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Maryland Privateer Sloop Alphin |
| Alphin [Alphen, Elthin] |
| Armed Sloop | (1) Commander Samuel Davis |
| Maryland Privateer Sloop | 9 July 1781-[July] 1781
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| Commissioned/First Date: | (1)9 July 1781/(2) 18 January 1782 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | 1782/captured by the British |
| Owners: | Nicholas Low [Lowe] of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Tonnage: | 60 |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 9 July 1781 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 14/ Total: 14 cannon/ Broadside: 7 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 18 January 1782 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 6/ Total: 6 cannon/ Broadside: 3 cannon/ Swivels: two |
| Crew: | (1) 9 July 1781: 21 [total]
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| Description: |
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Comments:
The 60-ton1 Maryland Privateer Sloop Alphin (or Alphen, Elthin) was commissioned under Samuel Davis of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 9 July 1781. She was listed as being armed with fourteen guns and as having a crew of twenty men. Her bond of $5000 was executed by Davis and John Davidson of Annapolis, Maryland.2
Nevertheless, she seems to have been under the command of Job Pray shortly after, when she sailed for the West Indies. As the Elthin, under Job Pray, she arrived at Philadelphia in August 1781, after a passage of eleven days from Cap Français, Saint-Domingue, French West Indies. She sailed with the French fleet bound for Cuba, and then steered for Philadelphia.3
Alphin was then re-commissioned in Pennsylvania, as the Pennsylvania Privateer Sloop Alphen, in September 1781 [qv.] She was again commissioned in Maryland, under Davis, on 18 January 1782. Her battery is given as six guns, with two swivel guns, and her crew as twenty men. Her owner is listed as Nicholas Lowe of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.4
There is an Alphin listed in the High Court of Admiralty records as being tried in 1782. This vessel’s master is noted as James Davis. Despite the difference in names this is probably the privatter.5
__________1 Archives of Maryland: Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1781-1784, 48:48
2 NRAR, 224
3 The Freeman's Journal: or, The North-American Intelligence [Philadelphia], Wednesday, August 22, 1781
4 Archives of Maryland: Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1781-1784, 48:48
5 HCA 32/266/12/1-3