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THE FIRST CONTINENTAL FLAGSHIP 

1775-1778 

John J. McCusker 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS / CITY OF WASHINGTON / 1973 
SERIA L PUBLICATION S OF TH E SMITHSONIA N INSTITUTIO N 

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S. DILLON RIPLEY 

Secretary 

Smithsonian Institution 

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Frontispiece.—Map showing the route of the three cruises of Continental ship Alfred, 1776-1778. 
SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY NUMBER 20 

THE FIRST CONTINENTAL FLAGSHIP 

1775-1778 

John J. McCusker 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS / CITY OF WASHINGTON / 1973 
COVER.—Continental Ship Alfred, 1775-1778. Alfred, Captain Elisha Hinman, is shown 

off the coast of France in December 1777 in this painting by Colonel Phillips Melville, 

USAF (Ret.) (Copyrighted © 1968, John J. McCusker; see "Not e on Alfred Paintings " on 

page 19.) 

Official publication date is handstamped in a limited number of initial copies and and recorded in the 

Institution's annual report, Smithsonian Year. 

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 

McCusker, John J. 

Alfred: the first Continental flagship, 1775-1778. 

(Smithsonian studies in history and technology, no. 20.) 

SUMMARY: Chronicles the career of the Alfred, a converted merchantman, that participated in the 

American Revolution. 

Includes bibliographical references. 

1. Alfred (Ship). 2. United States-History, Naval-To 1900. [1. Alfred (Ship). 2. United StatesHistory-Revolution-Naval operations. 3. United States-History, Naval-To 1900] I. Title. II. 

Series: Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian studies in history and technology, no. 20. 

E271.M17 973.3'5 72-8652 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, 

Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price: 50 cents domestic postpaid, or 40 cents GPO Bookstore 

Stock Number 4700-0231 
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL FLAGSHIP 

1775-1778 

Alfred, as one of the first ships of the Continental Navy of the United Colonies, as 

the flagship of the first American fleet, as the first ship to hoist the Grand Union Flag of 

the United Colonies, and the first command ship of an American amphibious invasion of 

enemy territory, played no small role in the winning of independence for the United 

States. Her place is secure in our national heritage. 

The Author: John J. McCusker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of 

History of the University of Maryland and is currently (1971-1973) on leave as a Fellow 

at the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia. 

In October 1775 the Continental Congress of the 

United Colonies, meeting in Philadelphia, took a 

strategic step in the direction of independence. To the 

north the struggle for Boston was at a stalemate. General 

Washington in command of the American forces had lain 

siege to that city, and upon the outcome of the siege 

hinged the bargaining position of the Colonies with the 

Mother Country. If George Washington's troops could 

hold their own, perhaps Great Britain would consent to 

some of the colonists' demands. But reinforcements for 

General Thomas Gage and Admiral Samuel Graves were 

on their way from England, with soldiers and supplies 

for Canada as well as for Boston. The threat was coming 

by sea and it had to be met at sea. The colonists needed 

a naval force to capture the supply ships. On 13 October 

the Continental Congress established the Naval Committee-forerunner of the Department of the Navy-and 

authorized the purchase of two vessels. Two weeks later, 

on 30 October, it ordered the fitting out of two more 

ships "for the protection and defense of the united 

Colonies." Thus began the navy of the United States.1 

One of the first ships purchased by the Naval 

Committee of Congress was Black Prince. Built at 

Philadelphia in the fall of 1774, this 300-ton merchantman belonged to Willing, Morris and Company of that 

city and had just returned from her second voyage to 

England. She measured some ninety-two feet long on her 

main deck, had a breadth of about twenty-seven feet, 

and drew eighteen feet of water.2 A full-rigged, threemasted vessel, her performance greatly pleased her 

skipper Captain John Barry, who pronounced her "the 

finest ship .. . in America."3 Renamed Alfred, after the 

ninth-century West Saxon king who had founded the 

English navy,4 "the finest ship . . . in America" soon 

became the first flagship in the United States navy 

(cover illustration and Figure 2). The chronicle of her 

three cruises under Continental colors constitutes a 

classic chapter in the history of the naval war of the 

American Revolution (Frontispiece). 

It took more than a mere rechristening to convert 

Alfred into a warship. The workmen of the Wharton and 

Humphrey shipyard labored throughout November and 

1 
Figure 1. John Paul Jones (1747-1792). This bust, a copy of an original which was 

sculpted in 1780 by Jean-Antoine Houdon, is in the Museum of the United States Naval 

Academy. (Courtesy United States Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, Maryland.) 

December 1775 to complete the necessary alterations. 

When they were done, the Alfred mounted thirty 

cannon-ten six-pound guns on her main deck and 

twenty nine-pounders below-and four small swivel guns 

in her tops. Her internal structure had been strengthened 

to bear the weight of her guns and ports had been cut in 

her side to allow them access to an enemy, but little else 

had been changed. A close observer could later remark 

that she had "very little of the ship of war" about her. 

With gunports closed she retained her merchantman lines 

and generally peaceful appearance.5 The additional 

weight of timbering and cannon did affect her sailing 

qualities, however, making her top-heavy. She was ever 

after known as "crank" and "tender-sided." Still, the 

good seaman could captain her well and John Paul Jones 

as her commander reported her "capable of giving 

excellent service."6 It was Jones (Figure 1), in fact, who 

as her First Lieutenant saw her commissioned in early 

December 1775. The way he told it, Jones himself raised 

the Grand Union Flag (Figure 3) over her quarterdeck. 
Extract from Entick's Naval Hiftory. 

T

H E Saxons, after the death of Egbert, changing their 

i'yftem of politics, let their navy drop; and by a fatality, to which none but a people referved for punifhment by 

an overruling providence would have yielded, refolved to leave 

their coafts naked, to fortify their cities, and to fight the enejny after they fhouli land. This fatal miitake, permitting 

the enemy to' land without interruption, enabled the Danes 

to unite their forces ; and at laft to drive the inhabitants from 

the coafts, and to gain fettlements for themfelves. In one of 

their expeditions, they failed up the Thames with three hundred and fifty veffels, BURNT ALL TH E TOWN S ON 

T H E SHORE, landed their men, and laid the country, for 

many miles within land, walie with fire and fword. It is 

true that Ethelwoif did at lail force them to retire, but they 

returned, and landed in the weft, with a more powerful fleet, 

and committed fuch outrages, that when ALFRED afcended 

the throne of England, the country lay defolate, the cities 

and great towns were demolifhed, and the people confumed 

by continual war, and fighting nine or ten battles in a year, 

which exhaufted their wealth, then- ftrength, aud their fpirits. 

So that inftead of refolving to make any farther ftand in defence of their liberty and property, they feemed determined 

to fubmit to the yoke of flavery, rather than to expire with a 

precarious freedom. 

Such was the ruinous condition of the Saxons, when Alfred 

began his reign over them. However this wife and magnanimous Prince preiently intufed new fpirits and better hopes 

into his bleeding fubje&s. He represented to them the iniquity of thofe councils in former reigns, which preferred a 

land to a fea war, and engaged then , as the bell fecurity 

againft" invafions, to build fhips of a proper conftruclion to 

defend the coail againlt the naval force of their enemies ; 

and, in coniequence of this advice, we find they immedir 

ately fet about a reftoration of their naval affairs, and to build 

fhips of a new conftrudtion, devifed by the King himfelf, capable of holding fixty rowers,, and in all relpecls double to 

the largeft. Ihips then in ufe. Wnen this navy was completed, Aifred took fpecial care to have it manned with experienced failors, and commanded by officers of untainted courage and fidelity, and ordered them to put to fea, with an 

exprefs prohibition neither to receive or give quarter. By 

which he releafed himielf from the incumbrance and hazard 

which arife from a number of prifoners on board of a fhip, 

and intended to ftrike terror into thofe rovers who, as they 

kept no faith in their treaties, he thereby declared were unworthy of mercy. 

