Battle of Bunker Hill reenactment includes sea operations

By Ethan Forman | Staff Writer

Jun 22, 2025

While most people saw the action on land during the reenactment of the Battle of Bunker Hill in Gloucester, some took part aboard ships reenacting the Royal Navy off Half Moon Beach.

The ability to recreate an amphibious assault was a major reason Stage Fort Park was an ideal spot for the battle event, according to Maritime Gloucester Executive Director Michael De Koster.

He spent Saturday morning overseeing the landing from the vantage of a small rowboat with an outboard motor in the Outer Harbor.

De Koster said on the docks at Maritime Gloucester that the small boats ferrying the British troops to the beach came from as far away as Delaware, New Jersey and South Carolina.

Charlestown was a peninsula in 1775 and when American forces took the high ground and fortified them overnight during the Siege of Boston, the British attacked to take Bunker Hill. The British used longboats to ferry troops from Boston to Charlestown and it was that landing that was recreated Saturday at Stage Fort Park’s Half Moon Beach around 9 a.m.

“These are period boats and period reenactors,” De Koster said.

About 58 reenactor soldiers recreated the water landing. He noted that each boat had four to five rowers in them along with the British troops.

Maritime Heritage Charters’ schooner Ardelle stood in for the flagship HMS Lively, said to be the first ship to shoot its cannon to start the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Ardelle ferried passengers out for a look at the British landing. It was skippered by its builder, Capt. Harold A. Burnham of Essex, the master mariner, boat designer, sail maker and shipwright. He dressed in a period blue uniform of a Royal Navy officer.

Other vessels taking part that were built by Burnham were the Essex Shipbuilding Museum’s Chebacco boat Lewis H. Story, Maritime Heritage Charters’ Isabella, and the privately owned schooner Thomas E. Lannon. Gloucester’s flagship, the schooner Adventure, also turned out to take part and ferry passengers for a look at the action. The tall ship Lynx, based in Nantucket, had arrived in Gloucester Harbor in recent days to take part and fire her cannons on rebel forces.

“This is great, what fun, right!” said KD Montgomery, executive director of the Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum as she piloted the Ardelle toward its mooring position off Half Moon Beach.

“I think it’s good for Gloucester,” said Jay McLauchlan, a founding member of Maritime Gloucester. “There is going to be a tremendous amount of coverage on this. Well done. Good stuff. The history, it’s riveting.”

On the trip to the mooring, spectators were given ear plugs that came in handy amid the repeated ear-splitting blasts from the ship’s two signal cannons.

The ship’s cannoneers would shout “fire in the hole!” before setting off the deafening blasts.

“It’s a great honor,” Burnham said when asked what it was like to be part of the reenactment. “The Battle of Bunker Hill was a really important battle of course.” His ancestors fought at the battle.

“It’s interesting because that was sort of the last real war that we had local here in Massachusetts,” Burnham said.

During the reenactment of the British landing, cannon fire came from the vessels in the harbor while three boats rowed past Ardelle with British Grenadiers on board. They let the troops off on the beach and rowed back out into the harbor. Since there were not enough small boats to bring all the British reenactors to Half Moon Beach, most staged off to one side of the beach and filled in the ranks. Rebel reenactors stood on the rocks and fired their muskets at the British while cannon and musket fire came from the cannon fort area.

There was a bit of historical incongruity on the water as Cape Ann Harbor Tours’ water shuttle pontoon boat Lady Jillian, piloted by owner, operator Capt. Steve Douglass, ferried some British troops to the scene so they could then board the longboats before being rowed to shore.

After lining up on the shore, the British troops marched up the ramp leading off the beach. More troops arrived on the beachhead, assembled, then marched off the beach, setting the stage for the reenactment of the battles to come.

Ethan Forman may be contacted at

978-675-2714

or at eforman@northofboston.com.