Ever heard of a brig (that’s a kind of ship, also known as a brigantine) named the Washington? Probably not, but she was historic, in a small way: she was the first American warship captured by the British in the Revolutionary War, and she gave King George III a chance to look at a rebel flag.
Commanded by Captain Sion Martindale, the Washington set sail on November 23, 1775, and captured at least one ship with supplies bound for the British troops in Boston. But then the crew refused to work. One of their grievances was that they didn’t have enough clothing. What exactly they were lacking, I’m not sure, but in the late fall in the North Atlantic, proper clothing is something you can’t very well do without. At any rate, once they were supplied with the clothes they needed, “the whole Crew to a man gave three Cheers & declard their readiness to go to Sea next morning.”
They set sail again on December 3, and were run down the very next evening by the British ship Fowey, commanded by Captain George Montagu. The Fowey fired a few cannon as a warning, and the Americans gave up — which was probably a wise thing to do, since they were outgunned and outmanned. The odds against them were increased when another British ship, the Lively, showed up later that night.
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