The Gaspee Affair: A Rhode Island Perspective on Its 250th Anniversary

“In a certain sense, the War for Independence began at sea when patriots clashed with the British on Narragansett Bay some two years before the momentous engagements at Lexington and Concord…”

The Conspiracy to Destroy the Gaspee

With but few exceptions, it has usually been surmised by historians that the 1772 attack on the Royal Navy schooner Gaspee was a spontaneous response to the accidental grounding of the King’s vessel…