Combat· Quasi-War with France
Delaware vs Le Croyable
The opening shot of the Quasi-War.
Off Egg Harbor on the New Jersey coast, the USS Delaware under Captain Stephen Decatur Sr. ran down and captured the French privateer schooner Le Croyable, the first French vessel taken in the war. Aboard the Delaware was a Marine detachment under First Lieutenant James McKnight, consisting of a sergeant, a corporal, and twenty-one privates. Le Croyable struck her colors after the Delaware fired several shots, and there were no casualties on either side. The capture came four days before President Adams signed the act reestablishing the Marine Corps, so McKnight's detachment was technically a pre-Corps guard raised under the 1794 act. The prize was taken into American service and renamed USS Retaliation, a name that would prove ironic within months.
Podcast episodes on Quasi-War with France
Record no. 172