The firll encounter between this navy and the Danes was off 

the ifle of Wight.. The King informed that fix pirates of an 

unufual fize inlefted thofe parts, he ordered nine of his new 

fhips to fail in queft of them ; and his commands were fo 

punctually executed, that they were all, except one, either 

funk or taken ; and the men, that furvived, were hanged as 

pirates. At Winchefter, A. D. 897, in this fingle year the 

Saxons deltroyed not lefs than twenty fhips, and all their men, 

on the fouth coaft only. 

Figure 2.—"Extract from [John] Entick's Naval History. " This mention of King Alfred as the innovator of a new 

naval order appeared the day after the ship's new name was announced. (From The Pennsylvania Evening Post 

(Philadelphia), 18 November 1775. Reproduced from the collections of the Library of Congress.) 

I hoisted with my own hands the flag of freedom the first 

time it was displayed on board the Alfred in the 

Delaware. 

The severe Philadelphia winter delayed Alfred's 

departure for more than two months. Meanwhile, the 

Naval Committee assembled and fitted out seven other 

vessels, organized crews, and commissioned officers for 

service in the new navy. The Committee gave command 

of the entire fleet to Esek Hopkins (Figure 4), a 

fifty-seven year old sailor from Rhode Island, the former 

master of slavers, privateers, and merchantmen in the 

service of Nicholas Brown and Company of Providence. 

Although Hopkins no doubt was a good merchant 

captain, his talents as a naval commander proved to be 

mediocre. He lacked any sense of strategy and possessed 

none of the qualities recognized in a leader of men. But 

he was a New Englander, appointed by a committee 

dominated by New Englanders, at the head of which sat 

Governor Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, Esek's 

brother. 

Early in the new year, Hopkins commanded his 

captains to drop down the Delaware River from Philadelphia preparatory to beginning their voyage. Colonel 

Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina, a member of 

Figure 3. -Th e Grand Union Flag of the United 

Colonies, with its crosses of St. George and St. 

Andrew and its thirteen stripes, was flown by 

Alfred, first flagship of the American fleet, 

when it put to sea in January 1776. The Stars 

and Stripes were authorized by the Continental 

Congress on 14 June 1777. 

the Naval Committee, reported the event in stirring 

terms. "Admidst the acclamation of many thousands 

assembled on the joyful occasion, under the display of a 

union flag with thirteen stripes in the field, emblematical 

of the thirteen united colonies," sailed "the first 

American fleet that ever swelled their sails on the 
SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

Figure 4. -"Commodore [Esek] Hopkins." Line engraving by Pollard, 1778. This is a 

dubious likeness since Hopkins (1718-1802) was in his late fifties while "commodore" 

of the first fleet. (Original engraving prepared for James Murray, An Impartial History of 

the Present War in America (3 volumes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1778-1780), volume II, 

opposite page 289. Photograph of a later state of the engraving in the collections of the 

Smithsonian Institution. Courtesy Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.) 
NUMBER 20 

TABLE l.-The First American Fleet as it sailed, 18 February 1776s 

Vessel 

Ship Alfred 

Ship Columbus . . . 

Brigantine Cabot . . 

Brigantine Andrew Doria 

Sloop Providence . . . 

Sloop Hornet 

Schooner Fly 

Schooner Wasp ... . 

Guns 

(1) 

20 nine-pounders 

10 six-pounders 

18 nine-pounders 

10 six-pounders 

14 six-pounders 

16 six-pounders 

12 four-pounders 

10 four-pounders 

6 nine-pounders 

8 two-pounders 

Sail* 

(2) 

160 

160 

90 

72 

62 

70 

30 

48 

Men 

)rs Marines 

(3) 

63 

63 

43 

37 

21 

-

-

-

Captain 

(4) 

"Commander-in-Chief of the 

Fleet" Esek Hopkins 

Captain Dudley Saltonstall 

Captain Abraham Whipple 

Captain John B. Hopkins 

Captain Nicholas Biddle 

Captain John Hazard 

Captain William Stone 

Captain Hoy steed Hacker 

Captain William Hallock 

Western Ocean, in defense of the rights and liberties of 

the people of these colonies, now suffering under the 

persecuting rod of the British ministry and their more 

than brutish tyrants in America." The cold winds of that 

inspiring January day did more than flutter the flags and 

fill the sails of Hopkin's ships, however; they brought 

with them a spell of winter weather which froze up the 

river and locked the fleet tightly in its grasp. The 

Delaware, which shortly before had been the road to the 

"Western Ocean" for the ships of the fleet, now offered 

itself as a vast skating rink for many of the same 

Philadelphians who had assembled to bid them farewell. 

The first American fleet would wait almost six weeks 

before continuing on its cruise.8 

In the meanwhile the same Naval Committee that had 

appointed Hopkins to his command now authored his 

orders. By this time the crisis at Boston had abated 

somewhat and, since the necessity to go northward was 

less pressing, the members of the Committee could 

choose to try to please several different factions in the 

Continental Congress which had been somewhat 

sceptical of the need for a navy. The Naval Committee 

directed Hopkins to harass the enemies of the Colonies 

first at Virginia, then at South Carolina, and finally at 

Rhode Island. With little opportunity to train his crews 

and no chance to practice maneuvers, Hopkins can be 

forgiven if he failed to share their optimism. Moreover, 

so fluid was the war that the next month, when the fleet 

finally broke loose from the icy grip of the Delaware 

River, new developments—especially the more apparent 

British strength in the Chesapeake Bay-seemed sufficient to Hopkins to cause him to scrap his instructions 

and to embark on a scheme of his own. Aware of the 

colonists' urgent need for gunpowder and supplies, and 

knowing of a large cache of both on the island of New 

Providence in the Bahamas, Hopkins, on that chilly 

afternoon of 18 February, ordered his fleet (Table 1) 

southward to the sun and to the promise of success.9 

Despite Hopkins's fond hopes of glory, the American 

invasion of Nassau in the Bahamas succeeded almost in 

spite of itself and even then the victory rang hollow. 

Two weeks to the day after leaving Cape Henlopen, the 

fleet appeared early on the Sunday morning of 3 March 

off the bar of Nassau Harbor (Figure 5). The sounds of 

alarm that greeted the Americans' careless show of 

strength argued the wisdom of an indirect attack against 

the weaker of the two forts which guarded the town. 

The Continental Marines, in their first amphibious 

assault, joined with armed sailors from the fleet to 

capture the easternmost Fort Montagu in a "battle" as 

bemused as it was bloodless. By late Sunday afternoon, 

all was quiet again as the Continentals rested from their 

labors inside their prize. To promote a continued 

peaceful victory, Hopkins in the early evening issued a 

proclamation "to the Gentlemen, Freemen, & Inhabitants of the Island of New Providence": 

The reasons of my landing an armed force on the island is 

in order to take possession of the powder anVJ warlike 

stores belonging to the Crown, and if 1 am not opposed in 

putting my design in execution the persons and property 

of the inhabitants shall be safe, neither shall they be 

suffered to be hurt in case they make no resistance. 

It had the desired effect. The next morning, commanded by Marine Captain Samuel Nicholas (Figure 6), 

the invasion force completed the job by securing the 

second fort and anesting Montfort Browne, governor of 

the colony. The Americans had conquered merely by 

coming. 
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Figure 5.-Nassau, 1765. "A Plan and View of the Harbour and the Town of Providence." 

