Barrels for Biscuits: Bermuda’s Secret Deal…
By mid-1775, the American revolutionaries faced a desperate shortage of gunpowder as the War of Independence against the British intensified.
At the same time, Bermuda, a British colony, was suffering under a trade embargo imposed by George Washington that cut off vital food supplies and pushed the island toward starvation.
In response to the crisis, Colonel Henry Tucker, who lived at Tucker House on Water Street in St. George’s, travelled to Philadelphia as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1775). There, he met with Benjamin Franklin and successfully negotiated a secret agreement: Bermuda would provide gunpowder to the revolutionary forces in exchange for desperately needed food.
On the night of August 14, 1775, the plot was put into action.
Tucker and a group of local men broke into the Royal Magazine on the outskirts of St. George’s, brazenly stealing 100 barrels of gunpowder. Under cover of darkness, the heavy barrels were rolled to Tobacco Bay and then rowed out to the American ships Lady Catherine and Savannah waiting offshore.
The stolen powder reached General Washington’s army in time to help sustain the Siege of Boston. In return, the Continental Congress lifted the embargo allowing much needed provisions including salt and flour to be sent to the island.
When the Governor of Bermuda George James Bruere – a staunch loyalist whose own sons were fighting for the British in America – discovered the theft, he was furious. Yet despite the scale of the operation, no one was ever prosecuted.
This humiliating incident convinced Britain that Bermuda could no longer remain lightly defended, leading to the massive military buildup that eventually earned the island the nickname “Gibraltar of the West.”
Did this daring collaboration alter the course of the American War of Independence?