September 26, 1733 - Abraham Whipple

Commodore Abraham Whipple (September 26, 1733 – May 27, 1819) was a Continental Navy officer who served in the American Revolutionary War and co-founded Marietta, Ohio. Born near Providence, Rhode Island, Whipple chose to be a sailor early in his life and embarked on a career in the lucrative colonial trade with the West Indies, working for Moses and John Brown.

In 1772, Whipple burnt the first British naval casualty of the American Revolution, the revenue cutter Gaspee, in the Gaspée affair. After the war he was the first to unfurl an American flag in London. Whipple was also the first to sail an ocean-going ship 2000 miles downriver from Ohio to the Caribbean, which opened trade with the Northwest Territory. He was a member of Society of the Cincinnati's Rhode Island branch.

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