The book was well-written and interesting for a while, but it soon became evident that De Kay was stretching to gather a book's worth of things to write about. It would have made a decent magazine article. As for the battle, there's no way to justify destroying multiple cities in return for a "dastardly" failed attack to sink a ship. Sinking the enemies ships is one of the chief objectives of any war. The British were arrogant and thought they could undo much of the Revolutionary War — perhaps beat America into giving up land claims or even into becoming a colony again. While the Battle of Stonington accomplished nothing militarily, it did demonstrate to the British that the Americans weren't going to just roll over and let themselves be manhandled.