Page 63 - Demo

Among the many published reports of the Trumbull’s bloody battle is this one written by Captain of Marines Gilbert Saltonstall and published twenty-eight days later in the Massachusetts Spy.
war. I hope it won’t be treason if
I don’t except even Paul Jones—all things considered we may dispute titles with him.”
With evident pride, Nicholson wrote that “no people showed more true spirit and gallantry than mine did; I had but one hundred and ninety-nine men when the action commenced, almost the whole of which...were green country lads.” He paid tribute to the courage of the British crew as well: “I would sooner fight any two-and-thirty gun frigate they have on the coast of America, than to fight that ship over again.” Nicholson reluctantly broke off
and withdrew. He had lost too many men and his ship was too heavily damaged to continue the fight.
The battered Trumbull made for Boston, but the next day a heavy
gale carried away two of the shattered masts. Among the dozens of wounded men who suffered below deck was Jabez. He lingered, undoubtedly in misery, as the crippled warship struggled toward port. On June 14, 1780, as Trumbull reached Nantasket Roads at the southern entrance to Boston Harbor, Jabez died. That day Saltonstall noted simply: “Jabez Smith, Jr., of Groton, lieutenant of marines, killed.”
Jabez’ body was taken ashore and
laid to rest in Boston’s Granary Burying Ground. Within fifty yards lie Crispus Attucks, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock. Sometime later—long enough for the actual date of his death to have been
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