Trumbull-Watt Engagement
Trumbull-Watt Engagement
TRUMBULL-WATT ENGAGEMENT. 1 June 1780. In May 1780 the last of the original Continental Navy frigates, the twenty-eight-gun Trumbull, finally got to sea from New London, Connecticut, on her maiden voyage. On 1 June, about 250 miles north of Bermuda, Captain James Nicholson detected a sail and turned to investigate. The vessel was a thirty-two-gun ship from Liverpool, the Watt, sailing under a letter of marque and reprisal and commanded by John Coulthard. About twelve hours later, at 1 p.m., Nicholson cleared for action, and shortly thereafter the vessels engaged. In one of the hottest engagements of the naval war, they hammered away at each other at a range of fifty to eighty yards for two and a half hours, then separated. The Watt limped away to New York; the Trumbull had sustained so much damage that she could not catch up and headed for Boston. Nicholson's green crew had about 40 casualties out of 199 men; Watt had about 90 killed and wounded.
SEE ALSO Trumbull-Iris Engagement.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fowler, William M., Jr. Rebels under Sail: The American Navy during the Revolution. New York: Scribners, 1976.
United States Navy. Naval Historical Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. 8 vols. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1959–1981.
revised by Robert K. Wright Jr.