Falmouth Burns: Continental Navy Born From Destruction

British warships bombarded and burned the town of Falmouth, now Portland, Maine, destroying over 400 buildings in retaliation for colonial resistance. The gratuitous destruction outraged the Continental Congress and directly accelerated the creation of the Continental Navy to protect American coastal towns from Royal Navy aggression. The bombardment came on October 18, 1775, when Captain Henry Mowat sailed four Royal Navy vessels into Falmouth's harbor and demanded the town surrender its arms and pledge loyalty to the Crown. Given two hours to evacuate, residents fled into the surrounding countryside while Mowat's ships poured cannonballs and incendiary shells into the defenseless town for eight hours. Three-quarters of the buildings were destroyed, including the courthouse, the church, the library, and most of the warehouses that supported the town's fishing and lumber trade. The attack was ordered by Vice Admiral Samuel Graves as part of a punitive strategy to terrorize coastal New England into submission, but it had the opposite effect. Delegates in Philadelphia were incensed. Within days, the Continental Congress authorized the outfitting of armed vessels to defend American ports, laying the foundation for the Continental Navy that was formally established on October 13, 1775. The burning of Falmouth joined the burning of Norfolk, Virginia, and other British attacks on civilian targets as propaganda victories for the patriot cause, demonstrating to fence-sitters that the Crown was willing to destroy the property and livelihoods of its own colonial subjects. Portland rebuilt and became Maine's largest city.