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Pennsylvania Privateer Brig Active |
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| Active | Commander Thomas Misnard [Mesnard] |
| Sloop-of-War [Sloop/Brig] | 8 November 1779-25 May 1780 |
| Pennsylvania Privateer Brig |
| Commissioned/First Date: | 8 November 1779 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | 25 May 1780/captured by HM Frigate Iris |
| Owners: | Thomas Fitzsimons and George Meade & Co., all of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Tonnage: |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 8 November 1779 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 14/ Total: 14 cannon/ Broadside: 7 cannon/ Swivels: |
| Crew: | 8 November 1779: 41 [total] |
| Description: |
| Officers: |
| Cruises: | (1) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to St. Eustatius, Netherlands West Indies, [November] 1779-[December] 1779
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| Prizes: |
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Comments:
Pennsylvania Privateer Brig Active was commissioned on 8 November 1779, out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a $10000 bond. Bonders were the same as her owners, except her commander, Thomas Misnard [Mesnard] of Philadelphia, also was a bondsman. She was reported as having fourteen guns and a crew of forty men..1
Active made at least one cruise to the West Indies, probably sailing from Philadelphia about the end of November 1779. She proceeded to St. Eustatius, Dutch West Indies. Misnard loaded a cargo of rum, salt, dry goods, and wine.2 She sailed for Philadelphia about January 1780, but boisterous winter weather forced Active into North Carolina.3 Around mid-February Misnard resumed his voyage and arrived in the Delaware about 29 February. The ice-choked river prevented the Active from coming up to Philadelphia4 until 7 May 1780.5
Active sailed from Philadelphia in late May 1780, bound for St. Eustatius with a cargo of tobacco.6 On 25 May,7 near the Delaware Capes, she was sighted and chased by HM Frigate Iris (Captain James Hawker). The weather was windy and cloudy and the bigger ship had the advantage. It took ten shots from Iris to stop the Active. At 1500 Iris got alongside her. Two petty officers and ten men went aboard to take charge of the prize. She was kept with the Iris and another prize.8 Iris was then bound from Charleston, South Carolina to New York, New York, with dispatches announcing the fall of Charleston to the British.9 Active was present at the battle between Pennsylvania Privateer Ship Aurora and Iris on 26 May.
Active, and prizes General Lincoln and Aurora, arrived in New York with Iris on 29 May.10 The New-York Gazette reported her arrival on 5 June 1780.11
She had been tried and condemned by 1 July 1780, when the payment of prize money for the capture was advertised in the New-York Gazette.12 She is listed in the High Court of Admiralty records in 1781, with her master listed as Thomas Mesnard.13
1 NRAR, 218
2 The New Jersey Gazette [Burlington], Wednesday, March 1, 1780
3 The Norwich Packet and the Weekly Advertiser, Tuesday, February 29, 1780, datelined Philadelphia, February 2
4 The New Jersey Gazette [Burlington], Wednesday, March 1, 1780
5 The Providence Gazette; And Country Journal, Saturday, May 20, 1780, datelined Philadelphia, May 9; The Pennsylvania Gazette, Wednesday, May 10, 1780
6 The New-York Gazette, July 1, 1780
7 The New-York Gazette, Saturday, July 1, 1780
8 McManemin, John A., Captains of the Privateers during the Revolutionary War, Ho-Ho-Kus Publishing Company: Spring Lake, NJ, 1985, 292, from the log of the Iris. It should be noted that McManemin has confused this Active with another one commanded by Charles Alexander. He reports the capture as being on 27 May, which seems unlikely, as Active was certainly captured before the Aurora.
9 Freneau, Some Account of the Capture of the Ship “Aurora,” 17-19; The New-York Gazette, Monday, June 5, 1780
10 Freneau, Some Account of the Capture of the Ship “Aurora,” 27
11 The New-York Gazette, June 5, 1780
12 The New-York Gazette, July 1, 1780
13 HCA 32/261/4/1-7
| Revised 15 September 2008 |
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