
In order to allow for the turn, it Harrison and Beach, the railway company, had to use its state granted power to condemn property at the corner, in particular the multi storey Boston Hotel, which had stood there since at least the 18 sixties.

[2:39] The article follows the Atlantic Avenue El from the planning stage in 1897 through construction to its surge and then decline in ridership as the Tremont Street subway tunnel carried more and more passengers.
Finally, it describes how the entire line was shut down in 1938 and scrapped in 1942 to support the war effort.
It’s an excellent piece about a neighborhood’s changing needs for transit and how transit in turn, changed the neighborhood.
I’ll include a link to the story in this week’s show notes and for our upcoming event this week, we’re featuring a June 3rd online book, Talk About the Power of Visual Images in the fight for women’s suffrage.
We’ve released two episodes recently about the fight for suffrage, covering the last women who were jailed for suffrage in Episode 1 73 and interviewing Barbara Berenson about her book, Massachusetts.
In the Womans Suffrage Movement in Episode 1 68 This talk by Professor Alison Lang of Wentworth will drawn a research for the book picturing political power,
about how suffragists used everything from engravings, two banners to photos and the struggle for the vote.

[3:51] Here’s how the Massachusetts Historical Society describes the event.

[3:56] Picturing political power offers a comprehensive analysis of the connection between images, gender and power.
This examination of the fights that led to the ratification of the 19th Amendment explores how suffer just pioneered one of the first extensive visual campaigns in modern American history.
Professor Alison Lang shows how pictures from early engravings and photographs to colorful posters proofed central to suffragists efforts to change expectations for women fighting back against the accepted norms of their times.
Picturing political power demonstrates the centrality of visual politics.
Toe American women’s campaigns throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, revealing the power of images to change history.
The Taco begin at 5:30 p.m. On Wednesday, June 3rd.
It’s a free event, but you will have to register to get the zoom link.
We’ll have the information you need in this week’s show. Notes at hub history dot com slash 186 Before I start the show, it’s time for a word from the sponsor of this Weeks podcast.
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And now it’s time for this week’s main topic.

[7:25] Less than a month after he first marched a Lexington gratin, Minuteman Amos Farnsworth found himself squatting in a ditch in a swamp, waiting for the Royal Marines to attack him.
His diary entry for May 27 17 75 said we crossed the river and about 15 of us squatted down in a ditch on the marsh and stood our ground.

[7:49] That ditch was in today’s East Boston, roughly where Constitution beaches now Amos and his company of Colonel Ephraim Doolittle’s Minuteman Regiment were the rearguard covering the withdrawal.
After a provincial raid, a detachment of about 30 soldiers was waiting from Nodules Island across a marsh toe hog island,
where they join about two or 300 Massachusetts militia under Colonel John Nixon and 300 members of Colonel John Starks. First New Hampshire Regiment.
Together, they plan to retreat across Belle Isle, Marsh to the mainland.
A large party of Rome Marines marched after the retreating Patriots and soon stumbled across a Miss Farnsworth and his friends Amos Road.
There came a company of regulars on the marsh on the other side of the river and the schooner, and we had a hot fire until the regulars were treated but notwithstanding, the bullets flew very thick.
Yet there was not a man of us killed.
Surely God has a favor towards us.

[8:51] The exchange of fire that somehow miraculously missed the Patriots killed three of the Marines and wounded another.
With the British advance slowed, the Patriots withdrew the hog island, where they faced a new challenge.
An armed British schooner sailing so close to shore it was practically on land, tried to cut off their retreat to the mainland, Chelsea and Safety.
It was shaping up to be an interesting day.

[9:19] Writing in 2009 about the engagement that we now remember as the Battle of Chelsea Creek.
Craig Brown of U Mass. Boston noted that it had several notable firsts for the revolution.
Number one. The Battle of Chelsea Creek was the first planned offensive by the provincial forces in the Revolutionary War that resulted in an engagement.

[9:40] Number two. The Battle of Chelsea Creek was the first instance of military cooperation by parties from different colonies and defense of their constitutional rights.

[9:52] Number three. The Battle of Chelsea Creek was the first naval engagement of the Revolutionary War.
Number four. The Battle of Chelsea Creek was the first time the provincials captured a British ship of war during the Revolution.
And number five, the Battle of Chelsea Creek saw the first use of artillery by the provincials and the revolutionary cause.

