When the American Commissioners assembled in Paris in December, 1776, to begin their mission, they had with them the orders of Congress to purchase, arm, and equip a frigate and two cutters. They were to send the frigate cruising against the enemy in the English channel, and were to employ the cutters in transporting supplies to America. The Commissioners were further directed to hire or buy at the French Court eight line of battle ships.[323] They began to carry out these orders in January, 1777, when Captain Samuel Nicholson was sent to Boulogne to purchase one of the cutters; in the spring a lugger was obtained at Dover, England; and in the early summer another cutter was bought at Dunkirk. In the two latter transactions William Hodge, a merchant from Philadelphia, acted as the agent of the Commissioners. Early in the year Captain Lambert Wickes, who had in December, 1776, arrived in France in the Continental sloop “Reprisal” with Dr. Franklin on board, was inspecting vessels for the Commissioners. Nicholson’s cutter was named the “Dolphin;” and Hodge’s two vessels were called, respectively, the “Surprise” and the “Revenge.” It is believed that the “Revenge” was purchased jointly on public and private account. After this vessel’s first cruise it is known that Hodge and possibly others were pecuniarily interested in its ventures. By the fall of 1777 the Commissioners had completed the construction of a 32-gun frigate at Nantes, which they called the “Deane.” They also purchased a ship which they fitted out as a 28-gun frigate and named the “Queen of France.” Early in 1778 they sent the “Deane” under the command of Captain Samuel Nicholson, and the “Queen of France” under the command of Captain John Green, both vessels laden with supplies, to Boston. The “Deane” remained in the navy until the end of the Revolution. The “Queen of France” was surrendered to the British in May, 1780, on the fall of Charleston, South Carolina. On the application of the Commissioners to the French Court for the loan or sale of some ships of the line, they were told that the French government considered it absolutely necessary to keep the whole of its fleet at home ready for the defence of France in case of a rupture with Great Britain; but, that, since England was apprehensive of a war with France, such a disposition of the French naval forces was serviceable to America in so far as it forced England to retain an equal force in the British seas.[324]