The Continental Navy on the Gulf Coast 1775-1781: The USS West Florida at the Siege of Mobile 1780

This book details the efforts of the Continental Congress to harass the British province of West Florida with Marine raids down the Mississippi River and naval operations. Oliver Pollock, Congress' agent at New Orleans, outfitted and commissioned the captured USS Morris and after she was sunk by a hurricane he borrowed the schooner Caindre from the Spanish, outfitted her and sent her under Captain William Pickles with the surviving crew of the Morris into Lake Pontchartrain where Pickles captured the much heavier armed British warship HMSWest Florida in a bloody single ship action. The strengths of the vessels and the details of the battle is told here for the first time. Following the battle Pollock took the West Florida into American service as the USS West Florida. The USS West Florida under Pickles assisted the Spanish in the siege and capture of Mobile in 1780. This book recites for the first time the details of those actions and the activities of the USS West Florida and Captain Pickles. Also covered is the British and Spanish naval activity in West Florida up to the siege of Pensacola and thereby fills a void in the Revolutionary War history of the northern Gulf Coast.