The British ship "Margaretta" was reportedly engaged and captured by locals in what is now Maine June 12, 1775 and was supposedly the first Naval action of the war. Is there a list of the indivduals or militia units involved? thanks, Charles

> The British ship "Margaretta" was reportedly engaged and > captured by locals in what is now Maine June 12, 1775 and > was supposedly the first Naval action of the war. > > Is there a list of the indivduals or militia units involved? There is no official contemporary record of the "locals" who participated although a casualty list can be compiled from contemporary records. The two published histories of Machiais contain compiled lists and the Maie Historical Society in Portland has a list compiled after those books were published. This list is partially water damaged -- one side appears to be a working draft of the list on the other side. As I recall, this list was dated 1896 or 1898 or so. The schooner "Marguerita" was a hired tender armed with a few swivel guns. Her orders were to escort the schooners "Polly" and "Unity" from Boston to Machais for wood and to recover the cannon salvaged from HM Armed Schooner "Halifax" which had wrecked on Sheep Island (now Halifax Island) the previous February. The inventory following her capture includes four small cannon which doubtless were in her hold at the time she was captured. The name "Margaretta" is one of the many phonetic spellings used by Rev James Lyons of Machias for the vessel. The British records uniformly call her the "Marguerita." The "Marguerita" was commanded by Midshipman James Moore with Midshipman Richard Stillingfleet as the second in command. Moore, born Easter Sunday 1750, the youngest son of Rev. Matthew & Jane Moore, had passed his examination for Lieutenant and was awaiting his commission. He was carried on the paybooks of HMS "Preston" as a Masters Mate solely because it paid better than the pay received by a Midshipman. Moore was mortally wounded during the affair. Stillingfleet, age 17, was the son of Thomas & Anne Stillingfleet of London. He died as a POW in the gaol at Northampton, Mass., on 30 Oct 1776. Defining the "first naval battle" of the Revolution is a challenge which requires stating one's assumptions. By Admiraly regulation a naval vessel armed with carriage guns was commanded by a commissioned officer; i.e., a Lieutenant or more senior officer. There was an event similar the the Machais affair in Buzzards Bay a month earlier. On the evening of 11 May 1775, HMS "Falcon" stopped a sloop owned by Thomas Wing which was going from Nantucket to Hiannis without clearance. It was learned from a crew member that a large vessel had just arrived at New Bedford from the West Indies. Therefore, Wing's sloop was pressed into service on Friday 12 May and a crew (gunners mate, surgeons mate and 11 seamen) under Midshipman Richard Lucas was sent to cut out the recent arrival. The cutting out expedition was successful and the vessels sailed down the bay into the fog. In the meantime, the good folks of Dartmouth raised the alarm and went in pursuit and captured both vessels at sea. There wasn't much of a fight as the British crews on watch had found the rum. This event is not as well known as the so-called "Margaretta affair" simply because a lesser paper trail -- Captain Daniel Egry of Dartmouth jumped on his horse and hightailed it to report to the Provincial Congress as they were afraid of British reprisals. Lucas et al. became POWs and following exchane, he was promoted only to be killed in battle in 1782. The "Naval Documents of the America Revolution," Vol 1 (1964), contains most of the pertenant documents re: the Machias affair. Bob Brooks, retired downeast on the coast of Maine