USS Andrew Doria (1775)

Career
Name:	USS Andrew Doria
Namesake:	Andrea Doria
Acquired:	November 1775
Fate:	Burned to prevent capture November 1777
General characteristics
Type:	Brigantine
Displacement:	190 long tons (190 t)
Length:	75 ft (23 m)
Beam:	25 ft (7.6 m)
Depth:	10 ft (3.0 m)
Complement:	112 officers and men
Armament:	14 × 4-pounder (1.8 kg) guns

Service record
Commanders:	Capt. Nicholas Biddle Capt. Isiah Robinson
Operations:	Battle of Nassau

For other ships of the same name, see USS Andrew Doria.

USS Andrew Doria was purchased by the Continental Congress in October of 1775. The ship was originally named the Defiance, but was renamed Andrew Doria, after being fitted out as a fighting vessel.

The brigantine was named after a 15th century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria. She was part of the first amphibious operation in the taking of Fort Montague as part of Esek Hopkins' fleet.

She was captained by Nicholas Biddle. After the taking of Fort Montague, she became the fleet's hospital ship after the other ships had an outbreak of smallpox. Andrew Doria was not affected as its crew had been inoculated.

File:First Salute from Fort Oranje Sint Eustatius.JPG

The Andrew Doria was flying a flag long expected at St. Eustatius—the Grand Union Flag—representing the newly independent Colonies (Griffis 1893). It was from Fort Oranje on the Dutch Caribbean island Saint Eustatius that the First Salute to the Andrew Doria was fired.

Biddle was transferred to another ship in September. Capt. Isaiah Robinson took command and was ordered to go to St. Eustatius to obtain munitions and military supplies. The Andrew Doria also carried a precious cargo to St. Eustatius—a copy of the Declaration of Independence (Griffis 1893). The ship received the first-ever salute to the United States by a foreign power when on 16 November 1776 she arrived at St. Eustatius. Johannes de Graaff, the Dutch governor of the island paid tribute with a 11-gun salute, two less than the amount of states and stripes in the flag. The event was widely reported in the United States, and provided the title for Barbara Tuchman's 1988 book, The First Salute, about the American Revolution.

There is a model of this ship in the US Navy Museum in the Navy Yard in Washington DC.

The not-for-profit corporation, Andrew Doria: the First Salute is currently building a working replica of the Brigantine Andrew Doria.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[[Commons: Category:Sint Eustatius

| Sint Eustatius

]]

• Sint Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research
• Andrew Doria: the First Salute Incorporated

References

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.