Diana	Commander Hugh Chisholm [Chichester]
Armed Brig	23 December 1780-21 July 1781
New Hampshire Privateer Brigantine

Commissioned/First Date:	23 December 1780
Out of Service/Cause:	21 July 1781/captured by HM Frigate Danae

Owners:

George Wentworth and Thomas Martin, both of Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Tonnage:

Battery:

Date Reported: 23 December 1780 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 10/ Total: 10 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 21 July 1781 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 10/ Total: 10 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels:

Crew:

23 December 1780: 31 [total] 21 July 1781: 37 [total]

Description:

Newly built in 1780.

Officers:

Cruises:

(1) Portsmouth, New Hampshire to sea, -21 July 1781

Prizes:

Actions:

Comments:

New Hampshire Privateer Brigantine Diana was a newly constructed vessel, having been built at Dover, New Hampshire in the fall of 1780.¹ She was commissioned on 23 December 1780 under Commander Hugh Chisholm (or Chichester), possibly from Kittery, Massachusetts [Maine]. She was listed as having a battery of ten guns and a crew of thirty men. Her $20000 bond was signed by Chisholm and by George Wentworth and Nathaniel Folsom, both of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.²

In the spring of 1781 Diana was outbound from New Hampshire, intending to cruise in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the Newfoundland Banks. On 21 July 1781 she was sighted and chased by HM Frigate Danae (Captain Thomas Lloyd). After a ten hour chase the Diana was run down and captured. She was sent into Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she was condemned.³ The British reported that she had ten guns and a crew of thirty-seven men aboard.⁴

The crew was quickly paroled or exchanged and arrived in a cartel vessel at Boston, Massachusetts on 13 August 1781. Chisholm and other exchanged prisoners testified that they were treated with “uncommon humanity and kindness” by Lloyd.⁵

¹ AVCR, 21

² NRAR, 268

³ AVCR, 21

⁴ The London Gazette, Tuesday, October 16, to Saturday, October 20, 1781

⁴ The New-Hampshire Gazette; or State Journal, and General Advertiser [Portsmouth], Monday, August 20, 1781, datelined Boston, August 16

Revised 5 March 2012

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