Artillery	Commander Stephen Buckland
Armed Brig	[1780]-
Connecticut Privateer Brig

Commissioned/First Date:	[1780]
Out of Service/Cause:

Owners:

Tonnage:

Battery:

Date Reported: Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside Total: Broadside: Swivels:

Crew:

Description:

Officers:

Cruises:

(1) At sea in August 1780

Prizes:

(1) British Privateer Schooner British Legion (Charles Cochran), 19 August 1780 (2) Boat [unknown], 18 March 1781, near Long Island, New York

Actions:

Comments:


Connecticut Privateer Brig Artillery was at sea in 1780 under Commander Stephen Buckland. On 19 August 1780 Artillery was sailing in conjunction with Connecticut Privateer Sloop Hampden (Commander David Brooks). The 45-ton eight gun¹ British Privateer Schooner British Legion (Charles Cochran) was proceeding east along the Long Island, New York shore. At daybreak the British Legion sighted the Hampden, under the Connecticut shore, and nearly opposite the guard ship at Huntington, Long Island. According to a British sailor, as the British Legion kept her course,

“She seemed to stand the same course that we were standing. At sun-up saw a brig off the larboard bow. The sloop kept right up after us and the brig (Artillery, Buckland, commander) shot right across the way we were stretching. We up helm and run in shore. We fired a number of guns to alarm the guardship. The sloop kept off our quarter and the brig off our bow and our retreat was rendered impregnable. We fired a good many guns and after cut the cable and run her ashore. We were boarded by the sloop’s and the brig’s boats about 7 in the morning. About 12 minutes after the colours were struck. We ran forward the guns and got out an anchor and worked her off in 25 minutes. We got the prize under sail . . .”²

About twenty-five minutes later, according to Logan,

“more I saw a sail appear off the Connecticut shore far ahead. She looked not much larger than a man’s hand. I told Mr. Smith that I spied a sail and asked if he knew her. He replied he suspected her to be a small schooner that was in company with them yesterday. When she came up she proved to be the Young Cromwell, Captain Wattles. It is my real sentiments that the schooner Young Cromwell neither saw nor heard the action between the aforesaid sloop and brig and the schooner British Legion, as it was not less than one hour from the time she struck till the Cromwell appeared. And as the Prize, after she got under sail, stood northeast and the Cromwell was standing southwest - to judge the courses, the distance is double . . .”³

The Young Cromwell evidently claimed a part of the capture. The British Legion was sent into port and condemned.⁴

Buckland made at least one expedition to Long Island. He libeled some clothing and other dry goods, captured on Long Island on 18 March 1781, in the Maritime Court of Hartford County, Connecticut on 14 April 1781. At the same time Buckland libeled some gold and an unknown whaleboat, captured en route to Long Island. Trial was set for 1 May 1781.⁵

Buckland was put in command of another privateer on 6 March 1782.⁶ Nothing more is known of the Artillery.

¹ Middlebrook, Maritime Connecticut During The Revolution, II, 53

² Middlebrook, Maritime Connecticut During The Revolution, II, 103-104, statement of John Logan

³ Middlebrook, Maritime Connecticut During The Revolution, II, 103-104, statement of John Logan

⁴ Middlebrook, Maritime Connecticut During The Revolution, II, 53

⁵ The Connecticut Courant [Hartford], Tuesday, May 17, 1781

⁶ NOAR, 433

Revised 4 May 2012

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