[10:16] It all started with the battles of Lexington and Concord the month before.
From the moment that British column were treated back to Boston the Patriot militias who quickly surrounded the city controlled the land.
The occupying British would have no trade or commerce to supply cattle and pigs for meat.
No milk, butter or other dairy. No hay for the horses.
When it started to get cold, there would be no straw for bedding and insulation and no firewood to keep the red coats warm.
However, while the Patriots controlled the land, the power of the British Navy meant that they fully controlled the sea.
Boston, as we may have mentioned before, was a city on a peninsula.

Clip:
[10:57] Militia units from around New England streamed into Cambridge and Roxbury to keep the British regulars trapped in the Peninsular town of bust, Boston transformed itself from a tiny town on a peninsula toe.
A sprawling city, it was a small, densely populated city on a tiny men shaped peninsula, the tiny Chamakh peninsula that comprised Boston Before Boston was expanded by filling the salt marshes that surrounded the Shawmut Peninsula.
John Winthrop and his Puritan followers settled on the tiny peninsula they called Boston. Back when Boston was a tiny village on the Shawmut Peninsula on Lee Road, leading off the peninsula of Boston, New England militias rushed to surround Boston and trapped the British regulars within the peninsula town.

Jake:
[11:36] The tiny Shawmut Peninsula was surrounded by the islands of Boston Harbor.
Until supplies could be transported from Britain, which could easily take months, the regular should have to rely on the forests and farms in the Boston Harbor Islands.
Both sides of the conflict realized very quickly that there were valuable supplies available on the islands, especially the large islands near the mainland.
Like Long Grape, Thompson are paddocks. Island Nodules Island and Hog Island would soon become a focus for both armies.
Both are gone today. Nodules and hog, along with bird, apple and governors Islands were later connected to the mainland by landfill forming East Boston and Logan Airport.
Hog Island was the area that’s now Suffolk Downs and Orient Heights and Nodules. Island was a larger landmass encompassing today’s Jeffrey’s Point Mavericks, where an Eagle Hill.

[12:33] Foraging raids began almost immediately. On May 10 3 weeks after the war began,
Elijah Shaw testified before the Committee of Safety that the troops of robbed him of 11 cows, three calves, a yearling heifer, 48 sheep, 61 lambs for hogs and poultry,
five tons of hay and almost all this furniture.

[12:57] By May 12 the Patriots supporter wrote this about William Harris, the manager of a farm on Hog Island that was owned by Oliver Wendell and Jonathan Jackson.

[13:07] Mr. Harris is very uneasy. The people from the men of war frequently go to the island to buy fresh provisions, and his own safety obliges them to sell to them.
On the other hand, the Committee of Safety of Threatened if he sells anything to the Army or Navy that they will take all the cattle from the island, and our folks tell him that they shall handle him very roughly.
Just days after that was written. The Massachusetts Committee of Safety, which organized the war effort during the early months before the Continental Army was created, resolved on May 14th,
that all the livestock be taken from Nodules Island, Hog Island and Snake Island and from that part of Chelsea near the seacoast and be driven back,
back that is away from the coast.
Colonel Starks Regiment from New Hampshire was tasked with providing security and support for this effort, but he was forced to admit that his men didn’t yet have sufficient supplies to take on the mission.

[14:04] While the Committee of Safety debated what to do next, The British acted early in the morning. On May 21st Abigail Adams awoken her home in Braintree, now Quincy, to the sound of bells, drums and signal cannons.
When I rose about six o’clock, I was told that the drums have been sometime beating and that three alarm guns were fired, that the Weymouth Bell had been ringing and Mr Welds was then ringing.
I immediately sent, often express to know the occasion and found the whole town in confusion.
Three sloops and one cutter had come out and dropped anchor just below Great Hill.
Great Hill was just a stone’s throw from her parent’s house in Weymouth, and rumors began flying that red coats were burning the town of Weymouth.
Her letter to John continues, describing the panic that spread across the countryside.

