USS Reprisal was an 18-gun brig of the Continental Navy. Originally the merchantman Molly, she was purchased from Robert Morris by the Marine Committee of the Continental Congress on March 28, 1776, renamed Reprisal, and placed under the command of Captain Lambert Wickes.
Service history
Caribbean voyage, June–September 1776
On June 10, 1776, the Committee of Secret Correspondence of Congress, by arrangement with the Marine Committee, issued orders to Captain Wickes, to proceed in Reprisal to Martinique and bring from there munitions of war for George Washington's armies, and also to take as passenger Mr. William Bingham, who had been appointed agent from the American colonies to Martinique.
Reprisal dropped down the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, some time during the latter part of June. Before the Continental armed brig Nancy, six guns, slipped out to the Atlantic, six British men-of-war had sighted and chased her as she was returning from St. Croix and St. Thomas with 386 barrels of gunpowder for the Army. In order to save her, her captain ran her ashore. Captain Wickes, with the crew of Reprisal, aided by Captain John Barry with the crew of , were able to keep off boats from and to save about 200 barrels of powder. Before quitting Nancy, they laid a train of gunpowder which, when Nancy was boarded, blew up killing seven members of the boarding party. In the engagement, Wickes' third lieutenant, his brother, Richard Wickes, lost his life. This engagement, on June 29, became known as the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet.
Reprisal cleared the Delaware Capes on July 3. During that month, Captain Wickes captured a number of vessels in the West Indies, and, on July 27, had a sharp encounter with off Martinique, beating her off and escaping into port. She returned to Philadelphia on September 13.
In European waters, October 1776–February 1777
Benjamin Franklin's passage to France
On October 24, 1776, Wickes was ordered by Congress to take Reprisal to Nantes, France, carrying Benjamin Franklin, who had been appointed Commissioner to France. Undertaking America's first diplomatic mission, Franklin would remain in France for nine years as ambassador. Franklin was accompanied on Reprisal by two of his grandsons, William Temple Franklin and Benjamin Franklin Bache. Reprisal afterwards was to cruise against enemy shipping in the English Channel. However, Wickes had been able to arrange, with Franklin's assistance, a clandestine sale of the prize vessels before the French could take action.
Ultimately, Reprisal was ordered to leave in 24 hours by the French authorities, who had been stirred to action by the remonstrances of the British government. Wickes, however, claimed that Reprisal had sprung a leak and should be careened for repairs. He received permission to make his repairs and by excuses was able several times to defeat the intentions of those in charge of the port while he made ready for another cruise.
Cruise around Ireland, April–June 1777
In April 1777 Reprisal was joined by the Continental vessels (16 guns), and (10 guns), these three vessels constituting a squadron under the command of Wickes. The American Commissioners in Paris sent the squadron on a cruise along the shores of the British Isles, where Wickes had planned an attack on the Irish linen merchant fleet.