John Rathbun

John Peck Rathbun (1746–1782) was an officer in the Continental Navy and in the United States Navy. Rathbun was from Rhode Island with family in Boston. Rathbun served in the Continental Navy from its late 1775 beginning as John Paul Jones First Lieutenant. Capture of Nassau Rathbun was promoted to Captain in April 1777 and given command of the sloop-of-war Providence upon which he had participated in an American attack on New Providence in 1776. Rathbun took Providence back to the Bahamas on the night of 27 January 1778. Rathbun approached Nassau disguised as a trading sloop and anchored offshore in darkness. Twenty-six marines under command of Captain John Trevett went ashore by boat with a scaling ladder. They climbed Fort Nassau's 22-foot walls with the ladder and overpowered the two guards before daybreak. The Marines then continued sending the guards' periodic "All is well" call to guards outside of the fort while repositioned the fort's 18-pound cannon to cover parts of the city and harbor from which reinforcements might arrive. Dawn found the American stars and stripes flying over conquered enemy territory for the first time since the Continental Congress approved the flag. While his remaining marines patrolled the wall in full view of the city, Trevett sent three Marines to Fort Montague with a claim that a force of 230 Marines held Fort Nassau. Fort Montague surrendered, and Marines spiked the cannon and poured the gunpowder into the sea. Twenty-four American merchant seamen came forward to assist. The Americans had been stranded in Nassau when their ships had been captured by privateers. The American merchant seamen were sent into the harbor to demand surrender of five ships lying under the guns of Fort Nassau. Rathbun brought Providence into harbor in the early afternoon, and loaded all Fort Nassau's gunpowder and 300 small arms. Rathbun departed on the morning of 30th, with three captured ships manned by the American merchant seamen, after spiking the guns of Fort Nassau and burning the two ships he could not man. No blood had been shed. Action At Sea In 1779, he assumed command of the frigate Queen of France and in July cruised off Newfoundland with Providence and Ranger. On the 16th, the ships sighted a convoy bound for Britain. Fog closed in, but when it lifted, Queen of France was next to a merchantman whose crew mistook the American for a British escort vessel.