Almost foremost in naval activity and expenditure was South Carolina. The state owned in all some fifteen vessels, of which the most important was the _Bricole_, purchased in France, and mounting forty-four 24’s and 18’s, though pierced for sixty. She, with nearly all the other ships of the state, was sunk as an obstacle to the British in the siege ending in the surrender of May 11, 1780. She was the largest American ship of the Revolution in actual service. There survived the _Indian_, “rented” by Alexander Gillon, who had been commissioned as commodore and sent abroad to raise some £71,000 with which to build three frigates. The only result was the renting of the _Indian_, which had been built by Congress in Holland, but which, to prevent international complications, had been sold to the King of France and by him given to the Chevalier Luxembourg. The _Indian_ was renamed the _South Carolina_ and given an armament of twenty-eight 32’s and twelve 12’s, an unusually heavy battery. It was not until August, 1781, that she got to sea, cruised for a time in the North Sea, but arrived at Havana on January 12, 1782, with five valuable prizes. She formed one of a combined American and Spanish expedition in May to the Bahamas, which was successful. On May 28th she arrived at Philadelphia, where an agent of Luxembourg caused the removal of Gillon and the appointment of a Captain Joyner; she refitted and left for sea in December. Scarcely outside the Capes of the Delaware, she was chased by a British squadron and taken after a two hours’ fight. Luxembourg demanded under the contract an indemnity of 300,000 livres (francs). This Gillon denied, claiming his removal to be a breach of contract. The claims were unsettled until December, 1874, when the state of South Carolina paid $28,894 to the heirs of Luxembourg as a final settlement. South Carolina is still prosecuting her claims against the United States for a reimbursement of her expenditures for this ship.[3] The efforts at a state navy of North Carolina, Georgia, and Rhode Island were of too moderate a character to need much comment. That of the first consisted of three brigantines in 1778 and the addition of a small ship, the _Caswell_, in 1778. By June, 1779, all had disappeared by sale or (in the case of the _Caswell_) by sinking at Ocracoke. Georgia had but four galleys. But two sloops and two galleys were the extent of Rhode Island’s navy, though it was this state, as mentioned, which took the first steps toward naval defence.