Abraham Whipple
Abraham Whipple | |
---|---|
Colony of Rhode Island | |
Died | May 27, 1819 Marietta, Ohio | (aged 85)
Resting place | Mound Cemetery, Marietta |
Relations | Ebenezer Sproat (son-in-law) |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | Continental Navy |
Years of service | 1775–1780 |
Rank | Commodore |
Battles/wars | American Revolutionary War |
In 1772, Whipple burnt the first British naval casualty of the
Early life
Whipple was born on September 26, 1733, to Noah Whipple Jr. Abraham Whipple and Sarah Hopkins were married on August 2, 1761. They had three children: John, Catherine, and Mary. Catherine later married Colonel Ebenezer Sproat of the Continental Army. Whipple sold enslaved people as part of his mercantile career; in November 1763, Whipple sold an enslaved woman named Deuse to Nicholas Brown & Co.[4]
Revolutionary activities
Rhode Island
As American colonists began to express their opposition to the policies of
Three years later, the Rhode Island General Assembly appointed Whipple commodore of two ships fitted for the defense of the colony's trade. On June 15, 1775, (the day the sea captain received his commission), Whipple led his men to capture the tender to frigate HMS Rose. After cruising in the vicinity of Narragansett Bay, he headed south to Bermuda to procure gunpowder for use by the colony. On the return voyage, Whipple transported naval recruits to Philadelphia. Upon her arrival there, his ship, Katy, was taken over by agents of the Continental Congress and was fitted out as sloop-of-war Providence.
Whipple was commissioned a captain in the Continental Navy on December 22 and was given command of 24-gun ship Columbus. From February 17 to April 8, 1776, he commanded the ship during the first Continental Navy-Marine Corps amphibious expedition—the cruise to New Providence, in the Bahamas, to seize essential military supplies from the British garrison at Nassau.
After returning north to
Assigned next to command 28-gun frigate
Upon his return, Whipple received command of a small squadron—Providence, Ranger, and Queen of France. On one occasion in mid-July 1779, this group of ships encountered a large British convoy in dense fog off the Newfoundland Banks. Whipple concealed his guns and ran up the British flag. Thus disguised, Whipple cut 11 prizes out of the convoy, eight of which contained spoils of war valued together at over one million dollars (roughly 16.7 million in 2015 dollars),[5] making the venture easily one of the richest captures of the entire war.
Whipple then cruised off Bermuda before arriving at Charleston, South Carolina. On December 23, 1779. British forces threatened Charleston, which was at the time a key Continental port. The threat led Whipple to move the guns and crews from the Continental Navy ships in port on shore to reinforce the land batteries and repulse the expected British assault.
However, after a rugged four-month siege, the overwhelming pressure of British arms forced the Continental forces to surrender on May 12, 1780. Whipple remained a prisoner of war of the British until he was paroled to Chester, Pennsylvania, at which point he took no further part in the war. Upon the conclusion of hostilities, Whipple took up farming near Cranston, Rhode Island.
Later life
For the rest of his life, he remained a farmer, with the exception of two spells of seafaring as master of merchantmen, first of the General Washington and then of the St. Clair. With the formation of the Ohio Company of Associates in 1788 and the initial westward migration into that territory, Whipple and his family became pioneers on the American frontier and were among the founders of the town of Marietta, Ohio, and the first named proprietor of Charleston, Vermont.[6]
Granted a pension by Congress in recognition of his distinguished service in helping to win American independence, Whipple died at Marietta, Ohio, on May 27, 1819, and was buried at Mound Cemetery in Marietta. His gravestone reads:
Sacred to the memory of Commodore Abraham Whipple whose naval skill and courage will ever remain the pride and boast of his country. In the revolution he was the first on the seas to hurl defiance at proud Britain, gallantly leading the way to wrest from the mistress of the ocean her scepter, and there to wave the star spangled banner. He also conducted to the sea the first square rigged vessel built on the Ohio, opening to commerce resources beyond calculation. Born September 26th, A.D. 1733. Died May 27th, 1819. Aged 85 years.
Several ships of the United States Navy have been named USS Whipple in his honor. There is a Whipple Street, Avenue or Court in almost every one of the 39 municipalities in the State of Rhode Island.[citation needed]
Fictional references
- In Whipple Van Buren Phillips.
References
- ^ "History of the Rhode Island Army National Guard". Archived from the original on April 6, 2009. Retrieved March 9, 2009.
- ^ Hildreth, Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio, 159–60.
- S2CID 162248285.
- ^ "Receipt from Abraham Whipple to Nicholas Brown & Co. For purchase of 'one Negro girl named Deuse', ca. November 19, 1763".
- ^ "$1,000,000 in 1780 → 2015 | Inflation Calculator". www.officialdata.org.
- ISBN 978-0-8289-0291-5
Bibliography
- Cohen, Sheldon S.: Commodore Abraham Whipple of the Continental Navy: Privateer, Patriot, Pioneer, University Press of Florida, Series: New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology, Gainesville, Florida (2010). OCLC 421147591
- Hildreth, S. P.: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of the Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio, H. W. Derby and Co., Cincinnati, Ohio (1852). OCLC 2642704
External links
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.