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The first ''Alliance'' of the United States Navy was a 36-gun sailing frigate of the American Revolutionary War. Originally named ''Hancock'', she was laid down in 1777 on the Merrimack River at Amesbury, Massachusetts, by the partners and cousins, William and James K. Hackett, launched on 28 April 1778, and renamed ''Alliance'' on 29 May 1778 by resolution of the Continental Congress. Her first commanding officer was Capt. Pierre Landais, a former officer of the French Navy who had come to the New World hoping to become a naval counterpart of Lafayette. The frigate's first captain was widely accepted as such in America. Massachusetts made him an honorary citizen and the Continental Congress gave him command of ''Alliance'', thought to be the finest warship built to that date on the western side of the Atlantic. ==1779== The new frigate's first assignment was to carry Lafayette back to France to petition the French Court for increased support in the American struggle for independence. Manned by a crew composed largely of British and Irish sailors, ''Alliance'' departed Boston on 14 January 1779 bound for :Brest, France. During the crossing, a plot to seize the ship, involving 38 members of the crew, was uncovered on 2 February before the mutiny could begin. The disloyal sailors were put in irons, and the remainder of the voyage, in which the frigate captured two prizes, was peaceful. The ship reached Brest safely on the 6th. After the marquis and his suite had disembarked, Benjamin Franklin, one of the American commissioners in Paris, ordered her to remain in France despite the fact that Landais' original instructions had called for him to load the frigate with munitions and then to sail promptly for America. Instead, Franklin assigned the frigate to a squadron to be commanded by Captain John Paul Jones. The squadron departed Groix Roads, near Lorient, France on 19 June to escort a convoy of merchantmen to Bordeaux and other French ports. During a storm that night, ''Alliance'' collided with Jones' flagship, , damaging the rigging of both vessels. Nevertheless, each was able to continue, and the squadron successfully completed its mission before returning to L'Orient where the two damaged warships were repaired. The French planned an invasion of southern England that summer, and asked Jones to carry out a diversionary raid in the northern British Isles. His flotilla sortied from Groix Roads on 14 August and headed for the southwestern corner of Ireland to begin a clockwise circumnavigation of the British Isles. Not many days passed before Landais – who in Jones' opinion had been the real culprit in the collision two months before – began to show his disinclination toward obeying orders. On the 23rd, he was enraged when the commodore refused to allow him to chase a ship into shallow and unknown waters "... when there was not sufficient wind to govern a ship." The next day, Jones later reported, ''Alliance's'' unruly captain came on board the flagship and addressed the commodore "... in the most gross and insulting terms." From that point on, Landais seemed to ignore orders entirely and operated ''Alliance'' according to his own whims. Thus, the only really American warship in Jones' squadron belied her name by refusing to cooperate with the French vessels. She left her consorts during a squall on the night of 26 and 27 August and did not rejoin the squadron until 1 September. ''Betsy'', a letter-of-marque ship she had just taken then accompanied the frigate. About this time, ''Bonhomme Richard'' captured a similar ship named ''Union'' off Cape Wrath at the northwestern corner of Scotland, and Jones allowed Landais to man both vessels. The latter again showed his complete contempt for the commodore by sending the captured ships (which would become known as the Bergen Prizes) to Bergen, Norway, where the Danish Government turned the ships over to the British consul, depriving their captors of the satisfaction of having hurt the enemy and of any hope of being rewarded for their efforts. In the next few days, ''Alliance'' took two more small ships prompting Jones to signal Landais to board ''Bonhomme Richard'' for a conference. The American frigate's commander refused to obey, but instead again sailed off on his own. For more than two weeks thereafter, ''Alliance'' worked her way south independently along the eastern shore of Great Britain while the remainder of the squadron followed a similar course from out of sight. A bit before midnight on 22 September, a lookout in ''Bonhomme Richard'' reported seeing two ships. Jones hoisted recognition signals which were unanswered. Landais was continuing to ignore the flagship's efforts to communicate. Nevertheless, at dawn, Jones was able to recognize ''Alliance'' and ''Pallas'', a frigate of his squadron which had recently parted from the flagship with the commodore's permission to