Jacob Nagle

Who was Jacob Nagle?

Jacob Nagle was an American and British soldier, sailor, and, above all, diarist who provides an exceptional first hand account of many of the dramatic events of his lifetime.

Nagle was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and fought in the American Revolutionary War along with his father. He was in the Battle of Brandywine and in George Washington's artillery at Valley Forge. He resigned from the Continental Army in 1778 and enlisted in the tiny Continental Navy.

When construction on the USS Saratoga was delayed, Nagle took to sea as a privateer in 1780 on Fair American, then on Rising Sun in 1781. He was captured by the British and taken to St. Kitts in the Caribbean in chains. He was freed when the French Navy captured the island in 1782 but was almost immediately arrested again for aiding British sailors. He was then taken to Martinique. From that point on, he served in the Royal Navy.

He sailed with the famous First Fleet expedition in 1787 as an able seaman on the expedition's naval escort Sirius. The expedition was charged with the task of founding the first British colony on the continent of Australia, in the territory of New South Wales.