The Lexington of the Seas (Battle of Machias)

[Iborche]

I've been wanting to put together a detailed history with all of the references and citations I have on some of my family's history from the Revolution, but after telling this story at our Patriot's Day events in Washington and GTEngineer giving nod to it in a another thread recently (https://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=62815.0), I can't let perfection be the enemy of good enough so here is my work-in-progress DOM style story about the Battle of Machias, the first naval battle of the war, which took place in June of 1775 and featured at least one, possibly two of my direct ancestors:




After the events of April 19th, 1775, word spread quickly throughout the colonies of the bloodshed and the Continental Army began to form. Boston was under siege and the only way in or out was through Boston Harbor. The only way in our out of Boston Harbor was with the written permission of Admiral Samuel Graves. With more soldiers arriving every week to Boston, General Gage needed lumber to construct barracks to quarter these troops and maintain the ships necessary to supply Boston. 

A trader by the name of Ichabod Jones was from Machias, a small settlement in Maine which exported lumber to the colonies and was reliant on shipments of supplies from Boston as they had just experienced a rather harsh winter. Admiral Graves authorized Jones to sail to Machias and deliver food and flour aboard his ships Unity and Polly, on the condition that he was escorted by the schooner HMS Margaretta under the command of Midshipman James Moore and return to Boston with lumber for General Gage.

Arriving in Machias on June 2nd, 1775, Jones was met with hostility from the town, as he refused to trade with the town unless lumber was supplied for the British. The people of Machias met, voted, and refused to do business with Jones even though it likely would mean starvation for their families. Moore brought HMS Margaretta within range of the town and threated to open fire if they would not do business with Jones. The people of Machias met again, voted again, and decided to do business with Jones after all. However, Jones now refused to trade with anybody who had voted against him. (Another version of this story says that Moore threatened to destroy the town if they did not remove their liberty pole raised to honor those at Lexington and Concord, however this is believed to be a legend fabricated by residents of Machias many years later. Keeping with the theme of our other stories, I tell the liberty pole legend instead of the historically accurate but less exciting ‘failed business deal' version).

This angered the patriots of Machias. Local militiamen and patriots met and devised a plan to capture Jones and Moore when their guard would be down at church services that Sunday. Jeremiah O'Brien, one of many O'Brien brothers in the group, was elected their leader.

On Sunday June 11th, 1775, Jones and Moore were attending church services and somehow were made aware of their impending capture. Some sources say Jones spotted a group of armed men approaching the building or perhaps Moore spotted a pistol concealed by a member of the congregation. Sensing danger, Moore leapt from a window of the church, ran to HMS Margaretta, fired a few cannons at the town, and set sail. Jones escaped into the woods. O'Brien and his crew of about 40 patriots commandeered Jones's recently abandoned ship Unity, outfitted her with hasty breastworks for protection, and gave chase the next day, June 12th.

Now this might sound like a high-speed chase, but it was nothing of the sort. Sailing vessels of that size averaged between 5 and 8 knots (about 6-9 mph) and HMS Margaretta had a day's head start on Unity. Perhaps a high-speed chase in slow motion? As HMS Margaretta neared the mouth of the bay, she was forced to jibe in strong winds which resulted in her main boom and gaff breaking loose. For those of you who aren't sailors, I probably just used a lot of new words. Basically, her sail broke, and she had very little ability to move as a result. This allowed the faster Unity to quickly catch up and cannon fire was exchanged between the two vessels.

