USS Reprisal (1776)

History
Name:	USS Reprisal
Acquired:	March 28, 1776
Fate:	Sunk, October 1, 1777
General characteristics
Type:	Brig
Length:	100 ft (30 m)
Beam:	30 ft (9.1 m)
Complement:	130 officers and enlisted
Armament:	18 × 6-pounder guns
Service record
Part of:	Continental Navy
Commanders:	Capt. Lambert Wickes
Operations:	Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet

USS Reprisal, 18, was the first ship of what was to become the United States Navy to be given the name promising hostile action in response to an offense. Originally the merchantman brig Molly, she was purchased from Robert Morris by the Marine Committee of the Continental Congress on March 28, 1776, renamed Reprisal, and placed under the command of Captain Lambert Wickes.

On June 10, 1776, the Committee of Secret Correspondence of Congress, by arrangement with the Marine Committee, issued orders to Captain Wickes, to proceed in Reprisal to Martinique and bring from there munitions of war for George Washington's armies, and also to take as passenger Mr. William Bingham, who had been appointed agent from the American colonies to Martinique.

Reprisal dropped down the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, some time during the latter part of June. Before the Continental armed brig Nancy, six guns, slipped out to the Atlantic, six British men-of-war six British men-of-war had sighted and chased her as she was returning from St. Croix and St. Thomas with 386 barrels of gunpowder for the Army. In order to save her, her captain ran her ashore. Captain Wickes, with the crew of Reprisal, aided by Captain John Barry with the crew of USS Lexington, were able to keep off boats from HMS Kingfisher and to save about 200 barrels of powder. Before quitting Nancy, they laid a train of gunpowder which, when Nancy was boarded, blew up killing many British sailors. In the engagement, Wickes' third lieutenant, his brother, Richard Wickes, lost his life. This engagement became known as the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet.

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