In the middle of the night, two ships approached each other and said some things to each other. Then, a grenade was seen thrown into the air from one ship and landed on the other ship causing a battle. On April 6, 1776, a fleet of seven American ships attacked a British vessel, which became known as the Battle of Block Island. It was a naval battle. The event took place at night in the waters near Block Island, Rhode Island. The Battle of Block Island was one of the first naval engagements between the Americans and the British during the American Revolution, which ended badly for the US Navy. An American naval commander, Commodore Esek Hopkins, led a successful raid with a fleet of ships on Nassau in the Bahamas. There he took supplies from a British supply base in Nassau and began a return journey to the colonies. On the return voyage, he captured two British ships called HMS Hawk and HMS Bolton, which were then manned by some of his crew. The fleet under his command sailed south to Block Island, Rhode Island, as Hopkins wanted more prizes to obtain before being docked in a port to unload his loot. Soon, one of the ships in the fleet spotted HMS Glasgow, a British ship, several miles away. Captain Tryingham Howe's HMS Glasgow came across Hopkins because it had left for Block Island before heading to Virginia (which was its destination) to sail with two other ships, Hawk and Bolton, knowing they were there. Unknown to Howe, the two ships had already been captured by Hopkins. As a result, he ended up finding Hopkins' fleet instead. Captain Howe wanted to know what ships were in the brig's company and Hopkins replied with "the Columbus and the Alfred, two... paper halves... ships of the British Navy." The only good thing that came out of this battle was that Captain John Hazard was dismissed for failing to engage in combat with his ship, the USS Providence, and command of that ship was given to John Paul Jones, the officer of the most successful rebel navy in the future. the struggle for American independence. Works Cited “Action Off Block Island.” Jfjcccmuseum.com. JAMES F. JUSTIN MUSEUM, CCCcompany Lobby, n.d. Web. December 5, 2013. “The Battle Off Block Island: “…Trouble from the Mouth of Its Cannon…” Awiatsea.com. Awiatsea, November 1, 2011 . Web. December 5, 2013. “Battle of Block Island.” TotallyHistory.com. Facts About Famous Events and Documents of the Past, n.d. Web. December 5, 2013. “Continental Navy Loses Battle of Block Island.” .com. Revolutionary War and Beyond, April 6, 2013. Web. December 5. 2013.