[14:57] It was difficult to tell their design. Some supposed. They were coming to Germantown, others to Weymouth, people from the ironworks flocking down this way, every woman and child above or from below.
My father’s my father’s family flying the doctors in great distress, as you may well imagine, from my aunt had her bed thrown into a cart into which she got herself and ordered the boy to drive her off to Bridgewater, which he did.
The report was to them that 300 had landed and we’re upon their march into town.
The alarm flu like lightning and men from all parts came flocking down until 2000 were collected.
But it seems their expedition was too great violent for Levitz Hey!

[15:42] Elijah Levitt was a hanging loyalist who farmed on Grave Island, just off the point of land at the mouth of Back River near today’s Hingham shipyard.

[15:52] It’s not clear whether it was planning to give the red coaches hey or whether he was selling it to them.
But his neighbors on the mainland weren’t too pleased.
The militia began firing at the landing party that was actually closer to 100 strong than 300 from a spit of land that’s today home toe Web Memorial State Park.
As described in an article in The New England Chronicle, the people of Weymouth assembled on a point of land next to great violent.
The distance from Weymouth, short of said Island was too great for small arms to do execution. Nevertheless, our people frequently fired.
The fire was returned from one of the vessels with swivel guns, but the shot past over our heads and did no mischief, Matters continued in this state for several hours.
The soldiers pulling the hay down to the water side are people firing at the vessel and they know and then discharging swivel guns.
Abigail Adams ads. It was impossible to reach them for one of boats.
But the sight of so many persons and the firing at um prevented they’re getting more than three ton of hay, though they had carted much more down to the water.

[17:01] After a few hours of ineffective fire on both sides, the tide turned and with it the tide of battle.
As chronicled in the New England Chronicle, The tide was now come in and several lighters, which were ground we’re gotta float,
upon, which are people who were ardent for battle, got on board, hoisted sail and board directly down the nearest point of the island.
The soldiers and sailors immediately left the barn and made for their boats and put off from one end of the island, will star. People landed on the other.
The slopes hoisted sail with all possible expedition. Most are people set fire to the barn and burnt 70 or 80 tons of hay, then fired several tons, which have been pulled down to the water side and brought off the cattle.

[17:49] In his diary, British Lieutenant John Barker of the King’s own regiment said, what was on everyone’s mind,
it was surely the most ridiculous expedition that was ever planned for there were not 1/10 part boats enough even if there had been men enough, and the slope, which carried the party, mounted 12 guns, but they were taken out to make room,
whereas if one or two had been left, it would have effectually kept off the rebels.

[18:14] British regulars in American militia did exchange fire, but with no injuries on either side.
So calling what happened on Grape Island, a battle would be a stretch.
It was, however, a wake up call to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety.
On the 24th. They passed a resolution that essentially said that they would stop waiting for the farmers on nodules and hog islands to do the right thing, and instead they’d send militia to clear the islands.
General Israel Putnam was elected to plan the raid, and he recorded over a decade after the fact that,
it was unanimously agreed among the general officers that it was absolutely necessary to remove the stock and effects from said Island in order to prevent the enemy receiving any supplies of provisions,
and accordingly, Ah, party of troops were detached for the above purpose and put under my command.
Old Putt was a veteran of the Seven years war in Pontiac’s rebellion, having served with Roger’s Rangers in both wars when the Revolutionary War began.
He was 57 years old, but as soon as word of the Concord fight reached his Connecticut farm, he walked away from his plow and rode straight to Cambridge, leaving word for his regiment to follow A soon as they were able.
Now, he would assemble a rating party and send them on their way, but he wouldn’t personally join the fray until it was clear they needed help.

[19:40] Unfortunately, secrecy was not exactly the Rebels forte at that point.
So the day after the resolution passed, British General Howe, who commanded the British ground forces, wrote to Vice Admiral Graves, who was in charge of the fleet on Boston Harbor.
He issued this warning. Sure, I have this moment received information that the rebels intended this night to destroy and carry off all the stock on Nodules Island for no reason.
But because the owners having sold them for the king’s use, I therefore give you this intelligence that you may please, to order the guard boats to be particularly attentive.
And it takes such other measures as you may think, necessary for this night.