An initial attempt by Captain O'Brien to bring the two ships together was repelled, but a second approach resulted in the two vessels becoming stuck to each other. A boarding party of patriots lead by Joseph Getchell took the fight to the decks of HMS Margaretta. In the short skirmish that followed, between three and five British sailors were killed and another nine wounded. Midshipman Moore, while throwing grenades onto the Unity was shot in the chest by Samuel Watts. Moore's second-in-command quickly surrendered HMS Margaretta to Captain O'Brien's crew after watching his Captain fall. Moore would die of his wound the next day. John McNeill (26) and James Coolbroth (22) were the only two men from Machias to be killed.
Fearing retaliation from the British, Captain O'Brien refitted the Unity with guns from HMS Margaretta and renamed her Machias Liberty. He called on the Massachusetts Provincial Congress for assistance, and they sent supplies and additional men to the town to crew the captured ships. Captain O'Brien and Machias Liberty received the first commission in the Massachusetts Sate Navy later in 1775 (I have not incorporated the ‘Pine Tree/ An Appeal to Heaven' flag yet but likely will the next time this story is told).

Multiple attempts were made by the British to destroy Machias throughout the course of the war, but each time the British sent ships, Captain O'Brien's fleet gained another one. Sailing as privateers, O'Brien and his men harassed British trade ships throughout the war. Vice Admiral Sir George Collier of the Royal Navy later wrote, "The damned rebels at Machias were a harder set than those at Bunker Hill"




Now here is where it gets fun for me: I am a direct descendant of both Joseph Getchell and Capt. Samuel Watts (6th great grandfathers). There is some uncertainty on if Capt. Watts was there himself, but his son, Pvt. Samuel Watts certainly was. For the sake of a Dangerous Old Man story, I imply it was the older Capt. Watts who was a veteran of the French and Indian War and was 59 years old in 1775, however it likely was the younger Pvt. Watts who fired the shot that killed Moore. Likewise, there may have been a father/son pair of Joseph Getchell's there, but both are direct ancestors.

The story is concluded by encouraging everyone to investigate their own family history. Even if they don't have an ancestor from the Revolution, I just about guarantee one of their ancestors at some point did something interesting, and I'd love to hear about it. We had a participant share recently that one of his ancestors was among those who crossed on the Mayflower!
In telling this story, I'll introduce it as an exclusive one they won't hear at many other events and link it to Washington State first by mentioning the small town of Machias we have here 30 minutes north of Seattle, which was founded in 1888 by Lysander Waterman Getchell and named for his hometown in Maine before doing the ‘big reveal' at the end with my links  to Joseph Getchell and Samuel Watts (L.W. is likely a distant cousin I discovered by accident when I went to shoot at the range in Machias, WA, otherwise it's such a small town I'd likely have missed it entirely. Another even smaller town a bit further north is named Getchell, after himself). All I've had time to find on L.W. is that he made his fortune from mining claims and was allegedly involved in stealing profits from a mine he managed for Buffalo Bill.


My grandfather thankfully did a lot of this research already, some other ancestors we know of with notable stories include:

• Hannah Watts Weston (1758-1856, Daughter of Capt. Samuel Watts, brother of Pvt. Samuel Watts), at 16 years of age she and her sister Rebecca took their small settlement's supply of powder and lead and carried it 16 miles through the woods to supply the men at Machias to defend against the suspected retaliation for the capture of HMS Margaretta.
• Col. John Daggett (1724-1803) A prominent figure in the town of Attleboro, who was voted to lead a raid against a loyalist group only 10 days before the events of April 19th. Reportedly, no shots were fired and 29 loyalists, along with their military supplies were captured. During the war, he commanded the Fourth Bristol Country Regiment.
• Hannah Duston (1657-1738, Grandmother of Capt. Samuel Watts), the first American woman to have a statue built in her honor for her story of escape from a group of Abenaki Indians during King William's War - an extremely violent story whose accuracy has been debated. Her home still stands in Haverhill. Not really Appleseed related, but still a prominent and controversial figure in the early days of English settlement.

Feel free to use any of this research or share the stories at your own events if you'd like! (I'll still tell our students here in Washington they're getting an exclusive story  )

[JayB]

A brilliant story, Ian!
Having heard this story told, it was pretty cool to see the looks on the students faces when they discover that Ian was related to the protagonists and then realize how history can have an impact on our modern lives.

Thanks for sharing.