Gaspee Affair

Gaspee Affair
Part of the events in the lead-up to the American Revolutionary War
Burning of HMS Gaspee
Date June 9, 1772 Location Near Gaspee Point, Warwick, Rhode Island Result American victory
Belligerents
Sons of Liberty	Kingdom of Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
Abraham Whipple John Brown	William Dudingston +
Casualties and losses
None	HMS Gaspee captured and burned

The Gaspee Affair was a significant event in the lead-up to the American Revolution. HMS Gaspee was a British customs schooner that had been engaged in anti-smuggling operations. It ran aground in shallow water on June 9, 1772, near what is now known as Gaspee Point in the city of Warwick, Rhode Island, while chasing the packet boat Hannah. A group of men led by Abraham Whipple and John Brown attacked, boarded, looted, and torched the ship.

The event renewed hostilities between the American colonists and British officials. Following the Boston Massacre in 1770, British officials had worked to reduce tensions with the colonies by repealing some aspects of the Townshend Acts and working to end the American boycott of British goods. British officials in Rhode Island wanted to eliminate some of the illicit trade that had defined the small colony in order to increase revenue from the colony.

British officials wanted to reduce hostilities between the Crown and the colonies, while the Rhode Island merchants did not. Colonists protested the Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, and other British impositions that had clashed with the colony’s history of rum smuggling and slave trading.

British officers clashed with Rhode Island officials concerning the events that had taken place in the burning of the Gaspee. Rhode Island Governor Joseph Wanton challenged the narrative of the events as explained by Lieutenant William Dudingston, the commander of the Gaspee, and of Admiral John Montagu, the head of British forces in North America. Wanton also challenged the claims of Aaron Briggs, an indentured servant claiming to have participated in the burning. The Gaspee Affair and aftermath further deepened the divide between British and colonial officials in North America.

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