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Virginia Privateer Ship Rattlesnake |
| Rattlesnake | Commander William Cannon |
| Armed Ship | March 1779- |
| Virginia Privateer Ship |
| Commissioned/First Date: | March 1779 |
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| Battery: | Date Reported: Number/Caliber Weight Broadside
Total: Broadside: Swivels: |
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| Cruises: | (1) Aux Cayes, Saint-Domingue, to the James River, Virginia, -26 March 1779
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Comments:
Virginia Privateer Ship Rattlesnake (Commander William Cannon) was the former Pennsylvania Privateer Ship Rattlesnake (Commander David McCullough). She was driven ashore and bilged and thought to be destroyed on 22 November 1778 by HM Sloop Swift. Within three months the Rattlesnake was salvaged, re-armed and seemingly put in commission under William Cannon.1
On 26 March 1779 it was reported that Rattlesnake had safely arrived in the James River. She brought in a valuable cargo from Aux Cayes, Saint-Domingue in the French West Indies.2
About the beginning of July 1779 Rattlesnake safely arrived at St. Eustatius, Netherlands West Indies, from the York River in Virginia.3
1 Shomette, David G., Shipwrecks, Sea Raiders and Maritime Disasters along the Delmarva Coast, 1632-2004. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, 70
2 Dixon and Nicolson’s Virginia Gazette, Friday, March 26, 1779
3 Dixon and Nicolson’s Virginia Gazette, Saturday, March 31, 1779
| Revised 22 February 2009 |
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