Portland	Commander Joseph Titcomb
Armed Brig	3 July 1780-[August] 1780
New Hampshire Privateer Brigantine

Commissioned/First Date:	3 July 1780
Out of Service/Cause:	[August] 1780/captured by a British privateer

Owners:

Tonnage:

Battery:

Date Reported: 3 July 1780 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 8/ Total: 8 cannon/ Broadside: 4 cannon/ Swivels:

Crew:

3 July 1780: 21 [total]

Description:

Newly built.

Officers:

Cruises:

(1) [Portsmouth], New Hampshire to the West Indies, [July] 1780-[August] 1780 (2) West Indies to sea, [August] 1780-[August] 1780

Prizes:

Actions:

(1) Action with unknown British privateer, [August] 1780

Comments:

New Hampshire Privateer Brigantine Portland was commissioned on 3 July 1780 under Commander Joseph Titcomb of Falmouth, New Hampshire. Portland was listed as having a battery of eight guns and a crew of twenty men.¹ The story of the ensuing voyage is told in the autobiography of one of her sailors, Daniel Tucker:

“ . . . so I laid in an adventure for another voyage and engaged myself to go in a new armed brig called the “Portland,” with Capt. Joseph Titcomb. We arrived safely in the West Indies, sold our cargo for a great price , laid in a valuable cargo and sailed for  home, but soon after we sailed we fell in with a small English privateer that engaged us, and after a short action we struck our colors and gave up our valuable cargo and vessel to a schooner of inferior force, wholly for want of courage in our captain who was unfit for the command of an armed vessel. Our situation on board this vessel was wretched indeed. for the next day after we were on board we agreed among ourselves to take advantage of the first favorable opportunity and at the risk of our lives to rise upon the crew and take the privateer and overtake the prize brig which was then in company, but one of our own company was foolish enough to whisper this intention to a worthless American sailor who belonged to the privateer schooner and was cruising against his own countrymen; this fellow communicated our design to the officers , and all of us that were prisoners , except our cowardly captain and his officers, were put in irons , and the poor rascals had not a pair of handcuffs apiece for us, but yoked us together two and two.²

In this situation we were several days and nights , painful indeed, for if one moved in the night he woke his fellow , and the one was obliged to accompany the other on every occasion. We were destitute of bed and bedding, and almost naked, for they robbed us of our clothes , except what we had on. When we were first taken I cut open my bed sack, empted its contents, and stuffed it full of my bedding and clothes, and had some hope of being left on board the prize instead of going on board the privateer, but when I found the privateer’s men plundering our men of all their baggage I divided mine and tied up a bundle, hoping to save a shirt and a pair of stockings, and as I lay under the bowsprit I was seen by one of those piratical Turks who ordered me to the boat. I plead permission from the prize master’s mate, but the fellow said “No (with an oath), ‘Mr . Ramsey, the prize master says he will have none of you,’” and when I went towards the gangway the Irish rascal seized the bed sack from under my arm. I then had hopes of saving my bundle, but he saw that though it was night . I said. “ Will you take them, too?” “Yes, I’ll take the tote.”' Then I wanted to fight again, but we were overpowered and obliged to submit.³

We were at length relieved from this miserable condition by falling in with a small Dutch schooner bound to St. Eustacia, and to get clear of such a number of prisoners the captain of the privateer compelled the Dutchman to take us all on board. This little vessel was so deeply loaded that none of us could go below. In two or three days we arrived at St . Eustacia, and when my clothes were dry they were stiff with salt. In this island we found a friend by the name of Hovey, who had lived in Falmouth, and who was acquainted with our fathers and friends, and he sheltered us and found us provisions until we could get employment, for which Daniel Freeman and myself made every exertion and tried to get business on several American vessels, but did not get suited under two or three weeks when there arrived the ship “Columbia,” Jonathan Greely, commander, a vessel of twenty guns and fifty men. On board this ship Freeman and myself entered . . .”⁴

¹ Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 313

² Tucker, Daniel (ed. E. C. Cummings), “Captain Daniel Tucker in the Revolution,” in Collections and Proceedings of the Maine Historical Society, Second Series, Volume VIII, Portland: The Thurston Press, 1897,pp. 239-241. Online.

³ Tucker, “Captain Daniel Tucker in the Revolution,” 239-241

⁴ Tucker, “Captain Daniel Tucker in the Revolution,” 239-241

Posted 5 September 2011

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