[20:22] Admiral Graves wasn’t about to take orders from an army officer, so he immediately responded.
Sir, the guard boats have orders to keep the strictest look out, and I will direct an additional 12 wrote. Tonight is high up. It’s possible between Nodules Island and the main to alarm in case any attempt is made by the rebels to go over.
But I beg leave to observe to Your Excellency that in my opinion, a guard upon the island is the most probable means of preserving the hay from being destroyed.
In other words, if you want a guard nodules island, you better send some of your own troops.

[20:59] Lieutenant Barker reported that 50 men ordered last night did not go on account of the tide not serving.

[21:08] Luckily for the Americans, the British had the wrong date for the attack.
The Patriots began putting their plan in motion A day later.
On the evening of May 26th Colonel John Nixon of Massachusetts marched his detachment of two or 300 men out of the main provincial camp in Cambridge to Maldon.
There they met up with Colonel John Stark and 300 members of the New Hampshire militia.
Together, the 600 militia soldiers marched to Chelsea and stop for breakfast near Chelsea Meetinghouse at about 7 a.m. On May 27.

[21:43] After breakfast, the detachment made its final approach.
Moving is quietly, a 600 men can. They used farm lanes to move through the marshy pastures of Belle Isle Marsh until they reached the water.
Then they took cover and waited for low tide.

[22:02] Finally, in about 11 a.m. The order was given, and the men waited across the shallows to Hog Island, where they began rounding up the livestock.
Amos Farnsworth’s Journal records Saturday, May the 27th went on Hog Island and brought off six horses, 27 Hornet cattle and 411 sheet.

[22:24] Farnsworth was also among a small party that was ordered to cross the shallow creek or straight between hog and Nodules Island in the mid afternoon, along with some farm buildings and livestock nodules.
Island also held a warehouse owned by the Navy and guarded by a company of Royal Marines.
As soon as the provincial showed themselves to begin rounding up cattle and horses, they drew the attention of the Marines.
Geno Putnam’s account reveals that the Americans expected to be discovered and had a backup plan ready and upon are entering upon the island for the purpose of four, said the enemy.
Discovering us made such a continual fire from their shipping that it was impossible to remove the grain provision, liquors and other stores that were in the houses and cellars next to the enemy ships.
And it was agreed among the general officers that if these stocks and provision could not be got off the set island without great hazard and loss of the American troops,
that in that case it would be expedient to destroy or consume the farm, which is accordingly done by burning the houses and provisions.

[23:30] British Lee Senate Barker described how the smoke now rising on Nodules Island quickly drew British attention and then British reinforcements.

[23:40] British lieutenant Barker described how the smoke now rising on Nodules Island quickly drew British attention and then British reinforcements.
About 40 of the rebels came to Donald’s Island expecting to meet with hay to destroy.
They set two houses on fire and began killing the cows and horses, which the admiral seeing immediately dispatched the Marines from the men of war to drive the rebels away.
And at the same time since some boats and an armed schooner around the island to intercept um the Admiral Barker referred to was Vice Admiral Samuel Graves, the commander of all British naval forces in North America.
When he got word of the rebel movements on Nodules Island, he decided to send Marines a dozen or so long boats and the armed schooner, H. M S Diana.
The Diana was still in new ship, having been built the year before and just purchased by the Navy in January 17 75.
Graves had praised the ship as so exceedingly well built that she is allowed to be the best vessel of the kind that has yet been in the king’s service.

[24:46] After purchasing it for the Navy, Graves had it fitted with 46 pounder cannons in the regular gun ports, as well as a dozen or so later swivel guns mounted on deck.
The admiral then appointed Lieutenant Thomas Graves, previously the second in command on H. M s lively to command the Diana.
If that last names familiar, it’s because the lieutenant was the admiral’s favorite nephew.

[25:12] Between two and three PM on May 27th Admiral Graves ordered his ambitious nephew to pursue the provincials who were now withdrawing from Nodules Island, saying,
upon observing the rebels landed on Nodules Island, I ordered the Diana to sail immediately between it and the main and get as high up as possible to prevent their escape.
I also directed a party of Marines to be landed for the same purpose.
There was no time to be lost, and assistance from the Army could not immediately be had to reach the main body of the provincials who are now in Hog Island.
The Diana had to sail past the ancient when a Senate ferry landing there it came under fire from a militia company tasked with watching for British Raiders and infiltrators.
But they did. Little damage to the ship is a cruise by by about four PM the schooner had cited the provincials and opened fire.
Justus Amos Farnsworth in the advanced party were crossing the marsh from nodules back to Hog Island.
The shot whistled overhead without causing any damage. So Amos and half the advanced party, about 15 and all, squatted down in a ditch and waited for the Marines.
The guards stationed Nodules Island and now been reinforced by Marines from the H. M s, Somerset, Preston, Sir Boris and glass cow, bringing their numbers to about 170.

