Spectators can revisit a dramatic night in the island’s history in the East End this Saturday with a “spirited” re-enactment of the Gunpowder Plot of 1775.

The Governor, Andrew Murdoch, and the Bermuda Pilot Gig Club invited the community to Tobacco Bay in St George’s, from 6pm, for a reproduction of a daring episode when Bermuda played an outsize role in the American War of Independence.

The plot took several dozen men, who broke into the unguarded ammunition magazine above Tobacco Bay on August 14, 1775 and stole more than 100 casks of British gunpowder — delivering them to rebel ships waiting offshore.

The operation was thought to have been co-ordinated by Colonel Henry Tucker with the knowledge of rebel leaders such as Benjamin Franklin.

The night came with a single casualty: the unfortunate soldier who had been guarding the gunpowder barrels.

The stolen powder made it to the Continental Army under George Washington, providing much needed munitions for key engagements, notably in Boston, Massachusetts and Charleston, South Carolina.

It also helped to convince the Continental Congress to lift its crippling wartime embargo on food and supplies to Bermuda.

The island’s Governor, George Bruere, took a different view of the theft, calling it an “audacious piece of villainy” and a “most heinous crime”.

He offered a substantial reward for anyone who could help identify the culprits, but no one was ever caught.

The event illustrates Bermuda’s complex role in the conflict, caught between loyalty to Britain and ties to American kin and trade partners.

A recreation of the night in 2015 drew hundreds of onlookers, complete with a performance of the furious Governor Bruere racing unsuccessfully for the departing pilot gig carrying the powder.

The club, in collaboration with Explore St George's Bermuda and The St George’s Foundation, said it planned to stage a “spirited re-enactment”.

The gathering was said to be open to all, with no prior knowledge of pilot gigs or local history required.

The club called it “an engaging, family-friendly evening, spotlighting how central pilot gigs were to Bermudian life and our maritime history”.

The event will also commemorate the late Maurice Johnson, a revered founding member of BPGC, coxswain, boatswain and storyteller who died this year.

Mr Johnson was also deeply knowledgeable of local history, with a passion for staging re-enactments.

The club said he saw the 250th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot as a fitting occasion to bring a key moment in Bermuda history to life.

The event will include a minute of silence, during which a wreath will be laid into the ocean in his memory.