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Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Success |
| Success | (1) Commander John Fletcher |
| Schooner | 15 May 1776- |
| Massachusetts Privateer Schooner | (2) Commander Philip Trask [Thrash, Trash]
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| Commissioned/First Date: | 15 May 1776 |
| Out of Service/Cause: |
| Owners: | (1) Nathaniel Tracy of Newburyport, Massachusetts; (2) Nathaniel Tracy et al of Newburyport, Massachusetts |
| Tonnage: |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 15 May 1776 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 2/ Total: 2 cannon/ Broadside: 1 cannon/ Swivels: eight Date Reported: 25 September 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 8/ Total: 8 cannon/ Broadside: 4 cannon/ Swivels: ten Date Reported: 28 September 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 8/ Total: 8 cannon/ Broadside: 4 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 2 September 1778 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 8/ Total: 8 cannon/ Broadside: 4 cannon/ Swivels: |
| Crew: | (1) 15 May 1776: 15 [total]
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| Description: |
| Officers: | (1) First Lieutenant Benjamin Stockbridge, 2 September 1778-; (2) Second Lieutenant Nathaniel Swazey, 2 September 1778- |
| Cruises: | (1) Newburyport, Massachusetts to Bilbao, Spain, [July] 1776-[September] 1776
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| Prizes: | (1) Brigantine Betty (James Simonet), 20 January 1777, with Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Hawke
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| Actions: |
Comments:
Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Success was commissioned on 15 May 1776 under Commander John Fletcher of Newburyport, Massachusetts. She was listed as having a battery of two guns, with eight swivel guns, and as having a crew of fourteen men. Her $5000 Continental bond was signed by Fletcher and by Joseph Marquand of Newburyport and Martin Brimmer of Boston, Massachusetts.1
Her first cruise was across the Atlantic to end in the Spanish port of Bilbao. At that port Success met the Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Hawke (Commander John Lee). These two sailed together on a return cruise, sailing from Bilbao on 23 October 1776. her return cruise on 23 October, in company with Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Success (Commander John Fletcher). Several English vessels sailed soon after, having waited until the two privateers sailed.2
On the trip home, on 20 January 1777, the 100-ton brigantine Betty (James Simonet) was captured by the two privateers. Hawke escorted her into Newburyport on 5 February 1777.3 Betty was duly libeled on 10 April 17774 and tried and condemned on 29 April.5 There is however, a very puzzling notice of James Simonet. On 31 December 1776, before he was captured, according to the libel, he is listed as a prisoner at Newburyport, having been captured by the Hawke and the Success.6 One can only speculate that Simonet’s name was later added to a list that had already been composed.
Fletcher and Success made a second voyage to European waters, carrying a small cargo of fish for the Massachusetts Board of War. By 16 June 1777 the Success was in Bilbao, where the fish was delivered to the Massachusetts agent, John Emery.7 She was at sea in August 1777. It was reported from L’Orient, France on 27 August 1777 that Success was cruising off Ushant, France in company with Massachusetts Privateer Ship General Mifflin (Commander William Day).8
One of her prizes got to America. On 18 September 1777 the 120-ton brigantine Isabel (William Arrison) was libeled, with trial set for 7 October 1777.9
In September 1777 Success was in Santander, Spain, where Lord Grantham, the British ambassador to Spain, undertook to get her expelled. By 6 October the ambassador was reporting that Success had been ordered out of port at Santander.10
On 25 September the Success captured the Endeavour (Mellish), bound from London to Villavisiosa, Spain, in ballast, six miles off Villavisiosa. Success was said to have had eight guns and ten swivel guns mounted. The master was given his clothing and the boat to take himself and his crew ashore.11
On 28 September Success was thirty12 or thirty-six13 miles northwest of Cape Pinas.14 She fell in with the 80-ton15 brig William and Polly (Edward Symonds), bound from Newfoundland to Bilboa with a cargo of fish, and captured her.16 William and Polly had been at sea twenty-two days, made Cape Ortegal on 26 September and was captured on the 28th. The master and crew were removed to the Success.17 William and Polly was ordered to Bilboa,18 but Symonds was informed she was going to Bordeaux.19 He later reported she was armed with eight guns.20 Fletcher then stopped a Jersey vessel flying a French flag. Fletcher thought it was a French vessel, particularly after the master told the American he was bound to Rochelle. Symonds and his crew were placed aboard the Jersey vessel and she was released. In reality she was also bound for Bilbao.21 Thus the prize and her former master arrived at that port on the same tide, 1 October 1777. As soon as Symonds arrived on shore the factors for the British owner, Ventura Gomez de la Torre and Barrena, obtained a protest form for him to fill out. The factors notified the owner, William Spurrier on 4 October.22 Symonds stayed in Bilbao until 24 October and had the satisfaction of seeing the brig sequestered at least. He had returned to Poole, England by 10 November.23 Nevertheless, William and Polly was eventually released, and made her way to Massachusetts. She was libeled on 9 April 1778, with her trial set for 5 May 1778.24
