The Deadliest Seconds of the War

On March 7, 1778, one of the deadliest naval battles of the Revolutionary War occurred off the coast of Barbados between the British ship Yarmouth and an American squadron led by the Continental frigate Randolph. The five-ship American contingent which sailed from Charlestown, South Carolina, led by Capt. Nicholas Biddle, was the largest joint Continental and state navy operation from that place during the war. Despite the relatively large assemblage of ships, the battle was brief and ended with the explosion of the Randolph and the deadliest seconds of the war.

The naval squadron which left Charlestown in February 1778 was a diverse mixture of ships and men. Of the four South Carolina vessels only one, the Notre Dame (eighteen 4-pound guns), was formally part of the state navy. Three ships, the Fair American (fourteen 4- and sixteen 6-pounders), General Moultrie (eighteen 4- and 12-pounders), and Polly (fourteen 4- pounders), had been privateer vessels until late 1777 when they were taken into state service. As diverse as the ships were the men who manned them, consisting of seasoned naval officers and crewmen, former prisoners, and men who had never been to sea before.

Certainly, the most well-known American captain and ship at the battle was twenty-seven-year-old Capt. Nicholas Biddle of the newly built Continental frigate Randolph. Biddle came from an established Philadelphia family and first went to sea at fifteen years old.^[1] After a short time on a merchant ship, he went to London to seek a commission in the Royal Navy. He was soon rated a midshipman and served for a time on the man-of-war Portland. In 1773, he went on board the Carcass on a voyage of discovery to the Arctic Circle accompanied by a fellow midshipman named Horatio Nelson.^[2] With the likelihood of open conflict in the American colonies, Biddle resigned his commission and returned to Philadelphia where, in August 1775, he held a commission in command of the state galley Franklin. By January 1776, Biddle received a commission from Congress and command of the Continental Navy brig Andrew Doria (fourteen guns, 130 men). In March, he was part of an expedition to the Bahamas where Continental Marines marched into Nassau and briefly took control of the town.^[3] By mid-1776, not yet twenty-six years old, Biddle was already considered one of the most able captains in the navy, having also been successful in the capture of several commercial vessels.

On June 12, 1776, Biddle was named captain of the thirty-six gun frigate Randolph, one of the first warships authorized by the Continental Congress.^[4] Built in Philadelphia that year by Joshua Humphreys and John Wharton, the ship measured 137 feet in length, 34½ feet in breadth, and about 690 tons.^[5] There were twenty-six 12-pounders on the main gun deck and ten 6-pounders mounted on the forecastle and quarterdeck.^[6]