| Back to B |
Maryland Privateer Brig Banter |
| Banter [Bontram] | Commander Henry White |
| Armed Sloop | 23 May 1782-July 1782 |
| Massachusetts Privateer Sloop |
| Commissioned/First Date: | 25 May 1782 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | July 1782/captured by the British ship Quebec |
| Owners: | John Norris et al of Salem, Massachusetts |
| Tonnage: |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 25 May 1782 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 8/ Total: 8 cannon/ Broadside: 4 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 19 August 1782 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 10/ Total: 10 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels: |
| Crew: | 25 May 1782: 51 [total] |
| Description: |
| Officers: |
| Cruises: | (1) to the Straits of Belle Isle, Newfoundland, -July 1782 |
| Prizes: | (1) [unknown] Sloop (Gardner), 13 June 1782, in Boston Bay, Massachusetts
|
| Actions: |
Comments:
Massachusetts Privateer Sloop Banter was commissioned on 25 May 1782 under Commander Henry White of Salem, Massachusetts. She was listed as having a battery of eight guns and a crew of fifty men. Her $20000 bond was executed by White, and John Norris and Robert Stone, both of Salem.1
On 13 June 1782 one Gardner, commanding a small sloop bound to Boston from the eastward, was engaged and captured by a British privateer in Boston Bay. The British privateer was armed with eight swivel guns and twenty-five small arms. Gardner’s sloop was armed with two swivels and three small arms. Even though his crew was only six men, Gardner put up a lengthy fight which ended when he was killed. Banter, owned in Salem, was then laying in Marblehead. White put to sea after the British privateer. The wind fell off and the enemy rowed in close to the land and escaped. Banter re-captured the sloop.2
A brig with a cargo of rum was captured by the Banter and the Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Penguin (Commander Samuel Foster). She safely arrived at Salem before August 1782.3
The 70-ton schooner Active was captured by the Banter and brought into Salem. Active, described as Newfoundland built in 1781, was advertised for sale on 15 August 1782, with the sale date set for 20 August.4 Active was libeled on 5 September 1782 in the Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Middle District. Her trial was set for 24 September.5
Banter was captured by the British in the Straits of Belle Isle in July 1782.6 This is probably the same vessel as the Massachusetts Privateer Sloop Bontram, under a Commander White, that was brought in to Stromness, Orkney Islands, Scotland on 19 August 1782 by the British ship Quebec. She was noted as having ten guns, and as being out of Salem.7 Banter was tried and condemned in the High Court of Admiralty in 1782.8
__________1 NRAR, 232. Also listed in Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 77.
2 The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser [Philadelphia], Saturday, May 11, 1782; The Salem Gazette, Thursday, June 20, 1782
3 The Independent Gazetteer [Philadelphia], Saturday, August 10, 1782
4 The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Thursday, August 15, 1782
5 The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Thursday, September 5, 1782
6 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 77
7 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 85
8 HCA 32/276/11/1-8