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New Hampshire Privateer Ship Aurora |
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| Aurora | Commander Thomas Collyer [Collier] |
| Sloop-of-War | 16 December 1779-[14] September 1780 |
| New Hampshire Privateer Ship |
| Commissioned/First Date: | 16 December 1779 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | [14] September 1780/captured by HM Frigates Boreas and Greyhound |
| Owners: | [Stephen Hooper et al of Newburyport, Massachusetts] |
| Tonnage: |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 16 December 1779 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 18/ Total: 18 cannon/ Broadside: 9 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 24 September 1780 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 20/ Total: 20 cannon/ Broadside: 10 cannon/ Swivels: |
| Crew: | (1) 16 December 1779: 121 [total]
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| Description: |
| Officers: |
| Cruises: | (1) Newburyport, Massachusetts to Newburyport, Massachusetts, [March] 1780-[June] 1780
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| Prizes: | (1) Ship Elizabeth (John Brown), [May] 1780
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| Actions: | (1) Action with British vessels, [May] 1780 |
Comments:
New Hampshire Privateer Ship Aurora was commissioned on 16 December 1779 under Commander Thomas Collyer1 [Collier]2 of Newburyport, Massachusetts. She was listed as being armed with eighteen guns and having a crew of 120 men.3
Aurora proceeded to sea on at least one cruise, which ended back in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Among the crew members was Philip Besom of Marblehead, Massachusetts. Besom left a very brief summary of this cruise in the Aurora: “I then sailed in the ship Aurora, of twenty guns, Thomas Colyer, master. We took four prizes; had an engagement with two ships and a brig, in which we lost five or six men, and were obliged to retreat and return home.”4
One prize was brought into port: the 350-ton ship Elizabeth (James Brown), which was presumably brought into Newburyport, Massachusetts. Elizabeth was libeled in the Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Middle District, on 22 June 1780, with trial set for 25 July 1780.5
On 26 June 1780 Collyer, Stephen Hooper, and others of Newburyport petitioned the Massachusetts authorities to allow the Aurora to proceed on her cruise despite the state imposed embargo then in effect. The petition was granted on 10 August 1780.6
Collyer sailed about 25 August on a cruise. Meanwhile, HM Frigates Boreas (Captain Charles Thompson) and Greyhound (Captain Archibald Dickson) sailed from Barbados in the British West Indies on 5 September 1780, bound for New York, New York. In their passage they met and captured the Aurora, described as having twenty guns and 120 men. She was out three weeks, but had made no prizes, according to the British. Aurora and her captors arrived at New York on 24 September.7
1 Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 120
1 Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 68
2 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 76
3 Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 68
4 Besom’s short recollections are published in full at The Guernsey Society.
5 The Universal Chronicle and the General Advertiser [Boston], Thursday, June 22, 1780
6 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 76
7 The Royal Gazette [New York], Wednesday, September 27, 1780
| Revised 24 May 2011 |
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