Abraham Whipple, an American naval officer, born in Providence, R. I., Sept. 16, 1733, died near Marietta, O., May 29, 1819. In early life he was captain of a merchant vessel, and in the French and Indian war, in command of the privateer Game Cock, he took in a single cruise 23 French prizes. In 1772 he commanded the expedition secretly organized in Providence, which burned his majesty's armed schooner Gaspee in Narragansett bay. In 1775 he commanded, with the title of commodore, two armed vessels and two row galleys fitted out by Rhode Island, which captured one of the tenders to the British frigate Rose, off Newport. He afterward commanded the schooner Providence, which captured and destroyed more vessels than any other in the service during this period; but she was finally taken by the British. He was then placed in command of the new frigate Providence, and sent to France with government despatches. In 1779 he encountered the homeward-bound Jamaica fleet of nearly 150 sail, convoyed by a 74-gun ship and several smaller vessels. He concealed his guns, hoisted British colors, and joined the fleet as one of the merchantmen. Each night he captured a vessel, which he manned from his own crew and despatched homeward.

In this way he took ten richly laden vessels, eight of which reached American ports in safety. When endeavoring with a squadron to save Charleston from capture in 1780, he lost his vessels, and was held as a prisoner till the end of the war. In 1784 he commanded the first vessel that displayed the United States flag on the Thames. On leaving the service he retired to a farm in Cranston, a few miles from Providence, until the formation of the Ohio company in 1788, when he removed to Marietta.