BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – On March 10, 1783, the last naval battle of the American Revolution was fought off Cape Canaveral, as Captains John Barry and John Green tried to deliver a shipload of Spanish silver to the Continental Congress.
Barry, captain of the Alliance, the Continental Navy’s 36-gun sailing frigate, arrived in Martinique from France in January 1783 and found orders from Robert Morris of the Continental Congress to sail to Havana, Cuba to pick up 72,000 Spanish silver dollars that were to be used to finance the Continental Army.
When Barry arrived in Havana, he discovered that Captain John Green aboard the USS Duc de Lauzun was already there with the same orders from Morris…