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PLYMOUTH IN THE
REVOLUTION:
The American Navy |
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| Simeon Sampson
(1736-1789) |
The first naval officer commissioned by the
Massachusetts Provincial Congress was Captain Simeon Sampson of Kingston and
Plymouth. He commanded the 16-gun brigantine Independence, built in nearby
Kingston in 1776.
One of the first British ships he captured off Nova Scotia was the
Loyalist supply ship Roebuck, captained by Plymouth Tory Gideon White.
Sampson himself was captured soon after, when he engaged Captain Dawson of the
Royal Navy at Halifax.
| While captured officers were expected to surrender their swords,
Dawson returned Sampson's sword in recognition of Sampson's courage. Sampson was later
commissioned to command the Kingston-built ships Hazard and Mars. |
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Sword of Simeon Sampson |
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| The Rattlesnake |
In order to augment the small American navy, General
Washington encouraged private citizens with fast vessels to pursue English ships.
Privateers, as these privately-owned ships were known, harried the British fleet along the
coast, capturing supply ships and obstructing military operation. Sailors on board
privateers risked imprisonment if captured by the enemy, but they received a portion of
the proceeds of the cargo from captured ships if they were successful.
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Several privateers were built locally, including the Rattlesnake,
built in 1780 in Plymouth. She received her first commission on June 12, 1781, and sailed
with 85 men and more than 14 guns. On her first - and only successful - cruise, she
took more than a million dollars of British goods. The British ordered her captured. |
Model of the Rattlesnake, built by Bob
Weiss. |
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The Rattlesnake was indeed seized the next year by
H.M.S. Assurance, a 44-gun warship. She was sailed to England, taken into
the Royal Navy, and renamed Cormorant. |
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