However, difficulties in manning the two ships and the British occupation of Newport, Rhode Island made the tricky task of getting the vessels out to sea doubly difficult.

Although the ship was bottled up in the Providence River, Commodore Esek Hopkins broke his pennant in Warren early in December of 1776.

Hopkins was ordered to prepare for sea as soon as possible to cruise the upper half of the eastern seaboard to interdict British troop and logistics shipping traveling the Rhode Island to Virginia route.

Hopkins had orders to proceed to a free port, but the men were not dressed for the blizzard conditions so the captain headed to warmer southern waters and began hunting prizes on the open sea.

Warren took two on her first cruise: within sight Bermuda she took the ship Neptune, bound from Whitehaven, England to Philadelphia with a cargo of provisions, and also took the snow Robert, heading for Bristol from Sint Eustatius on false Dutch papers, carrying flaxseed and fustic.

The Continental frigate put into Boston on 23 March and prepared for another cruise to the West Indies but found manning the ship near-impossible.

She finally conducted a second cruise off the eastern seaboard in the autumn, sailing for a time in company with the Massachusetts State Navy ship Tyrannicide in September.

As a disciplinary measure, the Committee relieved Hopkins, suspended him from the Navy, and gave his command to Captain Dudley Saltonstall.

While Warren lay at Boston, fitting out for further operations, the British established a base on the Bagaduce peninsula, near the present site of Castine, Maine, in mid-June 1779.