250 years later, Battle of Chelsea Creek receives its due

Boston Globe

23-05-2025

'We have the right to be in this land, and that's the beauty of the Battle of Chelsea Creek,' said Lourdes Alvarez, a native of Uruguay who is the manager for arts, culture, and creative economy for the City of Chelsea.
'We are the ones who live here now, and we have a responsibility to care for and preserve this history. This weekend is a celebration of a whole city.'
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More than a year in the planning,
The Colonial destruction of the HMS Diana, an armed British schooner, will be celebrated Saturday on both sides of the meandering Chelsea Creek, now an industrial waterway, where the battle occurred during the night and early morning of May 27 and 28, 1775.
The fighting began after Colonial militia had crossed onto Noddle's and Hog islands, now part of East Boston, to seize livestock and burn hay that otherwise could be used by British troops in Boston, which the rebels had besieged for more than a month since the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
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British commanders saw the smoke from the fires, dispatched a contingent of marines, and ordered the Diana and its four cannons to Chelsea Creek. Unfortunately for the British, the combination of a turning tide and hundreds of hostile rebels resulted in a debacle.
The Diana struck a mud bank, at least two British were killed; the Colonials stripped the schooner bare before setting it ablaze, which caused the ship's powder magazine to explode.
'It wasn't a great moment in British military history, to be sure,' said Jonathan Lane, executive director of the nonprofit Revolution 250, which helps communities across the state commemorate their connections to the war.
The Americans suffered only a few wounded, but the battle was notable for several reasons besides the shattered remains of the Diana, Lane said.
'It's the first time that soldiers from different provinces worked under a unified command,' Lane said. 'Knowing that soldiers would operate under the orders of somebody who's not from their town or their province was an important lesson.'
The battle also was the first time rebels used artillery in the Revolution.
Despite these firsts, the battle is not well known, even among many residents of Chelsea and East Boston. A small marker can be found near the Cronin Skating Rink in Chelsea. Across the creek in East Boston, an inscription has been placed at a park on Condor Street.
The remains of the 120-ton Diana have never been identified, but Lane believes what is left of the wreckage lies close to the site of the old Winnisimmet Ferry landing in Chelsea.
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Matthew Frank, chair of the Chelsea Historical Commission, said the battle's low profile is nothing new. A fourth-generation Chelsea resident and former president of the City Council, Frank recalled crossing the Tobin Bridge to Boston on school trips.
'Not once as we were going over that bridge would someone point and say, 'There was a battle down there,' ' Frank said. 'They couldn't tell us because they didn't know.'
'People want to feel that importance, to feel that important stuff happened here,' Frank added. 'You can't walk a mile if you don't walk a step. We need to rebuild our city pride.'
Steven Gingras, who is organizing the East Boston commemoration, echoed Frank's lament.
'Everyone knows Lexington and Concord, and everyone knows Bunker Hill. But Chelsea Creek is this battle that was right between them and gets lost in history,' said Gingras, a board member at the East Boston Museum and Historical Society.
'You can see it in the physical fabric, too,' he added. 'Lexington and Concord have their beautifully preserved greens and sites, and Bunker Hill has the monument. But we don't really have anything here.'
Like Alvarez in Chelsea, Gingras sees the battle as a point of pride for immigrant families to adopt and nurture.
'We're not the direct descendants of the people who lived and fought here,' Gingras said, 'but this is our neighborhood, and this can be our history, too.'
Walk around Chelsea today, and the footprints of diverse Latino nationalities are nearly everywhere — Salvadoran, Honduran, Mexican, among others — as the small, congested city of 40,000 people, once heavily Jewish, cycles through its latest demographic change. About 45 percent of residents were born outside the country, according to US census data.
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In Chelsea, the battle celebration is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Port Park and will include an artillery demonstration, Revolutionary encampment, and tours of the Ernestina-Morrissey, a 19th-century schooner used by the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
Across the creek at Urban Wild Park in East Boston, skirmishes between Colonial and British reenactors will be staged at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and boat tours along the battle site will depart at noon and 2 p.m.
In addition to marking history, Alvarez said, the festivities will be a much-needed break for Chelsea's new Americans, many of whom work multiple shifts to make ends meet.
'At times, just existing is revolutionary,' Alvarez said. 'That is why this battle is relevant. Every single day, you have to fight for freedom.'
Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at