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The Gaspee
Affair
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In the
American Revolution ---- the American attack and capture of the English Navy
ship Gaspee was the
first deliberate attack against the English.
The English Attorney General and Solicitor General called
the capture and burning of the His Majesty's ship Gaspee--- "treason" and
an "act of war". It was both. Joseph Bucklin's shooting
of the English naval ship captain was part of that act of war.
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It was after midnight on June 10, 1772. There was no useful
moonlight and dark cloaked the Narragansett Bay, where the Gaspee, an
English Navy
schooner, had run aground on Namquid Point. Still, Joseph Bucklin could see the
vessel's commander on the starboard gunwale, swinging his sword and preventing
the attackers from boarding the Gaspee.
"Ephe," Bucklin said to his friend Ephraim Bowen, "reach me your gun, and I
can kill that fellow."
Bucklin fired. The English ship commander,
Lt. Dudingston, fell, with a terrible wound in his groin. The
colonists boarded the schooner, and took its crew prisoner. Joseph Mawney, a
doctor among the raiders, together with Bucklin, tended to Dudingston's wounds,
saving his life. The raiders with their prisoners rowed away, leaving one
longboat for the leaders of the American raiders. The leaders carefully
set the English Navy vessel on fire, before themselves leaving, just as dawn
came.
The English Attorney General gave King George
the legal opinion that this Gaspee raid, and the shot by Joseph Bucklin,
was the first Act of War in the American colonies.
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The English King proclaimed a £1000
reward in the American colonies for information leading to Joseph's arrest for
treason. Yet Rhode Island protected him and the Bucklin family.
Our research and education effort on the Gaspee Affair area of the Joseph Bucklin Society research and education effort is extensive.
On this website alone, we have over 100 pages of information. Moreover,
for more - and growing every month - take a look at our Gaspee.Info site. The greatest
amount of information is found in
this Gaspee. Info, a separate website that we maintain, devoted solely to
the history of the 1772 Gaspee attack,
plus an exclusive biographical
list of the Gaspee Raiders,
the men in the boats that captured and destroyed the Gaspee.
At our "Gaspee Info" site, read about such items as:
 | Summary of the capture and burning of the Gaspee |
| Three
American eye-witness accounts of the raid. |
|  List, and descriptions, of participants in the
Gaspee Attack |
| The colonists use of law and the courts as a
weapon against the English navy |
| In depth historical research about the event. |
| The geography, tides, and
moonlight of the attack. |
| Research and analysis of what Joseph Brown was
going to use to justify the attack. |
| Information about
Joseph Bucklin 4th, sea captain, and prominent merchant |
| Biographical information on Joseph Bucklin 5th, the 19
year old man who fired the critical musket shot of the attack. |
Gaspee History Edition:
11.02.2001 07:16:07 -0500
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