The Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources (BUAR) has completed the first phase of its study of the Battle of Chelsea Creek. BUAR was awarded a grant (GA-2255-09-018) entitled "Chelsea Creek - First Naval Engagement of the American Revolution" from the National Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program in 2009 to study this early battle of the American War of Independence. While overshadowed by the iconic battles at Concord/Lexington and Bunker Hill, the Battle of Chelsea Creek (which occurred on May 27-28, 1775) was actually the first victory for the "United Colonies." It was also the first naval engagement of the American Revolution and resulted in the capture and burning of the HMS Diana. BUAR Director Victor Mastone and University of Massachusetts graduate students/BUAR research fellows Craig Brown and Chris Maio reconstructed battle events and the historic landscape to define and interpret the battle and narrowed the search area for the remains of HMS Diana. In addition, a high resolution GIS dataset and Citation Data Model of the temporal and spatial features associated with the battle and the 1775 Boston landscape have been developed and base-level and battlefield maps were produced within the GIS. See the Final Technical Report (PDF, 94 MB) for details. For additional information, contact David S. Robinson at David.S.Robinson@mass.gov.
Find information on this little-known battle from a study funded by the American Battlefields Program of National Park Service and undertaken by the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources (BUAR).