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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 4h

Oct. 11, 1775: The Bermuda governor’s council voices its “unfeigned Concern for the Robbery committed on the Powder Magazine,” which was actually a secret sale by merchants to American traders Aug. 14. They seek greater protection of the island from enemy vessels.

Naval Documents of the American Revolution

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 5h

While illict selling of gunpowder to the Americans may be taking place, de Nozières says, “I can assure Your Excellency that I have no knowledge of it, I gave my orders a long time ago that no one was to allow anything of that nature to leave our ports.” 2/2

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 5h

Oct. 11, 1775: Count de Nozières, the French governor of Guadeloupe, writes to British Vice Adm. James Young to protest what he calls unlawful British seizures of French ships off the island. “This act of violence would not be suffered even in time of war in a neutral port,” he writes. 1/2

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 6h

Oct. 11, 1775: The Continental Congress directs the delegates from Pennsylvania and Connecticut to discuss their respective colonies’ border dispute and prepare a report. A claim by Connecticut settlers to hold land in Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley recently touched off conflict.

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 7h

“And as in the present unsettled State of that Country, a regular Election can hardly be expected, we must acquiesce in the Choice of such Parishes and Districts as are disposed to join us.” 3/3

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 7h

America’s goal is “that the Canadians be induced to accede to an Union with these Colonies, and that they form from their several Parishes a Provincial Convention and send Delegates to this Congress. 2/3

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 7h

Oct. 11, 1775: Congress President John Hancock writes to Gen. Philip Schuyler, who commands the invasion of Canada, that the members expect the campaign to lead the Canadians to join the 13 United Colonies. 1/3

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 8h

(From the National Park Service’s “Bicentennial Daybook,” 1975)

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 8h

Oct. 11, 1775: Having learned that a force of British ships were at Long Island foraging wood for use in Boston, the Massachusetts House of Representatives resolves to send troops under Col. James Cargill, with 16 days of provisions "to prevent the enemy's executing their purpose.”

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 9h

However, no account of a lost ship called the Octavius appears anywhere in 18th century shipping records, nor of a discovery of frozen bodies. The earliest account of a ghost ship off Greenland can be found in 1828, in the form of a story clearly influenced by the legend of the Flying Dutchman. 4/4

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 9h

The last entry in the log is from Nov. 11, 1762, north of Alaska, indicating the Octavius became trapped in ice there and made its way through the Northwest Passage as a ghost ship. After the Herald returns to England to tell the story, the Octavius is never sighted again. 3/4

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 9h

The men go below decks and behold a horrifying sight: 28 people dead, frozen and perfectly preserved. The captain is at his desk, pen in hand over a log. The would- rescuers flee in terror, but not before taking the log. 2/4

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 9h

Oct. 11, 1775: This is the date often given for the supposed discovery of a ghost ship called the Octavius. As the eerie story goes, a whaler called the Herald encounters the vessel off Greenland, and sends a five-man party to board it. 1/4

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 10h

Oct. 11, 1775: On his first full day as commander of the British army in America, Gen. William Howe decides to abandon a plan for sending troop reinforcements to Quebec. He and other generals agree the season is too far advanced, and the St. Lawrence River will soon be obstructed by ice.

The frozen St. Lawrence (19th century illustration)

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 1d

(From the National Park Service’s “Bicentennial Daybook,” 1975)

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 1d

In response the Massachusetts House agrees to furnish them coat, one pair of breeches, one pair of stockings, one shirt and one pair of shoes. 2/2

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 1d

Oct. 10, 1775: British prisoners taken during June’s Battle of Bunker Hill petition the Massachusetts legislature from the jail where they’re being held in Concord, Mass. “Pray your Honours to take under consideration our disagreeable necessity of applying for clothing to cover out nakedness.” 1/2

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 1d

No decision is reached before a rare midday adjournment. John Adams reports: “Our Advices from England breath nothing but Malice, Revenge and Cruelty.” 2/2

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 1d

Oct. 10, 1775: On the floor of Congress, a dozen members debate the best way to appoint Army officers. Samuel Chase is among those arguing that “giving the choice of officers to the people, is attended with bad consequences.” Others insist majorities know best for themselves who should lead. 1/2

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 1d

(From the National Park Service’s “Bicentennial Daybook,” 1975)

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 1d

Oct. 10, 1775: “Many are obliged to sale their blankets and shirts to get bread, and others begging on the road,” writes Connecticut Lt. Lemuel Gibbs to the governor on conditions at Fort Ticonderoga. “I beg that there may be some provision made; if not, we must expect never to raise any more men.”

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 1d

Oct. 10, 1775: American trader Nicholas Biddle, on a secret mission to obtain arms and gunpowder for Washington’s Army, reaches Lorient, France, only to find sellers want nothing to do with him. “1 found there was no powder to be had here and therefore set off in a small French coaster for Nantes.”

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 1d

Oct. 10, 1775: Thomas Jefferson writes to brother-in-law Francis Eppes from Philadelphia after arriving to represent Virginia in Congress. He foresees that a British force massing to cross to America will aim “to take possession of New York and Albany, keeping up a communication between them.”

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 1d

Oct. 10, 1775: American soldiers carry away several of the “king’s stores” in carts from British army barracks in downtown New York. Loyalist Gov. William Tryon demands their return. The city government arranges to have this done, blaming the incident on the “Feat of a drunken Guard.”

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 1d

The British ship trades gunfire with the Americans for a while before it manages to free itself and sails off. The Americans repair and refloat the Hannah but it’s apparently too damaged to be of much use, as it’s decommissioned a few weeks later. 4/4

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