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Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Washington |
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| Washington | (1) Commander Offin Boardman |
| Schooner | 8 December 1775-[March] 1776 |
| Massachusetts Privateer Schooner | (2) Commander Joseph Stockman
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| Commissioned/First Date: | 11 December 1775 |
| Out of Service/Cause: |
| Owners: | (1) Joseph Marquand, Thomas Jones, John Stickney, Nathan Blodget and Abner Greenleaf, all of Newburyport, Massachusetts; (2) Stanton Prentice and Eliphalet Flint (bonders); (3) Joseph Marquand, Thomas Jones and John Stickney, all of Newburyport, Massachusetts; (4) Thomas Jones, John Stickney et al, all of Newburyport, Massachusetts; (5) Joseph Marquand, Thomas Jones and John Stickney, all of Newburyport, Massachusetts; (6) Joseph Marquand of Newburyport, Massachusetts; (7) Thomas Jones, John Stickney et al, all of Newburyport, Massachusetts |
| Tonnage: | 40, 50, 75 |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 6 August 1776 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 6/3-pounder 18 pounds 9 pounds Total: 6 cannon/18 pounds Broadside: 3 cannon/9 pounds Swivels: ten Date Reported: 10 October 1776 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 6/ Total: 6 cannon/ Broadside: 3 cannon/ Swivels: ten Date Reported: 22 April 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 2/3-pounder 6 pounds 3 pounds 4/2-pounder 8 pounds 4 pounds Total: 6 cannon/14 pounds Broadside: 3 cannon/7 pounds Swivels: twelve Date Reported: 3 June 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 6/ Total: 6 cannon/ Broadside: 3 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 5 September 1777 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 6/ Total: 6 cannon/ Broadside: 3 cannon/ Swivels: ten |
| Crew: | (1) 6 August 1776: 38 [total]
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| Description: |
| Officers: | (1) First Lieutenant Thomas Clough, 6 August 1776-3 June 1777; (2) Second Lieutenant John English, 6 August 1776-; (3) Master Joseph Wadley, 22 April 1777- |
| Cruises: | (1) Newburyport, Massachusetts to sea and return, [January] 1776-[January] 1776
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| Prizes: | (1) Brigantine Sukey (Madett Engs), in Ipswich Bay, Massachusetts, 15 January 1776
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| Actions: |
Comments:
Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Washington (Commander Offin Boardman) was one of the first privateers commissioned during the war. Her owners, all of Newburyport, Massachusetts, petitioned the Massachusetts Council of Safety for a commission on 8 December 1775, and the commission was approved on 11 December.1 The Council issued the commission the next day,2 when her £5000 Massachusetts bond was made, by Boardman and by Abner Greenleaf.3 Washington was fitting out at Newburyport by 11 December.4 She was reported to be 40 tons.5
Washington was off Newburyport, in Ipswich Bay, on 15 January 1776, when two strange sail were seen. The 90-ton brigantine Sukey (Madett Engs) had sailed from Cork on 27 October 1775, bound for Boston with a cargo of provisions. She was soon captured by the Washington and sent into Newburyport under a prize crew. At Newburyport the ownership of the brigantine was established as a firm composed of Boston loyalists. Two military passengers were also captured in the Sukey. After taking the brigantine, Boardman ran down the 200-ton British Transport Ship Friends (Archibald Bowie). She had sailed from London about the end of October 1775, bound for Boston with a cargo of provisions. Friends was to be taken up as a transport at Boston. The ship was sent into Newburyport while Washington chased three other sail. On 18 January the captive passengers and masters were forwarded to the Massachusetts Council. A further search of the ship revealed a concealed compartment full of papers, copies of which were forwarded to Washington. On 20 January the Massachusetts Council returned the masters to Newburyport on parole, and forwarded the passengers to Washington. The Sukey and Friends were libeled on 26 February 1776 and tried on 19 March 1776.6
