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Massachusetts Privateer Ship Viper |
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| Viper | Commander Jonathan Neall |
| Armed Ship | 9 April 1782-20 May 1782 |
| Massachusetts Privateer Ship |
| Commissioned/First Date: | 9 April 1782 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | 20 May 1782/captured by HM Frigate Leocadia |
| Owners: | John and Robert Leach of Salem, Massachusetts |
| Tonnage: |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 9 April 1782 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 14/ Total: 14 cannon/ Broadside: 7 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 20 May 1782 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 14/ Total: 14 cannon/ Broadside: 7 cannon/ Swivels: |
| Crew: | (1) 9 April 1782: 66 [total]
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| Description: |
| Officers: | (1) [Prizemaster] John Bailey, 9 April 1782-[May] 1782 |
| Cruises: |
| Prizes: | (1) Ship [unknown], [May] 1782 |
| Actions: |
Comments:
Massachusetts Privateer Ship Viper was commissioned on 9 April 1782 under Commander Jonathan Neall of Salem, Massachusetts. She was listed as having fourteen guns and sixty-five men in her crew. Viper was bonded for $20,000 by Neall, John Leach, and Nathan Nichols of Salem.1
Viper captured a ship with a cargo of salt, about May 1782, which was given a prize crew under John Bailey. The prize was recaptured by two British privateers bound for Quebec. Bailey and the prize crew were taken to Quebec. To escape imprisonment, Bailey and three of the men signed on the British snow2 Lucas (Hugh Hamilton), bound to London with a cargo of staves, oars, handspikes and other items. With the Americans aboard the total crew was only eleven men. Lucas sailed from Quebec in late July 1782 and cleared the St. Lawrence River on 17 July 17823 Two days later, Bailey, his three men, and one of the snow’s crew, rose and took the vessel from the master and the other five crew members. They arrived in Marblehead, Massachusetts aboard her on 28 July, nine days after capturing her.4
Viper continued on her cruise, but not for long. On 20 May 1782 she fell in with HM Frigate Leocadia5 (Captain Charles Hope) and was captured. She was presumably taken in to St. Johns, Newfoundland. The British reported she had fourteen guns and a crew of fifty-two men aboard.6
1 NRAR, 487; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 318
2 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 318, from the Salem Gazette of 4 July 1782
3 The Salem Gazette, Tuesday, July 4, 1782
4 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 318, from the Salem Gazette of 4 July 1782
5 Formerly the Spanish frigate Santa Leocadia. Leocadia measured 952 tons and mounted thirty-six guns with a crew of 240 men.
6 Almon, The Remembrancer, 14:353, printing a letter from Vice Admiral Campbell dated 23 September 1782
| Posted 6 January 2010 |
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