[26:32] The idea was to send the Marines by land, from novels to Hog Island, while the longboats in the Diana cut off their retreat across the creek to the mainland.
Despite being outnumbered by over 10 to 1, Amos in the Minutemen waited in their ditch until the last minute, then rose and fired a single volley.
Nobody actually said Don’t fire until you see the white to their eyes.
But this was still a preview of the tactics that the provincials would use with great effect at Bunker Hill. Just a few weeks later, the volley broke the British advance, leaving the Marines to gather their dead and wounded and retreat to their barges on Nodules Island.
The pensar maneuver that might have cut off the Americans was defeated when he heard about their brave stand against the Royal Marines. General Artemus Ward gave Amos Farnsworth in his unit a very tangible reward.

[27:23] The general much approves of the vigilance and courage of the officers and soldiers under the command of Colonel Ephraim Doolittle in the late action at Chelsea and has ordered two barrels of rum to be dealt out to them in equal portions for their service there.
The land attack by the Royal Marines have been turned back.
They set up a strong point on top of Eagle Hill in not all island An H. M s Diana, along with 10 longboats, was still trying to cut off the provincial retreat to the mainland.
The tide that day ran much higher than usual, allowing the Diana to maneuver far upstream and what’s now known as Chelsea Creek up above the winner Summit. Very landing and well behind Hog Island.
In the end, the favorable tide just meant that Lieutenant Graves was able to get the Diana into deeper trouble.
The schooner began taking fire from the troops under Colonel Stark and Nixon from the hog island side and also from the militia. Acting is coastal guards from Chelsea. On the mainland side.

[28:24] Meanwhile, General Putnam was racing reinforcements in from Cambridge.
There have been placed in overall command of the raid on Nodules Island. He had not personally directed the attack.
Now, having heard the cannonade and gotten a request for help, I express rider, he moved a large column of troops toward Chelsea at the double quick march, basically a jog,
as the sun set at about eight PM on the 27th the wind dropped off, leaving the Diana unable to maneuver.
The strong title flow in Chelsea Creek threatened to beach the schooner on the Chelsea side directly in the line of fire the nearby militia.
As the ship drifted, it was still taking fire from both sides.
Desperate. Now, Lieutenant Graves ordered the sailors rowing the longboats to try to tow Diana out of danger.
This effort drew withering fire from the provincials and the sailors and the boats began taking casualties.
Rowing only managed to move the schooner very slowly down the creek, and the provincials continued to fire at them as they tracked the ship from shore.

[29:29] By this time, Geno Putnam’s reinforcements had arrived at the win, a Senate ferry near the mouth of the creek.
The Diana would have no choice but to pass them in order to reach open water.
Partner deployed his men behind stone walls and inside buildings where they could fire from cover and remain relatively safe from the schooner swivel guns.
The reinforcements included members of a Massachusetts field artillery unit under a captain foster, and they’re too small three pounder field cannons.

[30:01] As the Diana slowly came into view, pulled by the longboats, every gun opened up on them.
Two sailors in the longboats were killed by the heavy fire, and several more were wounded with the cannons trained on them.
Thes small open boats had no choice but to drop the tow lines and row for open water out of range of the provincials drifting helplessly again.
The tide deposited the Diana on the ferry ways mere feet away from Putnam’s entrenched forces, just after 10 p.m.
Seeing the enemy’s helpless state. A contemporary account says that the general offered to accept their surrender.
General Putnam went down, inhaled the schooner and told the people that if they would submit they should have good quarter, which the schooner returned with two cannon shot.
This was immediately answered with two cannon from the provincials. Upon this, a very heavy fire ensued from both sides, which lasted until 11 o’clock at night.
Lieutenant Graves was in no mood to strike his colors, and his men continued to fight bravely.
But as the tide went out from under the ship, it became a lost cause.
One of graves officers would later testify. Then we carried out a small anchor, the rebels keeping a constant fire with the cannon and small arms.
We brought the Hauser to the windless and heaved with as many hands as the winless would hold and finding she did not move.
The lieutenant gave orders for being short immediately, which was done.

