Bermuda – and Tobacco Bay – played an important role in the American war for independence through the infamous Gunpowder Plot of 1775. On the night of August 15th, 1775 a group of armed Bermudians sympathetic to the American cause led by Colonel Henry Tucker stole 100 barrels of gunpowder from the British Powder Magasine. 

The barrels were rolled down a hill to Tobacco Bay, from which several Bermudian whaling vessels transported the cargo onto two American schooners waiting nearby – the Lady Catherine and the Packet. The Lady Catherine sailed to meet Continental Congress forces in Philadelphia, the Packet to those in Charleston.