Nassau, on New Providence Island in the Bahamas, as it was drawn for the hydrographic 

survey of Captain Thomas Foley, HMS Escorte, in 1765. Note "Montage Fort, No. 11, " 

to the left (east) of "Governors House," and "Nassau Fo[rt], No. 7." (Reproduced with 

permission of the Admiralty Library, London, England.) 

Nevertheless, Governor Browne had the last laugh on 

the Americans. Helped by the unbelievable ineptitude of 

Commander-in-Chief Hopkins, Browne managed to 

deprive the Americans of the gunpowder they had 

sought. For reasons that will never be clear, Hopkins 

simply failed to close the trap. He deployed no ships off 

the western entrance—and exit—of Nassau Harbor from 

Sunday night to Monday morning. While the entire 

Continental fleet huddled far to the east, Governor 

Browne and his Council shipped almost all of the 

gunpowder out of the unguarded harbor to St. 

Augustine, Florida, and safety. Alfred, with Commander-in-Chief Hopkins and the rest of the marines and 

sailors on board, arrived off the bar late Monday 

morning to be greeted by enthusiastic victors but scant 

spoils. When his anger and his billingsgate had quieted, 

Hopkins tried to repair his blunder by taking a half-loaf. 

The forts were stripped bare. With every cannon and 

cartridge from the town stuffed into the ships' holds, the 

Continental fleet, with Alfred in the lead, departed from 

Nassau on 17 March 1776. 

Despite the satisfied calm of the homeward voyage, 

events to the north were shaping still further troubles for 

Hopkins and the Continental Navy. The same day on 

which the Americans left the Bahamas, the British left 

Boston. Units of the contending naval forces were to 

encounter each other soon thereafter. In course and in 

consequence the first battle between the Royal Navy 

and the Continental Navy prefigured almost every 

subsequent meeting: British technology, training, and 
NUMBER 20 

Figure 6. -Marine Captain Samuel Nicholas (1744-1790). 

Honored as the first officer in the United States Marine 

Corps and its first commandant. This is a picture of a 

miniature presented to the Corps in 1921 by a descendant of Nicholas. (From Edwin N. McClellan and 

John H. Craige, "American Marines in the Battles of 

Trenton and Princeton." The Daughters of the American 

Revolution Magazine, volume LV (June 1921), page 

304. Courtesy Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 

D.C.) 

tactical experience told over American fervor and 

ferocity. 

When the British fleet set sail from Boston for 

Halifax, no one was sure whether the Americans in 

breaking the British seige of Boston had won a battle or 

a war. The British were only regrouping, however. Captain 

Tyringham Howe of HMS Glasgow, twenty guns, had the 

job of conveying dispatches telling of the British defeat 

at Boston and of future plans southward to New York 

and Virginia. Early in the morning of Saturday, 6 April 

1776, to the east of Long Island a convoy of ships 

crossed Howe's horizon. The freshly victorious Americans were about to meet the recently vanquished Britons 

for the first time at sea.1' 

For Hopkins and his fleet their cruise from the 

Bahamas was almost at an end; they could expect to 

reach Rhode Island perhaps as early as Easter Sunday 

evening. Hopkins had had his problems on the voyage, 

yet his achievements must surely have bred a certain 

sense of satisfaction. No doubt he was sleeping well 

when the call to general quarters roused him rudely in 

the small hours of the morning. The report passed 

quickly. A large man-of-war was approaching the 

squadron. It was HMS Glasgow. American and British 

gunports opened sleepily and primed cannon stared 

warily across the calm sea. Challenge met counterchallenge and the fight was on! The Americans moved 

with clumsy uncertainty, confounding each other. 

Captain Howe maneuvered Glasgow with studied skill, 

almost immediately disabling two ships of the Continental fleet. The sheer force of American numbers, 

alone, almost overwhelmed the Glasgow, even if they 

could not outfight her. Captain Howe turned away and 

outsailed his pursuers-dispite his ship's serious damageback to the British base at Newport, Rhode Island. 

The battle was over almost before it had begun. 

Especially was this so for Alfred, whose tiller ropes were 

shot away just as she joined the fray. The Continental 

Navy earned meager glory from their first British 

encounter. Captain Howe was thankful to have escaped 

with his skin; but for American inexperience he would 

not have escaped at all. Poor bumbling Hopkins paid the 

price for his many mistakes. The Continental Congress 

censured him in August 1776, suspended him from his 

command in the spring of 1777, and dismissed him from 

the service in January 1778.12 

No matter how few the spoils from the first cruise of 

the Continental Navy, its impact rises to considerably 

greater significance if viewed from a broader perspective. 

When the fleet had set sail from Philadelphia the 

American Revolution appeared as little more than a 

localized armed rebellion in New England around 

Boston. By the time Hopkins" ships entered New 

London harbor the war had become hemispheric in 

proportion. In no small measure this was due to the 

actions of Alfred and her sister-ships—perhaps, more 

precisely, to the threat implied by these actions. The 

promise of attacks upon shore installations, merchant 

shipping, and even upon the Royal Navy itself called for 

a major commitment of English naval vessels to the 

waters of the Caribbean and the North Atlantic. King 

George III later lamented that the Royal Navy had been 

"obliged to send . . . everything we had to America." It 

"has crippled us," he said, in comment upon how thin 

had become the wall of oak around the British Isles. So 

few ships, in fact, were available to the Royal Navy in 

home waters by 1778 that the French Navy-for the fust 
8 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

time in the eighteenth century—could dispose its fleets 

at will. The French might even plan to launch "the other 

armada," in the words of A. Temple Patterson, and 

invade Great Britain. French naval superiority kept the 

blockade of Chesapeake Bay in 1781, assuring Washington his victory at Yorktown; he considered it "the pivot 

upon which everything turned." The fleets of de Grasse 

and d'Estaing sailed where they chose because the Royal 

Navy had other concerns with which to contend. One of 

these was the Continental Navy of the United Colonies— 

potentially, if not in fact, a serious challenge to Britain's 

ability to carry on a major war at sea.1 3 

The reasons the Continental Navy never lived up to 

its potential were many. Inexperience and ineptitude did 

much to stifle the infant navy throughout its early 

history. Ships and supplies always were hard to secure. 

Particularly debilitating was Congressional parsimony 

with prize money which ensured the service short crews. 

Why fight in the Continental Navy, the sailors reasoned, 

when the government takes most of the proceeds of any 

capture? Ship out on board a privateer, live an easier 

life, and get a bigger slice of the captures. Little wonder, 

then, that service crews were short-handed all through 

the Revolution, and that Alfred herself was in port the 

whole summer of 1776, with as few as forty men on 

board at one point, out of a normal complement of one 

hundred and eighty. Even when she finally did get to sea 

again, she was undermanned and the crews were poorly 

trained. Congress never did correct the problem and 

throughout the war there was a severe shortage of 

sailors.14 

It was only on 27 October 1776, with Captain John 

Paul Jones now in command, that Alfred shipped anchor 

and set a northerly course in company with the sloop 

Providence, twelve guns, Captain Hoysteed Hacker. 

Jones's mission was multipurposed. His orders directed 

him to Cape Breton Island to free American prisoners 

who, reportedly, were being forced to work the coal 

mines at Spanish Bay (near modern Sydney, Nova 

Scotia) and to interfere as much as possible with the coal 

shipments to the city of New York, which had recently 

fallen to the British. He was also to keep a lookout for 

Quebec-bound British supply ships and to take every 

opportunity to harass the Newfoundland fishery. By 

mid-November Captain Jones had reached the southern 

coast of Cape Breton Island, where he took three prizes, 

one of them the 350-ton Mellish loaded with winter 

clothing for the British troops in Canada (Figure 7). 

