Admiral Zoutman	Commander William McFaden [McLaden]
Armed Ship	14 January 1782-12 March 1782
Pennsylvania Privateer Ship

Commissioned/First Date:	14 January 1782
Out of Service/Cause:	12 March 1782/captured by HM Frigate Garland

Owners:

Benjamin Davis, Jr., and John Patton, both of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Tonnage:

Battery:

Date Reported: 14 January 1782 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 8/ Total: 8 cannon/ Broadside: 4 cannon/ Swivels:

Crew:

14 January 1782: 32 [total]

Description:

Officers:

(1) First Mate John Cocran, 14 January 1782-12 March 1782

Cruises:

Prizes:

Actions:

Comments:

Pennsylvania Privateer Ship Admiral Zoutman was commissioned on 14 January 1782, out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a $20000 bond. Her commander was William McFaden of Philadelphia, as was her First Mate, John Cochran. McFaden and owner Davis gave bond. She was listed as having eight guns and a crew of thirty men.¹ McFaden had previously commanded the Pennsylvania Privateer Sloop Mars in 1778.² First Mate Cochran was a very young man, listing his age as 20.³

On her first voyage out, on 12 March 1782, Admiral Zoutman encountered HM Frigate Garland. Garland captured the American ship and took her into New York on 15 March.⁴ She was tried in the High Court of Admiralty as the Admiral Zontman, with her master’s name given as McLaden. These records refer to her as an American merchant ship with a letter-of-marque.⁵

As soon as the Admiral Zoutman arrived at New York, her crew was sent aboard the prison ship Jersey. First Mate Cochran was closely confined there, but managed to escape on 1 July 1782. He got to Philadelphia where, on 16 July, he dictated a formal affidavit of conditions aboard the Jersey.⁶

The affidavit was billed as “The voluntary Affidavit of JOHN COCHRAN, of the city of Philadelphia, late mate of the Ship Admiral Zoutman, of Philadelphia, taken before the subscriber, Chief Justice of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the 16th day of July, 1782.” Cochrane deposed

“. . . that he was taken prisoner on board the aforesaid ship on the 12th day of March last, by the ship Garland, belonging to the King of Great-Britain, and carried into the city of New-York, on the 15th of the same month, when he was immediately put on board the prison-ship Jersey, with the whole crew of the Admiral Zoutman, and was close confined there until the first day of this month, when he made his escape ; that the people on board the said prison-ship Jersey were very sickly, insomuch that he is firmly persuaded, out of near a thousand persons, perfectly healthy when put on board the same ship, during the time of his confinement on board, there are not between three or four hundred now alive ; that when he made his escape there were not three hundred men well on board, but upwards of one hundred and forty very sick, as he understood and was informed by the physicians ; that there were five or six men buried daily under a blanket on the shore, without coffins ; that all the larboard side of the said prison-ship Jersey, was made use of as a hospital for the sick, and was so offensive that he was obliged constantly to hold his nose as he passed from the gunroom up the hatchway, or he believes the smell would have knocked him down ; that he had seen maggots creeping out of a wound of one Sullivan’s shoulder, who was the mate of a vessel out of Virginia ; and that his wound remained undressed for several days together ; that every man was put into the hold a little after sun-down every night, and the hatches put over him ; and that the tubs, which were kept for the use of the sick, for their excrements, were placed under the ladder from the hatchway to the hold, and so offensive day and night, that they were almost intolerable, and increased the number of sick daily. This deponent further saith, that the bilge-water was very injurious in the hold ; and the same ship, from the lower deck to the hold, was muddy and dirty, and never was cleaned out or sweetened during the whole time he was there, nor, as he was informed, and believes to be true, for many years before ; for fear, as it was reported, the provisions might be injured thereby ; that the sick in the hospital part of the said prison-ship Jersey, had no sheets of Russia or of any other linen, nor beds or bedding furnished them ; and those who had no beds of their own, of whom there were great numbers, were not even allowed a hammock, but were obliged to lie on the planks ; that he was on board the said prison-ship, when Captain Robert Harris and others, with David Sproat, the commissary of naval prisoners, came on board her, and that none of them went, or attempted to go below decks, in said ship, to see the situation of the prisoners, nor did they ask a single question respecting that matter, to this deponent’s knowledge or belief; for that he was present the whole time they were on board. And further this deponent saith not.”⁷

¹ NRAR, 220

² Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 202

³ Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 63

⁴ The Massachusetts Spy: Or, American Oracle of Liberty [Worcester], Thursday, October 3, 1782, datelined Philadelphia, September 10, 1782

⁵ HCA 32/261/12/1-17

⁶ The Massachusetts Spy: Or, American Oracle of Liberty [Worcester], Thursday, October 3, 1782, datelined Philadelphia, September 10, 1782

⁷ Ibid.

Revised 22 November 2008

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