USS Ranger (1777)

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USS Ranger receiving the salute of the French fleet at Quiberon Bay, France, 14 February 1778.
History
United States
Name	USS Ranger
Builder	James Hackett (shipbuilder), Badger's Island, Kittery, Maine
Launched	10 May 1777
Captured	11 May 1780
Great Britain
Name	HMS Halifax
Acquired	11 May 1780
Decommissioned	1781
General characteristics
Type	Sloop-of-war
Displacement	308 long tons (313 t)
Length	116 ft (35 m)
Beam	28 ft (8.5 m)
Draft	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Complement	140 officers and enlisted
Armament	18 × 6-pounder guns
Service record
Commanders:	Capt. John Paul Jones (1777–1778)
Operations:	Siege of Charleston (1779–1780)
Victories:	North Channel naval duel (1778), captured 31 prizes worth well over $1,000,000

USS Ranger was a sloop-of-war in the Continental Navy, serving from 1777–1780 and the first to bear her name. Built at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Badger's Island in Kittery, Maine, she is famed for the solo raiding campaign carried out by her first captain, John Paul Jones, during naval operations of the American Revolutionary War.^[1] In six months spent primarily in British waters, she captured five prizes (mostly merchantmen), staged a single failed attack on the English mainland at Whitehaven, and caused Royal Navy ships to be dispatched against her in the Irish Sea.

Jones was detached in Brest, France to take charge of the Bonhomme Richard, turning over responsibility for Ranger to his first officer, Lieutenant Thomas Simpson. Under Simpson, the Ranger went on to capture an additional twenty-four prizes across the Atlantic and along the U.S. coast throughout 1778 and 1779.

Receiving new orders in late 1779 to aid the American garrison at Charleston, South Carolina, during the British siege, she continued her raiding career until ultimately forced to anchor on the Cooper River, resulting in her capture on 11 May 1780, with the fall of the city. Renamed Halifax, she finished her active service as a Royal Navy ship and was decommissioned in 1781. Later that year, she was sold in Portsmouth, England to private buyers for use as a merchantman.