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Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Warren |
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| Warren | (1) Commander Israel Thorndike |
| Schooner | 28 October 1776-[December] 1776 |
| Massachusetts Privateer Schooner | 2) Commander Henry Thorndike
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| Commissioned/First Date: | 28 October 1776 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | 6 [January] 1778/captured by the British Privateer Ship Fanny |
| Owners: | (1) Josiah Batchelder, Jr., Eleazer Giles et al of Beverly, Massachusetts (3) Josiah Batchelder, Jr. of Beverly, Massachusetts; (4) Josiah Batchelder, Jr. of Beverly, Massachusetts |
| Tonnage: | 50, 60 |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 28 October 1776 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 6/ Total: 6 cannon/ Broadside: 3 cannon/ Swivels: ten Date Reported: 29 April 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 10/ Total: 10 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 4 July 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 10/ Total: 10 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels: ten Date Reported: [8] July 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 14/ Total: 14 cannon/ Broadside: 7 cannon/ Swivels: ten Date Reported: 5 August 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 10/ Total: 10 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels: ten Date Reported: 3 December 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 10/ Total: 10 cannon/ Broadside: 5 cannon/ Swivels: |
| Crew: | (1) 28 October 1776: 51 [total]
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| Description: |
| Officers: | (1) First Lieutenant Nicholas Ogleby, 28 October 1776-29 April 1777; (2) First Lieutenant Samuel Foote, 3 December 1777-6 [January] 1778; (3) Second Lieutenant William Ryan, 28 October 1776-; (4) Master John Lee, 28 October 1776-; (5) [unknown Henry Thorndike], [28 October 1776]-13 January 1777; (6) Prize Master John Palmer, [28 October 1776]-20 November 1776; (7) Surgeon John Cushing, 3 December 1777-6 January 1778 |
| Cruises: | (1) [Beverly], Massachusetts to [Beverly], Massachusetts, [November]-[December] 1776
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| Prizes: | (1) British Transport Brig Thomas and William (James Smith), [off Nova Scotian coast], 20 November 1776
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| Actions: | (1) Action with British Privateer Ship Tom (John Lee), 28 December 1777 |
Comments:
Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Warren was commissioned under Commander Israel Thorndike, of Beverly, Massachusetts, on 28 October (or 29 October) 1776. She was listed as measuring 50 tons and as having five or six guns, ten swivel guns, and a crew of fifty men. The petition for her commission was signed by owner Josiah Batchelder, Jr., and others.1 Among the owners was Eleazer Giles of Beverly.2 Her $5000 Continental bond was signed by Israel Thorndike and by Batchelder and Nathan Leech of Beverly.3 Her other officers were First Lieutenant Nicholas Ogleby (here Ogleeby), Second Lieutenant William Ryan, and Master John Lee.4 Her first cruise may have included Henry Thorndike, possibly Israel’s brother,5 and it may be that Henry was the actual commander of the schooner.
The first prize taken was the British Transport Brig Thomas and William (James Smith), an Army victualler. She had been on the Charleston Expedition in the summer of 1776. She was en route from New York to Cork, when, on 20 November 1776, Thorndike captured her. A prize crew6 of three men under Prize Master John Palmer7 was put aboard and she was sent off, but Thomas and William was recaptured by HM Frigate Unicorn8 on either 20 November9 or 27 November and sent into Halifax.10 The prize crew was sent to Forton Prison, and were still there on 29 December 1777.11
The 300 ton bark Carlisle (James Blerver) was captured on this cruise. She was libeled on 9 January 1777, when trial was set for 28 January. Carlisle was sold at Beverly on 19 March 1777. She had a cargo of mahogany and logwood.12
The British Transport Ship Content (John Taylor), a 400-ton vessel (another veteran of the Charleston Expedition) was captured and brought in to Beverly. She was libeled and tried at the same time as the Carlisle. The Massachusetts Board of War bought her for £2105.14.8, renamed her the Union and planned to use her as a trading vessel.13
This may be the same Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Warren that was mentioned under Commander Henry Thorndike on 13 January 1777.14
