THE INDOMITABLE LEXINGTON

Many of the original thirteen colonies organized their own navies during the Revolutionary War.  For example, in February of 1776 the Maryland Committee for Safety sent Abraham Van Bibber to St. Eustatius in the Dutch West Indies to secure a ship.  He purchased a brigantine Wild Duck and filled her with precious gunpowder for the Maryland militia.  But within a week of reaching Philadelphia on the 9^th of March, Wild Duck was purchased by the Marine Committee of the Continental Congress and fitted out as the Continental Navy’s 14-gun sloop-of-war LEXINGTON.  CAPT John Barry commanded her, but before he could get to sea, the British slapped a blockade on their rebellious colonies.  Barry eluded that blockade, however, and on April 7^th, off the Virginia Capes, he met the sloop/tender HMS EDWARD, 6.  A fiery one-hour battle resulted in EDWARD’s defeat and transfer to Philadelphia.  LEXINGTON next raced south to meet ADM Sir Peter Parker’s attack on Charleston, where Barry barely escaped capture.

LEXINGTON marked that summer with her sisters; REPRISAL, 18; HORNET, 10; and WASP, 8, at Cape May behind the blockade of HMS LIVERPOOL, 32.  When the Pennsylvania Navy brig NANCY grounded while sneaking into that harbor on June 28^th, boats from the four Yankee ships lightered all but 100 of the 386 barrels of gunpowder she carried.  Barry rigged those remaining 100 barrels to detonate just as a British party boarded the next morning.  LEXINGTON slipped to sea again in July and captured the Tory privateer, LADY SUSAN.  Seven of the privateer’s crew signed on with Barry, one of these was Richard Dale, who quickly became Master’s Mate of LEXINGTON.

Under a new commander, CAPT William Hallock, the brigantine eluded the British blockade again in the autumn of 1776–this time bound for Cap Francois, Hispaniola, to secure a cargo of military provisions.  When LEXINGTON returned to the Delaware Capes on this day, a sail belonging to the British frigate HMS PEARL, 32, appeared on the horizon.  Shortly the frigate overhauled LEXINGTON.  The enemy prevailed in the duel that followed, and the brigantine’s hold was used to imprison the American officers and 70 crewmen.  But as the British prize crew secured the ship for the night, the captive Colonials began baiting them with promises of rum.  Their story seemed all the more believable to the British, who knew the ship had just returned from the Caribbean.  When the thirsty captors opened the hatches to investigate, the Continentals sprang forth and retook the ship.  Led by Master’s Mate Dale (who later served as mate to John Paul Jones on BONHOMME RICHARD) they resumed their mission to deliver LEXINGTON’s invaluable cargo to Baltimore.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 DEC 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, p. 100.

Fischer, David Hackett.  Washington’s Crossing.  New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004, 156-57.

Fowler, William M., Jr.  Rebels Under Sail:  The American Navy during the Revolution.  New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976, p. 252.

Miller, Nathan.  Sea of Glory:  A Naval History of the American Revolution.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1974, p. 118.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  We are so used to thinking of the United States as a whole that it may seem strange that many of the original 13 colonies commissioned their own navies.  But each colony had been founded independently, each was governed independently, and the idea that all 13 would unite under one government seemed just as strange in that day.

Despite her successes above, LEXINGTON did not finish the war in American hands.  She ultimately fell to the enemy in a controversial battle with a weaker British sloop.  She nevertheless became the inspiration for five subsequent US warships named in her honor, including the WWII carrier CV-2 and her replacement CV-16.  The latter served as our training carrier, AT-16, in the 1990s.

African-Americans are widely believed to have served aboard many Continental Navy warships, however LEXINGTON, PROVIDENCE, and RANGER are the only three documented to have had black crewmembers.

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                                          THE LOSS OF RALEIGH

On December 13^th, 1775, the Continental Congress issued our young nation’s first naval construction authorization, ordering that 13 frigates be built for the Continental Navy.  Five of these were to be rated at 32 guns, five at 28 guns and three at 24 guns.  All 13 were built, indeed the second of the largest frigates was launched on 21 May 1776.  She was named RALEIGH after Sir Walter Raleigh, whose Roanoke Island, NC, settlement was one of the first attempts at European colonization of the New World.

On 24 September 1778 RALEIGH departed Boston under command of the daring CAPT John Barry, escorting a merchant brig and sloop to Portsmouth, VA.  Only six hours out two sails were sighted on the horizon.  When they were identified as British, RALEIGH sent her charges back to port and hauled off to the north to draw the enemy away.  CDR Matthew Squire in HMS UNICORN, 28, and CAPT Sir James Wallace in HMS EXPERIMENT, 50, gave chase, with the faster UNICORN slowly gaining.  For the next sixty hours RALEIGH raced northward ahead of her pursuers.  By the morning of the 27^th UNICORN had drawn close enough to score a few hits with her bow chasers.

Barry now considered his situation.  He held a slight weight of broadside advantage over UNICORN, and, though he was out gunned by EXPERIMENT, the latter was lagging hours behind.  A bold Barry rounded on the British frigate, hoping to dispatch her before EXPERIMENT caught up.  Instead, a heated seven-hour close-quarters running battle developed.  Both warships were damaged, but as the battle dragged on RALEIGH was steadily wearing the Briton down.  Barry’s plan appeared to be working though it had taken great effort, until a lucky shot at dusk carried away RALEIGH’s foretop mast and main topgallant spars.  A tangle of yards, spars, and canvas fell across RALEIGH’s forward quarter, shielding a third of her guns.  Before this could be cleared RALEIGH was pounded.  Barry made a last effort to grapple and board UNICORN, but Squire eluded.

By now EXPERIMENT had been sighted.  Recognizing he was out matched, Barry made a final vow that his ship would not be taken.  He ordered her beached on Wooden Ball Island in Penobscot Bay and carried the fight ashore.  Incendiary charges were rigged, but inexplicably (perhaps through treachery) the fuses were never lit.  Instead, as the British rejoined the battle around midnight, traitorous Midshipman Jesse Jacocks, the last man aboard RALEIGH, hauled down her colors and surrendered the frigate.

RALEIGH was refloated on the next day’s tide and was taken into the Royal Navy under the same name.  Barry and 85 of his men escaped.  They arrived in Boston on October 7^th to a hero’s welcome, having hiked overland from Penobscot.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  3-4 OCT 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 18.

Miller, Nathan.  Sea of Glory:  A Naval History of the American Revolution.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1974, pp. 352-53.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Sadly, like RALEIGH, all of the 13 frigates authorized by the Continental Congress in its first naval appropriation were lost during the course of the Revolutionary War.  These first 13 frigates should not be confused with the six better-known frigates built a decade later, the latter including CONSTITUTION, CONSTELLATION, and UNITED STATES. 

By convention, the number of guns a warship of sail was rated to carry is indicated by a number following her name.  Frigates usually carried between 25-50 guns, “ships-of-the-line” often carried over 100.  RALEIGH was constructed with the intent to mount 32 guns.  However, in those days the captain of the ship was responsible for procuring his own ship’s armament, and the true number of guns a ship mounted often varied from her official rating.

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