[1] Royal Navy Captain John Linzee,[4] commanding the sloop-of-war HMS Falcon, spotted two schooners that were returning from the West Indies.

In April 1775, tensions between British colonists in the Province of Massachusetts Bay and the royal governor, General Thomas Gage, boiled over into war.

[5] The siege, which only blockaded land access to the city, made the army dependent on the ability of the navy to supply it with fresh provisions.

Not long after the siege began, colonists and army troops clashed on May 27 near Boston over supplies on a nearby island.

He hastily gathered some half dozen men, armed them with rifles and, concealed behind sand mounds, kept up such a brisk firing that the sailors in the barge, supposing that a large company were ready to receive them, thought it prudent to desist from their sheep foraging intentions and returned to Falcon.

[9] On August 8 or 9 (sources disagree on the exact date[1]), Captain Linzee spotted two American schooners making sail for Salem around 8am.

The captain of the second schooner, apparently familiar with the area, brought his ship deep into Gloucester Harbor and grounded it near Five Pound Island shortly after noon.

[13] The arrival of the British ship had caused the townspeople to raise the alarm, and militia companies began to muster, led by their captains, Joseph Foster and Bradbury Sanders.