Retrieve	Commander Joshua Stone
Armed Sloop	29 August 1776-30 September 1776
Massachusetts Privateer Sloop

Commissioned/First Date:	29 August 1776
Out of Service/Cause:	30 September 1776/captured by HM Frigate Milford

Owners:

John Fox et al of Falmouth, Massachusetts [Casco Bay, Maine] [Enoch Insley and Benaiah Titcomb of Falmouth, Cumberland County, Massachusetts [Maine]

Tonnage:

95, 140

Battery:

Date Reported: 29 August 1776 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 10/3-pounder and 4-pounder Total: 10 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 30 August 1776 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 10/ Total: 10 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels: fourteen Date Reported: 30 September 1776 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 12/ Total: 12 cannon/ Broadside: 6 cannon/ Swivels: eighteen Date Reported: 5 March 1777 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 11/ Total: 11 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels: eighteen

Crew:

(1) 29 August 1776: 81 [total] (2) 30 August 1776: 81 [total] (3) 30 September 1776: 82 [total]

Description:

Officers:

(1) First Lieutenant William McLellan, 29 August 1776-; (2) Second Lieutenant John Lemons, 29 August 1776-; (3) Master Arthur McLellan, 29 August 1776

Cruises:

(1) Falmouth, Massachusetts to sea, [1] September 1776-30 September 1776

Prizes:

(1) Sloop [unknown] (Patten), [September] 1776

Actions:

Comments:

Massachusetts Privateer Sloop Retrieve was commissioned on 29 August 1776 under Commander Joshua Stone of Falmouth, Cumberland County, Massachusetts [Maine]. She was listed as measuring 95 tons, and as being armed with ten guns, 4-pounders and 3-pounders, and as having a crew of eighty men. Retrieve’s officers were First Lieutenant William McLellan, Second Lieutenant John Lemons, and Master Arthur McLellan. Her $5000 Continental bond was signed by Stone and by Jonathan Fox of Falmouth and George Williams of Salem.¹ On 30 August Fox petitioned the Massachusetts Council for permission to purchase 600 pounds of gunpowder from the state’s magazine. In the petition Fox states that the Retrieve had ten carriage guns, fourteen swivel guns, and a crew of eighty men.²

She put to sea in September 1776, capturing an unknown sloop (Patten) off the Narraguagus River, en route from Halifax, Nova Scotia. The sloop was sent into Falmouth, arriving 1 October 1776.³

On 30 September 1776, Retrieve was seen by HM Frigate Milford, then southeast by south of Seal Island, at 0200, away to windward. By 0600 Milford had been identified by the privateer, who set all sail and fled. At 0800 Milford was close enough to fire four 3-pounders, which stopped Retrieve. According to the British, she was armed with twelve guns and eighteen swivels, and had eighty-two men aboard. At 0900 the two made sail and in the afternoon the prisoners were transferred to the Milford.⁴ Retrieve’s officers were exchanged in the first week of November 1776.⁵

On 5 March 1777, in a list of Milford’s prizes, Retrieve was said to measure 140 tons, and to have been armed with eleven guns and eighteen swivel guns, with a crew of eighty-two men.⁶

¹ NDAR, “Petition for Commission for Joshua Stone to Command the Massachusetts Privateer Sloop Retrieve,” VI, 345-346; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 259

² Force, American Archives, Series 5, 2:737

³ NDAR, “The Freeman’s Journal, Saturday, October 5, 1776,” VI, 1133

⁴ NDAR, “Master’s Log of H. M. S. Milford,” VI, 1050

⁵ NDAR, “Boston Gazette, Monday, November 11, 1776,” VII, 105

⁶ NDAR, “Public Advertiser, Wednesday, March 5, 1777,” VIII, 637-639

Posted 14 February 2011

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