(formerly Defiance) Brigantine (2m)
L/B/D:
ca. 75 × 25 × 10 (22.9m × 7.6m × 3m). Tons:
ca. 190 tons. Hull:
wood. Comp.:
112. Arm.:
14 × 4pdr. Built:
<1775.
The Continental Congress authorized the purchase of the merchant brig Defiance in October 1775. Armed and renamed Andrew Doria in honor of the fifteenth-century Venetian admiral, she was placed under command of Captain Nicholas Biddle. In January 1776 she took part in Commodore Esek Hopkins's capture of Fort Nassau in the Bahamas and returned with the fleet to New London in April. Over the next six months, Andrew Doria captured ten ships, including four supply vessels belonging to Virginia's Loyalist governor John Murray, Earl of Dunmore. In October, Biddle took command of the frigate
Randolph and was succeeded by Captain Isaiah Robinson who was dispatched to St. Eustatius, Dutch West Indies, for military stores. Her arrival at the port on November 16, 1776, was met with the first salute to the American flag rendered by a foreign power in a foreign port. On the same voyage, Andrew Doria captured the British sloop Racehorse (12 guns), which entered the Continental Navy as Surprize, and a merchant ship. Andrew Doria never left the Delaware after her return to Philadelphia. Following the loss of Fort Mercer, New Jersey, Captain Robinson ordered his ship burned to prevent her falling into British hands.
Fowler, Rebels under Sail. U.S. Navy, DANFS.
