Battle of Nassau
On 17 February 1776, Hopkins decided to take advantage of the discretion offered him and skip his missions in the Chesapeake Bay and along the coasts of the Carolinas. Instead, he took the fleet to the Bahamas for a raid on the island of New Providence to seize a large supply of gunpowder reportedly stored in the two forts that protected Nassau. On 1 March, the fleet reached the coast of Abaco Island where the ship Alfred captured two small sloops and Hopkins obtained intelligence from the prisoners that New Providence lay undefended. Hopkins planned to take Nassau by frontal assault, slipping his landing party of 270 sailors and marines into the harbor hidden on board the captured sloops. It was hoped that the American troops would not be detected until the landing and assault on Fort Nassau began. Success in this endeavor would enable the fleet to enter the harbor while the fort's guns, then in American hands, held the town at bay.
The marines and sailors embarked on the two captured sloops on the evening of 2 March and headed for New Providence, hoping to arrive at daybreak. While following the sloops, the fleet attempted to remain out of sight until the landing party had secured the fort. Andrew Doria—popularly referred to as the "Black Brig"—outdistanced her consorts and found it necessary to lay-to until the other American warships caught up. As the troop-carrying sloops headed into the harbor, Fort Nassau's guns opened fire. The shot fell short but demonstrated that the American fleet had been detected and that its intentions had been surmised. Hopkins recalled his ships.
After conferring with his officers, Hopkins decided to land his troops two miles (3 km) down the coast from Fort Montagu, which protected the eastern approaches to Nassau. The marines and sailors went ashore on 3 March and marched to Fort Montagu whose garrison surrendered without offering any real resistance. On 4 March, the Americans took Fort Nassau and town of Nassau. The fleet remained for almost two weeks, dismantling the guns of the forts and loading the captured materiel. During this stay, large numbers of the crew of each ship were stricken by a virulent fever. This complicated an already serious health problem caused by an outbreak of smallpox on all of the ships except for Andrew Doria whose crew had been protected by inoculation due to the far-sighted insistence of Nicholas Biddle. As a result of the crew's immunization, Andrew Doria was selected to serve as a hospital ship for the fleet and continued in this role for the remainder of the expedition. On 16 March, Hopkin's fleet departed Nassau and headed north.
Read more about this topic: Andrew Doria (1775 brig)
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