Captain Thomas Thompson

Thomas Thompson was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, around 1739 and came of age in the maritime world of New England's fishing and trading ports before settling in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he built his career as a sea captain. Portsmouth was one of colonial New England's premier shipbuilding centers, its yards producing vessels for the Atlantic trade and its merchant community developing deep expertise in navigation and seamanship. Thompson absorbed that culture fully, rising through the ranks of merchant captains and earning a reputation as a skilled mariner before the Revolution created demand for men who could captain warships.

When the Continental Congress authorized the construction of thirteen frigates in December 1775, Thompson was selected to command the Raleigh, one of the original thirteen and a ship being built in Portsmouth's yards. His appointment reflected both his local stature and the Portsmouth community's expectation that its finest maritime talent would represent the town in the new navy. The Raleigh was launched in May 1777 and Thompson took her to sea, but his naval career with the Continental Navy proved brief and ultimately unsuccessful. In September 1777, the Raleigh encountered two British warships off the Nova Scotia coast. After a running engagement, Thompson chose to beach the Raleigh rather than allow her to be captured, an action that saved his crew but resulted in a court martial. He was found guilty of not doing his utmost to defend the ship and was suspended from the navy.

Despite the court martial, Thompson continued to serve the Patriot cause through privateer operations and was later reinstated to some degree of official standing. His career illustrated both the promise and the difficulty of building a Continental Navy from scratch, using merchant captains with genuine skill but no training in fleet engagements against the Royal Navy's professional warships. Portsmouth's contribution to the Continental Navy extended beyond Thompson, as the yards that built the Raleigh also built the America, the largest warship the Continental Congress commissioned during the entire war.