From early 1775, British men-of-war, especially His Majesty’s Frigate Rose, searched Rhode Island shipping and annoyed the colony’s merchants who had become wealthy through smuggling. On 13 June Deputy Governor Nicholas Cooke wrote James Wallace, the frigate’s Captain, demanding restoration of several ships which Rose had captured. Two days later the Rhode Island General Assembly ordered the committee of safety to fit out two ships to defend the colony’s shipping, and appointed a committee of three to obtain the vessels. That day the committee chartered the sloop Katy from John Brown of Providence and the sloop Washington at the same time. The General Assembly appointed Abraham Whipple, who had won fame in the burning of British armed schooner HMS Gaspée in 1772, commander of Katy, the lar