The Congress have given orders for fitting out two ships of 32 guns each, and two brigs, to carry from 16 to 20 guns each, and the Province one of 18 guns, 18 pounders, and to be ready for sea by Christmas; to be commanded by one Hopkins, who was to hoist his flag on board the ship called the Black Prince, for the protection of the river.2
1. The Westminster Journal And London Political Miscellany, Saturday, January 13, 1776.
2. The date on which the Grand Union Flag was raised on board the Alfred, formerly the Black Prince, has long been a matter of dispute. A letter from "B. P." to the Earl of Dartmouth, December 20, 1775, states: "the 3d instant the Continental flag on board the Black Prince opposite Philadelphia was hoisted." John Paul Jones in a letter to the president of Congress, December 7, 1779, states: "It is this day four years since I had the honor to receive my first Commission as the Senior of the first Lieutenants in the Navy . . . I hoisted with my own hands the Flag of Freedom the first time that it was displayed on board the Alfred on the Delaware." Papers CC (Letters and Papers of John Paul Jones), 168, II, 107-120, NA. It is quite possible that Jones, anticipating receipt of his commission, might have assumed his post as First Lieutenant of the Alfred on December 3, 1775. It is believed that the tonnage of the Alfred was three hundred. See John J. McCusker, Jr., "The Tonnage of the Continental Ship Alfred," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, April 1966.