Soon thereafter, the crew of Providence induced the not 

unwilling Captain Hacker to return home. 

Captain Jones and his crew sailed on alone in Alfred. 

He sent some boats into the harbor of Canso, Nova 

Scotia, where his men burned another supply ship and a 

whale oil warehouse. Off Louisbourg he took, in a stroke 

of good fortune, three colliers from Spanish Bay. From 

the captured crews he learned that the American 

seamen-turned-miners had bought their freedom by 

joining the Royal Navy and, more importantly, that at 

least three British warships were in the area looking for 

him. Wisely turning home, Jones paused to take another 

prize and was almost taken himself. HMS Milford, 

twenty-eight guns, chased Alfred for about four hours, 

but Jones drove ship and sailors hard and well and 

managed to escape, losing only his most recent capture, 

a small letter of marque, to the pursuing Briton. Alfred 

and her prizes reached Massachusetts in mid-December 

and the voyage was accounted a success.15 

Never one to underestimate his own contribution to 

the history of the world, Jones later claimed a hand in 

winning the Battle of Trenton on the strength of these 

exploits! In hisMemoire to King Louis XVI of France he 

boasted: 

The news that the uniforms had been captured on board 

Mellish restored the morale of General Washington's army 

which at that time was almost completely without 

clothing. This unexpected help contributed not a little to 

the success of the army at the Battle of Trenton. 

The "help," despite Jone's implication, must only have 

been his good news, for none of the uniforms could have 

reached Washington's troops between the time Jones and 

Mellish arrived at Boston and 25 December, the date of 

the battle. Alfred's prize might well have clothed the 

army at Valley Forge later, in 1777, but not in 1776.1 6 

The same winter, farther north, saw changes wrought 

in the Alfred and in her command. Both centered in 

John Paul Jones. Ever anxious for a better vessel more 

worthy of his talents and always willing to advise his 

superiors, he wrote the Marine Committee in January 

finding fault with Alfred and suggesting that she be 

retired to merchant service. She had suffered too much 

in her conversion to naval duty, he argued, and was both 

poorly gunned and, for her build, overgunned. Perhaps 

Jones's brush with Milford had been too close or perhaps 

Alfred had been damaged more than he cared 

to admit when he had grounded her while entering 

Plymouth harbor in December. Whatever his motives, his 

ideas bore fruit and the Marine Committee initiated a 

thorough refitting in the spring of Mil}1 Instead of 

being advanced in the Continental service and given a 

better ship, as he expected, Jones found to his chagrin 

that in Congress's view he was not even worthy of 

commanding the Alfred. A "new man" in the colonies, 
• 

*;*-

-^*\ 

^ = 

Figure 7.-"The Capture of the Mellish, 1776." Sepia wash drawing, formerly believed to 

represent the capture by Alfred of the British transport Mellish off the coast of Cape 

Breton Island on 12 November 1776. See "Note on Alfred Paintings," page 19. (From the 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Collection of Naval Art. Courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt 

Library, Hyde Park, New York.) 

he had few supporters at Philadelphia. In consequence, 

the Marine Committee placed his name so far down the 

recently compiled roster of naval captains that he had to 

wait several months until another ship could be found 

for him. 1 8 

Elisha Hinman of Connecticut (Figure 8) replaced 

Jones on board Alfred. It was his responsibility to see 

her repairs and refitting completed. At this time her 

armament was reduced in an attempt to make her less 

crank, and thereafter AIfrcd mounted fewer cannon each 

time she put to sea. Hinman had completed all of the 

work by the middle of May, pausing only long enough to 

take a bride. But it was late August before she sailed 

again. This time Alfred's destination was France.1 9 

The War for Independence had not gone well for the 

Americans during the long summer of 1777. Sir William 

Howe's ultimately successful campaign against Philadelphia started in late July. The month before General 
10 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

v-

*&&! 

Figure 8.-Elisha Hinman (1734-1805). A nineteenth-century engraving of "E. 

Hinman," tentatively identified as a picture of the captain of Alfred. Note that he 

wore his pigtail fastened to the top of his head. (Official United States Navy 

Photograph. Courtesy Division of Naval History, Department of the Navy, 

Washington, D.C.) 

"Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne had begun his advance 

south from Canada intent upon dividing the Continental 

camp along the line of the Hudson River. Until 

Burgoyne's startling surrender at Saratoga, New York, 

on 17 October, the future of the colonial cause looked 

bleak indeed—in the Old World as well as in the New. 

Perhaps with the hope that a .visible presence in 

European waters would brighten the gloomy picture of 

American prospects, Congress chose this same time to 

send several ships to France. 

Alfred, in company with the Continental Navy's new 

thirty-two gun frigate Raleigh (Figure 9), Captain 

Thomas Thompson, departed Portsmouth, New 

Hampshire, on Friday, 22 August 1777. Almost from 

the beginning they proved poorly matched. Within two 

weeks Hinman and Thompson had thrown away what 

was surely the best opportunity ever presented to the 

Continental Navy.20 

Daylight, 4 September, found the two ships within 

striking distance of the sixty-member Windward Islands 

convoy on its way from the West Indies to England, 

fully loaded with the produce of the British sugar 

colonies. An earlier capture of a straggler from the same 

group had given Thompson and Hinman a copy of the 

convoy's sailing orders and signals. The merchantmen 

were theirs merely for the taking. Yet they captured not 

a one. Alfred, "crank" and "tender-sided" as usual, 

could not keep up with Raleigh. Thompson bravely but 

naively preferred to attack the Royal Navy escorts of the 

convoy rather than wage "war against merchantmen." 
NUMBER 20 11 

Figure 9.-Continental ship Raleigh, 1777. An Admiralty-style model of the Continental 

frigate Raleigh constructed by Robert V. Bruckslaw. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution, 

Washington D.C.) 

Storming into the middle of the convoy, he attacked the 

nearest naval vessel, H.M. sloop-of-war Druid, fourteen 

guns, Captain Peter Carteret. 

Our ports were down [Thompson later reported], and our 

guns housed, and we shot up alongside within pistal shot; 

then we up sails, out guns, hoisted Continental colours, 

and bid them strike to the Thirteen United States. 

Raleigh's first broadside killed Druid's master and 

fatally wounded her captain but the First Lieutenant, 

John Bourchier, was not easily daunted. Eleven broadsides later, although Druid was in wreckage about him, 

Bourchier had still not surrendered. With the rest of the 

British squadron about to enter the fray, Thompson had 

no choice but to break off and rejoin Alfred several 

miles away. After the British captains had chased him 

off, they gathered up the scattered convoy and 

stubbornly refused to be enticed into further battles. 

Thompson later complained that he and Hinman 
12 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

challenged the enemy "for three days successively to 

come out of his fleet and engage us, but he declines the 

challenge." The Americans exhibited once again both 

their admirable spirit and their lack of military 

sophistication. Alfred and Raleigh could do little more 

than resume their voyage to France where they arrived 

at Lorient (Figure 10) a month later on 6 October.21 

Although Hinman and Thompson were personally 

well received at Lorient, they could not have come at a 

worse time in their country's fortunes. Wined and dined 

and publically saluted, the American captains found 

everything to their liking except the French reluctance 

to enter the war on the side of the American Colonies. 

Hinman wrote home soon after his arrival and summed 

up the whole situation rather perceptively, if a bit 

overenthusiastically. 

The French are really friends at heart to the Americans in 

the present controversary; but rather seem to decline a 

war at present, altho large armaments are fitting and 

getting in readiness both by sea & land. They will give 

America every assistance in their power, but not 

publickly; and are determined that a final separation of 

America from Great Britain shall take place, even at the 

expence of a war. Spain may be said to be equally 

disposed as France. 

