This Day in History: February 21

After a successful cruise in the West Indies the Continental cutter Revenge, Captain Conyngham, sailed north and arrived at Philadelphia February 21,1779. Here the Revenge was sold, but the purchaser fitted her out as a privateer and Conyngham was put in command again, under his Continental commission of May 2,1777. In April the Revenge was captured by the British frigate Galatea and taken into New York. Conyngham was sent to England in irons and treated with great severity. He was accused of piracy on the ground that his cruise in the Surprise in the spring of 1777 preceded the date of his commission.