hunt prizes. About mid-afternoon on 23 September, the squadron, off Bridlington, sighted ships rounding Flamborough Head to the north. The oncoming vessels were part of a convoy of over 40 British merchantmen which had sailed from the Baltic Sea under the escort of the 44-gun frigate and the 22-gun hired ship ''Countess of Scarborough''. The convoy had been warned about the American squadron, and turned back northward towards Scarborough, the two escort vessels placing themselves between the merchant ships and the approaching threat. As the gap closed, Jones signaled his ships to form a line of battle, but Landais ignored the order and sailed off to one side, forcing ''Countess of Scarborough'' to do likewise. In the ensuing four-hour Battle of Flamborough Head off England's Yorkshire coast, Landais, after briefly engaging the ''Countess'' took little part in the action. On the way to check up on the duel which developed between the ''Countess'' and the ''Pallas'', Landais fired a broadside at ''Serapis'', which was by then immobile, and lashed firmly alongside ''Bonhomme Richard''- as a result both ships were damaged. Some time later, with ''Bonhomme Richard'' losing its duel, ''Alliance'' returned to the main battle, and Jones happily "... thought the battle was at an end ...." But, to his "... utter astonishment", Landais' ship "... discharged a broadside full into the stern of the ''Bonhomme Richard''." Jones and his crew "... called to him () for God's sake to forbear firing into the ''Bonhomme Richard'', yet he passed along off the side of the ship and continued firing." This, however, was just more collateral damage, resulting from Landais' policy of keeping well out of the line of the guns on the free side of ''Serapis''. Unable to move his ship (either to escape or to aim a broadside at ''Alliance'') Captain Pearson of ''Serapis'' surrendered within a short time. Following the surrender, ''Alliance'' stood by during a desperate struggle to save the shattered, burning, leaking hulks. On the evening of the day after the battle, Jones realized that, while his flagship was doomed, her conquered opponent would probably survive. He, therefore, transferred his crew from ''Bonhomme Richard'' to ''Serapis'' and, the next morning, sadly watched the former sink. All this time, the squadron was simply drifting away from the British coast, but by 29 September, untiring labor had enabled ''Serapis'' to get underway, and, following French orders which were somewhat contrary to Jones's wishes, they headed for the coast of the Netherlands. ''Alliance'' sighted land on the evening of 2 October and, the following morning, she anchored in Texel Roads, Amsterdam's deep-water harbor, with the rest of the squadron. When word of the battle reached London, the Admiralty ordered its nearby men-of-war to search for Jones' flotilla; the Royal Navy proceeded to look in all of the wrong places. By the time a merchantman informed London that Jones was at Texel Roads, the victorious allies and their prizes had been safe at anchor there for a week. The Royal Navy then set up a tight blockade off the Dutch port to check any seaward movement that the American squadron might attempt. Meanwhile, the British ambassador – hoping to win for his country by diplomacy the victory and vindication it had been denied in ordeal by combat pressed the Government of the Dutch Republic to return both ''Serapis'' and ''Countess of Scarborough'' to England. Failing that he demanded that Jones' squadron be expelled from Texel and thus forced into the jaws of the Royal Navy's blockading squadron. Indeed, on 12 November, the Netherlands Navy had moved a squadron of ships of the line to Texel, and its commanding officer had ordered Jones to sail with the first favorable wind. Nevertheless, the adroit commodore managed to stall his departure for over six weeks. By that time, he had managed to restore ''Alliance'' to top trim and to ready her for sea. Since the other ships in his squadron had by this time, for complex diplomatic and legalistic reasons, shifted to flying French colors Jones decided to leave them behind when he left Holland in ''Alliance''. He had long since relieved Landais in command of that frigate, pending an official inquiry into his conduct during the cruise. On the morning of 27 December, after foul weather had forced the British blockaders off their stations, an easterly wind sprang up and enabled ''Alliance'' to stand out to sea. She dropped the pilot an hour before noon and headed southwest along the Netherlands coast. Less than a day later the frigate transited Dover Strait and entered the English Channel. On the night of 31 December, she was off Ushant, an island off the westernmost tip of Brittany, when 1779 gave way to 1780. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Alliance (1778)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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