We can accuse Hinman of enthusiasm not only in his 

assessment of Spanish zeal but also in his suggestion that 

France was willing to go to war, no matter what. 

Figure 10. -Lorient, France. The port of Lorient at the time of the American Revolution. 

Engraving by Gouaz, after Ozanne. (From the copy in the Musee de la Marine, Paris, 

France. Official United States Navy Photograph. Courtesy Division of Naval History, 

Department of the Navy, Washington, D.C.) 

r, - ^ <•» 
NUMBER 20 13 

Actually the French had already begun to wonder if 

all had not been lost. The news from North America 

during the summer and early fall of 1777 contained little 

to justify a belief in anything but imminent British 

triumph over the colonial rebels. The American Commissioners in Paris-Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and 

Arthur Lee-who were seeking an increased French 

commitment, had all they could do to maintain the 

status quo. With each British victory came greater 

pressure upon the French government to stop helping 

the Americans, and particularly to close the ports of 

France to the ships of the Continental Navy. The arrival 

of Alfred and Raleigh, duly reported to London, 

brought still another protest from the British government and further strain upon the difficult position of 

Franklin, Deane, and Lee. Consequently, they concluded 

that the best place for these ships was somewhere else. 

In late November, at the nadir of American fortunes in 

France, they ordered Alfred and Raleigh to set sail for 

home. 2 3 

One of the reports on the sojourn of Alfred and 

Raleigh at Lorient which English spies dispatched was 

fuller than the rest and contains the most detailed 

account of the Alfred (Figure 11) which has survived. 

We can imagine the informant, probably an English 

merchant on business in the city, walking down by the 

docks, talking with sailors and tavern keepers, gathering 

information. He set down his observations in a long 

memorandum. 

The Alfred was formerly a merchantman [and] is 

about 275 or 300 tuns at most[.] [She is] pierced for 20 

guns[.j 9 p[ounde] rs[,j & carries 6 four pound[er]s on 

the q[uarte]r deck & forward, the capt[ain] [is] an 

American. She they say has 160 men, & is better 

Figure 11.-Alfred at Lorient, 1777. A supposed sketch of Alfred in 1777, signed by "P. 

Richard." (See "Note on Alfred Paintings," page 19.) (From a photograph (original 

unknown) in the Collection of Rear Admiral Elliot Snow, The Mariners Museum, 

Newport News, Virginia. Courtesy The Mariners Museum.) 

mi a • f: 

m. 

hszZ 

,< 

ihw ft r 
14 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

officiered then the other [ship Raleigh], but sails dully. 

Her appearance when her guns are housed & ports 

lowered down has very little of the ship of war. she is 

square sterned, without quarter gallery or badges, [and] 

has a figurehead painted yellow with a remarkable large 

plume of feathers on his helmet painted white. The ship is 

painted plain black & yellow with a white bottom[.] 

[She] is very taunt but not square rigged[,] her royall 

mast and [w] hole mizen top mast head [being] more out 

of proportion than the Rawleighs [and she] has a gaft 

mizen[.] [Her] top armour & quarter cloths [are] blue 

with 13 white stars the same as in the upper corner of 

their colors, neither have their names in the stern[.]

 2 4 

The peaceful posture was a purposeful pose in obedience 

to Marine Committee orders "to keep your guns 

covered, and concealed; and to make as little warlike 

appearance as possible." Peaceful they looked and 

peaceful they remained on into late December while the 

fate of the United States swung in the balance. 

When Alfred and Raleigh actually set sail on Monday, 

29 December 1777, the state of affairs had changed 

drastically in favor of the Americans, but the instructions given to Thompson and Hinman remained unaltered. Official word of Burgoyne's surrender had 

reached Paris on 3 December and had set off a frantic 

series of negotiations. Within two weeks the British 

government had made an informal offer of peace to the 

colonists, but without independence, and, two days 

later, the French Foreign Minister, Comte de Vergennes, 

who was anxious to forestall an Anglo-American settlement, came forth with the long-sought military alliance 

and treaty. The tide had turned in the quest for 

American nationhood.25 It is not clear if Alfred and 

Raleigh merely got lost in the swirl of events or whether, 

in spite of the changed situation, the Commission still 

thought it best that these ships be sent home. 

We do know that circumstances could have been 

otherwise. Less than three weeks after Alfred and 

Raleigh sailed, Franklin, Deane, and Lee dealt differently with another vessel assigned to them under similar 

orders. They turned her captain loose in European 

waters without restriction and told him merely to 

"proceed .. . in the manner you shall judge best for 

distressing the enemies of the United States." John Paul 

Jones, new commander of Ranger, eighteen guns, found 

in this commission the opportunity for many of the 

exploits for which he is most remembered.26 Had 

Hinman and Thompson been given the same chance, we 

can but imagine what they might have accomplished. As 

it was, Ranger sailed to glory, Alfred and Raleigh to 

defeat and disgrace. 

Their return voyage began well enough. Following the 

orders given them, Hinman and Thompson dropped 

down the coast of Africa, where they took a prize sloop, 

and then set a course for the West Indies. They hoped to 

be able to capture several British vessels in the Caribbean 

trade before turning northward and home. Instead, the 

tables were turned. 

Soon after sunrise on Monday, 9 March 1778, near the 

island of Barbados, Alfred and Raleigh spied two ships to 

the southwest. They were HMS Ariadne, twenty guns, 

Captain Thomas Pringle (Figure 12), and HMS Ceres, 

sixteen guns, Captain James Richard Dacres (Figure 13). 

Although outweighting the British seven guns to five, the 

Americans chose to flee. Again Alfred lagged behind, 

unable to keep up with the faster Raleigh. The two 

British captains sensed their tactical advantage. After a 

chase which lasted through the morning, they attacked, 

concentrating their fire on the nearer adversary, Alfred, 

which they hoped to subdue before the other ship could 

turn to join the fight. 

At Vz past 12 the Ceres came up with the stern-most ship, 

who hoisted rebel colours & exchanged a broadside with 

him in passing. At 1 [the Ariadne] came to action with 

the before mentioned ship as did the Ceres; and at Vi past 

1 the Rebel struck, the headmost ship making off. 

Pringle and Dacres had read the situation correctly. 

"The headmost ship," Raleigh, continued its flight after 

their attack on Alfred had begun. Thompson later 

testified at a court of enquiry that he had hoped to lure 

the British ships away from Alfred. But Pringle and 

Dacres were not to be lured away. Alfred fought on 

for half an hour after they caught up with her—not the 

ten minutes Thompson remembered—before hauling 

down the Stars and Stripes. Thompson hoisted all sail, 

threw overboard everything he could in order to lighten 

Raleigh, outran his pursuers and escaped, only to stand 

court martial and be dismissed from the service. Hinman 

and his officers were sent to Forton Prison in England 

where in less than a week they bribed their jailors and 

got free by means of a hole through their chamber floor. 

Hinman returned home the next year. His crew had 

gained their release almost immediately because the 

British lacked facilities in the West Indies to detain 

them. The net loss to the Continental Navy was only the 

good ship Alfred.2 8 

What ultimately became of Alfred we do not know. 

She was treated as a prize of war and sold at Barbados, 

presumably to someone from the island of Grenada since 

we find that Pringle, in command of Ariadne, later 

escorted her there. The last mention of Alfred occurs in 

the master's log of Ariadne for 6 November 1778 which 

states that the "ships company was paid 12 dollars & 5 

bitts a fore mast [man] for the Alfred [,] rebel ship of 
NUMBER 20 15 

Figure 72.-Captain Thomas Pringle (circa 1740-1803). 

