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Click on the
Yellow Tabs at the top of this page
to read about
the Gaspee Attack or
read about each Raiders.
Click on
the Blue Tabs below to
obtain a table of contents to one of the two divisions of the Gaspee information available to you.
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In the
American war of independence ---- the Gaspee Attack was the first planned
use of force, in all the American colonies, against a ship of the
Royal Navy, and the first shot
intended to kill an English military officer.
The 1772 Gaspee Affair --- the Rhode Island men's attack on the Gaspee
--- was officially
declared by the English to be the first act of war.
This was the true beginning of the American Revolutionary War. This is
where the American Revolutionary War started!
There are two divisions of this Gaspee Info site.
 | The Gaspee Attack.
Read the fascinating story of the resourceful
Americans attacking the English navy ship Gaspee; the background,
the reasons for the Rhode Island attack, and the English reactions to
the attack, including the Royal Commission that alarmed the other
colonies. Browse pages of information investigating and
reporting the history, background, and events of the attack. This is the gateway to one of the two best places to find the
history and the current research on the events of the Gaspee attack.
The Gaspee Attack
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| The
Raiders List . We have a list and biographical information of the men
(including Joseph Bucklin) who attacked the Gaspee Read
about the American raiders, who they were, and the events in their lives
before and after the attack. Their names were so well hidden by
the conspiracy of silence when the English sought to find and hang these
men. Their names were unknown for years. Now, original research by
the Joseph Bucklin Society and others of the Gaspee Scholars has
produced major additions to the list of men who gathered and generated
the first act of war in the American Revolution. The Raiders List.
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The First Shot of the
Revolution! .It was after midnight on June 10, 1772. There was no useful
moonlight and dark cloaked the Narragansett Bay, where the Gaspee, an English
Navy
schooner, had run aground on Namquid Point. Yet there was enough light so that Joseph Bucklin could see the
Gaspee's commander on the starboard gunwale, swinging his sword and preventing
the American attackers from boarding the English schooner.
"Ephe," Bucklin
said to his friend Ephraim Bowen, "reach me your gun, and I can kill that
fellow.". . .
Read the full story.
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The Rhode Island attack on the English Navy ship Gaspee
was a significant event in the history of the American Colonial Revolution
and the start of the American Revolutionary War, This site is part of the
Joseph Bucklin Society's research and educational efforts. The Joseph
Bucklin Society is dedicated both to researching and preserving the
history of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island colonists and the
descendants of William Bucklin, and also transmitting their example of
courage, vitality, faith, duty, and honor.
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The Joseph Bucklin Society
The Gaspee Affair --
at this site.
At other JBS sites
read
American Colonial History 1630 to
1799
and the History of the
Bucklin Family
Here we concentrate on the Gaspee
Affair of 1772, the first shot in the American Revolution, and we
make it interesting.
Leonard Bucklin, historian and re-enactor, brings
to life Capt. Joseph Bucklin !V, by relating the Captain's thoughts,
experiences, and Rhode Island history leading to his son's shooting
of the English Navy commander in the 1772 attack on the English Navy
ship Gaspee. The
inspirational talk can be any length, to accommodate the needs of the
group.
Contact the Society
for more
particulars.
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Find out more about the Joseph
Bucklin Society
If you are a historian, a
Bucklin, or
have an interest in the Gaspee Affair of 1772.
Many Benefits!
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Gaspee Information