From his whaleboat, Jones harangued the British captain for letting Jones’s boat approach unchallenged. Sneaking up on the vessel in a dense fog, Jones pretended to be an irate British inspector. Jones’s most famous exploit involved the capture of an unnamed British warship. (Schooners usually have fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts.) (Sloops are smaller, single-masted vessels.) In addition, he took the schooner Anson and other British schooners loaded with wood, hay, and other valuable supplies. Jones’s small fleet met with great success during their deployments, capturing or securing the cargo of such British sloops as the Tryon, Dorset, and Polly. Each carried one gun and approximately 10 crewmen, and Jones employed them in the defense of Stamford harbor. These boats were the Rattlesnake, Viper, and Saratoga. Jones received a commission for three boats which he owned and commanded. In Stamford, privateer whaling boats fell under the command of Ebenezer Jones. The limited resources of the Continental navy opened the door for seagoing privateers along the Connecticut coast to enforce trade restrictions, seize supplies intended for the British war effort, and offer protection from enemy attack. In 1778, 1779, and 1780, the Connecticut General Assembly passed numerous acts forbidding trade with the British, but these acts proved difficult to enforce. During the Revolutionary War, American privateers utilized armed whaling boats to keep the British from the colonies’ shores and prevent illicit trade in British goods.
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