Meantime the schooner Wasp, under Capt. Charles Alexander, took the British bark Betsey on May 9th, while in October, under Lieutenant Baldwin, she captured three more prizes.
Facsimile of Account between Dudley Saltonstall and Elisha Hinman.
From the original at the Lenox Library.
A notable event of the year was the adventure of the Lexington under Capt. William Hallock. She was returning from the West Indies loaded with powder and other military stores, when she was captured by the British frigate Pearl. There was such a high sea running at the time that the captain of the Pearl decided, after taking four or five men out of the Lexington, not to transfer the rest of her crew to his own ship. So he placed her in charge of a prize crew, with orders to follow the Pearl.
As night came on, the gale increased and the sea became more boisterous. The prize officers, thinking no danger was to be apprehended from the prisoners under such circumstances, slacked up in their vigilance, and eventually both the prize captain and the officer of the deck went below for a comforting toddy. At that the watchful Yankees knocked the British sailor from the tiller and the guards to the deck, secured the companionway against the exit of the officers, and, putting up the helm, headed away for Baltimore, where they arrived safely.
A leading spirit in this recapture was Master’s Mate Richard Dale, who afterwards, as the executive officer of the Bonhomme Richard, under John Paul Jones, won lasting honor.
Another stirring event of this year was the fight between the Yankee brig Andrea Doria and the British brig Racehorse. It was the more stirring for the reason that the Racehorse had been sent out expressly to capture the Yankee, and it was a fair and even match, ship for ship.
The Andrea Doria was under command of Capt. Isaiah Robinson. Captain Robinson, in the sloop Sachem, had, on July 6th, two days after the colonies had declared their independence of Great Britain, captured a British vessel of six guns and brought her into port. For his success in this he was transferred to the brig Andrea Doria, and sent to the Dutch port of St. Eustatius to get arms and ammunition for the American army. It is worth mentioning, perhaps, that he received a salute from the governor of the port (the first salute the flag ever received from a foreign power), although the governor was afterward removed from office at the request of the British, for firing it. Having taken in his cargo, Captain Robinson steered for home, but off the western end of Porto Rico fell in with the Racehorse, and during the next two hours the sun-lit tropical seas were the scene of what was probably the first even sea contest of the Revolution. It ended in the surrender of the Racehorse after her captain, Lieutenant Jones, had been mortally wounded. The Andrea Doria lost four killed and eight wounded. The loss on the Racehorse was “considerably greater.”
Captain Robinson brought both vessels safely into the Delaware, but there the career of the little Andrea Doria came to an end, for, before she could get to sea again, she had to be burned to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy, who captured Philadelphia about that time.