Abraham Whipple

Who was Abraham Whipple?

Abraham Whipple was an American revolutionary commander in the Continental Navy. Whipple was born near Providence, Rhode Island and chose to be a seafarer early in his life. He embarked on a career in the lucrative West Indies trade, working for Moses and John Brown. In the French and Indian War period, he became a privateersman and commanded privateer Game Cock from 1759 to 1760. In one six-month cruise, he captured 23 French ships.

He sank the first British ship of the American Revolution, the British schooner HMS Gaspée, in the 1772 Gaspée Affair. The first to unfurl the Star Spangled Banner in London, Whipple was also the first to sail an ocean-going ship 2000 miles downriver from Ohio to the Caribbean, which opened trade with the Northwest Territory.