The clearing weather on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland on 6 June 1776 yielded the sight of several sails, indicating prey. The 32-gun frigate Hancock and 28-gun frigate Boston, fashioned by the shipwrights of Newburyport, Massachusetts, bore down on a pair of helpless fishing vessels before singling out the brig Patty. After her capture, a boarding party from the larger American ship brought her crew aboard the Hancock, where they were welcomed by 43-year-old Captain John Manley.
“I have been out a Fortnight and had met with no success until I saw you,” Manley declared to the Patty’s master, Thomas Hardy. “Your vessel is of no value to me, but I mean to Destroy the Fishery by sinking, burning, taking or destroying all I find, which business I am ordered by the Congress to do.” After Manley informed his reluctant guest that he hailed from St. Marychurch, Torquay, England, Hardy reflected that he knew many of his captor’s family—a truly small world indeed. Yankee tars meanwhile took sails, hawsers, rigging “and every other Store which could be of value” from the Patty before putting her to the torch.
Having relied on the Royal Navy for protection of their shores and commerce, the 13 American colonies lacked a naval establishment of any kind when they first sought independence. Such important elements as designing and building men-of-war and casting of cannon literally had to start from scratch. Lacking, too, was a naval tradition. Yankee sea captains commanded ships for commerce, not for combat.
Captain John Manley’s ship owed her beginnings to the Continental Congress’ plans of December 1775 for 13 frigates. Thomas Cushing, Continental agent at Newburyport, signed an agreement on 1 March 1776 with Jonathan Greenleaf and the brothers Stephen and Ralph Cross to build one 32-gun and one 28-gun frigate. The specifications called for their construction “of the best White Oak . . . free of Rots and defects,” and gave the contractors the option of using black oak for the bottom of the hulls. The decks were to be planked with pine. The contract also specified that the carpenters assigned to the job were to carry out their finishing work “as a Ship of War ought to be finished, in a good workmanlike manner.” In addition, Greenleaf and the brothers Cross were “to find Rum for the laborers”—doubtless a reward for work well done.
On 6 March, Cushing informed Elbridge Gerry, a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress, that “the Ships are going on with the utmost Dispatch.” Also on the 6th, the naval agent wrote anxiously to John Hancock, president of the Congress, about how soon cannon would be procured for the two frigates. By happenstance, Hancock wrote the same day, entreating Cushing to “exert every nerve in forwarding our two Ships, that you Employ as many Men in every Department as can possibly work & be of Service in expediting them, in short, spare no expense.”
Although the ships taking shape on the building ways at Newburyport as yet had no names, on 17 April the Continental Congress selected commanders for them, John Manley being given the larger frigate. He had been born in England in 1733 but grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts. A sea captain by trade, Manley received his commission from General George Washington on 24 October 1775 as commander of the schooner Lee. A little more than a month later, he captured the British brigantine Nancy carrying ordnance and military stores for Redcoats in Boston.
In January 1776, Manley was appointed commodore in command of “Washington’s Fleet,” a group of schooners fitted out to harass the British. Shortly thereafter, on the 28th, Washington wrote him that “I wish you could inspire the captains of the other schooners under your command with some of your activity and industry.” In April, when he was commissioned as a captain in the Continental Navy, Manley ranked second on the service’s seniority list, with James Nicholson ahead of him and Hector McNeill just behind him.
Those who observed the ships rising on the stocks by the Merrimac River noted the brisk progress. Captain John Bradford, prize agent for Massachusetts, observed to John Hancock on 15 May 1776, “the Ships will be equal in every Respect to any on the Continent.” Less than a month later, on 6 June, Congress bestowed names on the 13 frigates in varying stages of construction, assigning the name Hancock to the 32-gun ship building at Newburyport. “I like the names of the Ships Well,” naval agent Cushing wrote the Continental Congress president on 24 June, adding that his wife did, too: “she proposed long ago that one of them should be named either the Hancock or The Lady Hancock.”
But on 18 July Cushing reported to Hancock that the launching of his namesake ship did not go well: The Hancock stuck on the ways but managed to enter her element within a day or so “without the least hurt.” Cushing crowed, “She is a very fine ship, there is not one Superior to her on the Continent.” Obtaining guns and enlisting sailors, however, emerge as chief concerns in Cushing’s correspondence.
The presence of British men-of-war operating with impunity off the coast vexed the Continental Congress, which urged that the frigates be built and put to sea immediately—an impossible task considering the delays in casting cannon and enlisting sailors. On 31 August, Captain Manley set out for Philadelphia, as Cushing noted, “quite tired of waiting for the Guns & goes either to get discharged from the service or bring the guns with him.” By the following spring, Manley had gotten his cannon, and on 21 May 1777, the Hancock put to sea in company with Captain McNeill’s 28-gun Boston and a number of privateers that for one reason or another soon went their own ways.
Sadly, the Hancock’s maiden U.S. cruise proved to be her last. On 6 June, a day after burning the Patty, the two frigates encountered the 28-gun frigate HMS Fox. The Hancock put five shots through her mizzenmast, damaged her mainmast head, and shot away many braces and stays, prompting the British ship to strike her colors. The Fox suffered two dead and six wounded, two mortally. The Hancock did not get away unscathed, suffering four killed and six wounded. Repairs to both ships occupied the ensuing days.
On the afternoon of 6 June, however, lookouts in the 44-gun frigate HMS Rainbow spied sails in the distance—the Hancock, Boston, and Fox. There ensued a 39-hour chase, during which the British 32-gun frigate Flora and 10-gun brig Victor joined in the pursuit. While the Boston escaped, the Flora recaptured the Fox, and by 0830 on 8 June, the Rainbow had pulled within hailing distance of the Hancock after peppering the American frigate with fire from her bowchasers and occasional broadside blasts since 0400. About a half-hour later, the Hancock struck her colors. Captain Sir George Collier of the Rainbow described his prize as “A Very Large & Capital Frigate.”
Under the White Ensign, the Hancock—renamed the Iris—captured the Continental frigate Trumbull in 1781. But less than two weeks later, the Iris/Hancock was captured again—this time by the French—and began service under her third master. The French converted her into a powder hulk (stationary ammunition ship), and the British put her to the torch when they evacuated the port of Toulon in late 1793.
While the vessel whose construction had prompted such paeans of praise accomplished little of note during the War of Independence, she was the first in a lineage of ships that served valiantly in later conflicts. Transport No. 3 carried Marines to Vera Cruz, Mexico, to assist in that city’s occupation, and World War I doughboys to France; CV/CVA-19 saw action in the Pacific and Vietnam wars. Additionally, Captain Manley, who died in Boston in 1793, was recognized by the Navy in Torpedo Boat No. 23; Destroyer No. 74, which was converted to the first high-speed transport, APD-1, and went on to earn five Battle Stars and a Navy Unit Commendation in World War II; and a Forrest Sherman–class destroyer, DD-940, which served in the Vietnam War.
Hancock-class Frigate
Tonnage: 762
Length (upper deck): 140 feet, 8 inches
Beam: 30 feet, 2 inches
Depth of Hold: 10 feet, 7 inches
Armament: 32 12-pounder long guns
Complement: 290 officers, enlisted men, and Marines