Sunday, December 16, 2012

Yo HO!







Fact checked!

From wikipedia:

HMS Romney was commissioned in August 1762 under her first commander, Captain Robert Walsingham, but was paid off by February the following year. When she recommissioned in June 1763, it was under the command of Captain James Ferguson.[2] Romney became the flagship of the commander of the North American station, Rear-Admiral Lord Colvill, and served in this capacity for the next three years.[2] After a brief refit at Portsmouth The Romney recommissioned in March 1767 under Captain John Corner, as part of a squadron sent to North America under Samuel Hood.[2] While serving off North America, Romney achieved a degree of notoriety after being sent to Boston Harbour to support the commissioners, who had asked Hood for help in enforcing the Townshend Acts.[4] She arrived on 17 May 1768, but being short of men, Captain Corner began to impress seamen from the harbour. This was unpopular with the locals, who took to attacking the press gangs. Events escalated when the commissioners in the town ordered the seizure of the merchant vessel the Liberty, which belonged to John Hancock.[4] When sailors and marines from the Romney attempted to seize the vessel, mobs attacked them and then turned on the commissioners. Many of the officials took refuge aboard the Romney, before transferring to Castle William.[5] These incidents heightened tensions that would eventually lead to the Boston Massacre in 1770.[5]

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