Boardman had left the schooner by March 1776. On 20 March a commission was issued to Commander Joseph Stockman for the Washington and a bond for £1000 was executed the same day by Stockman and by Stanton Prentice and Eliphalet Flint.7 She was now listed as being 75 tons.8 Stockman, however, was appointed as Second Lieutenant of the Massachusetts Navy Brig Tyrannicide on 3 June 1776, leaving the Washington.9
On 6 August 1776 the owners (listed as Marquand, Jones and Stickney) petitioned for a new commission, for Nathaniel Odiorne of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In this petition Washington was listed as a 50-ton schooner, armed with six 3-pounders, ten swivels, and two cohorns, and manned by thirty-five men. Thomas Clough was listed as First Lieutenant and John English as Second Lieutenant. The owners petition was approved, as was their request to buy gunpowder from the state. The $5000 Continental bond, signed by Odiorne and by John Stickney of Newburyport and Ebenezer Prout of Scarborough, Massachusetts, was executed the same day.10
By late August 1776 Washington was at sea. She soon captured the brig Georgia Diana (Peter Rigan), from Grenada to London with a cargo of rum, sugar, and coal. The Georgia Diana was sent into Newburyport, arriving 11 September 1776.11 On 24 September the Washington escorted the 200-ton British Transport Snow Milham (John Johnson) into Newburyport. Milham was bound from New York to St. Vincent’s to pick up recruits, and was part of a convoy of five or six transports escorted by HM Frigate Solebay. Milham was armed with a few cannon. She was libeled on 3 October 1776 and tried on 18 October.12 During this same cruise the Washington recaptured the 70-ton schooner Eagle, which had been taken by HM Sloop Weazel (Captain Samuel Warren). Eagle was libeled on 3 October and tried on 18 October.13 Eagle had a cargo of rum and sugar aboard.14
Odiorne now took leave of the Washington. On 10 October 1776 she was re-commissioned, under Commander Joseph Rowe of Newburyport. She was listed as being armed with six guns and ten swivel guns and as having a crew of thirty-five men. Her $5000 Continental bond was signed by Rowe and by Ebenezer Johnson of Newburyport and Joseph Dennis of Ipswich, Massachusetts.15
On 22 April 1777 the owners petitioned the Massachusetts Council for a commission for Joseph Stockman (the same one as before). Washington was now listed as 50 tons, with six guns (2-pounders and 3-pounders), twelve swivels, and crewed by thirty men. Officers were First Lieutenant Thomas Clough and Master Joseph Wadley. The petition was granted the same day.16 Her £500 Continental bond was signed by Stockman and by Joseph Marquand.17 For some reason Stockman disappeared again and a new commission was requested and issued on 3 June 1777 for Thomas Clough of Newburyport.18 Once again the battery was listed as six guns and the crew as thirty men. Her $5000 Continental bond was signed by Clough and by Marquand and John Cushing of Newburyport.19
Under Clough at least one capture was made. The schooner Betsey (Tryon Listers) was stopped and plundered of “divers Wares and Merchandize.” These goods were libeled on 18 September 1777, with trial set for 7 October 1777.20
Washington was again commissioned on 5 September 1777, under Commander William Preston of Newburyport. She was listed as having a battery of six guns, with ten swivel guns, and as having a crew of thirty-five men. Her $5000 Continental and £500 Massachusetts bonds were signed by Preston and by Thomas Jones and John Stickney. Her owners were listed as Jones, Stickney and Joseph Marquand.21
Washington made at least one prize under Preston’s command. He libeled the 100-ton schooner Elizabeth (John Young) on 25 December 1777, with trial set for 13 January 1778.22 Elizabeth was sailing out of Nova Scotia with a cargo of provisions.23
1 NDAR, “Thomas Jones and Others to Benjamin Greenleaf. III, 4
2 NDAR, “Executive Records of the Massachusetts Council,” III, 63 and note
