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Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Wasp |
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| Wasp | (1) Commander John Somes [Soames] |
| Schooner | 7 May 1779- |
| Massachusetts Privateer Schooner | (2) Commander Isaac Somes
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| Commissioned/First Date: | 7 May 1779 |
| Out of Service/Cause: |
| Owners: | (1) Nehemiah Somes of [Boston], Massachusetts [Ebenezer Parsons et al]; (2) Ebenezer Parsons of Newburyport, Massachusetts; (3) Ebenezer Parsons; (4) Daniel Sargent of Boston, Massachusetts |
| Tonnage: | 50, 60 |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 7 May 1779 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 8/ Total: 8 cannon/ Broadside: 4 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 3 August 1779 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 8/ Total: 8 cannon/ Broadside: 4 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 7 October 1779 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 8/ Total: 8 cannon/ Broadside: 4 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 22 September 1780 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 4/ Total: 4 cannon/ Broadside: 2 cannon/ Swivels: |
| Crew: | (1) 7 May 1779: 41 [total]
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| Description: |
| Officers: | (1) First Lieutenant Sargent Smith, 3 August 1779- |
| Cruises: |
| Prizes: | (1) Brigantine Betsey (Samuel Stephens), [June] 1779
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| Actions: |
Comments:
Massachusetts Privateer Schooner Wasp was commissioned on 7 May 1779 under Commander John Somes of Newburyport, Massachusetts. She was listed as being armed with eight guns and as having a crew of forty men. Her owner was listed as Nathaniel Somes. Her $5000 Continental and £4000 Massachusetts bonds were signed by Somes and by Ebenezer Parsons and John Low, Jr., both of Newburyport.1
Wasp was soon out at sea. About the early part of June 1779, she captured the 120-ton brigantine Betsey (Samuel Stephens),2 bound from Ireland with a cargo of provisions.3 She was sent into Gloucester,4 where she arrived on 24 June.5 Betsey was libeled in the Maritime Court of the Middle District on 12 July 1779 and tried on 3 August 1779.6
The schooner was re-commissioned on 3 August 1779, under Commander Isaac Somes of Newburyport. She listed the same battery and crew as her previous commission. Her new $5000 Continental and £4000 Massachusetts bonds were signed by Somes, Parsons and Low. Parsons was now listed as her owner.7 Sargent Smith served aboard as First Lieutenant.8
On the following cruise the Wasp met the Massachusetts Privateer Ship Harlequin (Commander Putnam Cleaves)9 out of Salem, Massachusetts. While sailing together they encountered a ship from Jamaica with a cargo of rum. The two privateers chased but the ship surrendered to the Harlequin first, before the Wasp arrived. Somes offered to put some of his men on board the prize as part of the prize crew, but Cleaves refused. On the arrival of the Wasp in port, her owners and crew claimed a share of the prize money in proportion to her men and guns. On the refusal of the owners of the Harlequin to share, the owners of the Wasp took their claim to court. It resulted in a favorable verdict.10
Wasp was commissioned again on 7 October 1779, under Commander Nathaniel Sargent,11 perhaps of Cape Ann, Massachusetts.12 She was listed as measuring 60 tons, with the same battery and crew. Her petition was presented by Parsons.13
Wasp proceeded to sea, sailing across the Atlantic to Spain. She sailed from the area of the Straits of Gibralter, bound to the West Indies on 12 December 1779. Wasp sailed from Martinique in the French West Indies and returned to Boston, Massachusetts on 4 March 1780, in twenty-six days from Martinique.14
This was certainly the same vessel re-commissioned on 22 September 1780 under Commander Enoch Pike of Newburyport, Massachusetts. She was reported as being armed with four guns and as having a crew of sixteen men. Wasp was bonded for $5,000 by Pike, Sargent, and Ebenezer Parsons, now of Boston.15 She was now listed as 50 tons.16 She was given leave to depart for the West Indies with a cargo of fish.17
It would seem that Sargent resumed command of the Wasp in 1782. She captured the 30-ton schooner Polly (Benjamin Brown). Polly was libeled in the Maritime Court of the Middle District on 20 May 1782, by Sargent, and tried on 11 June 1782.18
1 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 324
2 The Boston Gazette, and Country Journal, Monday, July 12, 1779
3 Babson, John J., History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Including the Town of Rockport, Gloucester: Proctor Brothers, 1860, 423. Online.; The Boston Gazette, and Country Journal, Monday, June 28, 1779
4 Babson, John J., History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Including the Town of Rockport, 423. Online.
5 The Boston Gazette, and Country Journal, Monday, June 28, 1779
6 The Boston Gazette, and Country Journal, Monday, July 12, 1779
7 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 324
8 MASSRW, 14:540
9 This is the best guess: there are other Harlequin possibilities.
10 Babson, History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Including the Town of Rockport, I, 423-424. Online.
11 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 324
12 Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 271
13 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 324
14 The American Journal And General Advertiser [Providence], Thursday, March 23, 1780, datelined Boston, March 6
15 NRAR, 490; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 324; Emmons, 168
16 Currier, John James, History of Newburyport, Mass. 1764-1905, Newburyport: 1906, I, 643. Online.
17 MASSRW, 12:397
18 The Boston Gazette, Monday, May 20, 1782; The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Thursday, May 23, 1782
| Posted 16 April 2011 |
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