North Channel Naval Duel - The Ranger Mission

The Ranger Mission

With a single small Continental Navy sloop of war, the Ranger, Jones sailed from Brest on 10 April 1778, and headed for the coasts of the Solway Firth, where he had first learned to sail. Following an unsuccessful attempt to raid the port of Whitehaven in Cumberland, on the night of 17–18 April, he harassed shipping in the North Channel, then on the night of 20–21 April Ranger entered Belfast Lough in northern Ireland, with the intention of seizing a Royal Navy ship moored off Carrickfergus, HMS Drake. Unsuccessful, he returned to Whitehaven, and achieved the first key target of his mission, landing a large party at the harbour in the night of 22–23 April and setting light to a merchant ship. This raid was followed within hours by another, at the Scottish seashore mansion of the Earl of Selkirk, near Kirkcudbright. Even as the news of those deeds was racing to alert Britain's defences, Ranger was on the way back to Carrickfergus.