Mars	Commander Norris Copper [Cooper]
Armed Schooner	28 May 1776-
Pennsylvania Privateer Schooner

Commissioned/First Date:	28 May 1776
Out of Service/Cause:

Owners:

John Wilcocks, and John and Peter Chevalier, all of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Tonnage:

40

Battery:

Date Reported: 28 May 1776 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 4/3-pounder        12 pounds  6 pounds Total: 4 cannon/12 pounds Broadside: 2 cannon/6 pounds Swivels:

Crew:

28 May 1776: 11 [total]

Description:

Officers:

(1) First Lieutenant Bowden Hammond, 28 May 1776-

Cruises:

Prizes:

Actions:

Comments:

he 40-ton Pennsylvania Privateer Schooner Mars was commissioned on 28 May 1776 under Commander Norris Copper [or Cooper] of Annapolis, Maryland. She was listed as having a battery of four 3-pounders and a crew of ten men. Mars’s owners are listed as John Wilcocks, and John and Peter Chevalier, all of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A $5000 bond was executed, but the signers are not given. Serving aboard the Mars as First Lieutenant was Bowden Hammond.¹

On 31 May the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety gave the Mars permission to drop down the river and depart the state.²

Mars made at least one voyage to the West Indies. In November 1776 she was at St. Croix, in the Danish West Indies. While Mars was laying in the harbor a British ship, the Lasoye Planter, entered the harbor. The Lasoye Planter had recently been captured by Massachusetts Navy Brig Freedom (Captain John Clouston). Clouston put a prize master and nine sailors aboard the Lasoye Planter. The American prize master allowed “. . . the former crew too much liberty, they one night rose upon him, and after wounding him and some of his men in a shocking manner, retook the ship, put them in irons, and carried her into St. Croix . . .” Copper heard of this affair and went on board the Lasoye Planter and demanded the release of the prisoners. “After some altercation . . .” the prisoners were delivered to Copper. Copper took them back to America, safely arriving in Chincoteague Inlet, Virginia, by mid-January 1777.³

She was re-commissioned on 10 December 1777 as Maryland Privateer Sloop Mars [qv].⁴

¹ NDAR, “Provincial Bond for the Pennsylvania Privateer Schooner Mars,” V, 288; “Letters of Marque and Reprisal Commissions Granted by the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety,” V, 592

² NDAR, “Memorandum Book of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety,” V, 320; “Delaware River and Bay Passes Granted by the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety,” V, 647-648

³ NDAR, “Pennsylvania Packet, Wednesday, January 22, 1777,” VII, 1018. Although the captain’s name is given as “Cooper” in this transcription, it appears as “Copper” in the newspaper.

⁴ NDAR, “List of Bonds given on issuing Commissions for Privateers in the State of Maryland, delivered into the Office,” X, 703-704. The name of the captain is given here as “Copper.”

Posted 29 January 2011

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