USS SURPRISE – French-Built Continental Navy Lugger/Barque, 1777
Crafted as a 14-gun warship, this 80ft-long, 30ft-wide vessel recreates the cunning of Benjamin Franklin’s wartime schemes. As American commissioner in Paris, Franklin acquired this swift lugger—likely originally La Surprise—from Dunkirk on March 1, 1777, to harass British merchant ships and stoke tensions between France and Britain. Renamed Surprise, her sleek hull and unique French 3-masted rig echo her origins as a smuggler’s ship, once trading cognac brandy for British copper to sheath French warships against ship-worms and barnacles.

Franklin tricked the British Secret Service, who suspected she’d carry secret letters, into indirectly funding her purchase. Beyond disrupting trade, Surprise fueled British fears of American raiders landing on their shores, forcing the Royal Navy to divert resources to coastal defense. Built here larger than her historical 65ft length and 21ft beam for TaleSpire’s scale, this Surprise stands ready for your RPG adventures—privateer, corsair, or coastal terror.