This Day in History: Capture of Pigot
On this day in 1778, a daring American commander launches a nighttime raid against a heavily armed British ship. Silas Talbot was badly outgunned, and he had to sneak past enemy shore batteries.
Naturally, he succeeded anyway.
The British had been in control of Newport, Rhode Island, for nearly two years by this point in the American Revolution, and they were still in control of several important water routes in the area. The British schooner Pigot was guarding one of these passages in Narragansett Bay.
Enemy batteries also lined the shore, backing up Pigot.
Continental Army Major Silas Talbot knew the Rhode Island waters well, and it was left to him to eliminate Pigot. In an interesting twist, he undertook the mission aboard a privateer, despite his Army rank, but he did so with the approval of General John Sullivan.
His small sloop, Hawke, was outfitted with two 3-pounders, and she carried a crew of sixty soldiers, who’d been recruited by Talbot. These men would split any prize money 50-50 with the sloop’s owner.
Talbot approached Pigot in late October, but he was spotted by British sentries. He quickly hid Hawke in a nearby river. Climbing into a smaller boat, he traveled down the Sakonnet River for a little reconnaissance. He located Pigot and discovered that she'd been covered in protective netting, designed to prevent enemy sailors from boarding.
The British ship was also equipped with eight 12-pounders, but she had a smaller crew than Hawke. Talbot couldn’t match the British firepower, but he outmanned them—and perhaps he could outwit them. He returned to Hawke and ordered a kedge anchor lashed to its jib boom (the long wooden spar projecting from the bow of the ship).
He’d tear his way through that net, if he had to!
Talbot launched his attack the night of October 28-29. He’d already ordered Hawke’s sails pulled down, allowing the sloop to drift silently past the British shore batteries.
They came within range of Pigot not too long after midnight. The British marines aboard that schooner began firing at Hawke, but Talbot held his fire until he got close enough to run the anchor hanging from his jib boom through Pigot’s netting.
Then he cut loose, throwing “in such a volley of musketry, loaded with bullets and buck shot, and some cannon, that the [British] seamen that were on deck immediately ran below,” Talbot later reported, “begging for quarters, and them that were below never made their appearance upon deck.”
The only one who resisted, he described, was the British captain, who “behaved with resolution, and defended the sides of his vessel in his shirt and drawers only, without a single soul of his crew to assist him.”
A captain running around in his underwear, basically?!?
The nighttime raid had been an astounding success! The capture of Pigot cleared a passage for American shipping—and Talbot earned 500 pounds for his share of the sale of Pigot, to boot.
Hmm. Our American Revolution was won over the course of years by many, many contributions, both large and small. Perhaps Talbot’s daring raid is just another of these little-known victories, without which we might never have been free.
A note for those who are interested: Some of you might know I am running an experiment in history reels. If you are so inclined, check out my YouTube channel and/or subscribe to those HERE. Don’t miss the reel I created about the Space Shuttle Columbia, posted over the weekend.
Primary Sources
Gloria Schmidt, Silas Talbot and the Capture of the Pigot (portsmouthhistorynotes; March 4, 2024)
Louis Arthur Norton, Leading on Land and Water (Naval History Mag.; February 2020) (reprinted HERE)
Louis Arthur Norton, War at Sea and Waterways (1775–1783) (Journal of the American Revolution; Aug. 17, 2021)
Pigot (Naval History and Heritage Command)
The Virginia Gazette (Dec. 4, 1778) (printing Talbot’s account of the raid)
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