The First HORNET

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Sloop HORNET Statistics

Lenght: 64 Ft.
Beam: 18 ft.
Draft: 10 ft.
Displacement: 75 Tons
Hull: Wood
Armement: 10 9 pounders
Built: Baltimore 1775

Captain William Stone
Commodore Esek Hopkins
James Nicholson

HORNET

The First ship to bear the name.

A merchant sloop owned by Baltimore merchant Captain William Stone. With WASP, HORNET was one of the first vessels charted by Congress for the Continental Navy.

A merchant sloop owned by Baltimore merchant Captain William Stone. With WASP, HORNET was one of the first vessels charted by Congress for the Continental Navy.

18 February 1776 -	Sailed in a squadron under Commodore Esek Hopkins, flying his flag in ALFRED, to capture British gunpowder at New Providence, the Bahamas. Running afoul of FLY, she was forced back to the Delaware.
30 January 1777 -	Now under the command of James Nicholson HORNET and FLY were ordered to escort a merchant convoy bound for Martinique to secure French military stores bound for the Continental Army.
26 September 1777 -	Following General Sir Willian Howe's capture of PHILADELPHIA, HORNET, ANDREW DORIA, WASP, and FLY were part of the fleet that lay on the Delaware River between the British fleet at Chester and Philadelphia, which had fallen to the British.
15 November 1777 -	HORNET, ANDREW DORIA, and WASP were burned after the fall of the Delaware River Forts Mifflin and Mercer, to prevent them from being captured by the British. It is also possible that the HORNET escsped the Delaware, only to be captured off Charleston by the Brittish schooner PORCUPINE after loading a cargo of indigo for Martinique.
-	HORNET'S ultimate fate is uncertain.