Engraving by Orne, Jr., after Stuart, of then Rear 

Admiral Pringle. The Captain of HMS Ariadne on 9 

March 1778. (Reproduced with the permission of the 

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England. 

Courtesy Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.) 

Figure 7J.-Captain James Richard Dacres (1749-1810). 

Engraving by Page, after Bowyer, of then Vice Admiral 

Dacres. The Captain of HMS Ceres on 9 March 1778. 

(Courtesy National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 

England.) 

war, Elisha Hinman commander."29 We might imagine 

her, the proud purchase of some West Indian merchant, 

spending the rest of her days tramping in the Caribbean 

or carrying sugar to Bristol. If so, she would have come 

full circle. It is more likely that her owner fitted her out 

as a privateer to prey on her own kind. 

Nevertheless, as one of the first ships of the 

Continental Navy of the United Colonies, as the flagship 

of the first American fleet, as the first ship to hoist the 

Grand Union flag of the United Colonies, and the first 

command ship of an American amphibious invasion of 

enemy territory, the Continental Ship Alfred played no 

small role in the winning of independence for the United 

States. Her place is secure in our national heritage. 

NOTES 

1. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, edited 

by Worthington C. Ford et al. (34 volumes; Washington, 

1904-1937), volume III, pages 293-294, 311-312. Events leading 

to the establishment of the navy can be traced most conveniently in the volumes of the Naval Documents of the 

American Revolution, edited by William Bell Clark and William 

James Morgan (in progress; Washington, 1964 to date). See also 

"The Secret Journals of Congress, 1774-1780," kept by Charles 

Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress, volume I, 

Charles Thomson Papers, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 

Philadelphia [hereinafter abbreviated HSP] ; and Gardner Weld 

Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution (2 volumes; 

Boston and New York, 1913), volume I, pages 1-58. Allen in still 

the standard work, and the sources he cited are the First sources 

for all that follows. Normally only those references will be 

mentioned which add to or alter what he has said. Also valuable 

are Charles Oscar Paullin, The Navy of the American Revolution: 

Its Administration, Its Policy, and Its Achievements (Cleveland, 

1906) and William Bell Clark, George Washington's Navy: Being 

An Account of His Excellency's Fleet in New England Waters 

(Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1960). 

2. William Bell Clark, Gallant John Barry, 1745-1803: The 

Story of a Naval Hero of Two Wars (New York, 1958), pages 

40-66, describes the mercantile career of the ship and her 
16 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

purchase. The Black Prince log from December 1774 to 4 

October 1775 is in the Barry Papers now in the personal 

collection of Mr. Barry Hayes Hepburn of Philadelphia. 

Based upon entries in the 1775-1783 ledger of Philadelphia 

ship chandler James Wharton, Clark concluded that "it is 

apparent the Black Prince was acquired by the Naval Committee 

on Saturday, November 4, and, on Wednesday, November 8, was 

rechristened the Alfred" (page 66). A better guide is Wharton's 

daybook entries, from which the ledger was compiled. In a slim 

volume covering the period 21 October to 21 November, the 

ship is referred to as Black Prince until Friday, 17 November, 

when the first entry charges Black Prince and the second charges 

Alfred (page 28). The ledger and the daybook are in The 

Wharton Papers, HSP. For a detailed discussion of the ship, see 

John J. McCusker, "The Continental Ship Alfred," Nautical 

Research Journal, volume XIII (Autumn 1965), pages 37-68, and 

"The Tonnage of the Continental Ship Alfred," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography [hereinafter abbreviated PMHB], volume XC (April 1966), pages 227-232. 

3. Quoted in J[ohn] Thomas Scharf and Thomas Westcott, 

History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 (3 volumes; Philadelphia, 

1884), volume I, page 303, note 2, most likely from the 

"Memorial of John Barry to Pennsylvania House of Assembly 

[1783]," a copy of which is in the Barry Papers, cited above, 

note 2. 

4. So recorded John Adams, one of the members of the 

Naval Committee. Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 1st 

series of The Adams Papers, edited by Lfyman] H. Butterfield et 

al. (4 volumes; Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1961), volume III, 

page 350. 

It was no coincidence that on Saturday, 18 November, The 

Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia) printed a lengthy 

"Extract from Entick's Naval History" (Figure 2) in which 

Alfred appears at the head of a new navy to save his people from 

the depredations of the Danes who were burning the coastal 

towns, a clear allusion to the burning of Falmouth (Portland, 

Maine) by the British in October. Compare John Entick,v4 New 

Naval History: or, Compleat View of the British Navie (London, 

1757), page iii. As was the custom, the same extract was 

repeated in Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet or, The General 

Advertiser (Philadelphia), Monday, 20 November 1775, and in 

the Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser (Philadelphia), 

22 November 1775. 

5. See pages 13-14. Some of the details of the refitting of 

Alfred are mentioned in Clark, Gallant John Barry, pages 66-67. 

More can be found in the daybook and ledger of James Wharton 

(cited above, note 2) and in Wharton and Humphreys's Ship 

Yard Accounts, 1773-1795, pages 4243 , The Joshua Humphreys 

Papers, HSP. 

6. Allen, Naval History, volume I, page 230. See Jones's 

encounter with HMS Milford, page 8. 

7. John Paul Jones to Samuel Huntington, President of 

Congress, Alliance, Texel, 7 December 1779, John Paul Jones 

Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. [hereinafter 

abbreviated LC]. 

There has been considerable discussion over the date of this 

commissioning, but the best-informed sources agree that Sunday, 

3 December, was the most likely day. This is the day mentioned 

in the intelligence sent by one "B.P." to the Earl of Dartmouth 

from Baltimore, 20 December 1775, as printed in The Principles 

and Acts of the Revolution in America, edited by Hezekiah Niles 

(Baltimore, 1822), page 541, and in American Archives, edited 

by Peter Force [and Matthew St. Clair Clarke] (9 volumes in 2 

series; Washington, 1837-1853); 4th series, volume IV, page 360. 

See also Naval Documents of the American Revolution, edited 

by Clark and Morgan, volume II, pages xliiand 1307, note 2. Both 

necessary elements for such an event were at hand: the fleet 

commander and the flag. Just the day before, on Saturday, 2 

December, Esek Hopkins had decided to accept his appointment 

to preside over the fleet; letter of Samuel Ward and Stephen 

Hopkins to Nicholas Cooke, Philadelphia, 2 December, in ibid., 

volume II, pages 1233-1234. On that same day the Wharton 

ledger, page 38, (cited above in note 2) debits the Alfred for an 

"Ensign" made by seamstress Margaret Manny. Compare 

Howard M. Chapin, "Some Recently Found Flag Items," 

Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, volume 

XXXII: Transactions, 1933-1937, pages 524-525. If the commissioning were done on 3 December, then it took place in the 

morning or early afternoon and a proper ceremony was 

made of the occasion for all the Rhode Islanders present (the 

Hopkinses were from Rhode Island) gathered that afternoon for 

a celebration. See letter of Samuel Ward to Henry Ward, 

Philadelphia, 3 December 1775, in Correspondence of Governor 

Samuel Ward, May 1775-March 1776, edited by Bernhard 

Knollenberg (Providence, 1952), pages 133-135. 

8. The Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (Williamsburg), 

2 March 1776; Naval Documents of the American Revolution, 

edited by Clark and Morgan, volume III, page \\Z9n; extract 

from a letter from Philadelphia, 29 January 1776, in Governor 

William Tryon to Secretary of State, New York, 11 February 

1776, Colonial Office Papers [hereinafter abbreviated CO], Class 

5: New York, Original Correspondence to Secretary of State, 

volume 1107, Public Record Office, London [hereinafter PRO]. 