About 3 November it was reported that Success was at Bilbao cleaning, and would be ready for sea in a five or six days.25
Success got safely home, where Fletcher left the schooner. She was re-commissioned on 2 September 1778, under Commander Philip Trask [Thrash, Trash], presumably of Newburyport. She was listed as being armed with eight guns and as having a crew of forty men. Her $5000 Continental and £4000 Massachusetts bonds were signed by Thrash and William Foster of Boston and James Tileston of Newburyport.26 Benjamin Stockbridge served aboard as First Lieutenant,27 and Nathaniel Swazey as Second Lieutenant.28
Success sailed from Newburyport on 4 October 1778. Trask kept a journal, entitled “Journal of a Cruising Voyage in the Letter of Marque Schooner Success commanded by Captain Philip Thrash Commencing 4th Oct 1778.” The pages are filled with routine entries, the taking in and letting out of sail and the like. One entry stands out: “At 1/2 past 8 discovered a Sail ahead tacked ship At 9 tacked ship and past just to Leeward of the sail which appeared to be a damn d Comical Boat by G..d”29
Whatever caused Trask to laugh soon ended. On 30 December 1778, the Success came across the brigantine Santander y los Santos Martires (Joseph de Llanos), a vessel flying the Spanish flag. Success stopped the Santander y los Santos Martires and examined the cargo manifests. The Spanish vessel was bound from London to Cadiz. Llanos assured Trask that the cargo was Spanish owned, and this seemingly was demonstrated by the invoices. The vessel was undoubtedly Spanish, being owned by Don Philip Aguixxe de San Fadder. Even so, Trask sent in the Santander y los Santos Martires as a prize.30
The prize was tried at Boston, where the cargo was condemned as Spanish goods and the vessel restored to the owners. The privateer’s owners appealed the decision, wanting the vessel too. The Spanish captain appealed to Don Juan Miralles, the unofficial Spanish representative to the Congress. Miralles, in turn, contacted the Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States, Gerard. Gerard wrote to Congress in 24 April 1779, expressing his concerns, and enclosing a memorial from Llanos and another Spanish captain in a similar situation.31
From this point the Continental Congress was in a hard place. It was already involved in a dispute with Pennsylvania regarding the appeal of a prize case, and did not want a simultaneous dispute with Massachusetts. After more memorials and special committees, Congress decided to let the Massachusetts courts brig forth a verdict, but promised to reimburse the aggrieved Spanish parties, if they did not prevail.32 Eventually, the verdict of the Massachusetts courts was upheld.
Meanwhile, Success continued to cruise and make letter-of-marque type voyages. The last mention found of her is on 4 January 1781, when the 270-ton ship Hawke (Robert Cladstill) was tried in the Massachusetts Maritime Court for the Middle District. The skipper’s name appears her as “Trask.”33
1 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 291
2 NDAR, "Whitehall Evening Post, Tuesday, November 5 to Thursday, November 7, 1776," 7, 730-731
3 NDAR, "Trial in Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Prize Brigantine Betty," 8, 464-465
4 NDAR, "Libels Filed Against Thirteen Prizes in Massachusetts Admiralty Court for the Middle District," 8, 309-310
5 NDAR, "Trial in Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Prize Brigantine Betty," 8, 464-465
6 NDAR, "A Return of the Prisoners Confind at Newby port Decr 31. 1776," 7, 637-638
7 NDAR, “John Emery to the Massachusetts Board of War,” XI, 944-945 and 945 note
8 NDAR, “Berard Freres & Co. to Captain Henry Johnson,” IX, 606
9 NDAR, “Libels Filed in the Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Middle District,” X, 15-16
10 NDAR, “Lord Grantham to Lord Weymouth,” X, 878-879
11 NDAR, “The London Packet; or, New Lloyd’s Evening Post (London), Monday, October 27, to Wednesday, October 29, 1777,” X, 954 and note
12 NDAR, “Edward Symonds to William Spurrier,” X, 870
13 NDAR, “Ventura Gomez de la Torre and Barrena to William Spurrier,” X, 869
14 NDAR, “Edward Symonds to William Spurrier,” X, 870
15 The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Thursday, April 9, 1778
16 NDAR, “Edward Symonds to William Spurrier,” X, 870; “Deposition of Edward Symonds,” X, 983-984
17 NDAR, “Edward Symonds to William Spurrier,” X, 870
18 NDAR, “Ventura Gomez de la Torre and Barrena to William Spurrier,” X, 869
19 NDAR, “Edward Symonds to William Spurrier,” X, 870
20 NDAR, “Edward Symonds to William Spurrier,” X, 870; “Deposition of Edward Symonds,” X, 983-984
21 NDAR, “Edward Symonds to William Spurrier,” X, 870
22 NDAR, “Ventura Gomez de la Torre and Barrena to William Spurrier,” X, 869
23 NDAR, “Deposition of Edward Symonds,” X, 983-984
24 The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Thursday, April 9, 1778
25 NDAR, “Captain John Elphinston, R.N., to Philip Stephens,” X, 968-969
26 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 291
27 MASSRW 15:40
28 MASSRW 15:284
29 Paine, Ralph Delahaye, The Ships and Sailors of Old Salem: the Record of A Brilliant Era of American Achievement, Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1912, 76
30 “Memorial respecting two Spanish Vessels,” in Gerard to the President of Congress, letter, 24 April 1779. Published in Sparks, Jared (ed.), The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Boston: Nathan Hale and Gray & Bowen, 1830, vol X, 279-282
31 Conrad Alexandre Gerard to the President of Congress, letter, 24 April 1779, in Sparks, X, 279-282
32 John Jay to Conrad Alexandre Gerard, 24 May 1779, in Letters of Delegates to Congress, vol. 14, 519 and note
33 The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser, Thursday, January 4, 1781
| Posted 24 February 2011 |
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