Independence, US Navy Sloop (1780)

Back to model list

Photo Cache

Vessel type: Continental Navy sloop

Designer:

Builder: a yard in Baltimore, Maryland

Keel Laid:

Date Deliver: September 1776

Date Modified: Date Scrapped: Wrecked April 24, 1778 Length on deck: Length over all: Beam: Depth: Draft: Gross Tonnage: Lightweight Tonnage: Maximum Displacement: Construction Material: Rig Type: Sail area: Crew Size: Passenger Capacity: Propulsion Plant: Horsepower: Cruising Speed: Maximum Speed: Armament: 10 guns

The USS Independence was built in Baltimore in 1776 as one of the first Continental Navy vessels.

She rated as a sloop, which in navy terminology is a multipurpose vessel smaller than a frigate. She is schooner rigged and carried 10 guns.

Independence sailed in September 1776 under the command of Captain John Young for the Caribbean to protect American merchant vessels in the West Indies.  She later sailed for France in mid 1777, arriving in L’Orient in late September with important diplomatic dispatches.  During the voyage Independence captured two British vessels.  Her crew bore witness to the salute of Ranger under the command of John Paul Jones on February 14, 1778, in Quiberon Bay, the first salute by a foreign warship to a naval vessel under the US national flag.  (The Dutch had already saluted the US flag on October 17, 1776, but it was not yet the classic Stars and Stripes and was from the fort in St. Eustatius.)

Independence sailed in September 1776 under the command of Captain John Young for the Caribbean to protect American merchant vessels in the West Indies. She later sailed for France in mid 1777, arriving in L’Orient in late September with important diplomatic dispatches. During the voyage Independence captured two British vessels. Her crew bore witness to the salute of Ranger under the command of John Paul Jones on February 14, 1778 in Quiberon Bay, which was the first salute by a foreign power to a naval vessel under the US national flag. Independence floundered while attempting to enter the Okracoke Inlet in North Carolina on April 24, 1778.

The model was built by Henry Scheafer in 2005 from an Italian kit.