USS Hancock (1776)

USS ''Hancock'' was a 32-gun frigate of the Continental Navy. A resolution of the Continental Congress dated 13 December 1775 authorized her construction; she was named for the patriot and Continental congressman John Hancock. In her career, she served under the American, British and French flags.

As ''Hancock''

''Hancock'' was built at Newburyport, Massachusetts, and placed under the command of Captain John Manley on 17 April 1776. After a long delay in fitting out and manning her crew, she departed Boston, Massachusetts, on 21 May 1777 in company with fellow Continental frigate and the Massachusetts privateer ''American Tartar'' for a cruise in the North Atlantic. ''American Tartar'' parted from the two frigates shortly thereafter to pursue her own prizes.

On 29 May, the frigates captured a small brig loaded with cordage and duck. The next day they encountered a convoy of transports escorted by the British 64-gun warship which attempted to disable the weaker ''Hancock''. Manley was saved by a clever and well-timed action by the captain of ''Boston'', which forced ''Somerset'' to give up the chase in order to assist the damaged transports.

After escaping from ''Somerset'', the two frigates sailed to the northeast until 7 June when they engaged the Royal Navy's 28-gun frigate , which tried to outsail her American enemies. ''Hancock'' gave chase and soon overhauled ''Fox'', which lost her mainmast and suffered other severe damage in the ensuing duel. About an hour later, ''Boston'' joined the battle and compelled ''Fox'' to strike her colors.

''Hancock'' spent the next few days repairing the prize and then resumed cruising along the coast of New England. East of Cape Sable she took a British sloop with a large cargo of coal, which she towed until the next morning when the approach of a British squadron forced Manley to set the sloop ablaze rather than risk its recapture. The British frigate ''Flora'' managed to recapture ''Fox'' after a hot action.

''Boston'' became separated from ''Hancock''; left alone, all Manley could do was order every sail flown in a desperate attempt to escape. Early in the morning of 8 July, the British were within striking distance. The warship ''Rainbow'' began to score with her bowchasers and followed this with a series of broadsides. The wounded ''Hancock'' was thus finally forced to strike her colors after a chase of some 39 hours. She had 239 men of her crew aboard, with 50 having already been captured while steering ''Fox''. She also had Captain Fotheringham of ''Fox'' and 40 surviving crewmen in her brig. The others had been transferred to ''Boston'' and two requisitioned fishing vessels.

As HMS ''Iris''

''Hancock'', renamed ''Iris'', served the British Navy so effectively that her new owners boasted of her as "the finest and fastest frigate in the world."

On 21 and 23 April 1780, ''Iris'', ''Delaware'', and captured the American privateers ''Amazon'', ''General Wayne'', and ''Neptune''. The capture had taken place a few leagues from Sandy Hook and ''Iris'' and ''Delaware'' brought them into New York on 1 May.

Perhaps the greatest prize taken by ''Iris'' was the capture on 28 August 1781 of the American 28-gun ship , another of the Continental Navy's best frigates. ''Trumbull'' had a crew of nearly 200 men. ''Iris'' captured her after an engagement of about an hour in which ''Iris'' suffered one man killed and six wounded, while ''Trumbull'' had two men killed and ten wounded.

In the aftermath of the Battle of the Chesapeake, British admirals Graves and Hood left the waters of the Chesapeake; the French established patrols of their fastest ships to guard the area. Prior to retreating, Hood dispatched ''Iris'' and ''Richmond'' to General Cornwallis at Yorktown in an effort to evacuate his army. On 9 September 1781, four French ships intercepted them; ''Richmond'' fell back and surrendered first, then the ''Aigrette'', under Captain Traversay, captured ''Iris''. Traversay boarded ''Iris'', assumed command, and held it till the end of war.

As Royal French ''Iris''

On 4 November 1781, ''Iris'', now assigned to the French navy under her old name, sailed from Annapolis to the Antilles. In January 1782 ''Iris'' took part in the Battle of St. Kitts and captured a British sloop. On the eve of the Battle of the Saintes, Admiral de Grasse detached ''Iris'' to escort a convoy of unarmed troop transports. In the late stages of the war, ''Iris'' continued her reconnaissance and cruising duties and undertook her final assignment when she carried an offer of a ceasefire on behalf of the rebel cause to British-occupied New York.

Fate

The French Navy sold ''Iris'' in 1784. Her fate afterwards is unknown.

See also

* List of ships captured in the 18th century
*Bibliography of early American naval history

Footnotes

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Frigates of the Continental Navy
Ships built in Newburyport, Massachusetts
1776 ships
Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
Vessels captured from the Continental Navy