Gustavus Conyngham - Success Aboard The Revenge

Success Aboard The Revenge

Again, it was Conyngham’s friend “The Philosopher” that came to his rescue. Recognizing that Conyngham was a talented sailor from his clever avoidance of the British within their own channel, Franklin set about obtaining a new ship for him. However, this was no easy task in Europe at the time – England was watching the construction of new ships and was prepared to burn any vessel they felt was being built to aid the American cause. Therefore, the ship was built as the Greyhound, and Franklin had installed false buyers in order to further confound the English. One of the buyers, Richard Hodge, then sailed the ship into the ocean, where Conyngham boarded it and took command, renaming the vessel Revenge.

Having more tonnage, maneuverability, and firepower than the Surprise, Conyngham immediately set to work terrorizing British shipping with twice the ferocity of before. It was here that he earned his nickname “the Dunkirk Pirate”, ignoring his written orders to proceed directly to the American coastline for logistical support and resupply and instead heading directly to Dunkirk to begin his cruise against the British. In his first cruise, he averaged one ship every three days, sinking or capturing over twenty ships during his two month stay in the Baltic and North Sea. He then sailed to Cap Ferrol in order to resupply and replace his crew. He then headed to the West Indies, continuing to use Spain as his primary base of operations. Over the next eighteen months he captured or sunk sixty ships, causing a 28% rise in British shipping insurance cost. This brought the expenses associated with shipping to their all time highest level, outpacing their rates even during England’s wars with France and Spain. Dozens of merchants resorted to paying French and Dutch ships to carry their goods for fear of the Dunkirk Pirate’s vengeance. It was reported that the King of England himself said that it would give him great pleasure to be present at the hanging of Conyngham, if he could only catch him. Even the weather could not contain him. When his ship was badly damaged by a storm in English waters, he disguised the Revenge and sailed into an English port to be repaired, reverting to his native Irish tongue to maintain anonymity. When Conyngham was offered a seventy-four gun Spanish vessel for protection against two small British ships that planned to ambush him, he “thanked him for his offer, but told him he was not afraid of fifty of their boats, all he wished is that they might make the attempt, and if they did, they would never live to make another.”

Conyngham’s reign of destruction off of the English coastline only ended when he captured a ship carrying valuable wartime supplies, which he deemed worthy of an escort to American shores. He arrived in Philadelphia on 21 February 1779 with his goods in tow. It was then that his luck began to turn sour.