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Rhode Island Privateer Schooner Weasel |
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| Weasel [Weazle] | (1) Commander Joseph Carlo Mauran |
| Schooner | 1 October 1778- |
| Rhode Island Privateer Schooner | (2) Commander John Wheaton
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| Commissioned/First Date: | 1 October 1778 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | [1779]/lost to the British |
| Owners: | (1) Samuel Allen and others [Sylvester Child, Moses Turner] of Barrington and Warren, Rhode Island; (2) Jonah Flagg |
| Tonnage: | 15, 20 |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 1 October 1778 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 2/2-pounder 4 pounds 2 pounds Total: 2 cannon/4pounds Broadside: 1 cannon/2 pounds Swivels: four |
| Crew: | 1 October 1778: 21 [total] |
| Description: |
| Officers: | (1) First Lieutenant John Wheaton, 1 October 1778-24 February 1779 |
| Cruises: |
| Prizes: | (1) Brigantine Fanny (Peter Jones), 10 November 1778
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| Actions: |
Comments:
The 20-ton Rhode Island Privateer Schooner Weasel was commissioned on 1 October 1778 under Commander Joseph Carlo Mauran of Barrington, Rhode Island. She was armed with two 2-pounders and four swivel guns, and had a crew of twenty men. John Wheaton served aboard as First lieutenant. She was owned by Samuel Allen and others of Barrington and Warren, Rhode Island.1
On 10 November 1778 Weasel captured a 140-ton brig, with wood and provisions, bound from New York, New York to Newport, Rhode Island. She got into a safe port. This was the brigantine Fanny (Peter Jones), libeled in the Maritime Court of Rhode Island on 14 November, by the owners of the Weasel, Sylvester Child and Moses Turner. Trial was to be held on 16 December 1778.2
Weasel was re-commissioned on 24 February 1779, under Commander John Wheaton. Jonah Flagg was now listed as her owner.3
About late May 1779 the Weasel re-captured a French brig, from the West Indies, and took her into a safe port.4
Weasel is mentioned two times in the diary of Colonel Israel Angell.5 On 21 June 1779 Angell goes to Coxet to “divide” the prize taken by the Weasel, and on 3 July 1779 the Weasel brings some supplies for Angell.
The final mention of the Weasel notes that she was a 15-ton privateer schooner under one Pain, and was “lost” during the war.6
1 Stockbridge, John Calvin and Mauran, James Eddy, Memorials of the Mauran Family, Providence: Snow and Farnham, 1893, p. 135. Online here. See also Sheffield, An Address Delivered by William P. Sheffield before the Rhode Island Historical Society, 60. Online here.
2 The Providence Gazette; And Country Journal, Saturday, November 14, 1778
3 Sheffield, An Address Delivered by William P. Sheffield before the Rhode Island Historical Society, 61. Online here.
4 The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Friday June 17, 1779, datelined Providence, June 12
5 Field, Edward, Diary of Colonel Israel Angell Commanding the Second Rhode Island continental regiment During the American revolution, 1778-1781, Providence: Preston and Rounds Company, 1899, 51, 59. Online here.
6 Baker, Virginia, The History of Warren, Rhode Island, In the War of the Revolution, 1776-1783, Warren: Virginia Baker, 1901, 49. Online here.
| Posted 14 April 2011 |
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