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Rhode Island Privateer Sloop Revenge |
| Revenge | (1) Commander Samuel Dunn, Jr. |
| Armed Sloop | 25 July 1776- |
| Rhode Island Privateer Sloop | (2) Commander Joseph Sheffield
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| Commissioned/First Date: | 25 July 1776 |
| Out of Service/Cause: |
| Owners: | (1) Caleb Gardner et al of Dighton and Swansea, Massachusetts; (2) Samuel Dunn, Jr. |
| Tonnage: | 75 |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 25 July 1776 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 10/4-pounder 40 pounds 20 pounds Total: 10 cannon/40 pounds Broadside: 5 cannon/20 pounds Swivels: sixteen Date Reported: 1 September 1776 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 10/ Total: 10 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels: fourteen Date Reported: 29 September 1776 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 10/ Total: 10 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels: fourteen |
| Crew: | (1) 25 July 1776: 71 [total]
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| Description: |
| Officers: | (1) First Lieutenant George Brown, 25 July 1776-; (2)Second Lieutenant Allin, 25 July 1776-; (3) Master John Sanford, 25 July 1776- |
| Cruises: | (1) Swansea, Massachusetts to Swansea, Massachusetts, [August] 1776-[October] 1776 |
| Prizes: | (1) Brig Ann (Diederick Wise), 1 September 1776, at 3°N, 53°W
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| Actions: | (1) Action with the Thomas and Sarah, 20 January 1777 |
Comments:
Although the owners were living in Massachusetts, they sought and obtained a Rhode Island commission. Rhode Island Privateer Sloop Revenge was commissioned on 25 July 1776 under Commander Samuel Dunn, Jr. She was listed as measuring 75 tons, and as having a battery of ten 4-pounder guns and sixteen swivel guns, with a crew of seventy men. Serving aboard as First Lieutenant was George Brown, with one Allin as Second Lieutenant and John Sanford as Master. The owners made her $5000 bond on the same day.1
Revenge sailed not long after. On 1 September 1776 she made her first prize. The 120-ton2 brig3 or brigantine Ann4 (or Anne; Diederick Wise) was owned in Liverpool, England.5 She sailed from St. Vincent’s in the British West Indies6 about 10 August 1776, bound for Liverpool with a cargo of rum.7 On 1 September 1776 Ann encountered the Revenge at 36°N, 35°W8 (or 35°N, 53°W)9 and was captured. Ann was sent into Rhode Island, where she arrived on 10 September, going up the east passage to Swansea, Massachusetts.10 Wise later reported the sloop as having ten guns, with fourteen swivels and eighty-five men. The prize had been condemned and sold by 14 October 1776.11 Wise remained in Swansea for five months. On 8 February 1777 he arrived at Newport in a cartel vessel for exchange. Wise took passage home in a recently liberated prize taken by the same sloop, ship Thomas.12
The next vessel captured appears to have been the 80-ton13 brig14 or brigantine15 William and Mary (George Casey),16 bound from Grenada, British West Indies to Cork, Ireland17 with a cargo of rum and sugar.18 About the first part of September 1776 she was captured.19 William and Mary was sent into Rhode Island, arriving at Swansea, Massachusetts, on either 18 or 20 September.20 She was libeled on 26 September.21 Together with the prize brig Henrietta she was sold at Swansea on 18 October 1776.22 On 15 November 1776 George Casey and two apprentices from the William and Mary were given permission to depart Rhode Island on parole, to be exchanged later.23
Following the capture of the William and Mary, Dunn stopped a Dutch ship and put some of the prisoners from the two prizes aboard her. To his surprise Dunn found there were other British prisoners, put aboard by a schooner privateer of ten guns, on the Dutch vessel. All told there were sixteen British prisoners aboard the Dutch ship. They arrived at Dover on 29 September. The men reported that the Revenge had ten guns and fourteen swivel guns, and that all the crews of the prizes, except the men released, had entered aboard the privateers.24
The third prize captured was probably the 130-ton25 brig26 or brigantine27 Henrietta, bound from the West Indies with a cargo of rum and sugar.28 About the first part of September 1776 she was captured. Henrietta was sent into Rhode Island, arriving at Swansea, Massachusetts, on either 18 or 20 September.29 She was libeled on 26 September.30 Together with the prize brigantine William and Mary she was sold at Swansea on 18 October 1776.31
