Town part of Revolutionary War's early days
Jamestown became a flashpoint in the war between the British and their rebellious colony 250 years ago. On June 15, 1775, merchant John Brown’s sloop, Katy, fired the first naval salvos of the revolutionary war from 4-pound cannons at a British naval vessel off the north end of the island, forcing it ashore. The peaceful island and surrounding bay soon were catapulted into all-out war.
That April in Newport, British Capt. James Wallace seized Brown, Providence’s wealthiest merchant, who already was notorious for burning the British vessel Gaspee in 1772.
Brown carried 300 barrels of flour aboard his ship, “bound to Providence for the Rebel Army,” according to British intelligence.
The British commandeered the flour for troops in Boston and extradited him with it. In Boston, he pledged to cooperate with the crown, was reimbursed and released. Back in Providence, he plotted an attack on the very navy that freed him.
Rhode Island merchants grew rich by leveraging their best asset, which was a protected port ideally positioned between Europe and the West Indian sugar trade. Newport boasted 127 wharves for this purpose. Its preeminent traders prevailed through audacity and evasion. Smuggling circumvented customs that paid for Britain’s global empire. During five British wars, merchants refitted their vessels into privateers to seize French and Spanish ships and booty.
When Britain sent cruisers to the bay to enforce customs collection and confiscate rebel supplies in 1775, local merchants responded combatively, as per custom. Weeks after a lawsuit failed to recover his cargo, Brown proffered his sloop, Katy, to attack the British, but demanded compensation: “It’s unreasonable that the public Should Desire me to Sacrifice all my private Interest for the Benefit of the Common Cause. It’s therefore proposed that the Colony purchase … the Katy under the Command of Captain Whipple … to meet Colonel Vernon with his men so as to be Reddy to go out tomorrow night.”
William Vernon, of Newport, Brown’s accomplice, began privateering and later, with his brother, Samuel, became the largest slave trader in Newport. He soon would lead the Continental Navy Board.
Wallace complained Vernon was “as great a Rebel as any in the Country,” and intercepted his brig, Royal Charlotte, from delivering rum and sugar to Boston rebels. Years earlier, the same brig had made four slave voyages.
Vernon’s archives reveal his success relied not only on selling humans but using dozens of enslaved workers to repair and sail his ships. Akraw Remington, of Jamestown, worked five days caulking Vernon’s ships alongside 10 other slaves. Their daily wages of five shillings went to their owners.
Akraw, who was enslaved by Benjamin Remington, may have operated the family’s Jamestown to Newport ferry service, explaining his contact with Vernon.
In June 1778, Remington sold Akraw to the state for 120 pounds to serve in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment under Capt. Daniel Dexter. Vernon also sold one slave to the state. Akraw fought in the Battle of Rhode Island but died in camp five months later.
Remington, a militia captain, fared better but saw his home burned during the war. He rebuilt it afterward, and it still stands at 16 Narragansett Ave.
The rebel sloop Katy was 60 feet long with six 4-pounder cannons, no match for the 20-gun frigate, HMS Rose, patrolling the bay. Whipple therefore targeted a smaller transport carrying coveted supplies.
Whipple had orders to “expel and resist by Force of Arms … and also to Kill, Slay and Destroy” invaders — though not “in Cold Blood” — and “seize as prizes” enemy ships.
On June 15, 1775, 12 British crewmen sailed a small transport between Gould and Conanicut islands looking for rebels. The Katy, armed with six carriage guns, 12 swivel guns and 50 men, opened fire, unprovoked, according to the British. Another rebel ship approached, firing from the opposite side with 50 men.
Cannons blazed for an hour while Newport residents watched from wharves. Ammunition dwindled and a gunpowder chest accidentally exploded, so the British beached the vessel on Jamestown without losses and hid. Rebels captured it.
The next day, the British sailors stole a boat, sailed to Narragansett, returned on a ferry posing as fishermen, then commandeered it to safety in Newport.
After America’s first naval skirmish, Wallace sent Whipple a warning: “You, Abraham Whipple, on the 10th June 1772, burned his Majesty’s vessel, the Gaspee, and I will hang you at the yard-arm. James Wallace.”
Whipple replied, “To Sir James Wallace, Sir Always catch a man before you hang him. Abraham Whipple.”
