During the American Revolution, on 22 September 1776, Canso, Nova Scotia was attacked by American privateer John Paul Jones - the Father of the American Navy. The privateer sailed on and destroyed fifteen vessels, and damaged much property on shore. There he recruited men to fill the vacancies created by manning his prizes, burned a British fishing schooner, sank a second, and captured a third besides a shallop which he used as a tender. Jones then pillaged the community of Petit-de-Grat and Arichat and then returned to Boston.