Marquis de La Fayette

Sloop-of-War	(1) Commander James Munro
Rhode Island Privateer Ship	September 1781-[January] 1782 (2) Commander Joseph Olney 25 May 1782-10 June 1782

Commissioned/First Date:	September 1781 or 25 May 1782
Out of Service/Cause:	10 June 1782/driven ashore and burned by British Privateer Ship Virginia

Owners:

Miles Cooper [Willis Cowper & Co.]

Tonnage:

200

Battery:

Date Reported: 19 September 1781 Number/Caliber  Weight          Broadside 20/6-pounder     120 pounds   60 pounds Total: 20 cannon/120 pounds Broadside: 10 cannon/60 pounds Swivels: Date Reported: 10 June 1782 Number/Caliber  Weight          Broadside 18/6-pounder      108 pounds  54 pounds Total: 18 cannon/108 pounds Broadside: 9 cannon/54 pounds Swivels:

Crew:

Description:

Officers:

Cruises:

(1) Providence, Rhode Island to Cap François, Saint-Domingue, [1] [October] 1781-27 November 1781 (2) Cap François, Saint-Domingue to Providence, Rhode Island, 12 January 1782-5 February 1782 (3) Providence, Rhode Island to Currituck Inlet, North Carolina, [1] June 1782-10 June 1782

Prizes:

(1) British Privateer Ship Amazon, 14 November 1781 (2) Ship Hero, 16 November 1781

Actions:

(1) Action with British Privateer Ship Amazon, 14 November 1781 (2) Action with British Privateer Ship Virginia, 10 June 1782

Comments:

When the Virginia Privateer Ship Marquis de La Fayette returned to Providence, Rhode Island, about late September 1781, her commander, Joseph Meredith, left the ship. He was followed as her commander by James Munro (or Munroe), a Rhode Islander. Such a procedure would have meant that a new commission was required, although no record of it has been found.

As soon as 19 September 1781, John Cowper, now acting as agent for the owners, placed a recruiting advertisement for the next cruise of the Marquis de La Fayette. Cowper described her as a “remarkable, fast-sailing Privateer Ship” and stated that she would sail within ten days. Marquis de La Fayette measured 200 tons and was armed with twenty 6-pounders according to Cowper.¹

At Providence the Marquis de La Fayette was refitted. Her fast sailing had been altered by a new mast before her former cruise. According to former First Lieutenant John Cowper, her “. . . old Virginia foremast was again taken in, and the main mast replaced, and the ship sailed as at first; which should be a caution to innovators. She made another successful cruise under Captain Munroe, . . .” Cowper was not aboard for this cruise, having left with Meredith.²

Marquis de Lafayette sailed from Providence about the beginning of October 1781. She encountered very stormy weather and was blown off the coast. On 14 November³ Munro fell in with the British Privateer Ship⁴ Amazon,⁵ sailing out of Liverpool, England.⁶ Amazon was a copper bottomed vessel armed with sixteen 9-pounders and two howitzers and with a crew of forty-five⁷ (or eighty-seven)⁸ men aboard. Amazon was bound from Georgia to the West Indies with a cargo of naval stores.⁹

The Amazon showed plenty of fight and the two ships squared off within pistol shot. A two hour fight followed before the Marquis de La Fayette captured the British ship. Two Americans were killed and Munro was wounded in the fight.¹⁰ According to Cowper, the fight was “a severe engagement with a Liverpool Letter of Marque, of 16 nine pounders and 87 men, which she captured. Captain Munroe received a wound which obliged him to leave the ship, and from which he never recovered, though he lived several years after.”¹¹

Following the fight Munro and the prize steered for the French West Indies. Two days later, 16 November, the Marquis de La Fayette encountered the British ship Hero, bound from Georgia to the West Indies, and which also had a cargo of naval stores. She was easily captured. Both the Marquis de La Fayette and her prizes arrived at Cap François, Saint-Domingue on 27 November.¹²

Marquis de Lafayette sailed from Cap Fran*ois on 12 January 1782 in a convoy of 160 sail, most of which were bound for Europe. The convoy was escorted by five French ships-of-the-line and by two frigates. Munro brought her into Providence on 5 February 1782.¹³

She was re-commissioned as the Rhode Island Privateer Ship Marquis de Lafayette was on 25 May 1782 under Commander Joseph Olney. Her owner was listed as Miles Cooper.¹⁴

The Marquis de Lafayette was now ordered to go to Baltimore, Maryland with a cargo of rum, and then load a cargo of tobacco in Virginia. She was to proceed to France and deliver the cargo. The ship’s hull was to be coppered in France.¹⁵

Aboard the Marquis de Lafayette was a sailor named Noah Wilson. He states that he enlisted at Providence in 1 June “1783" [he means 1782].¹⁶ The Marquis de Lafayette loaded with her rum and departed for Baltimore¹⁷ within a day or two of Wilson’s enlistment.

