Gustavus Conyngham Gustavus Conyngham ( about 1744 – 27 November 1819 ) was born in County Donegal , Ireland , and was a merchant sea captain , officer in the Continental Navy and a privateer . Conyngham ’ s story begins in a typical fashion for the era . Born in County Donegal in 1745 , he came to America in 1763 seeking a better life . Conyngham immigrated to Philadelphia in order to work for his cousin Redmond Conyngham in the shipping industry . He abandoned school at a young age , sensing that his destiny lay not in the academic world , but on the oceans . Here he learned and perfected his seamanship skills , becoming an apprentice to Captain Henderson , who became a surrogate father to the young Gustavus . Eventually Conyngham progressed enough to be given charge over his own craft , the " Charming Peggy " . When the Revolutionary War began in 1775 , he immediately sailed to Europe to try to procure supplies needed for the war effort . Escape from the British . Because Great Britain was patrolling for any arms deals , he had arranged a transaction with Dutch traders in order to safely transfer the goods . However , he was caught in becalmed winds for too long – the British were able to find him based on a tip from a mutinous sailor . Andrew Frazer , the English official in charge of Conyngham ’ s arrest , placed a guard on board the " Charming Peggy " and ordered her to set sail for England as soon as the winds prevailed . However , once the weather turned , Conyngham and his crew overpowered the guard and made a daring escape . Despite their best efforts though , the wind died shortly after , leaving them stranded once again . This time , instead of waiting to be captured , Conyngham sold the " Charming Peggy " to the Dutch government in order to be able to purchase a new ship when under less suspicion . However , due to corruption and embezzlement within the government itself , he was never given any profits from the sale of his ship , and was forced to find another way to accomplish his mission . Obtaining the " Surprise " . After the loss of his ship , Conyngham headed to France , hoping to connect with an ally to the United States . It was there he met Benjamin Franklin , a man who would help him in his adventures many times in the future . They formed a lasting relationship , and Conyngham eventually awarded Franklin the nickname “ the Philosopher ” for his intellectual fortitude and resourcefulness . Franklin had been entrusted with several commission s of the Continental Navy , and on March 1 , 1777 Conyngham was appointed as Captain of the lugger " Surprise " . He quickly went to work , heading towards the narrow English Channel and capturing the " Prince of Orange " and the " Joseph " within a week . The " Prince of Orange " was holding mostly mail , so he sent it to Dunkirk to be unloaded , but the " Joseph " was holding more valuable cargo such as wine and oranges , and was sent to France as a prize . Unfortunately for Conyngham , France had a treaty with England that forbade the selling of commandeered good in French ports , and when Lord Stormont , an English official , heard of Conyngham ’ s actions he demanded that France return the " Joseph " and arrest him . Not ready to commit to a war with England , French officials bowed to Lord Stormont ’ s demands , turning over the Joseph and calling for Conyngham ’ s arrest . He was sent to a French prison under charges of piracy . Success aboard the " Revenge " . Again , it was Conyngham ’ s friend “ The Philosopher ” that came to his rescue . Recognizing that Conyngham was a talented sailor from his clever avoidance of the British within their own channel , Franklin set about obtaining a new ship for him . However , this was no easy task in Europe at the time – England was watching the construction of new ships and was prepared to burn any vessel they felt was being built to aid the American cause . Therefore , the ship was built as the " Greyhound " , and Franklin had installed false buyers in order to further confound the English . One of the buyers , Richard Hodge , then sailed the ship into the ocean , where Conyngham boarded it and took command , renaming the vessel " Revenge " . Having more tonnage , maneuverability , and firepower than the " Surprise " , Conyngham immediately set to work terrorizing British shipping with twice the ferocity of before . It was here that he earned his nickname “ the Dunkirk Pirate ” , ignoring his written orders to proceed directly to the American coastline for logistical support and resupply and instead heading directly to Dunkirk to begin his cruise against the British . In his first cruise , he averaged one ship every three days , sinking or capturing over twenty ships during his two month stay in the Baltic and North Sea . He then sailed to Cap Ferrol in order to resupply and replace his crew . He then headed to the West Indies , continuing to use Spain as his primary base of operations . Over the next eighteen months he captured or sunk sixty ships , causing a 10 % rise in British shipping insurance rates between Dover and Calais . This brought the expenses associated with shipping to their all time highest level , outpacing their rates even during England ’ s wars with France and Spain . Dozens of merchants resorted to paying French and Dutch ships to carry their goods for fear of the Dunkirk Pirate ’ s vengeance . It was reported that the King of England himself said that it would give him great pleasure to be present at the hanging of Conyngham , if he could only catch him . Even the weather could not contain him . When his ship was badly damaged by a storm in English waters , he disguised the Revenge and sailed into an English port to be repaired , reverting to his native Irish tongue to maintain anonymity . When Conyngham was offered a seventy - four gun Spanish vessel for protection against two small British ships that planned to ambush him , he “ thanked him for his offer , but told him he was not afraid of fifty of their boats , all he wished is that they might make the attempt , and if they did , they would never live to make another . ” Conyngham ’ s reign of destruction off of the English coastline only ended when he captured a ship carrying valuable wartime supplies , which he deemed worthy of an escort to American shores . He arrived in Philadelphia on 21 February 1779 with his goods in tow . It was then that his luck began to turn sour . First return to America and imprisonment . It is ironic that the first friendly port Conyngham had seen in years would treat him so poorly . Though the local newspapers hailed him as a returning war hero , the Continental Congress was less than pleased with his disobedience to orders and his loss of his original commission , which had been confiscated by the French during his brief stay in their prison . Adding to this , as Conyngham was not the owner of the " Revenge " , it was sold at a private auction . However , because Conyngham had been so successful as her captain , he was again given command with orders to raid British shipping for a private profit . However , during one of his first cruises he was unable to outrun the British warship " Galatea " , and was taken aboard as a prisoner . As his notoriety had grown since his last capture , the British treated him very poorly . Since he did not have a commission at the time , and he was arrested for piracy and sent to the English prison at Pendennis Castle , where he escaped , only to be caught again and transferred to Mill Prison , Plymouth . By his own report he was kept in irons until he reached prison , and was given no more than a “ cold plank as my bed , a stone for a pillow ” . Additionally , he was not fed properly , causing him to lose fifty pounds while imprisoned on the ship en route to his English prison . He was kept in irons continuously at both Pendennis Castle and Mill Prison . In fact , it was only by the watchful hand of Benjamin Franklin that Conyngham was kept from the gallows . Franklin wrote to General George Washington about Conyngham ’ s missing commission , and Washington wrote to the British saying that if Conyngham met with the noose , he would hang six of the British officers he had captured . However , despite these conditions , he refused to accept the invitation to leave prison by joining the British Navy . In fact , while in prison he aided in the creation of a document stating that each member who signed would not leave the American cause regardless of how terrible the conditions became . Conyngham was placed on trial for high treason , but before his sentence was determined and carried out he escaped . Conyngham and eleven other prisoners had broken into the prison vault allowing them to use tools to dig a tunnel extending “ a considerable distance ” underneath the outer wall of the prison . Had a boy ’ s arm not been broken during the scramble for the exit , alerting the sentries , hundreds more prisoners may have escaped with him . Escape and return to America . After his escape , Conyngham fled to Texel Island in the Netherlands to try to find a way back to America where he could potentially receive a new ship . His spirits were high – he reported later that he was amused by the portrayals of himself as a monster that he saw displayed all over London while in disguise . He planned on making his way back to France where he could again enlist the help of his friend Benjamin Franklin , but instead met with a stroke of luck . While he was resting in Texel , John Paul Jones arrived in port after his battle with the Serapis . Jones took him aboard , and they cruised together for several months until Conyngham left the Alliance at a Spanish port in order to board a ship headed for American shores . However , it was here that Conyngham ’ s luck ran out once again . While aboard the Experiment en route to America , he was recaptured by the British on 17 March 1780 , and sent back to Mill Prison in Plymouth . He remained there until his release due to a political prisoner exchange . This time , he headed for Ostend , where he obtained the armed vessel Layona , which he prepared to go cruising in once again . However , he received news of a treaty , and instead boarded the Hannibal , which was on its way back to his hometown of Philadelphia . Later service and death . In many ways , his second return to the United States earned him a colder welcome than the last . The Continental Congress refused to pay him properly for his work because of his inability to produce his commission , which had been confiscated from him by the French almost three years ago . Because Benjamin Franklin had given him an official commission , he was not merely a privateer , but an actual Captain in the United States Navy . As such , he was entitled to two - twentieths of the value of the ships he took as prizes . As he could not produce his commission , and Benjamin Franklin passed on before he could give proper testimony of Conyngham ’ s commissioning , the Continental Congress refused to pay him what he was due , and instead treated him as a common privateer during his earliest and most successful raids . However , despite his quarrels with the government , he still continued to serve his country . During the Quasi - War with the French , he captained the Maria , an armed merchant vessel , bringing much needed supplies to the front lines . Towards the end of his life , he was elected to the Common Council of Philadelphia , and managed to raise thirty thousand dollars in loans from the population in order to defend the city during the War of 1812 . He never allowed his quarrels with politicians come between his commitment to his country . He died quietly in his home on 27 November 1819 . Legacy . Three ships in the United States Navy have been named USS " Conyngham " for him . < br > Conyngham Borough , Luzerne County , Pennsylvania was named in his honor .