Twenty-one-year-old Grace Buxton of Oakland Beach had plans to go berrying and enjoy a picnic on the afternoon of Aug. 8, 1921.

Grace lived alone with her father, house carpenter Frederick Buxton. Her mother, Beatrice, had died of pulmonary tuberculosis in the fall of 1907. A patient at the State Hospital for the Insane, Beatrice had been previously diagnosed with maniacal depressive insanity.

Arthur Blackstaffe, a jeweler from Providence, and his wife, Edith, had invited Grace to accompany them on their 25-foot boat named the “Edith B.” that summer day. Frank Toole of Providence and William Oates of Conimicut also joined the party.

As the boat set down their anchor just off the shore of Hope Island in Narragansett Bay, they noticed a military seaplane not far away. The pursuit plane was equipped with a machine gun mounted on its bow and it was firing into the distance. For the next 20 minutes, the party paid little attention until the plane dropped down and suddenly riddled the hull of the small craft with bullets.

Grace was struck by the gunfire. A bullet passed through her right calf and hit the left. As she bled profusely, Frank and William pulled off their shirts and ripped them into strips which they wrapped around the wound and secured with William’s belt.

The plane dipped down into the water about a mile from them and then, after a few moments, took to the skies again, headed toward Newport. After Grace’s wounds were bandaged, the men in the slowly sinking boat worked desperately to pump out the water that was leaking in through the bullet holes.

They made their way as fast as they could toward Bullneck Cove, three miles in the distance. When they arrived, they brought Grace to Frank’s house and called for a doctor.

Dr. Bernard Gilbert found Grace to be suffering from a serious hemorrhage and it was estimated that recovery would most likely take several months.

An immediate investigation was begun concerning the attack. The members of the boating party identified the plane as being marked with the number “92” and the letter “N”. It didn’t take long to determine that the plane in question was one stationed between Jamestown and Newport, at Potter Cove. It’s pilot was Lt. Edward Garvey of the naval air force.

A naval board inquiry was ordered. Of the six men who had been aboard the plane, five testified they had not even seen the boat. All testified that the machine gun had been malfunctioning and that while they were attempting to make adjustments, the weapon jammed and began to fire on its own.

Three years later, Grace Buxton was awarded $1,500 in compensation for her injuries.

Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.