On 10 June 1782¹⁸ Olney was off the Chesapeake Capes. Lieutenant John Cowper, one of the original officers of the Virginia commission, tells the story:

“Under an indiscreet commander, a little to the southward of Cape Henry, she was chased by a frigate, from whom she was getting away fast, when another frigate was discovered, shaping her course to cut the Marquis off from Cape Henry. The Virginia officers that remained assured the commander that they could round the Cape without the danger of more than one or two broad­sides at most, and perhaps without one.”¹⁹

Contemporary map of the Currituck Inlet area, about 1770.

The second “frigate” was the large British Privateer Ship Virginia (Stanton Hazard) out on a cruise from New York.²⁰ Olney tried to run south along the coast while Virginia gave chase. Unable to elude the Virginia, Olney put his helm over and ran the Marquis de Lafayette ashore, putting her on an island off Currituck Sound in North Carolina.²¹ The British said that she was driven ashore three miles south of Currituck.²² Cowper later commented of Olney: “He was not a Meredith, but ordered the helm to be put up, and ran this gallant, enterprising little ship ashore; and thus, after so many hair-breadth escapes from danger, she was lost, when the danger existed only in apprehension.”²³

The Virginia came to offshore and anchored. She brought her broadside to bear on the stranded American ship and opened fire on her stern, “which soon cleared her: we then man’d Boats, and got some trifling  Things out of her; she overset, and we set her on fire . . .”  The British reported that she was armed with eighteen 6-pounders.²⁴ The Americans ventured back onboard and put out the fire. According to sailor Wilson he was aboard when the British captured and burned the ship off the Virginia or Carolina coast. Wilson escaped to an island off the Carolina coast (and presumably the rest of the crew did too). He stated his service aboard was six weeks.²⁵

Most of that six weeks involved salvaging the cargo,²⁶ but the ship was lost, being wrecked and partially burned.²⁷ Later the Americans salvaged some of the ship’s tackle from the wreck.²⁸

¹ The Providence Gazette and Country Journal, Saturday, September 22, 1781

² [Cowper, John], “The Ship Marquis Lafayette,” in The Viginia Historical Register and Literary Advertiser, vol. II, nr. III, July, 1849, 146-155. Online. Reprinted nearly in full in Stewart, Virginia’s Navy of the Revolution.

³ The Providence Gazette and Country Journal, Saturday, January 12, 1782

⁴ [Cowper, John], “The Ship Marquis Lafayette,” 146-155

⁵ The Providence Gazette and Country Journal, Saturday, January 12, 1782

⁶ [Cowper, John], “The Ship Marquis Lafayette,”, 146-155

⁷ The Providence Gazette and Country Journal, Saturday, January 12, 1782

⁸ [Cowper, John], “The Ship Marquis Lafayette,” 146-155

⁹ The Providence Gazette and Country Journal, Saturday, January 12, 1782

¹⁰ The Providence Gazette and Country Journal, Saturday, January 12, 1782

¹¹ [Cowper, John], “The Ship Marquis Lafayette,” 146-155

¹² The Providence Gazette and Country Journal, Saturday, January 12, 1782

¹³ The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Thursday, February 14, 1782, datelined Providence, February 9

¹⁴ Sheffield, An Address Delivered by William P. Sheffield before the Rhode Island Historical Society, 62

¹⁵ [Cowper, John], “The Ship Marquis Lafayette,” 146-155

¹⁶ Pension Application of Noah Wilson, at http://www.footnote.com/image/28750500/

¹⁷ The Independent Gazetteer [Philadelphia], Saturday, July 20, 1782

¹⁸ The Independent Gazetteer [Philadelphia], Saturday, July 20, 1782

¹⁹ [Cowper, John], “The Ship Marquis Lafayette,” 146-155

²⁰ The New-York Gazette; and The Weekly Mercury, Monday, June 24, 1782

²¹ Pension Application of Noah Wilson, [http://www.footnote.com/image/28750500/]

²² The New-York Gazette; and The Weekly Mercury, Monday, June 24, 1782

²³ [Cowper, John], “The Ship Marquis Lafayette,” 146-155

²⁴ The New-York Gazette; and The Weekly Mercury, June 24, 1782

²⁵ Pension Application of Noah Wilson, [http://www.footnote.com/image/28750500/]

²⁶ The Independent Gazetteer [Philadelphia], Saturday, July 20, 1782

²⁷ The Newport Mercury, Saturday, June 29, 1782

²⁸ The Virginia Gazette or the American Advertiser [Richmond], Saturday, July 13, 1782

Posted 25 January 2012

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