Second and subsequent references to record groups in the PRO 

will take a short form using only the abbreviation of the group 

name, the class number, the volume number and, where 

applicable, the number of the page or folio (e.g., CO 5/1107, 

PRO). 

9. For the details of this first cruise up to the fleet's 

departure from New Providence, see John J. McCusker, 'The 

American Invasion of Nassau in the Bahamas," The American 

Neptune, volume XXV (July 1965), pages 37-68. Compare the 

Captain's log of H.M. Schooner St. John, Lt. William Grant, 

Admiralty Papers [hereinafter abbreviated Adm] , Class 51 : 

Captain's Logs, volume 4330. PRO. See also the log of the 

Continental Schooner Wasp, High Court of Admiralty Records, 

Class 30: Miscellaneous, volume 773, no. 10, PRO. 

Marine Captain Samuel Nicholas (Figure 6) is remembered as 

the first commandant of the Marine Corps; Home of the 

Commandants (Washington, 1956), pages 48-50. 

10. The Letter Book of Esek Hopkins, Commander-in-Chief 

of the United States Navy, 1 775-1777, edited by Adverda S. 

Beck (Providence, 1932), page 44. A slightly later, different 

version signed by Hopkins, is in CO, Class 23; Bahamas, Original 

Correspondence to Board of Trade, volume 10, f. 246, PRO. 

11. The evacuation of Boston can be traced in 77ze Despatches of Molyneux Shuldham, Vice-Admira! of the Blue and 

Commander-in-Chief of His Britannic Majesty's Ships in North 

America, January-July, 1 776, edited by Robert Wilden Neeser, 

Publications of the Naval History Society, volume III (New 

York, 1913), printed from Adm 1: Secretary's Department: In 

Letters, volume 848, PRO. 
NUMBER 17 

12. Allen, Naval History, volume I, pages 101-108; Samuel 

Eliot Morison, John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (Boston, 

1959), pages 47-53. Hopkins's career can best be followed in the 

introductions and texts of two volumes of his papers edited by 

Adverda S. Beck: The Letter Book of Esek Hopkins; and The 

Correspondence of Esek Hopkins, Commander-in Chief of the 

United States Navy (Providence, 1933). Her title for him is, of 

course, spurious; Gardner Weld Allen, "Esek Hopkins," The New 

England Quarterly, volume IX (September 1936), pages 

483-485. Edward Field, Esek Hopkins (Providence, 1898) is 

still useful. For Hopkins's earlier life, see also James B. Hedges, 

The Browns of Providence Plantations: Colonial Years (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1952), passim. 

Captain Howe's reports and other relevant papers are in The 

Despatches of Molyneux Shuldham, edited by Neeser, pages 

177-186, 207, 212, 227, 273, and 287. Other reports of the 

engagement are to be found variously scattered. Governor 

Montfort Browne, Royal Governor of the Bahamas, was a 

prisoner on board Alfred; see his letter to Lord George Germain, 

New York, 5 November 1776, CO 23/23, PRO, and as printed in 

"The Taking of the Bahamas by the Continental Navy in 1776," 

edited by Malcolm Lloyd, Jr., PMHB, volume XLIX (October 

1925), pages 355-356. Captain David Hawley of Connecticut was 

a prisoner on board Glasgow; his account appeared in the 

Connecticut Courant (Hartford), 20 May 1776. Also on board 

Glasgow was James Parker, Loyalist merchant of Virginia and 

victualler for the British forces in America; his version survives 

enclosed in a letter of Governor William Tryon of New York to 

the Earl of Dartmouth, New York, 15 April 1776, CO 5: 

Original Correspondence, volume 1107, PRO. Captain Nicholas 

Biddle of Andrew Doria, one of Hopkins's ships, described the 

whole affair as a farce in his letter to his brother Charles Biddle, 

2 May 1776, "The Letters of Captain Nicholas Biddle," edited 

by William Bell Clark, PMHB, volume LXXIV (July 1950), pages 

384-385. See also Clark's Captain Dauntless: The Story of 

Nicholas Biddle of the Continental Navy (Baton Rouge, 

Louisiana, 1949), pages 110-113. 

13. George III to Lord Sandwich, Queen's House, 29 April 

1778, in [John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich], 77?e Private 

Papers of John, Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, 

1771-1782, edited by G[eorge] R. Barnes and J[ohn] H. Owen, 

Publications of the Navy Record Society, volumes LXIX, LXXI, 

LXXV, LXXVIII (4 volumes; London, 1932-1938), volume II, 

pages 38-39; Washington to Benjamin Franklin, New Windsor, 

New Jersey, 20 December 1780 in The Writings of George 

Washington, edited by John C. Fitzpatrick (39 volumes; Washington, 1931-1944), volume XX, page 50; Patterson, The Other 

Armada: The Franco-Spanish Attempt to Invade Britain in 1779 

(Manchester, 1960). See also McCusker, "The American, Invasion 

of Nassau" (cited in note 9). 

14. Allen, Naval History, volume I, pages 50-51, 110-111; 

Morison, John Paul Jones, pages 66-71. 

15. Allen, Naval History, volume I, pages 121-127; Morison, 

John Paul Jones, pages 76-86. Note Jones's reports to the Marine 

Committee, 12 and 16 November 1776 and 11 and 12 January 

1777, in the Papers of the Continental Congress, Item 58, pages 

99, 101, 103, and 107, Record Group 360, United States 

National Archives, Washington, D.C. [hereinafter abbreviated 

NA]. The first two of those letters are printed, in part, in 

American Archives, edited by Force and Clarke, 5th series, volume III, pages 659, 738. Compare the Master's log of HMS 

Milford entries for 9-10 December 1776, Adm 52/1865:62-63, 

PRO. For the raid on Canso, see A. C. Yost, Guysborough 

Sketches and Other Essays (Guysborough, Nova Scotia, 1950), 

pages 98-103. 

16. "Extrait du Journal des mes Compaignes. . . pendant le 

cours de la Revolution Americaine" [pages 9-10], enclosed with 

a letter from Jones to Louis XVI, Paris, 1 January 1786, Jones 

Papers, LC. See also The Weekly Register (Baltimore), 6 June 

1812. Compare Morison, Jones, page 80. The agent for the 

Continental Navy at Boston, John Bradford, writing to the 

Secret and Marine Committees of the Continental Congress on 

Saturday, 21 December 1776, reported that Mellish "arrived safe 

at Dartmouth [i.e., New Bedford, Massachusetts], last Fryday 

. ... " He meant the day before, Friday, 20 December, since he 

continues: 

I sent order by the return of the Express to unload her and 

convey the clothing into safety imediately- Mr. Livingston 

sets out for Dartmouth this hour in order to receive what 

part of the cargo is wanted for the Army and to forward it. 

John Bradford Letter Books, 1776-1782, volume I (1776-1777), 

LC. 

17. McCusker, "Continental Ship Alfred, " page 51, and note 

46, pages 63-64. See Jones to Marine Committee, Boston, 11 

January 1777, Papers of the Continental Congress, Item 58, 

pages 103-104, NA, and Jones to Robert Morris, Boston, 16 

January 1777, Jones Papers, LC. This last letter is printed in 

[Anne Farwell] de Koven, The Life and Letters of John Paul 

Jones (2 volumes; New York, 1913), volume I, pages 176-178. 

Jones later wrote, in characteristic fashion, that being sent to 

sea "in ships unfit for war like the Alfred . . . distracts my very 

soul!" Jones to Joseph Hewes, Ranger, Portsmouth, New 

Hampshire, 30 October 1777, Jones Papers, LC. 

18. Allen, Naval History, volume I, pages 182-183; Morison, 

John Paul Jones, pages 87-92. 

