The USS Raleigh was one of the thirteen ships that the Continental Congress authorized for the Continental Navy in 1775 during the American Revolutionary War. The 32-gun ship was authorized by Congress on 13 December 1775 and was built in Kittery, Maine, with Walter Raleigh as her namesake. She attacked British shipping off France and Africa, but she was attacked by the British off Matinicus Isle in September 1778. John Barry, her captain, was forced to abandon her and flee to Boston as the British captured her. The HMS Raleigh would go on to take part in the capture of Charleston, South Carolina, and she was decommissioned at Portsmouth on 10 June 1781 and sold in July 1783.