3 NDAR, “Bond of Owner and Sureties of the Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Boston Revenge,” II, 1316 and note; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 321
4 NDAR, “James Warren to John Adams,” III, 49-50 and 50 note
5 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 321
6 NDAR, “Jonathan Jackson to the President of the Massachusetts Council,” III, 810; “Jonathan Jackson to George Washington,” III, 810-811; “James Warren to Samuel Adams,” III, 833 and note; III, 843 (inscription on illustration); “Extract of a Letter from Cambridge, dated Jan. 18, 1776,” III, 844 and note; “Essex Journal, Friday, January 19, 1776,” III, 855-856; “Robert Hanson Harrison to Jonathan Jackson,” III, 874 and note; “Thomas Cushing to John Hancock,” III, 875 and note; “Journal of the Massachusetts Council,” III, 876 and note; “Massachusetts Council to the Newburyport Committee of Safety,” III, 876 and note; “Providence Gazette, Saturday, January 20, 1776,” III, 882-883 and 883 note; “Boston Gazette, Monday, January 22, 1776,” III, 914 and note; “Newport Mercury, Monday, January 22, 1776,” III, 917 and note; “Thomas Cushing to Robert Treat Paine,” III, 952 and note; “Providence Gazette, Saturday, January 27, 1776,” III, 1009-1010 and 1010 note; “Diary of Richard Smith,” III, 1017 and note; “Advertisement of Libels filed in the Admiralty Court of Suffolk, Middlesex and Essex Counties, Massachusetts,” IV, 81-82 and 82 note; “Providence Gazette, Saturday, April 20, 1776,” IV, 1174-1176; “Sale of Ship Firends to the Massachusetts Board of War,” VII, 537-538. Washington’s identity as the captor of Sukey and Friends is established by the inscription on the illustration of the Sukey, the ownership of the Friends in 1777 when she was sold to Massachusetts [two of the privateer’s owners], and the statement that the same privateer took two vessels on 15 January.
7 NDAR, “Colony Bond for the Massachusetts Private Armed Vessel Washington,” IV, 417; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 321
8 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 321
9 NDAR, “Journal of the Massachusetts Council,” V, 357
10 NDAR, “Journal of the Massachusetts Council,” VI, 78-79; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 321-322; Emmons, 168. A garbled list of Odiorne’s captures is also given.
11 NDAR, “Independent Chronicle, Thursday, September 19, 1776,” VI, 899; “Boston Gazette, Monday, September 23, 1776,” VI, 952. See also “A Return of the Prisoners Confind at Newby port Decr 31. 1776--,” VII, 637-638
12 NDAR, Independent Chronicle, Thursday, September 26, 1776,” VI, 1001 and note [identification of the prize in the note is incorrect]; “Continental Journal, Thursday, September 26, 1776,” VI, 1001-1002; “Essex Journal, Friday, September 27, 1776,” VI, 1019 and note; “Boston Gazette, Monday, September 30, 1776,” VI, 1053 and note; “Libels Filed Against Prizes in the Massachusetts Admiralty Court for the Middle District,” VI,1114-1115
13 NDAR, “Libels Filed Against Prizes in the Massachusetts Admiralty Court for the Middle District,” VI, 1114-1115
14 Maclay, History of American Privateers, 73
15 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 322; Emmons, 168
16 NDAR, “Petition of Joseph Marquand to the Massachusetts Council,” VIII, 399-400; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 322-323
17 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 322-323
18 NDAR, “Journal of the Massachusetts Council,” IX, 10-11; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 323
19 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 323
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, 804-805 and 805 note; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 323
22 NDAR, “Libels Filed in the Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Middle District,” X, 804-805 and 805 note
23 Faibisy, John D., A Compilation of Nova Scotia Vessels Seized During the American Revolution and Libelled in the New England Prize Courts, 1206, in NDAR, X
| Posted 15 May 2010 |
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