Warren was re-commissioned on 29 April 1777, under Nicholas Ogelby (here Ogleeby), promoted to Commander. The petition, by Batchelder, notes she was 60 tons, armed with ten guns and with a crew of fifty men.15 Other sources list her crew as fifty-five men. Her $5000 Continental bond was signed by Ogleby, Batchelder and Eleazer Giles. Owners were Batchelder & Co. of Beverly.16
Other reports indicate Warren (Commander Nicholas Ogelby [or Ogelvie, Ogilby, Ogilvie, Ogilbie, Ogelve)] was a ten or fourteen gun schooner, ten swivels, with forty-five men, out of Marblehead, Massachusetts.17 She sailed about the end of April 1777 for a patrol area off the Spanish coast.18
Warren was cruising off Cape Finisterre by June 1777, for she took her first prize on 25 June. This was the brig19 or brigantine20 Argo (Thomas Smith), 200 tons,21 from Lymington to New York with a cargo of salt. A few days later, on 2 July 1777, the 220-ton22 brig23 or brigantine24 Principe de Masserano (Thomas Wharton), from Bergen, Norway to Venice, Italy with a cargo of fish, was captured. On 4 July the brig Elizabeth (William Dowling), Cork to Oporto, Portugal with dry goods, fell victim to the Warren. The day he captured the Elizabeth, Ogelvie ran into Vigo, Spain and landed the three masters and ten of the sailors from the prizes. These reported to the British consul at Corunna that Warren was armed with ten guns and ten swivels.25
Argo was sent off to Massachusetts. En route, at 42°36'N,61°01'W, she spoke with the Connecticut Privateer Sloop Trumbull (Commander Henry Billings). The brig’s prize crew reported she was captured around 26°W.26 When Argo arrived in Massachusetts she was libeled on 18 September 1777, with trial set for 7 October 1777.27
A few days later Warren put in to Bilbao, Spain, bringing in the Principe de Masserano with her [a few days before 12 July, probably about 6 July]. Here, the rest of her crew was set ashore, reporting that she had fourteen guns, several swivels, and a large crew.28 The 130-ton Principe de Masserano was taken off Cape Finisterre, according to her owner, Joseph Dowson of London. Dowson asked for British diplomatic help to obtain her release (5 August 1777), and reported that Warren had ten guns, ten swivels,and forty-five men.29 By 30 August the owner reported that the ship and cargo had been sold. When the mate of the brig had left Bilboa, on 14 August, the Warren and another privateer, Civil Usage, were refitting for a cruise. The name of the brig had been changed to St. Joseph and she was loading for Cadiz. This information was incorrect however: the brig was sent to Boston and libeled on 9 October 1777, with trial set for 30 October.30
Warren was part of a contingent of privateers that was patrolling off the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. The effect of their activities had been to frighten the resident British merchants into using foreign bottoms. In the month before 20 July 1777 only three British merchant vessels had entered the port of Lisbon. More foreign vessels were at Lisbon than during any Spanish or French war. Oporto was practically blockaded: according to reports from there dated 7 July the privateers had regular stations; one between Oporto and Viana, two between Viana and the Bayonne Islands, and a fourth which had recently been spoken off Cape Finisterre. The Warren, a schooner of ten guns, Ogilbie or Ogilvie, from Marblehead, had taken three vessels: one on 2 July and two on 4 July. Assistance had been requested from Admiral Man at Gibralter and from the Admiralty. Since then Warren has taken another vessel. Warren’s crew had been particularly careful to get the Mediterranean passes of the captured ships. Orders had now been issued that these passes were to be sunk or destroyed in the future if capture appeared imminent.31
These vessels were small, contemptible things: pitifully manned and mounting only a few guns of the smallest caliber. They lay near the shore, closer than the frigates used against them could go, and invisible against the shoreline. If detected they crowd on sail and out run their pursuers, unless the accident of bad weather or high seas slowed them down. Almost all of these privateers were out of New England ports. Even one small sloop or cutter would greatly restrict these privateers, and the credit they generated in Spain by their activity.32
Warren may have made a short cruise out of Bilboa in early August 1777. There was a report that a privateer had chased a vessel into Noya near Cape Finisterre, firing on her even in the harbor. This was reported as happening a “few days ago” on 6 August.33 Warren was apparently still on the Spanish coast on 28 September 1777.34 She evidently returned home soon after for Ogelby was commissioned to the Massachusetts Privateer Brigantine Washington on 8 November 1777.
