Argo	(1) Commander John Williamson
Sloop-of-War	15 December 1781-
Massachusetts Privateer Ship	(2) Commander Samuel Trevett [August] 1782-21 November 1782

Commissioned/First Date:	15 December 1781
Out of Service/Cause:	21 November 1782/wrecked at Old York Harbor, Massachusetts [Maine]

Owners:

Samuel R. Irwitt et al of Marblehead, Massachusetts

Tonnage:

300 [modern estimate]

Battery:

Date Reported: 15 December 1781 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 16/ Total: 16 cannon/ Broadside: 8 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 21 November 1782 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 18/ Total: 18 cannon/ Broadside: 9 cannon/ Swivels:

Crew:

(1) 15 December 1781: 41 [total] (2) 21 November 1782: 74 [total]

Description:

[modern reconstruction: 92' length between perpendiculars, 78' length on the keel, 27' beam , with a 14' depth in the hold]

Officers:

(1) Master John Williamson, -21 November 1782

Cruises:

(1) Nantes, France to Old York Harbor, Massachusetts [Maine], [15] September 1782-21 November 1782

Prizes:

Actions:

Possible/Probable Flags:

Comments:

Massachusetts Privateer Ship Argo was a purpose built privateer/merchant vessel, probably built at Salem, Massachusetts, about 1780-1781.¹ She was commissioned on 15 December 1781 under Commander John Williamson of Marblehead, Massachusetts. Argo  was listed as being armed with sixteen guns and as having a crew of forty men. Her $20000 bond was executed by Williamson, owner Samuel R. Irwitt and Marston Watson, all of Marblehead.²

A modern reconstruction of her lines gives her a length on the deck of 92', a length on the keel of 78', a beam of 27', and a depth in the hold of 14', with a measured tonnage of 300 tons.³

Reconstructed lines of the Argo from Millar, Early American Ships

The Argo bound home, running under a storm wins. The Argo bound home. A watercolor  signed: “Ashley Bowen, March 1783.” From http://www.pem.org/sites/archives/mpd/mpd01.htm

Argo, armed with eighteen guns and under another commander, Samuel Trevett, made a voyage to France in late 1782. Williamson stepped down and went along as the Sailing Master.⁴ She took on a cargo of dry goods, brandy, tea, glass, iron, and nails, at Nantes, France, said to be worth £50000. Argo sailed for home about mid-September 1782, with seventy-four crew and passengers aboard. On 21 November 1782 she was running in for Portsmouth, New Hampshire under a snow filled northeast wind. She was unable to make Portsmouth and bore away for Old York Harbor, Maine [Massachusetts]. Only her topsails were set. As she attempted to get into the harbor she fell a little to leeward and crashed on a rocky point⁵ (Moon Island)⁶ projecting from the shore. She immediately bilged. The crew tried to hoist out the longboat but it was immediately staved in. The lanyards were cut and the masts went overboard. The sea began to break over the rolling hulk. Fortunately the sea and wind hove the stern around and a few men managed to swim ashore. By means of ropes strung to the shore the remaining passengers and crew were rescued.⁷

Ashley Bowen made a second painting of the Argo under full sail, about late 1782. This is a drawing made from Bowen’s by John F. Millar in Early Armerican Ships

While the men ashore were rigging the ropes to rescue those still aboard the Argo, a small schooner privateer from Maine came out of York harbor and began recovering the goods floating from the wreck. She ignored calls from the men aboard the Argo for assistance and continued plundering the goods. Other people from Old York came down and collected goods which had floated ashore. Teams of horses were used to haul away the loot. Some observers thought that seven eighths of the merchandise that floated ashore was stolen.⁸ According to the Salem Gazette the master of the small privateer was arrested at Boston on a suit for £10000 damages.⁹

The small privateer was the Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Tryall (Commander Samuel Rogers). Rogers claimed he was only trying to assist the ship, and had actually carried some passengers and goods ashore before adverse weather drove him off. He published a defense in The Salem Gazette of 12 December, along with depositions of two crew members.¹⁰ Interestingly, Rogers libeled some “grindstones,” in the Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Middle District on 30 December 1782, for which the trial date of 7 January 1783 was set.¹¹

On 4 December 1782, the owners of the Argo placed advertisements, datelined Marblehead, asking the shippers and owners of the cargo to present their invoices and claim what could be found of the cargo.¹²

¹ Millar, John F., American Ships of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1978, 58

² NRAR, 230. Also listed in Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 76.

³ Millar, Early American Ships, 49

⁴ The Salem Gazette, Thursday, January 2, 1783, datelined Marblehead, December 24, 1782, letter of Samuel Trevett

⁵ The Salem Gazette, Friday, November 29, 1782

⁶ The Connecticut Courant [Hartford], Tuesday, December 3, 1782, datelined Boston, November 29, 1782

⁷ The Salem Gazette, Friday, November 29, 1782

⁸ The Salem Gazette, Friday, November 29, 1782, datelined Marblehead, November 27, 1782; Thursday, January 2, 1783, datelined Marblehead, December 24, 1782, letter of Samuel Trevett

⁹ The Salem Gazette, Friday, November 29, 1782

¹⁰ The Salem Gazette, Thursday, December 12, 1782

¹¹ The Boston Gazette and the Country Journal, Monday, December 30, 1782

¹² The Independent Ledger and the American Advertiser [Boston], Monday, December 16, 1782

Revised 7 May 2010