19. Scattered details of this refitting (and mention of 

Hinman's having gone "to get a wife") can be found in the 

letters of the Continental naval agent at Boston, John Bradford; 

Bradford Letter Books, 1776-1782, LC. 

20. The orders to Thompson and Hinman were nearly 

identical. Compare John Hancock to Elisha Hinman, "By order 

of [the] Marine Committee," Philadelphia, 6 September 1777, 

in Admiral James Young to Phillip Stephens, the Secretary of 

the Admiralty, Antigua, 23 March 1778, Adm 1/310:147, PRO; 

and Marine Committee to Thomas Thompson, [Philadelphia], 6 

September 1777, as printed in Outletters of the Continental 

Marine Committee and Board of Admiralty, August, 

1776-September, 1789, edited by Charles Oscar Paullin, Publications of the Naval History Society, volumes IV-V (2 volumes; 

New York, 1914), volume I, pages 155-156. 

21. [John Almon (editor)], The Remembrancer; or. Impartial Repository of Public Events (17 volumes; London, 

1775-1784), volume V, pages 403-404, printing the report of 

Captain Thompson dated, at sea, 28 September 1777; Captain's 

log of Dmid, Adm 51/4172, PRO; Captain's log of Camel, Adm 

51/156, PRO. 

22. Hinman to Ellis Gray of Boston, Lorient, 26 October 

1777, in Young to Stephens, Antigua, 23 March 1773, Adm 

1/310: 147, PRO. 

23. Samuel Flagg Bemis, The Diplomacy of the American 

Revolution (New York, 1935), pages 16-57.Revolutionary Diplo-
SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

matic Correspondence of the United States, edited by Francis 

Wharton (6 volumes; Washington, 1889), volume II, page 428, 

prints the Commissioners' instructions. 

24. This intelligence was relayed to a Mr. F. Steward of 

Weymouth by "a gent[leman] of the strictest veracity" who had 

left Lorient on 4 December. It was forwarded to the Admiralty by 

Captain Thomas Graves, HMS Conqueror, 19 December 1777; 

Adm 1/1833 (13), PRO. 

25. Bemis, Diplomacy of the American Revolution, pages 

58-61. 

26. Jones's orders are in a letter to him from Franklin and 

Deane, Paris, 16 January 1778, Benjamin Franklin Papers, 

Miscellaneous, volume II, page 398, LC. A somewhat condensed 

version was printed in Life and Correspondence of John Paul 

Jones Including his Narrative of the Campaign of the Liman, 

[edited by Robert Charles Sands] (New York, 1830), page 74. It 

was while in command of Ranger that Jones raided the Irish Sea 

coast of England and captured HMS Drake off Belfast. Allen, 

Naval History, volume I, pages 337-352; Morison, John Paul 

Jones, pages 120-163. 

27. Captain's log, Ariadne, 10 March 1778, Adm 51/68: 5 8, 

PRO. 

28. Allen, Naval History, volume I, pages 301-304, 312-314. 

Hinman's version of the capture and later events have to be 

pieced together from a variety of sources. See R[oyal] R. 

Hinman, "A Family Record of the Descendants of Sergt. Edward 

Hinman," part 6 of his A Catalogue of the Names of the First 

Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut (Hartford, 

1852-1856), pages 818-819; Benjamin J. Lossing, The Pictorial 

Field-Book of the Revolution (2 volumes; New York, 1852), 

volume II, page 846, note 11; and the American Prisoners' 

Journal of Forton Prison, Portsmouth, 1777-1779, entries for 18 

and 24 July 1778, United States Navy Papers, LC. Compare 

Louis F. Middlebrook, History of Maritime Connecticut during 

the American Revolution, 1775-1783 (2 volumes; Salem, Massachusetts, 1925), volume II, pages 150-153. 

Thompson's tale of both legs of the voyage is in two 

published letters: The Independent Chronicle (Boston), 9 April 

1778, and The Continental Journal and Weekly Advertiser 

(Boston), 30 April 1778. William Bell Clark prints some of the 

public debate subsequent to the court martial of Hinman 

initiated by Thompson which took place in February 1777 in 

"The Battle of Words: A Naval Episode of the Revolutionary 

War," The Minute Man [Chicago, Illinois] , volumes XL-XLI 

(October, December 1950, February 1951), [5-7], [8-12], 

[5-8]. Hinman was acquitted with honor. On the disposition of 

the crew of Alfred, see Governor Lord George Macartney to 

Secretary of State, St. Georges, Grenada, 10 April 1778, CO 

101; Grenada, Original Correspondence-Secretary of State, 

volume 21, PRO. 

The British version of the battle and its aftermath survives in 

several places: the Captain's log of Ariadne, Adm 51/60:57, PRO; 

the Master's log of Ariadne, Adm 52/1576, PRO; the Captain's 

log of Ceres, Adm 51/4141:197, PRO; and a letter from Captain 

Pringle to Admiral James Young, Carlisle Bay, [Barbados], 18 

March 1778, in Young to Stephens, Antigua, 23 March 1778, 

Adm 1/310:147, PRO. Ariadne and Ceres had the additional 

advantage of being copper sheathed, making them potentially 

faster than their opponents. Admiralty to Navy Board, 9 

December 1778 and 10 January 1777, Adm 2/244:41, 103, 

PRO; Pringle to Young, 18 March 1778, Adm 1/310:147, PRO. 

Some contemporaries "esteemed [Ceres as] the fastest sailer in 

the British Navy," as quoted by J.W. Darner Powell in The 

Mariners Mirror, volume XV (July 1929), page 320. Pringle and 

Dacres had already proven their mettle against the fleet of 

Benedict Arnold on Lake Champlain in October 1776 and both 

were later to rise to the rank of admiral in the Royal Navy; The 

Private Papers of John, Earl of Sandwich, edited by Barnes and 

Owen, volume I, pages 177-179, 183-191. Again, technology and 

talent were on the side of the British forces. 

29. Adm 52/1576, PRO. This amounted to about £2.85 

sterling for each seaman, the equivalent of nearly nine weeks' 

salary. Presuming that the prize money was divided in the usual 

fashion (the crews split among themselves one-fourth of the 

total), and that both ships shared the money (there were roughly 

250 men on board both), the total received foi Alfred must have 

been in excess of £2800.00. 

AU.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1973 O—469-656 
Note on Alfred Paintings 

The painting of Continental Ship Alfred (cover 

illustration), published here for the first time, resulted 

from collaboration between this writer and the naval 

artist, Colonel Phillips Melville, USAF (Ret.). Colonel 

Melville's art has appeared in the American Heritage and 

the United States Naval Institute Proceedings; he is also 

a maritime historian in his own right. An earlier drawing 

of Alfred appeared on the cover of Nautical Research 

Journal (volume XIII [Autumn 1965]), which contained 

an article summarizing research about the ship. Some of 

the resulting suggestions have been incorporated to improve the finished work, as has other newly acquired information. Alfred is portrayed against a Brittany coast 

background as she sailed from Lorient with Raleigh in 

late December 1777. 

While our effort has been to produce as accurate a 

portrayal of Alfred as possible, this is a hypothetical 

rendering. The painting is based upon careful research 

and has been cautiously produced, but it is still only 

conjectural. 

By contrast, the other two purported pictures of 

Alfred used here have no claim to credence whatsoever. 

They are fully discussed and evaluated in the Nautical 

Research Journal article mentioned above and more 

recently in The American Neptune (volume XXVIII 

[January 1968]). The Roosevelt Collection drawing 

(Figure 7) has been incorrectly identified as to its 

subject. The Richard sketch (Figure 11) is either a 

nineteenth-century pipe dream or a twentieth-century 

hoax. Neither pictures the ship Alfred. 


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