Warren’s third commission was to John Ravell38 [Revell],39 on 3 December 1777. Batchelder again made the petition, listing Warren as 60 tons, with ten guns and a crew of sixty men. Samuel Foote served as First Lieutenant.40 John Cushing of Haverhill, Massachusetts, served aboard as Surgeon.41 Her $5000 Continental and £500 Massachusetts bonds were signed by Ravell, Batchelder and Ebenezer Porter.42
Warren sailed about 7 December 1777.43 On 28 December,44 at 48°48′N, 37°35′W she met the 200-ton British letter-of-marque ship Tom45 (or Thomas)46 (John Lee). Tom was armed with twelve47 (or twenty)48 6-pounders, and was sailing out of Liverpool, England.49 A three hour fight50 (the British referred to it as a “short Engagement”)51 followed. Warren lost her foremast52 (or mainmast),53 one man killed and three54 (or two)55 wounded, before surrendering. The British had one man wounded.56 Lee “took the Guns and every other necessary out of the Privateer, and then left them to shift for themselves.”57
For nine days Warren’s crew worked on the wreck. On 6 January 177858 the British ship Fanny,59 bound from New York to Liverpool, happened by. Fanny took the Warren again.60 The prize was taken into New York. There are records of her in the High Court of Admiralty indicating she was tried there in 1777-1778.61 Most of the prisoners were taken to Liverpool.62
The crew was evidently taken to New York and then sent to England. There are two different lists of the men committed to Old Mill Prison. One indicates the Warren was captured on 29 December 1777, with forty men being sent to Old Mill Prison in June 1778. Of these forty, six enlisted in the Royal Navy and Ravel and another man had escaped by 7 February 1779.63 The second list notes that Warren was captured on 27 December 1777 and that forty-two men were committed on 4 June 1778. Of these fourteen escaped (including Ravel), two died, twenty-five were exchanged and one was still there on an indeterminate date.64 Cushing states he was exchanged after two years and seven months.65
1 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 419; Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 310
2 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 339
3 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 320
4 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 419
5 NDAR, “Libels Filed in the Massachusetts Maritime Court,” VII, 906-907; “A Transcript of the Entries of letters of Agency in His Majesty’s Court of Vice Admiralty for the Province of Nova Scotia from the 4th day of October 1776 to the 21st day of March 1777,” VIII, 163; “Public Advertiser, Wednesday, February 26, 1777,” VIII, 613 and note
6 NDAR, 5, 112; 4, 903; “A Transcript of the Entries of letters of Agency in His Majesty’s Court of Vice Admiralty for the Province of Nova Scotia from the 4th day of October 1776 to the 21st day of March 1777,” VIII, 163; “Public Advertiser, Wednesday, February 26, 1777,” VIII, 613 and note
7 NDAR, “List of American Prisoners confined in Forton Prison Dec. 29th 1777,” XI, 888-890
8 NDAR, 5, 112; 4, 903; “A Transcript of the Entries of letters of Agency in His Majesty’s Court of Vice Admiralty for the Province of Nova Scotia from the 4th day of October 1776 to the 21st day of March 1777,” VIII, 163; “Public Advertiser, Wednesday, February 26, 1777,” VIII, 613 and note
9 NDAR, “List of American Prisoners confined in Forton Prison Dec. 29th 1777,” XI, 888-890
10 NDAR, 5, 112; 4, 903; “A Transcript of the Entries of letters of Agency in His Majesty’s Court of Vice Admiralty for the Province of Nova Scotia from the 4th day of October 1776 to the 21st day of March 1777,” VIII, 163; “Public Advertiser, Wednesday, February 26, 1777,” VIII, 613 and note
11 NDAR, “List of American Prisoners confined in Forton Prison Dec. 29th 1777,” XI, 888-890
12 NDAR, “Libels Filed in the Massachusetts Maritime Court,” VII, 906-907; “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, March 13, 1777,” VIII, 97
13 NDAR, 4, 903; “Libels Filed in the Massachusetts Maritime Court,” VII, 906-907; “British Shipmasters’ Petition to the Massachusetts General Court,” VII, 1023-1024; “William Frost to the Massachusetts Board of War,” VIII, 104; “Minutes of the Massachusetts Board of War,” VIII, 167
14 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 320 from a note in the Boston Gazette of 13 January 1777.
