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New Hampshire Privateer Ship Mercury |
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| Mercury | (1) Commander Nicholas Johnson |
| Armed Ship | 28 September 1779- |
| New Hampshire Privateer Ship | (2) Commander Nathaniel Giddings
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| Commissioned/First Date: | 28 September 1779 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | 2 June 1781/captured by HM Sloop Cygnet |
| Owners: | John Walmsley of Portsmouth, New Hampshire |
| Tonnage: |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 28 September 1779 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 10/ Total: 10 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 12 June 1780 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 12/ Total: 12 cannon/ Broadside: 6 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 5 May 1781 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 12/ Total: 12 cannon/ Broadside: 6 cannon/ Swivels: |
| Crew: | (1) 28 September 1779: 26 [total]
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| Description: |
| Officers: |
| Cruises: | (1) Portsmouth, New Hampshire to sea, [May] 1781-2 June 1781 |
| Prizes: |
| Actions: |
Comments:
New Hampshire Privateer Ship Mercury was commissioned on 28 September 1779 under Commander Nicholas Johnson. She was listed as having a crew of twenty-five men and mounting ten guns.1 Mercury was again commissioned on 12 June 1780, under Nathaniel Giddings. She was now listed as having a crew of fifty men and mounting twelve guns.2
Mercury was commissioned a third time, on 5 May 1781, under Commander Samuel Storer of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was listed as being armed with twelve guns and as having a crew of fifty men. Mercury’s $20,000 bond was signed by Storer and by Caleb Sanborn and Samuel Weare, both of Hampton Falls, New Hampshire.3
Mercury sailed for the West Indies with a cargo of lumber. On 2 June 1781 she was captured by HM Sloop Cygnet (Commander Thomas Drury) and taken in to St. Johns, Newfoundland.4 Storer and other prisoners from the Mercury arrived in a cartel ship from St. Johns, Newfoundland, at Boston, Massachusetts, on 15 August 1781.5
1 Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 167
2 Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 121
3 NRAR, 390
4 The London Gazette, Tuesday, October 16, to Saturday, October 20, 1781
5 The New-Hampshire Gazette; or State Journal, and General Advertiser [Portsmouth], August 20, 1781, datelined Boston, August 16
| Revised 4 March 2012 |
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