The snow Friendship (Thomas Nastel) was bound from St. Croix in the Danish West Indies to Dunkerque, France.32 She was captured in September 1776. Friendship was sent into Rhode Island, where she arrived on 28 September, going up the bay.33 On 15 November 1776 Nastel and his apprentice were given permission to depart for Great Britain in the brigantine Triton, purchased by British prisoners to take themselves home.34
Revenge returned from her cruise in late September or early October 1776. Apparently, Dunn now left the sloop and became her owner. She was re-commissioned on 16 November 1776, under Commander Joseph Sheffield.35
Revenge was at sea in January 1777. On 2036 or 21 January,37 at 13°N38 [14°],39 56°W she fell in with two British ships, the Thomas (Collinson40 [Collison]41 and Sarah (Frith), both owned in Liverpool, England and outbound42 to Barbados in the British West Indies. The Thomas mounted fourteen 6-pounders, as did the Sarah,43 and neither captain intended to surrender. Revenge moved in and came to action with the Thomas. A four hour fight followed before the Thomas was boarded44 and surrendered, with two men killed and the captain wounded, along with two others.45 Revenge and Thomas now joined in attacking the Sarah, but she got away in the dusk.46
As the Revenge examined the captured Thomas it was found that she was very short on water, a condition shared by the privateer. Accordingly, the privateer’s men broke bulk on the cargo and removed some wine, butter, bread, flour, pork, five or six barrels of gunpowder, small arms and other articles.47 It seems that one Oliver Reed was put aboard as prize master.48
Later, Diederick Wise, master of the brigantine Ann, who had also been captured by the Revenge, said that Collinson made “little or no Resistance it is here [Newport] Imagined by every one that he must have gave her away as he was in Company with the Sarah wich two Vessells ought to have defended themselves against any Vessell of double the Sloops force . . .”49
The crew of the Thomas was held on the Revenge until 23 January, when a passing French vessel, bound for Martinique in the French West Indies, was stopped and the crew put aboard, except for three men, including Second Mate James Barton. The Revenge and Thomas now set out for an American port, but were soon parted in very bad weather and then rejoined. On 14 February 1777 Revenge and Thomas approached Newport, Rhode Island, unaware that that town was now in British hands, with Revenge in the lead. Sheffield saw a large ship in chase of the two and immediately crowded on all sail to escape. Thomas did the same. With the wind fresh at the northwest, the ship, HM Frigate Unicorn (Captain John Ford), was alongside the Thomas in two hours. The prisoners were removed and two officers and twelve men came aboard as the prize crew. Thomas was sent off to Newport, arriving on 16 February.50 It was soon arranged to purchase her cargo for the British Army and send the ship home.51
Meanwhile Revenge got away and came into Boston, Massachusetts on 11 February 1777.52
1 NDAR, “Caleb Gardner to Governor Nicholas Cooke,” V, 1210 and note
2 NDAR, “Diederick Wise, Master of the British Brigantine Ann, to His Owners,” VII, 1215 and note
3 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Dover,” Sept. 30,” VI, 620; “Newport Mercury, Monday, September 16, 1776,” VI, 855-856 and 856 note
4 NDAR, “Newport Mercury, Monday, September 16, 1776,” VI, 855-856 and 856 note; “Diederrick Wise, Master of the British Brigantine Ann to his Owners,” VI, 1252; NDAR, “Diederick Wise, Master of the British Brigantine Ann, to His Owners,” VII, 1215 and note
5 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Dover,” Sept. 30,” VI, 620; “Diederrick Wise, Master of the British Brigantine Ann to his Owners,” VI, 1252
6 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Dover,” Sept. 30,” VI, 620
7 NDAR, “Diederrick Wise, Master of the British Brigantine Ann to his Owners,” VI, 1252
8 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Dover,” Sept. 30,” VI, 620
9 NDAR, “Diederrick Wise, Master of the British Brigantine Ann to his Owners,” VI, 1252 and note. The identity of the captor given in the note is incorrect.