[31:31] By throwing out an anchor and attaching it to a winless. The crew is attempting a technique called Caijing, where a sailing ship that finds itself recalled can essentially use the anchor winch to tow the vessel forward in shallow water.
When that failed, Graves ordered the ship to be shored are braced up, so when the tide receded from beneath it, it would remain upright.
This measure was only briefly successful. As the testimony continues, We kept firing till the shores giving way. She fell upon her Beamon’s when we could no longer fire or stand up on the deck.
When the bracing failed, the ship rolled over on its side. It’s cannons were now pointed uselessly at the ground and at the sky.
And at about 11 p.m. 12 hours after the battle commenced, it was time to go.

[32:23] Graves hailed H. M s Britannia, a slope that have been lingering nearby, supporting the attack from the mouth of the creek.
The crew of the Diana carried their wounded to the pretensions boats, and they all got on board the smaller ship.
All accounts from the British side say that Lieutenant Graves plan to defend the ship through the night and then floater off when the tide came in the next day.

[32:44] Sometime after midnight, Graves and the others on the Britannia smelled smoke after plundering the Diana of everything useful, including our cannons and swivel guns, rigging and sails, ammunition, money and the sailors personal effects like clothing.
A dozen provincials used the cover of darkness to pile a large quantity of hay and straw under the bow of the schooner and set it on fire.
Graves jumped into one of the longboats and ordered a small party to Roma, sure to try to put out the flames.
But heavy enemy fire kept him from coming near the Diana at about 3 a.m.
On May 28th the remainder of the Schooners Powder magazine blew up.
The provincials had done the impossible. Lately, our militia firing a maneuvering from the shore, had destroyed one of His Majesty’s warships, albeit a small one.
With the destruction of the Diana, the rebels were left in control of the field.
They had not suffered any deaths, and there are only a handful of wounded.
Amos Farnsworth described a man in his company had been shot through the mouth with the ball going in one cheek and out the other.

[33:55] A modern account published in the M. I. T. Press Journal describes the difficulty in estimating British casualties.
Losses for the entire action were extremely light. Three provincials wounded, two British dead and several wounded.
Although the American statistics air reliable, some tantalising evidence suggests that the British under reported their casualties.
A main ship en route from Falmouth to New York with load of spars was detained at Nodules Island during the 27th and 28th of May conflict.
After the fighting stopped, the vessel’s captain related, the Britannia came in and tied up to the WARF. He was shocked to see the blood running out of the scuppers and a number of dead and wounded lying on the deck.
A denizen of Boston recorded that 10 regulars were buried there last Sunday evening, May 28th who were killed in the engagement. But more. It’s a calm, Tous said. They had about 30 killed in the hole on a greater number, wounded.

[34:56] The Provincials returned to Novel Island to finish the job on May 29th May 30th June 3rd in June 10th.
When the raid on May 29th began, the Royal Marines still held the top of Eagle Hill, but they were quietly withdrawn. Is the raid commenced?
During the subsequent raids, British shipped lobbed a few shells of the provincials but made no other attempt to oppose them.
Not all island would remain a sort of no man’s land for the remainder of the siege, with neither side establishing a foot hole.
There would be raids on the Harbor Islands throughout the siege, concluding with the retreating British blowing up Boston light on little Brewster Island as the fleet abandoned Boston Harbor in July of 17 76,
over a year after the Battle of Chelsea Creek and almost four months after the red coats evacuated Boston.

