New Providence, 1776

The Continental Navy's first fleet left the Delaware in February 1776 under Commodore Esek Hopkins — eight ships, and aboard them a new corps of marines under Captain Samuel Nicholas in green coats. Their target was the British colony of New Providence in the Bahamas and its store of gunpowder.

On March 3 some 230 marines and sailors went ashore east of Nassau in the first amphibious landing in American naval history. Fort Montagu fell that afternoon without a fight. Fort Nassau, the flag over the town, surrendered the next morning.

They took 88 cannon and 15 mortars. The gunpowder — the reason for the whole expedition — had been loaded onto a sloop overnight by Governor Montfort Browne and was already gone.

Two longboats pull hard for a white beach under a towering sky, the sun breaking through on the left and a squall building on the right. The marines sit shoulder to shoulder in green, muskets upright, a flag streaming from the bow. Beyond them the fleet rides at anchor and, on the shore, a pale stone fort flies a British ensign over palms. Turquoise shallows and warm sand — it is the one painting in the series with a tropical light.