Henry Mowat Henry Mowat ( 1734 – 1798 ) was an officer of the Royal Navy commanding ships in northern New England during the American Revolutionary War . He was the son of Captain Patrick Mowat of the post ship HMS " Dolphin " . He was born in Scotland and went to sea at the age of 18 . Career . After six years as an able seaman and midshipman Mowat was commissioned a Lieutenant aboard HMS " Baltimore " in 1758 . In 1764 , Lieutenant Mowat was given command of the recently purchased 16 - gun sloop HMS " Canceaux " . " Canceaux " , with Mowat in command , conducted a hydrographic survey of the coast of North America from the estuary of the Saint Lawrence River to Boston . While so engaged , Mowat was ordered to Portsmouth , New Hampshire in December , 1774 , to protect military supplies at Fort William and Mary . Paul Revere alerted the local militia of rumored British seizure of munitions there ; gunpowder was removed from the fort by patriots before Mowat arrived , and a colonial maritime pilot ran " Canceaux " aground in the Piscataqua River estuary . It was several days before the tide refloated " Canceaux " . Mowat patrolled the New England coast for smugglers until ordered to Falmouth ( present - day Portland , Maine ) in March , 1775 to assist a loyalist shipbuilder who was attempting to defy the Continental Association boycott on goods manufactured in Great Britain . Mowat was temporarily taken prisoner by militia from Brunswick , Maine during Thompson ' s War a few weeks after the battles of Lexington and Concord . " Canceaux " resumed coastal patrols after Falmouth loyalists negotiated Mowat ' s release . Mowat was ordered to undertake a punitive mission following the battle of Machias to " chastize " the seaports of Marblehead , Salem , Gloucester , Ipswich , Newburyport , Portsmouth , Saco , Falmouth , and Machias . Mowat left Boston aboard " Canceaux " on 6 October 1775 in company with the 20 - gun ship " Cat " , the 12 - gun schooner HMS " Halifax " , the bomb sloop HMS " Spitfire " and the supply ship HMS " Symmetry " . Mowat directed the flotilla ' s 9 - hour bombardment in the Burning of Falmouth on 18 October 1775 . Mowat was given command of the recently purchased 16 - gun sloop HMS " Albany " in 1776 . As captain of " Albany " , Mowat was the senior officer of a three - ship squadron formed with the 16 - gun sloops HMS " North " and HMS " Nautilus " to defend Castine , Maine against the Penobscot Expedition . Mowat skillfully anchored the sloops so they blocked the harbor entrance while their broadsides could provide mutually supportive fire with British forces ashore . He moved 6 - pounder cannon from the unengaged side of his squadron ashore for use by soldiers defending their incomplete fortifications . Mowat ' s squadron held the harbor against a flotilla of 15 ships mounting 290 guns ; and his skillful deployment of naval artillery enabled the outnumbered British force to withstand a siege from 23 July 1779 until reinforcements arrived on 14 August 1779 to defeat the attacking colonial force . Mowat was promoted to Captain and given command of the 50 - gun fourth rate ship of the line HMS " Assistance " in May 1795 . " Assistance " sailed to Halifax Harbour in March , 1796 and captured the 40 - gun French frigate " Elizabeth " on 28 August 1796 . Captain Mowat died of apoplexy on 14 April 1798 while " Assistance " was cruising off Chesapeake Bay . He is buried in the Episcopal churchyard in Hampton , Virginia . Legacy . A few years before his death , Mowat wrote " A Relation of the Services in which I was Engaged in America , from 1759 , to the close of the American War in 1783 " . It was never printed , but was described as a folio in an 1843 London book store advertisement . Late 19th century American historians of the Revolutionary War launched an exhaustive search for the manuscript , including substantial reward offers , in the hope it might provide missing information about the early battles in which Mowat had participated . A manuscript ultimately found in Edinburgh did not meet the mythical expectations evolved through the period of searching . There was no mention of the burning of Falmouth and little new information about the Penobscot expedition .