232 years ago on October 11^th 1776, New York fought in the first naval engagement of the fledging US Navy

On one side you had the British Empire led by Sir Guy Carleton with 30 major ships and 1670 trained seamen trying to cut the colonies in half and hopefully ending the independence movement. On the other side you have Benedict Arnold with 800 motley crew manning 16 ships, some built just days ago. Their job is to stop the British by whatever means possible to buy time. Arnold had his ships anchor on the east side of Valcour Island knowing that the British,  after rounding the island would have the winds in their faces as they tried to engage  the American ships. The battle started in earnest at 11 am, the Americans suffered greatly throughout the day with the Royal Savage run aground and abandoned, the Philadelphia holed and sunk and Congress, Washington, Jersey and New York badly damaged. The Americans had suffered 60 casualties including New York’s first victim who was killed when a cannon exploded onboard. The British set the Royal Savage on fire and she burned into the evening. At dusk Arnold held a war council with his remaining commanders onboard Congress and it was agreed to make a run for it under the cover of darkness and make way for Crown Point. At daybreak the British discovered to their horror that the Americans had escaped and they set off in pursuit. A running gun battle ensued and one by one the battered fleet was overtaken by the British until only the Congress and four gunboats remained. Arnold realized that reaching Crown Point by water was no longer an option so he grounded what was left of his squadron in Ferris Bay and burned them to prevent their capture.

“NEVER HAD ANY FORCE, BIG OR SMALL, LIVED
TO BETTER PURPOSE OR DIED MORE GLORIOUSLY”

A.T. MAHAN

For more info see

http://historiclakes.org/Valcour/valcour_battle.htm