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Connecticut Privateer Schooner Weasel |
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| Weasel [Weazle] | Commander Gilbert Fanning |
| Schooner | [July[ 1781-17 March 1782 |
| Connecticut Privateer Schooner |
| Commissioned/First Date: | [July] 1781 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | 17 March 1782/captured by HMS Adamant |
| Owners: |
| Tonnage: |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 10 July 1781 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 1/9-pounder 9 pounds 9 pounds Total: 1 cannon/9 pounds Broadside: 1 cannon/9 pounds Swivels: |
| Crew: | 10 July 1781: 26 [total] |
| Description: |
| Officers: |
| Cruises: |
| Prizes: | (1) British Galley Hornet, 10 July 1781, off Montauk Point, New York, with Connecticut Privateer Galley Rainbow |
| Actions: |
Comments:
Connecticut Privateer Schooner Weasel was at sea under Commander Gilbert Fanning in July 1781. On 10 July, with Connecticut Privateer Galley Rainbow (Commander George House), the British galley Hornet was captured near Montauk Point, New York. Weasel was said to be armed with one 9-pounder and to have had a twenty-five man crew at the time.1
On 17 March 1782 Weasel was captured by HMS Adamant (Captain David Graves), 50 guns.2 All of the crew were removed, except two men and she was ordered off to New York, New York. In the night and in a fog the Weasel went aground on the western part of Long Island. The two men left aboard traveled down Long Island and got back to New London on 2 April, bringing along a British deserter.3
Fanning and his brother Thomas, were among those taken into New York. They were sent to the prison ship Jersey. Fanning made a failed attempt to escape and died on the prison ship before June 1782.4
1 Middlebrook, Maritime Connecticut During the Revolution, II, 243
2 Middlebrook, Maritime Connecticut During the Revolution, II, 243
3 The Connecticut Gazette and the Universal Intelligencer [New London] Friday, April 5, 1782
4 Brooks, Walter Frederick, History of the Fanning Family, Worcester: Walter Brooks, 1905, vol. I, 157, 159. Online.
| Posted 12 April 2011 |
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