Realizing they were outgunned, the American ships took flight. However, USS Alfred could not keep up with her group and fell behind, allowing the schooner to escape. The two men-of war vessels closed in on the Alfred and asked for a surrender to which Alfred replied with a broadside and a battle ensued. The battle had proven more than the Alfred could handle on her own and she and her crew was eventually forced to surrender. She was handed over to the British and taken to Barbados, eventually sold to the Royal Navy and renamed as "H.M. armed ship Alfred (20 guns)". She was then sold and broken up in 1782, ending her relatively short reign of the seas for the Americans.
Many recognized the USS Alfred as the first "true" warship of the Continental Navy. Captain John Paul Jones first flew the Grand Union Flag in 1775 (also known as the Continental flag) and this became the first "true" American flag to fly from her masts. The flag combined the colors of the British monarchy with the thirteen stripes of the American colonies (signifying colonial unity). George Washington approved of this design and chose it to be flown in celebration of the formation of the Continental Army on New Years Day in 1776.
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