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[unknown] Privateer Ship Vigilant |
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| Vigilant | Commander Richard Witear |
| Armed Ship | [May] 1777-10 June 1777 |
| Massachusetts Privateer Brigantine |
| Commissioned/First Date: | [May] 1777 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | 10 June 1777/captured by HM Frigate Levant |
| Owners: |
| Tonnage: |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 27 June 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 14/ Total: 14 cannon/ Broadside: 7 cannon/ Swivels: |
| Crew: |
| Description: |
| Officers: |
| Cruises: | (1) Dunkerque, France to sea, [29] May 1777-10 June 1777 |
| Prizes: | (1) Brig Mayflower, 9 June 1777, off the Portuguese coast |
| Actions: | (1) Action with Levant, 10 June 1777 |
Comments:
[unknown] Privateer Ship Vigilant (Commander Richard Witear) was fitted out at Dunkerque, France, probably in May 1777. She was armed with fourteen guns. Vigilant sailed from Dunkerque about 29 May 1777, and proceeded down to the Portugese coast. Vigilant was chased by HMS Worcester off the French coast, but escaped in the night.
On 9 June 1777 she captured the brig Mayflower, from Lisbon bound to Bristol, and put a prize crew aboard. The next day, about 10 June 1777 Vigilant encountered HM Frigate Levant (Captain George Murray). After a two hour chase the Levant got alongside and a ten minute action ensued before Vigilant struck her colors. One man was killed and three wounded aboard the Vigilant. The prize brig was now seen by the British, running away. A lieutenant and a few men boarded the Vigilant, cut her rigging and sails to disable her from running away, and then re-boarded the Levant. Levant chased the brig. In an hour the brig was recaptured and the prize crew removed, and, two hours later, the British returned to the Vigilant, sending eighteen of their sailors aboard as a prize crew. Both privateer and brig were sent into Gibralter, arriving before 27 June.1
1 NDAR, “Extract of a Letter from an Officer Belonging to his Majesty's Ship the Levant, dated Gibralter, June 27.,” IX, 436-437. Both Allen, Joseph, Battles of the British Navy, Henry G. Bohn, London: 1858, I, 248, and Clowes, William Laird, The Royal Navy A History from the Earliest Times to the Present, Sampson, Low, Martin & Co., London: 1899, IV, 4, assert that the Vigilant was captured in the Mediterranean Sea. This seems unlikely to say the least. Mayflower, Vigilant’s prize, was bound north from Lisbon. The next day Vigilant was captured. She could hardly have gotten into the Mediterranean in only twenty-four hours.
| Posted 6 January 2010 |
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