Andrew Doria (1775 brig)
Andrew Doria receives a salute from the Dutch fort at Sint Eustatius, 16 November 1776.
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | Andrew Doria |
Namesake | Andrea Doria |
Acquired | November 1775 |
Nickname(s) | "Black Brig" |
Fate | Scuttled in the Delaware River, November 1777 |
Notes | Formerly merchant brig Defiance |
General characteristics | |
Type | Brig[1] |
Displacement | 190 long tons (190 t) |
Length | 75 ft (23 m) |
Beam | 25 ft (7.6 m) |
Depth | 10 ft (3.0 m) |
Complement | 112 officers and men |
Armament | 14 × 4-pounder (1.8 kg) guns |
Service record | |
Commanders: |
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Operations: |
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Andrew Doria was a
Purchase
On 13 October 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the purchase of the merchant brig Defiance.
Battle of Nassau
On 17 February 1776, Hopkins decided to take advantage of the discretion offered him and skip his missions in the Chesapeake Bay and along the coasts of the
The marines and sailors embarked on the two captured sloops on the evening of 2 March and headed for New Providence, hoping to arrive at daybreak. While following the sloops, the fleet attempted to remain out of sight until the landing party had secured the fort. Andrew Doria—popularly referred to as the "Black Brig"—outdistanced her consorts and found it necessary to lay-to until the other American warships caught up. As the troop-carrying sloops headed into the harbor, Fort Nassau's guns opened fire. The shot fell short but demonstrated that the American fleet had been detected and that its intentions had been surmised. Hopkins recalled his ships.[2]
After conferring with his officers, Hopkins decided to land his troops two miles (3 km) down the coast from Fort Montagu, which protected the eastern approaches to Nassau. The marines and sailors went ashore on 3 March and marched to Fort Montagu whose garrison surrendered without offering any real resistance. On 4 March, the Americans took Fort Nassau and town of Nassau. The fleet remained for almost two weeks, dismantling the guns of the forts and loading the captured materiel. During this stay, large numbers of the crew of each ship were stricken by a virulent fever. This complicated an already serious health problem caused by an outbreak of smallpox on all of the ships except for Andrew Doria whose crew had been protected by inoculation due to the far-sighted insistence of Nicholas Biddle. As a result of the crew's immunization, Andrew Doria was selected to serve as a hospital ship for the fleet and continued in this role for the remainder of the expedition. On 16 March, Hopkin's fleet departed Nassau and headed north.[2]
Battle of Block Island
Shortly after midnight on 6 April 1776, a lookout on Andrew Doria sighted two vessels to the southeast. Biddle passed word of the discovery to Hopkins who ordered the fleet to head for the strangers. The larger of the unidentified ships headed toward the Americans and before long she was within hailing distance and identified herself as "... his majesty's ship of war
As the crew of Andrew Doria worked the ship into position to reenter the engagement and opened fire, Glasgow's captain realized he was overmatched and decided to stand off to the northward. Andrew Doria, followed at a distance by her consorts, gave chase and kept up a running fight with her bow chasers until recalled by Hopkins, lest Glasgow lead his fleet to a Royal Navy squadron then operating in Rhode Island waters. When the American fleet had reformed, it retired to New London, Connecticut, where it arrived on the morning of 8 April.[2]
Change of command
From 9 April to 17 September 1776, Andrew Doria patrolled the Atlantic coast from Connecticut to Bermuda, capturing a number of British and Loyalist ships. On 11 July she captured ship "Nathaniel & Elizabeth".[4] Capt. Biddle anchored his brig at Chester, Pennsylvania, on the evening of 17 September, ending his last cruise on the warship, as he had been selected to command Randolph, one of the four new frigates being built at Philadelphia for the Continental Navy. Capt. Isaiah Robinson took command of Andrew Doria.[2]
First salute
Robinson sailed Andrew Doria down the
On her way back to the Delaware River, Andrew Doria encountered the sloop
Scuttling
Andrew Doria was stationed in the Delaware River through the spring and summer of 1777. After Vice Admiral Lord Howe brought his British fleet into the river in September 1777, Andrew Doria was part of the forces charged with defending Philadelphia. Following the British occupation of Fort Mifflin on 16 November, Andrew Doria, with the remaining ships of the Continental Navy, sought shelter under the guns of Fort Mercer, at Red Bank, New Jersey. With the evacuation of Fort Mercer on 20 November, Robinson gave orders the next day for the ships to be burned to prevent capture. This was done shortly thereafter.[2]
Replica
The
Citations
- ^ OCLC 426774.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Andrew Doria". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. 15 August 2005. Archived from the original on 7 December 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- OCLC 426774.
- ^ "Naval Documents of The American Revolution Volume 11 AMERICAN THEATRE: Jan. 1, 1778–Mar. 31, 1778 EUROPEAN THEATRE: Jan. 1, 1778–Mar. 31, 1778" (PDF). U.S. Government printing office via Imbiblio. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ a b Murray, Molly. "From Delft to Delaware, we owe Dutch". Wilmington News Journal. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
- ^ Barney, Mary (1832). A Biographical Memoir of the Late Commodore Joshua Barney From Autographical Notes and Journals in Possession of His Family, and Other Authentic Sources. Gray and Bowen.
- ^ Maclay & Smith (1894), pp. 45–6.
- ^ "Andrew Doria – The First Salute, Inc". Andrew Doria – The First Salute, Inc. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
- ^ "Proceedings of City Council Meeting, May 18, 2009, City of Havre de Grace, Maryland" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 October 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
- ^ "Shipyard". Andrew Doria – The First Salute, Inc. Archived from the original on 11 February 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
References
- Maclay, Edgar Stanton & Roy Campbell Smith (1894) A History of the United States Navy, from 1775 to 1893; by Edgar Stanton Maclay, A.M., with Technical Revision by Lieutenant Roy C. Smith .... (D. Appleton).
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
External links
- "Andrew Doria". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. 15 August 2005. Archived from the original on 7 December 2010. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
- St. Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research
- Andrew Doria: The First Salute, Inc.