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South Carolina Privateer Brig Bellona |
| Bellona | (1) Commander George Cross |
| Brig [Sloop/Brig] | [August] 1777- |
| South Carolina Privateer Brig | (2) Commander Hezekiah Anthony
|
| Commissioned/First Date: | [August] 1777 |
| Out of Service/Cause: |
| Owners: | Daniel Bourdeaux and Joseph Atkinson of Charleston, South Carolina |
| Tonnage: |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 24 September 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 16/ Total: 16 cannon/ Broadside: 8 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 5 October 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 16/ Total: 16 cannon/ Broadside: 8 cannon/ Swivels: [some] Date Reported: 12 October 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 14/ Total: 14 cannon/ Broadside: 7 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 3 January 1778 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 16/ Total: 16 cannon/ Broadside: 8 cannon/ Swivels: |
| Crew: |
| Description: |
| Officers: |
| Cruises: | (1) [Charleston, South Carolina] to Paimboeuf, France, [August] 1777-22 September 1777
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| Prizes: | (1) Brig Jenny and Betty (Mark Workman), 5 October 1777
|
| Actions: | (1) Action with Perseus, 3 January 1778 |
Comments:
South Carolina Privateer Brig Bellona was under command of Commander George Cross and then under Commander Hezekiah Anthony.1 She was owned in Charleston, South Carolina by Daniel Bourdeaux and Joseph Atkinson.2
Bellona arrived in Paimboeuf, France on 22 September 1777. She was bringing in a cargo of rice from Carolina. At the sight of the incoming privateer all the other American privateers in port raised their colors to welcome the new arrival. According to this informant, Bellona was armed with sixteen guns.3
Bellona sailed from St. Nazaire, France about 1 October 1777, bound for South Carolina.4 On 5 October she fell in with the brig Jenny and Betty (Mark Workman), owned in Larne, Ireland. She was bound from Antigua, British West Indies to Cork, Ireland. The members of the crew reported later that Bellona was armed with sixteen carriage guns and swivels. The prize was re-captured on 8 October by the British Privateer Champion (William Peacock), out of Bristol, England. There was evidently some resistance, for it was said that Peacock “behaved with the greatest spirit and bravery . . .”5
Within a short time of leaving the Jenny and Betty, Cross fell in with the Jamaica convoy of which the brig had been a member. A ship, the Manners, was cut out of the convoy. The prize had a cargo of sugar, rum, mahogany and pimento, to the value of £20000. The captors tried to erase the name from her stern, with only partial success. They then returned to St. Nazaire. Manners was described as a long ship without a head, having quarter galleries, close quarter boards and four windows in her stern. Her crew were removed to the brig and closely guarded. The Americans prepared to send the prize out again, to enable her to re-enter as a neutral or send her to a neighboring small port for a quick sale. Cross, commanding the sixteen gun brig, was determined to sell the vessel at the first offer. The prize was still unsold on 11 October.6
A report from prisoners taken on 12 October indicated that Bellona was at Paimboeuf, and was expected to sail in about three weeks. She was reporting as having fourteen guns.7 Bellona sailed from Nantes, France about 13 November 1777, bound for Charleston.8
On 9 December 1777, in the vicinity of Bermuda, British West Indies, Bellona fell in with the ship Glorious Memory (William Stewart), bound from Antigua, British West Indies to Setubal, Portugal and Cork, Ireland. The ship was quickly captured and Bellona took her under escort for Charleston.9
Bellona was approaching Charleston on the morning of 3 January 1778, accompanied by the Glorious Memory. At 0900 she was sighted by HM Frigate Perseus (Captain George Keith Elphinstone), away to the north. Perseus had HM Frigate Carysfort in company, and the British ships were eighteen miles northeast of Port Royal, South Carolina. About noon the British made out two sail: a ship and a brig, and began chasing. Afternoon brought clear weather and fresh breezes. At 1300 Carysfort was in chase of the prize ship and Perseus, some four miles from Charleston Lighthouse, continued after the Bellona. The American ran in close to Charleston bar and got into shoal water. Perseus was in hot pursuit and managed to fire twenty-five 9-pounders at her before giving up the chase, Elphinstone not wanting to get into the shoals. The British captain noted she was a brig privateer of sixteen guns. The Glorious Memory escaped the Carysfort and got safely into port. At 1600 the British frigates anchored two miles to the southeast of the lighthouse.10
Cross took the Bellona and her prize into Charleston harbor on 5 January.11 Scarcely had the privateer and prize made harbor than the South Carolina Navy Board, on 5 January, applied for the use of water casks from the Bellona and Glorious Memory for the expedition led by the Continental Navy Ship Randolph, which was then being prepared.12
On 3 September 1779 the lieutenant of Marines of the “armed brig Bellona” arrived in Charleston with news that D’Estaing’s fleet had arrived off Savannah.13
__________1 Coker, Charleston’s Maritime Heritage, 300
2 NDAR, “Journal of the South Carolina Navy Board,” XI, 44 and 44-45 notes
3 NDAR, “Intelligence from Nantes,” X, 893
4 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from St Nazer—River Mouth of Nantz—dated 11th Octr 1777—,” X, 900-901
5 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Corke, Oct. 9.,” X, 890
6 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from St Nazer—River Mouth of Nantz—dated 11th Octr 1777—,” X, 900-901; “Paul Wentworth to William Eden,” X, 960-963 and 963 note
7 NDAR, “Captain Richard Hughes, R.N., to Philip Stephens,” X, 916-917 and 917 note
8 NDAR, “The South-Carolina and American General Gazette, Thursday, January 8, 1778,” XI, 70 and notes
9 NDAR, “The South-Carolina and American General Gazette, Thursday, January 8, 1778,” XI, 70 and notes
10 NDAR, “Journal of H.M.S. Perseus, Captain George Keith Elphinstone,” XI, 25 and note:
11 NDAR, “The South-Carolina and American General Gazette, Thursday, January 8, 1778,” XI, 70 and notes
12 NDAR, “Journal of the South Carolina Navy Board,” XI, 44 and 44-45 notes
13 The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser [Philadelphia], September 28, 1779, datelined Charlestown, September 4, 1779