The latter again showed his complete contempt for the commodore by sending the captured ships (which would become known as the Bergen Prizes) to Bergen, Norway, where the Danish Government turned the ships over to the British consul, depriving their captors of the satisfaction of having hurt the enemy and of any hope of being rewarded for their efforts. About this time, Bonhomme Richard captured a similar ship named Union off Cape Wrath at the northwestern corner of Scotland, and Jones allowed Landais to man both vessels. Betsy, a letter-of-marque ship she had just taken then accompanied the frigate. She left her consorts during a squall on the night of 26 and 27 August and did not rejoin the squadron until 1 September. Thus, the only really American warship in Jones' squadron belied her name by refusing to cooperate with the French vessels. in the most gross and insulting terms." From that point on, Landais seemed to ignore orders entirely and operated Alliance according to his own whims. when there was not sufficient wind to govern a ship." The next day, Jones later reported, Alliance's unruly captain came on board the flagship and addressed the commodore ". On the 23rd, he was enraged when the commodore refused to allow him to chase a ship into shallow and unknown waters ". Not many days passed before Landais – who in Jones' opinion had been the real culprit in the collision two months before – began to show his disinclination toward obeying orders. His flotilla sortied from Groix Roads on 14 August and headed for the southwestern corner of Ireland to begin a clockwise circumnavigation of the British Isles. The French planned an invasion of southern England that summer, and asked Jones to carry out a diversionary raid in the northern British Isles. Nevertheless, each was able to continue, and the squadron successfully completed its mission before returning to L'Orient where the two damaged warships were repaired. During a storm that night, Alliance collided with Jones' flagship, Bonhomme Richard, damaging the rigging of both vessels. The squadron departed Groix Roads, near Lorient, France, on 19 June to escort a convoy of merchantmen to Bordeaux and other French ports. Instead, Franklin assigned the frigate to a squadron to be commanded by Captain John Paul Jones.
Massachusetts made him an honorary citizen and the Continental Congress gave him command of Alliance, thought to be the finest warship built to that date on the western side of the Atlantic.Īfter the marquis and his suite had disembarked, Benjamin Franklin, one of the American commissioners in Paris, ordered her to remain in France despite the fact that Landais's original instructions had called for him to load the frigate with munitions and then to sail promptly for America. The frigate's first captain was widely accepted as such in America. Pierre Landais, a former officer of the French Navy who had come to the New World hoping to become a naval counterpart of Lafayette. Hackett, launched on 28 April 1778, and renamed Alliance on by resolution of the Continental Congress. Originally named Hancock, she was laid down in 1777 on the Merrimack River at Amesbury, Massachusetts, by the partners and cousins, William and James K. The first Alliance of the United States Navy (which served as part of the Continental Navy) was a 36-gun sailing frigate of the American Revolutionary War. Sold into merchant service, 1 August 1785
0 kommentar(er)