15 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 420
16 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 320
17 NDAR, “Herman Katencamp to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 483; “Extract of a letter from Bilboa, July 12,” IX, 494-495; “Sir John Hort to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 515-517; “Joseph Dowson to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 548-549
18 NDAR, “Herman Katencamp to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 483; “Extract of a letter from Bilboa, July 12,” IX, 494-495; “Sir John Hort to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 515-517; “Joseph Dowson to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 548-549
19 NDAR, “Herman Katencamp to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 483
20 NDAR, “Libels Filed in the Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Middle District,” X, 15-16
21 NDAR, “Libels Filed in the Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Middle District,” X, 15-16
22 NDAR, “Libels Filed in the Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Middle District,” X, 90 and note
23 NDAR, “Herman Katencamp to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 483
24 NDAR, “Herman Katencamp to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 483; “Libels Filed in the Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Middle District,” X, 90 and note
25 NDAR, “Herman Katencamp to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 483
26 The Norwich Packet and the Connecticut, Massachusetts, New-Hampshire, and Rhode-Island Weekly Advertiser, Monday, August 4, 1777 to Monday, August 11, 1777
27 NDAR, “Libels Filed in the Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Middle District,” X, 15-16
28 NDAR, “Extract of a letter from Bilboa, July 12,” IX, 494-495
29 NDAR, “Joseph Dowson to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 548-549
30 NDAR, “Joseph Dowson to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 615 and note
31 NDAR, “Sir John Hort to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 515-517
32 NDAR, “Sir John Hort to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 515-517
33 NDAR, “Herman Katencamp to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 554
34 NDAR, “Sir John Hort to Lord Weymouth,” IX, 666-667
35 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 321
36 NDAR, “The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, Monday February 2, 1778, XI, 265-266 and 266 n7
37 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 420
38 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 321
39 NDAR, “The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, Monday February 2, 1778, XI, 265-266 and 266 n7
40 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 420
41 Herbert, Charles, A Relic of the Revolution, Containing a Full and Particular Accunt of the Sufferings and Privations of All the American Prisoners Captured On the High Seas and Carried into Plymouth England During the Revolution of 1776; With the Names of the Vessels taken the Names and Residence of the several Crews and time of their Commitment the Names of such as died in Prison and such as made their Escape or entered on board English Men of War until the exchange of prisoners March 15 1779 . . ., Boston: Charles H. Peirce, 1847, 254-255. Online at Online at Google Books
42 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 321
43 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 340, 420, gives the date as 27 December. According to the pension application of John Cushing, at http://southerncampaign.org/pen/s16356.pdf, Warren was out three weeks before meeting the Tom.
44 NDAR, “The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, Monday February 2, 1778, XI, 265-266. Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 340, 420, dates the action to 28 January 1778. If Warren sailed on 27 December, then 28 January might be the correct date. However, the New York Gazette had the story on 2 February. Tom could not have made New York in five days from 48°48'N, 37°35'W. Similarly, Warren could not have sailed on 27 December and reached the same location in one day.
45 NDAR, “The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, Monday February 2, 1778, XI, 265-266 and 266 n4-5
46 Pension Application of John Cushing, at http://southerncampaign.org/pen/s16356.pdf
47 NDAR, “The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, Monday February 2, 1778, XI, 265-266 and 266 n4-5
48 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 340, 420
49 Pension Application of John Cushing, at http://southerncampaign.org/pen/s16356.pdf
50 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 340, 420
51 NDAR, “The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, Monday February 2, 1778, XI, 265-266
52 NDAR, “The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, Monday February 2, 1778, XI, 265-266
53 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 340, 420
54 NDAR, “The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, Monday February 2, 1778, XI, 265-266
55 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 340, 420
56 NDAR, “The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, Monday February 2, 1778, XI, 265-266
57 NDAR, “The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, Monday February 2, 1778, XI, 265-266
58 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 340, 420. Howe dates the capture as nine days after the fight with Tom. See the above note on the date of the fight.
59 Almost certainly this was the British Privateer Ship Fanny (J. Wignall), 250 tons, armed with two 6-pounders and twelve 4-pounders, and owned by J. Gildart of Liverpool, England. Fanny was said to be cruising “in the American Seas” on 2 February 1778. NDAR, “The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, Monday February 2, 1778, XI, 265-266 and 267 notes.
60 Howe, Beverly Privateers in the Revolution, 340, 420
61 HCA 32/488/11/1-33
62 Pension Application of John Cushing, at http://southerncampaign.org/pen/s16356.pdf
63 Herbert, Charles, A Relic of the Revolution, 254-255. Online at Google Books
64 Colburn, Jeremiah, “A List of the Americans Committed to Old Mill Prison Since the American War,” in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Boston, New England Historic-Genealogic Society, 1865, vol XIX, 74-75, 136-141, 209-213. This entry is on page 137. On line at Google Books
65 Pension Application of John Cushing, at http://southerncampaign.org/pen/s16356.pdf
| Posted 12 May 2010 |
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