History of USS Alliance

I

(Frigate; tonnage 900; length 151'; beam 36'; depth of hull 12'6"; speed 13 knots; complement 300; armament 28 12-pounder smooth bore, 8 9-pounder smooth bore)

The first Alliance -- a 36-gun frigate originally named Hancock--was laid down in 1777 on the Merrimack River at Salisbury, Mass., by the partners and cousins, William and James K. Hackett; launched on 28 April 1778; and renamed Alliance on 29 May 1778 by resolution of the Continental Congress. Her first commanding officer was Capt. Pierre Landais, a former officer of the French Navy who had come to the New World hoping to become a naval counterpart of Lafayette. The frigate's first captain was widely accepted as such in America. Massachusetts made him an honorary citizen and the Continental Congress gave him command of Alliance, the finest warship built to that date on the western side of the Atlantic.

The handsome new frigate's first assignment was the task of carrying Lafayette back to France to petition the French Court for increased support in the American struggle for independence. Manned by a crew composed largely of Britishers and Irishmen, Alliance departed Boston on 14 January 1779 bound for Brest, France. During the crossing, a plot to seize the ship -- involving 38 members of the crew -- was uncovered on 2 February before the mutiny could begin. The disloyal sailors were put in irons and the remainder of the voyage, in which the frigate captured two prizes, was peaceful. The ship reached Brest safely on the 6th.

After the marquis and his suite had disembarked, Benjamin Franklin, one of the American commissioners in Paris, ordered her to remain in France despite the fact that Landais' original instructions had called for him to load the frigate with munitions and then to sail promptly for America. Instead, Franklin assigned the frigate to a squadron to be commanded by Capt. John Paul Jones.

The squadron departed Groix Roads, near L'Orient, France, on 19 June to escort a convoy of merchantmen to Bordeaux and other French ports. During a storm that night, Alliance collided with Jones' flagship Bonhomme Richard, damaging the rigging of both vessels. Nevertheless, each was able to continue; and the squadron successfully completed its mission before returning to L'Orient where the two injured warships were repaired.

The French planned an invasion of southern England that summer, and asked Jones to carry out a diversionary raid in the northern British Isles. His flotilla sortied from Groix Roads on 14 August and headed for the southwestern corner of Ireland to begin a clockwise circumnavigation of the British Isles.

Not many days passed before Landais -- who in Jones' opinion had been the real culprit in the collision two months before -- began to show his disinclination toward obeying orders. On the 23d, he was enraged when the commodore refused to allow him to chase a ship into shallow and unknown waters "... when there was not sufficient wind to govern a ship." The next day, Jones later reported, Alliance's unruly captain came on board the flagship and addressed the commodore "... in the most gross and insulting terms." From that point on, Landais seemed to ignore orders entirely and operated Alliance according to his own whims.

Thus, the only really American warship in Jones' squadron belied her name