Volunteer	Commander Eliphalet Smith
Schooner	[July] 1777-18 September 1777
South Carolina Privateer Schooner

Commissioned/First Date:	[July] 1777
Out of Service/Cause:	18 September 1777/sunk following action with HM Frigate Brune

Owners:

Tonnage:

Battery:

Date Reported: 18 September 1777 Number/Caliber  Weight         Broadside 12/4-pounder      48 pounds   24 pounds Total: 12 cannon/48 pounds Broadside: 6 cannon/24 pounds Swivels: sixteen (and ten cohorns)

Crew:

18 September 1777: 61 [total]

Description:

Officers:

Cruises:

(1) Charleston, South Carolina to sea, 16 September 1777-18 September 1777

Prizes:

(1) [unknown], summer 1777 (2) [unknown], summer 1777

Actions:

(1) Action with Brune, 18 September 1777

Comments:

South Carolina Privateer Schooner Volunteer, Commander Eliphalet Smith, out of Charleston, operated in the summer of 1777.¹ She captured two prizes, one of which was recaptured.² Smith sailed from Charleston on 16 September 1777.³

On 18 September she was 180 miles northeast of St. Augustine (or 75 miles east southeast of Sullivan's Island).⁴ In the evening, about 1800, Smith saw several sail and ran down to investigate, with another vessel in company. The strangers were HM Frigates Brune (Captain James Ferguson) and Galatea.  Smith turned away and the chase was on. By 2030 the Brune was close enough to⁵ hail: Smith told the British she was the “Lord Howe, from St. Augustine, bound for New York.” He was told to lower his sails and send his boat aboard. When Volunteer’s sails stayed up Brune fired one shot at her,⁶ and then began firing in earnest: thirty-three shots and several volleys of musketry were required before Volunteer struck,⁷ her crew calling for quarter.⁸ A boarding party discovered she had twelve 4-pounders, sixteen swivels, ten cohorns and a crew of sixty-one men.⁹ According to later statements the captain was killed and the second lieutenant was wounded by the musketry.¹⁰ The boarding party made another discovery: Volunteer was sinking. There was barely time to get the prisoners off before she went down. Smith did not make it aboard Brune, for he was killed “by a Musquet shot in bringing the Prisoners on board.”¹¹

¹ Coker, Charleston’s Maritime Heritage, 91, 300; NDAR, “The Gazette of the State of South-Carolina, Tuesday, December 2, 1777,” X, 655-656

² Coker, Charleston’s Maritime Heritage, 91, 300

³ The Pennsylvania Evening Post [Philadelphia], Thursday, October 30, 1777, datelined New York, September 29, 1777

⁴ Coker, Charleston’s Maritime Heritage, 91; NDAR, “The Gazette of the State of South-Carolina, Tuesday, December 2, 1777,” X, 655-656

⁵ NDAR, "Journal of H.M.S. Brune, Captain James Ferguson," IX, 940

⁶ NDAR, “The Gazette of the State of South-Carolina, Tuesday, December 2, 1777,” X, 655-656 and 656 note

⁷ NDAR, "Journal of H.M.S. Brune, Captain James Ferguson," IX, 940

⁸ The Pennsylvania Evening Post [Philadelphia], Thursday, October 30, 1777, datelined New York, September 29, 1777

⁹ NDAR, "Journal of H.M.S. Brune, Captain James Ferguson," IX, 940

¹⁰ NDAR, “The Gazette of the State of South-Carolina, Tuesday, December 2, 1777,” X, 655-656 and 656 note. According to this source the captain was killed by musketry at this point.

¹¹ NDAR, "Journal of H.M.S. Brune, Captain James Ferguson," IX, 940

Posted 7 May 2010

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