Heather Cox Richardson tells us that on this date 250 years ago today, British Captain Henry Mowat, commanding Royal Navy vessels including his man-of-war Canceaux fired incendiary shot into the trading port of Falmouth, Massachusetts, known to us now as Portland, Maine. The town was completely destroyed. The attack came after the colonies' boycott of British goods that spring caused the British to send warships like the Canceaux to force goods to be unloaded at American ports. Then the Battles of Lexington and Concord spurred Falmouth colonists to capture Mowat briefly and threaten the Canceaux. Elsewhere, colonists captured and raided British warships. The British King's Cabinet decided to use force to put down rebellion in the colonies, and attacks like Falmouth began. But they backfired: In November the Continental Congress authorized American warships to capture British ships. Colonists were convinced that they must declare independence from "Tyranny of Great Britain." Much more interesting detail in Richardson's Letters from an American: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-17-2025-friday I'm in Santa Cruz for only two days. Yesterday I brought my 1967 Beetle back from the shop in Campbell to go into storage, then ran lots of Santa Cruz errands. This morning, I joined the club B ride. We climbed Rodeo Gulch and three other familiar hills in Soquel. The weather was perfect, but in the redwoods, when the road paralleled a creek, it was sometimes very cold until we got back into the sun. The B riders set a pace slightly faster than I can maintain going up the hills. But they consistently waited for me at the top. I fell behind after the last hill, but I arrived back at the Capitola Community Center while a few riders were still packing up. I won't be back in Santa Cruz for a couple of weeks, but I'm always glad when I can join a club ride.