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In this section of
Gaspee History
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Go the section on
Gaspee Raiders
for biographical
information on the Americans in the boats attacking the Royal Navy ship
Gaspee.
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Books: American Colonial and
Revolutionary War history or the people involved. We have suggestions
for you.
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Copyrighted.
© 2005
to Oct.2009, Leonard H. Bucklin.
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The
content of this site may not be reproduced except for brief excerpts for
reviews or scholarly references..
See
Copyright Notices,
Privacy Policy, and Warnings & Disclaimers.
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This is a history education and
research web site of the
Joseph Bucklin Society.
 References
in brackets [ ] or in curly brackets { } on any page in
this website are to books, or other materials, listed in the Joseph
Bucklin Society Gaspee Bibliography, or to materials held by the Joseph
Bucklin Society.
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The Rose, the command ship of the English
in 1772 on the American coast.
 On the
left is a 18th century drawing of the 1756 built English ship Rose, which
carried 24 guns. It was a
frigate.
Click on thumbnail to enlarge. Notice the three masts, the
considerable amount of sail, and the covered gun deck. The Rose was used as
the Admiral's command ship for the Atlantic Coast in 1772.
 The Rose
was recreated in the 20th century. This photo of the recreated Rose shows the
grace of this type of ship, compared to the huge behemoth multiple gun decks and
ponderous shapes of the battleships of the day, the "ships of the line."
Although graceful, the Rose was a substantial navel ship of the day, and easily
could outfight any of the ships possessed by the Rhode Island merchants.
The Rose continued in the Newport, Rhode Island area, as a principle
instrument of the English enforcement of the customs law, and for a base for the
seizure of militarily stores in the early days of 1775. In 1775, the
English command of the seas in the area of Newport was such that a Rhode Island
response after the Lexington and Concord battles was necessary. On 12 June, the General Assembly of
the Crown Colony of Rhode Island met at the Kent County Courthouse in East
Greenwich and created the very first Navy in the Western Hemisphere. A
Rhode Island navy was created for the express purpose of opening a way to the
ocean through the 24 gun frigate Rose and its
auxiliary ships stationed at the three exits out of Narragansett Bay.
This Rhode Island Navy consisted of two armed vessels - the sloop Katy,
with 12 guns, and the galley Washington, with six guns. The attempt
of the Rhode Island merchants to break past the Rose
led to the first purely naval engagement of the Revolution, in June of 1775,
when the Rhode Island sloop Katy, under Captain Abraham Whipple, engaged
the Royal Navy Schooner Diana. The Rhode Island Navy never did accomplish
its initial objective of driving off the Rose. The Rose only
met her end in 1779 in Savannah, Georgia, when she was scuttled to avoid
capture.
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