USS Providence (1775)

Type

Sloop

Period

18th Century

Nation

United States

Overview: USS Providence was a small Continental Navy sloop that began life as the Rhode Island merchant/state-navy vessel Katy before being taken into Continental service in December 1775. She is remembered as one of the most successful commerce raiders of the American Revolution and for briefly being commanded by John Paul Jones. Specifications: According to her Wikipedia characteristics, Providence was roughly 65 feet in length with a 20-foot beam, rigged with jib, flying jib, staysail, a square sail, and a fore-and-aft mainsail, and armed with 12 four-pounder guns plus 14 railside swivel guns, with a complement of about 6 officers, 22 seamen, and 26 Marines. A Naval History and Heritage Command description confirms she was "single masted, principal sails fore and aft, and with one square sail, with 12 guns" — details useful for rigging and gun-port accuracy on a scale model. Service History: Chartered in June 1775 by Rhode Island's committee of safety to counter Royal Navy harassment of colonial shipping, she was renamed Providence upon entering Continental Navy service on 3 December 1775. As part of Commodore Hopkins' fleet she took part in the landing at New Providence in the Bahamas in March 1776, exchanged fire with HMS Glasgow, and over the next several years captured numerous British merchantmen and transports before being destroyed by her own crew on 14 August 1779 during the failed Penobscot Expedition to keep her from British capture. Notable Facts: Command of Providence passed through several officers including Abraham Whipple, John Hazard, John Paul Jones, Hoysted Hacker, and John Rathbun, with Jones's brief tenure making her a popular subject for modelers of early American naval vessels. A full-scale sailing reproduction of Providence was later built in Newport, Rhode Island; because no original plans survived, her replica's designers relied on period paintings and a few speculative models, and the reproduction was built with a fiberglass hull for durability rather than wood.