Gaspee Point

The point on Narragansett Bay where HMS Gaspee, a British revenue schooner, ran aground on June 9, 1772, while chasing the colonial packet boat Hannah. That night, Abraham Whipple led eight boatloads of Providence men to the stranded vessel, wounded its captain William Dudingston, put the crew ashore, and burned the ship to the waterline. The Gaspee Affair was the first violent act of colonial resistance and led directly to the formation of the Committees of Correspondence.