Combat· American Revolutionary War
Katy/Washington (RI Navy) vs HMS Rose tender
On June 15, 1775, the Rhode Island Navy vessels Katy and Washington chased ashore and destroyed an armed tender of the British frigate Rose.
One account quoted by the historian Edwin McClellan states that Captain Whipple attacked the tender and after sharp firing drove her ashore on Conanicut and captured her. The Rhode Island Assembly had authorized two vessels to be fitted out on June 12, 1775. McClellan described the two sloops as the first American armed vessels commissioned by any public authority, and the tender as the first enemy vessel captured by a public armed vessel during the war. Marines of the state navies predated the Continental Marines, and McClellan recorded that some of them were attached to the Katy and Washington in this action. In November 1775 the Katy sailed from Providence for Philadelphia under Abraham Whipple, was leased on arrival, and renamed the Providence. As the Continental sloop Providence she was altered to install twelve 4-pounders, and in 1778 made a second expedition to New Providence alone.
Record no. 161