May [1778] Sunday 24
Do [At Single Anchor off Dyers Island,] [R.I.]
[Monday 25]1
at 1 AM2 weighd & made sl. in Co. wth. the Flora [& the] Boats wth. the Land Forces fm. Rhode Isld.3 at 3 came too wth. the Sl. Br. in 11 fm water off Bristol Northernmt. Pt. of Prudence [Island] NW Popple Squash4 NbW & the Battrey on Bristol Ferry NE½E Landed the Forces set fire to the Town of Bristol destroyed a Number of Flat Boats took a Galley5 wth 15 Prisoners at 11 Troops embarked wth. out any Loss
[off Bristol Ferry and northern point of Island of Rhode Island] Moderate Gales & Cloudy
D, UkLPR, Adm. 51/1033, part 5, fols. 4–5.
1. Venus’s journal was one day behind. The date of the expedition was 25 May. See Journal of H.M. frigate Flora, 25 May, above.
2. On 24 May the Journal notes: “PM came on bd. 5 Flat Boats fm difft. Ships on a Secret expedition by order of Comdr. Griffiths unmoored & hove in to ⅓ of the sml. Br.” On the same date, Capt. John Brisbane of H.M. frigate Flora noted in his Journal that “PM at 4 a Pilot came on board, hove into ⅓. of a Cable at 7 Sent the flat boat & pinnace mann’d & arm’d on board the Venus.” UkLPR, Adm. 51/360, fol. 156.
3. That is, Newport on Rhode, present-day Aquidneck Island.
4. Popasquash Point.
5. Rhode Island Navy galley Spitfire, Capt. Joseph Crandall, commander. See Diary of Captain Frederick Mackenzie, this date, below.