10 NDAR, “Newport Mercury, Monday, September 16, 1776,” VI, 855-856 and 856 note
11 NDAR, “Diederrick Wise, Master of the British Brigantine Ann to his Owners,” VI, 1252
12 NDAR, “Diederick Wise, Master of the British Brigantine Ann, to His Owners,” VII, 1215 and note
13 NDAR, “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, October 10, 1776,” VI, 1195-1196
14 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Dover,” Sept. 30,” VI, 620; “Newport Mercury, Monday, September 23, 1776,” VI, 955-956; “Libels Filed Against Various Prizes in the Massachusetts Admiralty Court,” VI, 1002-1003 and 1003 note
15 NDAR, “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, October 10, 1776,” VI, 1195-1196
16 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Dover,” Sept. 30,” VI, 620
17 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Dover,” Sept. 30,” VI, 620; “Permission Granted to British Prisoners in Rhode Island to Depart for Great Britain,” VII, 165-168
18 NDAR, “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, October 10, 1776,” VI, 1195-1196
19 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Dover,” Sept. 30,” VI, 620
20 NDAR, “Newport Mercury, Monday, September 23, 1776,” VI, 955-956
21 NDAR, “Libels Filed Against Various Prizes in the Massachusetts Admiralty Court,” VI, 1002-1003 and 1003 note
22 NDAR, “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, October 10, 1776,” VI, 1195-1196
23 NDAR, “Permission Granted to British Prisoners in Rhode Island to Depart for Great Britain,” VII, 165-168
24 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Dover,” Sept. 30,” VI, 620
25 NDAR, “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, October 10, 1776,” VI, 1195-1196
26 NDAR, “Newport Mercury, Monday, September 23, 1776,” VI, 955-956
27 NDAR, “Libels Filed Against Various Prizes in the Massachusetts Admiralty Court,” VI, 1002-1003 and 1003 note
28 NDAR, “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, October 10, 1776,” VI, 1195-1196
29 NDAR, “Newport Mercury, Monday, September 23, 1776,” VI, 955-956
30 NDAR, “Libels Filed Against Various Prizes in the Massachusetts Admiralty Court,” VI, 1002-1003 and 1003 note
31 NDAR, “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, October 10, 1776,” VI, 1195-1196
32 NDAR, “Permission Granted to British Prisoners in Rhode Island to Depart for Great Britain,” VII, 165-168
33 NDAR, “Newport Mercury, Monday, September 30, 1776,” VI, 1057
34 NDAR, “Permission Granted to British Prisoners in Rhode Island to Depart for Great Britain,” VII, 165-168
35 Sheffield, An Address Delivered by William P. Sheffield before the Rhode Island Historical Society, 58
36 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Barbadoes, to the Merchants in this Town [Liverpool], dated 25th January 1777,” VII, 1037; “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, February 20, 1777,” VII, 1242-1243
37 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Mr. James Barton, Second Mate on board the Thomas, belonging to Liverpool, dated Newport, Rhode Island Feb. 23, to his Owner at Liverpool,” VII, 1265-1266
38 NDAR, “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, February 20, 1777,” VII, 1242-1243
39 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Mr. James Barton, Second Mate on board the Thomas, belonging to Liverpool, dated Newport, Rhode Island Feb. 23, to his Owner at Liverpool,” VII, 1265-1266
40 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Barbadoes, to the Merchants in this Town [Liverpool], dated 25th January 1777,” VII, 1037
41 NDAR, “Diederick Wise, Master of the British Brigantine Ann to his Owners,” VII, 1215
42 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Barbadoes, to the Merchants in this Town [Liverpool], dated 25th January 1777,” VII, 1037
43 NDAR, “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, February 20, 1777,” VII, 1242-1243
44 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Barbadoes, to the Merchants in this Town [Liverpool], dated 25th January 1777,” VII, 1037; “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, February 20, 1777,” VII, 1242-1243
45 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Mr. James Barton, Second Mate on board the Thomas, belonging to Liverpool, dated Newport, Rhode Island Feb. 23, to his Owner at Liverpool,” VII, 1265-1266
46 NDAR, “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, February 20, 1777,” VII, 1242-1243
47 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Mr. James Barton, Second Mate on board the Thomas, belonging to Liverpool, dated Newport, Rhode Island Feb. 23, to his Owner at Liverpool,” VII, 1265-1266
48 NDAR, VIII, 1053-1063. Howe’s Prize List.
49 NDAR, “Diederick Wise, Master of the British Brigantine Ann to his Owners,” VII, 1215
50 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from Mr. James Barton, Second Mate on board the Thomas, belonging to Liverpool, dated Newport, Rhode Island Feb. 23, to his Owner at Liverpool,” VII, 1265-1266
51 NDAR, “Diederick Wise, Master of the British Brigantine Ann to his Owners,” VII, 1215
52 NDAR, “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, February 20, 1777,” VII, 1242-1243
| Posted 20 February 2011 |
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