likewise illuminated, and made a most beautiful appearance here. Rockets were ordered from Boston ... a number of gentlemen, who spent the evening in the assembly room, had them played off from their quarters, and spent the evening after very jovially, as did their friends and acquaintance under inoculation." Most of the first class of patients were able to leave the hospital from November 9-11th. On November 15, the second class of patients, numbering around 100, were inoculated at Essex Hospital. One of the members of this second group was Captain Lowell of Newburyport, who on December 4, 1773 was severely injured while loading a four-pound cannon on the island. Both arms were amputated, one eye was destroyed and the other severely injured, and his upper chest and neck were severely injured. Dr. Jackson performed immediate surgery, and Captain Lowell was able to leave the hospital on January 16, 1774. As of January 26, he was still alive. The third class of patients was inoculated at the hospital on December 15, 1773. Destruction In early January 1774, a boatload of this third class was discharged from the island but attempted to land at Nick's Cove, an unsanctioned landing area in Marblehead. Many townspeople were upset and a period of disorder and riots ensued. On January 12, the hospital boat Mercury was set on fire in Marblehead Harbor. One week later four townsmen were caught stealing contaminated clothing from the island while attempting to smuggle them into Marblehead. Presumably, they were hoping to earn condemnation for the hospital by starting an outbreak of smallpox. The following morning the four were tarred and feathered and paraded through Marblehead into Salem, a source of much entertainment to those witnessing the spectacle. Due to ongoing opposition, the hospital proprietors called for a town meeting on January 24 to ask the town to purchase the hospital and supplies, and to decide if the hospital should be kept open. Alternatively, they requested that if the hospital be closed that "a committee to cleanse the furniture, etc. in the so just and most satisfactory manner to the Town" be formed. The town refused to buy the hospital and supplies but did form a committee to oversee disinfection. On the following day, the three committee members and eight members of their family spent the next two days on the island cleaning and disinfecting, when on the second night