The date was the 23rd of April, 1778. Light snow was falling on the Irish Sea as Ranger, an American sloop-of-war, edged ever closer to the shores of Cumbria in northwestern England. Ranger was commanded by John Paul Jones, a Scotsman by birth and the most accomplished sea captain in the Continental Navy. His mission was to lead an attack of United States marines on the village of Whitehaven, located on the southern shores of the Firth of Solway, near where Jones had grown up.
Objective: Terror
Excluding a brief and aborted landing by Dutch soldiers in southern England in the late 1600's, there had not been an assault on English soil since the Norman conquest of 1066. The townspeople of Whitehaven were certainly not expecting an attack on their little town on this calm April morning.
At dawn of the 23rd, two boats landed thirty marines and a few sailors on the beach of Whitehaven. Jones divided his force into two detachments. The first detachment, which he led, attacked two small forts located at the entrance to the harbor. Their mission was to scale the walls, overcome the garrisons, and disable their cannon. The second detachment he ordered to set fire to the four hundred fishing and merchant vessels anchored in the harbor, most of them nested closely together in order to share an anchor line.
Whitehaven Awakes
The raid was successful. The two forts served as training facilities for the British Army and were thus weakly defended. It took little time for the Americans to scale the walls, surprise the small garrisons inside, and drive a nail into each cannon's touchhole, thereby rendering it temporarily useless. Jones set fire to one of the forts. In the harbor, American marines set fire to a vessel carrying coal, the flames igniting the rigging and spars of other vessels moored close by.
Citizens of Whitehaven, awakened by the smoke and shouting, ran out of their homes in a panic and fired whatever weapons they had at the Americans. They were soon reinforced by a few British soldiers, but the effect was minimal. The attack plan was well executed and the raiding party was able to return safely to Ranger. Damaged British cannon were unable to fire a single shot in reply.
Aftermath
From a military perspective, the raid was inconsequential. Whitehaven held no strategic importance for either side. Yet the effect of the raid on the British psyche was considerable. English soil had been violated and Britons now feared that Jones and other American sea captains would terrorize other seaports and coastal villages. The Royal Navy was put on full alert and invested significant resources to finding Jones and hanging him as a pirate. They never did capture him, and as a result, ships and men that otherwise would have been dispatched to America were kept close to home. Terror had won the day.
Sources:
John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy by Evan Thomas, Simon & Schuster, May 2004
John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography by Samuel Eliot Morrison, Naval Institute Press, September 1999
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