[35:46] To learn more about the clash that’s remembered as the Battle of Chelsea Creek, check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 186,
we’ll have links to a National Park Service document about underwater archaeology at the battle site that includes a great summary of the action,
as well as another version of the same article that appeared in the M. I. T. Press Journal.
We’ll also include Volume one of the Naval Documents of the American Revolution, which is a treasure trove of primary sources, as well as Abigail Adams, account of the Great Violent Fight and the documentary history of Chelsea, which includes Amos Farnsworth’s account of the battle.
Plus, we’ll have a 17 75 You of not Alan Hogg Islands from the peak of British occupied Beacon Hill and an interactive map showing how nearly every trace of the battlefield has been consumed by almost 250 years of development.
And, of course, we’ll have links to information about our upcoming event and Universal Hubs the elevated origins of a lowly building in Chinatown, this week’s Boston Book Club pick.

[36:51] Before I let Ugo, I’d like to share some listener feedback we’ve gotten recently.
First up, a new patri on sponsor us to remain anonymous, said I recently became a patron of years to support your podcast, which I listened to regularly.
Listening to your informative and well researched podcast is the only benefit I’m interested in.
Thanks for supporting the show. And thanks for the kind words we try very hard to be thorough researchers.

[37:20] We also got a very nice email from longtime listener Elene K, who had just heard the rerun of our interview with Fairbanks House curator Dan Neff.
She said, Jake, I was listening to your podcast on the Fairbanks House today and enjoyed your interview with Daniel Neff as he described the sheer quantity of hex marks and other anti witchcraft devices in the house.
I began to think this place is haunted and those people were desperate.
So I wasn’t surprised when Nikki said that she had a reaction in The West Wing that made her want to leave.
Nor was I surprised to hear Mr Neff tell story after story of his experiences and those of visitors to the house.
I grew up in a haunted house, so I know how it feels. It’s not just what you see or hear. It’s the feeling of a place.
The Fairbanks house obviously has a pretty strong feel to it.
When the world opens up again, I plan to visit the Fairbanks House and see what happens.
I don’t usually go ghost hunting. I had enough of that as a kid, but I’m curious.
Thanks for a very entertaining podcast. Tears Helene.

[38:30] Now I’m much more skeptical than either a lean or Dan. But if any place is haunted, they would be the Fairbanks House.
We should all go visit when things open up.

[38:42] Jonathan are commented on a recent episode on Twitter really appreciated this episode on William Monroe Trotter. Thank you.
Short to the point. Thanks, Jonathan.
Also on Twitter, listener named Josh F.
Tagged us into an ongoing conversation where several of our fellow nerds were trying to figure out how much the 1918 influenza epidemic affected transit ridership in Boston.
He said Hub history may have some advice for you on this.
They recently did a show in the 1918 Pandemic and its effects in Boston so they might even have the source material at their fingertips.
I checked the show. Notes from that shows a start was dropped on March 15.
Strong recommend subscribing to their pod. It’s excellent, thanks for the strong recommend, and I hope that data I found from the Boston Elevated Railway was helpful.

[39:35] And finally, Meghan L. Tactics in a Facebook post that turned out to be some of the most wonderful feedback we’ve ever gotten,
her post said earlier This afternoon, I presented the project I completed for my masters of the history department Spring Colloquium.
The project consists of several pieces, all relating to LGBT Q history in Boston and how Park Rangers here can share these amazing stories with everyone.
I figured out what activists were doing in Faneuil Hall and learn everything I possibly could about a fascinating fellow named Prescott Town son, even talking to a couple of his friends when we were still able to do things like travel and meet up with people.
There’s so much more for us to learn and do, and I’m excited to see where this goes next.
Here’s a screenshot from my Acknowledgments page thanking all the people who helped me along the way.
If you’re reading this post, you helped, too. By being here for me.
I love you all. Thank you in the acknowledgements, she said to Jake and Nikki at Hub history for the podcast episode that marks where this project began.

[40:42] When we asked in the comments she shared that she was referring to our profile of Prescott Townsend in Episode 109 which is one of my favorites.
I wish I had known Mr Townsend.
Meghan, thank you very much for sharing your success with us. And best of luck.
We love getting listener feedback, whether we inspired the course of your master’s program or simply helped you choose a local historic site to visit when the world opens up.
If you’d like to share some feedback, you can email us at podcast of hub history dot com.
We’re hub history on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Or you can go toe hub history dot com and click on the Contact US link while you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link and be sure that you never miss an episode.
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If you do, drop us, a line will send you a hub. History sticker is a token of appreciation.

Intro And Outro

Jake:
[41:37] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there, listeners.