We are located in Alva which is in beautiful Southwest Florida. Our chapter was officially confirmed in April 2016 and is named for the schooner USS Hannah. She was the first armed American naval vessel of the American Revolutionary War and is claimed to be the founding vessel of the United States Navy.  

History of the USS Hannah

The fishing schooner, Hannah, owned by John Glover of Marblehead, Massachusetts, was named for Glover’s daughter.  General George Washington commissioned Nicholson Broughton to command the hired Hannah as the first vessel in service of the American Continental Army. Sailing on 5 September 1775, Hannah took shelter in the harbor of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and was in pursuit of the HMS Lively and a second British vessel two days later.  Hannah captured HMS Unity leaving Gloucester Harbor.  Hannah’s brief naval career ended on October 10, 1775, when she was run aground under the guns of a small American fort near Beverly by the British sloop Nautilus. After an engagement between the British ship and townspeople on the shore, Hannah was saved from destruction and capture, but was soon decommissioned as General Washington found more suitable ships for his cruisers. History remembers the Hannah and her port in Marblehead, Mass. as the birth place of the United States Navy.