Check out the story on this beautiful, historical print!

On June 2, 1775, Captain Ichabod Jones, with his two trading sloops, the Unity and the Polly, arrived in Machias with provisions the local inhabitants desperately needed due to the failure of their crops the previous year. Captain Jones was accompanied by the armed British schooner, the Margaretta which was under the command of Captain Moore. The British wanted to ensure that Captain Jones returned to Boston with his sloops loaded with lumber that the British needed to build barracks for their troops. The people of Machias were opposed to this, and when Captain Moore ordered them to take down their Liberty Pole, they decided to take action.

On June 12, under the leadership of Jeremiah O'Brien, about forty lumbermen, river drivers, farmers, and sailors armed with muskets, axes, pitchforks, mauls, etc... set off in pursuit of the Margaretta aboard the Unity. They caught up with the Margaretta off Round Island. A shot fired from a wall gun by Mr. Knight, an old moose hunter, felled the helmsman causing the Margaretta to lose way. This enabled the Unity to come alongside and the patriots to board the Margaretta, where a sharp hand-to-hand fight ensued, resulting in the surrender of the Margaretta to the Americans.

This was the first time the British flag was hauled down in American waters. The capture of the Margaretta was the first naval battle and also the first American victory of the Revolutionary War, since the battles at Concord and Lexington were defeats.