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Pennsylvania Privateer Ship Washington |
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| Washington | Commander James Josiah |
| Sloop-of-War | 10 August 1782-19 April 1783 |
| Pennsylvania Privateer Ship |
| Commissioned/First Date: | 10 August 1782 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | 19 April 1783/end of hostilities |
| Owners: | George Henry, James Josiah, and Robert Knox, all of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Tonnage: | 230 |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 10 August 1782 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 18/ Total: 18 cannon/ Broadside: 9 cannon/ Swivels: |
| Crew: | 10 August 1782: 102 [total] |
| Description: | Newly built. |
| Officers: | (1) First Mate [Lieutenant] John Fleming, 10 August 1782-19 April 1783 |
| Cruises: | (1) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to L’Orient, France, 18 August 1782-19 September 1782, with Pennsylvania Privateer Ships Queen of France and St. James
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| Prizes: | (1) Cutter Will (Abraham Buttermer), 27 August 1782, with Pennsylvania Privateer Ships Queen of France and St. James
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| Actions: | Action with the Lyon, [September] 1782 |
Comments:
Pennsylvania Privateer Ship Washington was commissioned on 10 August 1782 under Commander James Josiah of Philadelphia, former Continental Navy captain and a veteran of the Delaware River battles of 1777. John Fleming of Philadelphia served as First Lieutenant (or First Mate). She was reported with eighteen guns and a crew of one hundred men. Washington was bonded for $20,000 by Josiah and George Henry of Philadelphia.1 She was sometimes known as the Lady Washington.2 Washington was a newly built ship measuring 230 tons.3
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James Josiah, as painted by Charles Willson Peale in 1787. Josiah is wearing his Continental Navy uniform. |
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Josiah was bound for France in the Washington and sailed with two other Philadelphia letters-of-marque.4 These were the Pennsylvania Privateer Ship St. James (Commander Alexander Cain), armed with twenty guns and with a crew of 100 men,5 and the Pennsylvania Privateer Ship Queen of France (Commander Richard Dale), armed with twelve guns and with a crew of forty-five aboard.6 Josiah was part owner of the 150-ton Queen of France.7
On 18 August 1782 the three privateers sailed for France.8 The passage was eventful. Nine days out, on 27 August,9 the three met and captured the cutter10 Will (Abraham Buttermer), bound from Cork, Ireland to Charlestown, South Carolina.11 She was either kept with the privateers or ordered away to L’Orient, France.
Two weeks later, on 10 September, the three privateers met the ship Luxford (William Payne), bound from Bristol, England to Newfoundland.12 She was captured and manned and kept with the little squadron.
The next vessel encountered was the large double-decked ship Lyon, pierced for forty guns, but mounting thirty-six guns. Her lower deck guns were formidable 18-pounders. She was bound from Bristol to the “windward coast of Africa,” with a cargo later valued at *8000.13 The prisoners from Bristol aboard the American ships informed their captors that she mounted forty-two guns and had a crew of 200 men. [ibid] Lyon was a formidable adversary. Cain took the St. James in pursuit and got alongside the big ship. St. James delivered a broadside,14 which killed seventeen of the British crew15 and led to an immediate surrender. The American boarding party found that the British crew numbered only seventy-seven men.16
The three American ships arrived at L’Orient on 19 September, bringing in all three prizes17 and ninety prisoners.18 The Will and the Luxford were condemned by Benjamin Franklin, acting under the treaty with France as a judge of Admiralty, on 12 October 1782.19
Josiah found rumors of peace everywhere in France. Washington began loading her cargo but was still at L’Orient in December 1782.20 William Barclay, the American agent at L’Orient, was hesitant to load supplies, partly because the war was about to end and partly because he thought the freight rates charged by the three American captains were too high. As Washington was preparing to sail Barclay decided to ship some supplies just arrived from inland. This caused a fortunate delay, as peace arrived with the goods. British passports were delivered to the American ships at the end of February 1783.21
The long delay allowed Josiah to take a sealed box of correspondence from Henry Laurens, to be delivered to Robert Morris at Philadelphia.22 On 4 March 1783 Washington sailed for Philadelphia and safely arrived on 10 April 1783.23
1 NRAR, 490; Emmons, 168, where Josiah appears as “J. Goriah.”
2 Letter, Jonathan Nesbitt to Benjamin Franklin, 23 September 1782, online at http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp.
3 Clark, William Bell, “James Josiah, Master Mariner,” in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Oct., 1955), pp. 452-484, p. 465
4 Clark, William Bell, “James Josiah, Master Mariner,” in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Oct., 1955), pp. 452-484, p. 465
5 NRAR, 464
6 NRAR, 424
7 Clark, William Bell, “James Josiah, Master Mariner,” in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Oct., 1955), pp. 452-484, p. 465
8 Clark, William Bell, “James Josiah, Master Mariner,” in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Oct., 1955), pp. 452-484, p. 465
9 Letter, Benjamin Franklin to the Judges of the Admiralty of Vannes, 12 October 1782, online at http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp.
10 The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser, November 19, 1782
11 Letter, Benjamin Franklin to the Judges of the Admiralty of Vannes, 12 October 1782, online at http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp.
12 Letter, Benjamin Franklin to the Judges of the Admiralty of Vannes, 12 October 1782, online at http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp.
13 The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser, November 19, 1782
14 The Independent Gazetteer; or, the Chronicle of Freedom [Philadelphia], November 19, 1782
15 The Independent Gazetteer; or, the Chronicle of Freedom [Philadelphia], November 12, 1782
16 The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser, November 19, 1782
17 Letter, Jonathan Nesbitt to Benjamin Franklin, 23 September 1782, online at http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp.
18 Clark, William Bell, “James Josiah, Master Mariner,” in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Oct., 1955), pp. 452-484, p. 465
19 Letter, Benjamin Franklin to the Judges of the Admiralty of Vannes, 12 October 1782, online at http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp.. There are two separate letters, one for each prize.
20 Letter Joshua Barney to Benjamin Franklin, 9 December 1782, online at http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp.
21 Clark, William Bell, “James Josiah, Master Mariner,” in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Oct., 1955), pp. 452-484, p. 465-466
22 Hamer, Philip N. (Ed.), The Papers of Henry Laurens, Volume 16: September 1, 1782 - December 17, 1792, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2003, 338n6. Online at http://books.google.com/books?id=0jKp_uIwo_0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
23 Clark, William Bell, “James Josiah, Master Mariner,” in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Oct., 1955), pp. 452-484, p. 466
| Posted 15 May 2010 |
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