The schooner that arrived on June 2 that year was carrying provisions and planned to leave with a load of lumber, as it had done many times. But bad timing, bad company and bad attitude would make this trip very different for schooner owner and captain Ichabod Jones. Jones, prosperous merchant, vessel and store owner, brought more than merchandise on the few trips he made to the settlement each year. He brought news, about the only way it traveled there, by word of mouth. The big news at the time was of the people of Boston and their struggle with the king.
Jones was coming from Boston to pick up a load of lumber to be used in the construction of British army barracks there; this less than two months after farmers at Lexington fired on and sent stunned British regulars literally running back to Charlestown with the militiamen at their heels. Jones, fearful of probable war, had made a deal with the British to ship the lumber if he could get his family out of Boston. To insure delivery, the British warship Margaretta accompanied Jones' boats, the Unity and the Polly, to Machias.
Residents of Machias were not real fond of having a British warship in their harbor. News of events at Lexington and Concord had the people tuned in to the changing relationship of the colonies to England. A meeting was held at Burnham's Tavern to vote on trading for provisions under the circumstances. Benjamin Foster, a local patriarch, suggested making a "liberty pole" to show their support of the colonies and independence. The pole was a large pine tree in the center of town with all but the topmost branches removed. It was one of the first liberty poles to appear.
The Margaretta's captain, James Moore, ordered the pole removed or the town would be fired on. For the next week and a half Jones was involved in negotiations for the lumber and the provisions the town sorely needed.
Tensions from the British threat only increased the resolve of the people to resist. Finally, the divided vote favored trading with Jones. But Jones said he would only trade with those who supported him in the vote, a decision which further alienated the townspeople. He was able to convince Captain Moore not to fire on the town until after a town meeting on the 14th. Meetings to decide a course of action were divided. Benjamin Foster was in favor of taking Jones' sloops and using them to capture the men on the Margaretta. Some thought only by going along with the agreement to trade could they avoid starvation. Foster, having fought in the siege of Louisbourg in 1745, had the most military experience of anyone in the settlement. He would be the most prominent in planning the expedition. Morris O'Brien's six sons were the most enthusiastic and prominent in the action. The coolness of Foster and the fired-up O'Briens overwhelmed prudence.
Tired of the debate, Foster called out for all those in favor of capturing the Margaretta to follow him. All of them went with him that Sunday, the 11th of June. They immediately made a plan. The British officers would be at church for Sunday services. It was decided to surround the building and capture them. Some of Foster's men were planted in attendance as worshippers. However, Foster and the others were seen approaching the building at a distance and the British officers fled through an open window. Jones bolted into the woods and hid.
Moore made it to his ship, weighed anchor immediately and headed down river. A crowd had gathered along the banks, which included men from surrounding towns who had come in support of what was unfolding. As the Margaretta moved down, the people on the both banks harassed it with musket fire. Some went out in small boats and canoes to shoot. At this point Foster and the O'Briens decided to get Jones' sloops to chase the Margaretta. There are three rivers at Machias, the East, the Middle and the Machias that join for a couple of miles before flowing into Machias Bay and broad Holmes Bay. The Margaretta sailed for Holmes Bay damaging her gaff and main boom in the process. Moore came upon an American coaster lying in Holmes Bay. He took her gaff and boom, then pressed her captain, Robert Avery, to serve as their pilot.
O'Brien and Foster spent the rest of the day gathering a crew of volunteers. The Polly was passed over because of its condition, so Foster went to the East River to get a schooner and a volunteer crew; O'Brien went to the Unity. Early the next morning both boats proceeded down the river. The East River vessel soon ran aground and saw no action. All six O'Brien brothers were on board the Unity, father Morris was only dissuaded from going by his sons at the last minute. Of the 40 men on the Unity only half had muskets, and for these just three rounds of ammunition each. The rest were armed with pitchforks and axes.
With a favorable wind, the impulsively organized expedition completed its plan on the way down river. Jeremiah O'Brien, the oldest brother, was made captain. Knowing there was no powder to shoot it out, it was decided to bear down on the enemy ship, board her and let the battle play out on deck. Here on these rivers, at a time when the ancient forests still lined the banks and their estuary with rock cliffs that formed the port, these hastily gathered, undisciplined 40 men with no military experience, set out to chase down a vessel armed with muskets, sixteen swivel guns, four four-pounders and a crew trained by the world's most powerful navy.
As the sloop came into the broad river below Machiasport village, the enemy vessel came into view. When within hailing distance, Moore warned them to bear off. O'Brien called for them to surrender. Moore held his fire, the breeze stiffened and he set all sail to escape. While headed out to sea the sloop was closing, and a collision unavoidable. Moore fired, killing a man on the sloop; the sloop returned with a volley, then the two came together and John O'Brien jumped on board the British ship. The vessels then swung apart leaving O'Brien alone on the enemy's quarter-deck. He said seven rounds were fired at him with none striking. When the British marines charged him with bayonets, he dove over the rail and swam to the sloop. The first shots fired mortally wounded Moore.
Joseph Wheaton, one of the Unity's crew, wrote many years later a detailed account of the action. He says that the Margaretta, after having replaced her broken boom, "was Making Sail when our Vessel came in Sight; then commenced the chace, a Small lumber boat in pursuit of a well armed British vessel of war Ð in a Short time she cut away her three boats. Standing for sea while thus pursuing, we aranged our selves, appointed Jeremiah Obrien our conductor, John Steele to steer our Vessel, and in about two hours we received her first fire, but before we could reach her she had cut our rigging and Sails emmencely; but having gained to about one hundred yards, one Thomas Neight fired his wall piece, wounded the man at the helm and the Vessel broached too, when we nearly all fired. At this moment Captain Moore imployed himself at a box of hand granades and put two on board our Vessel, which through our crew into great disorder, they having killed and wounded nine men. Still two ranks which were near the prow got a second fire, when our bowsprit was run through the main shrouds of the Margarette and Sail, when Six of us Jumped on her quarter deck and, with clubed Muskets drove the crew from their quarters, from the waist into the hold of the Margarette; the Capt. lay mortally wounded, Robert Avery was killed and eight marines & Saylors lay dead on her deck, the Lieutenant wounded in her cabin. Thus ended this bloody affray." ÐWheaton to President Adams, February 21, 1801. Twenty of O'Brien's men armed with pitchforks rushed Margaretta's decks. These were not the modern type of pitchfork, but a heavy double spear set in a long ash handle. While at close range the remaining ammunition was used. The fighting was too fierce for the reloading of the enemies' muskets. The British neither knew the Americans were out of ammunition nor had they any idea how to challenge pitchforks in hand-to-hand combat. With Moore down, the midshipman next in command panicked and fled below deck, giving up the ship.
This engagement was the first naval battle of the American Revolution. After Lexington the British were officially the enemy and the patriots decided not to supply them. The threat by the British to fire on the town was real, as they would soon demonstrate in the burning of Falmouth. In 1776 and 1777 different British officers received orders to destroy Machias. But residents withstood these efforts to a degree that Machias became known as a "hornets' nest" to the British Admiralty. One British officer said, "The damned rebels at Machias were a harder set than those at Bunker Hill."