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New Hampshire Privateer Brigantine Aurora |
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| Aurora | Commander Samuel Gerrish |
| Armed Brig | 23 May 1780-14 June 1780 |
| New Hampshire Privateer Brigantine |
| Commissioned/First Date: | 23 May 1780 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | 14 June 1780/captured by HM Frigate Cerberus |
| Owners: |
| Tonnage: |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 23 May 1780 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 8/ Total: 8 cannon/ Broadside: 4 cannon/ Swivels: |
| Crew: | 23 May 1780: 17 [total] |
| Description: |
| Officers: | (1) First Lieutenant Mark Fernald, [May] 1780-14 June 1780; (2) [Second] Lieutenant George Phipps, [May] 1780-14 June 1780 |
| Cruises: | (1) Portsmouth, New Hampshire to sea, -14 June 1780 |
| Prizes: |
| Actions: |
Comments:
New Hampshire Privateer Brigantine Aurora was commissioned on 23 May 1780 under Commander Samuel Gerrish of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was listed as being armed with eight guns and having a crew of sixteen men.1 This was the Aurora on which Mark Fernald (or Firnald, Furnell) of Kittery, Massachusetts (Maine) served as a Lieutenant.2 Another officer aboard was George Phipps of Kittery. He may have served as Second Lieutenant.3
Aurora sailed for the West Indies not long after. On 14 June 17804 Aurora was captured by HM Frigate Cerberus5 (Captain Robert Man), which was bound home from the West Indies. The prize and prisoners were taken to England.6 This vessel is listed in the High Court of Admiralty records as a merchant vessel, tried and condemned in 1780.7 Gerrish was confined in Mill Prison near Plymouth, England on 25 July 1780, but escaped on 28 December 1780.8 Fernald (as Furnell) was committed to Mill Prison, near Plymouth, England, on 25 July 1780.9 Phipps escaped on 31 July 1781.10
1 Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 120
2 Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 107
3 Remick, Oliver P., A Record of the Services of the Commissioned Officers and Enlisted Men of Kittery and Eliot, Maine: who served their country on land and sea in the American Revolution, from 1775 to 1783, Boston: A. Mudge & Son, printers, [1901], 42. Online.
4 The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser [Philadelphia], Thursday, May 23, 1782
5 Kaminkow, Mariners of the American Revolution,151
6 Salter, William Tibbits, John Salter, Mariner, Philadelphia: John Highlands, 1900, from a letter written by Richard Tibbits in Mill Prison, p. 46. Online.
7 HCA 32/274/2/1-29
8 Kaminkow, Mariners of the American Revolution, 73; Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 120; The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser [Philadelphia],Thursday, May 23, 1782
9 The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser [Philadelphia],Thursday, May 23 1782
10 Kaminkow, Mariners of the American Revolution, 151
| Revised 24 May 2011 |
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