Wexford	Commander John Peck Rathbun
Sloop-of-War [Brig/Sloop]	4 August 1781-29 September 1781
Massachusetts Privateer Brigantine

Commissioned/First Date:	4 August 1781
Out of Service/Cause:	29 September 1781/captured by HM Frigate Recovery

Owners:

Henry Mitchell et al of Boston, Massachusetts

Tonnage:

320

Battery:

Date Reported: 4 August 1781 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 20/ Total: 20 cannon/ Broadside: 10 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 29 September 1781 Number/Caliber  Weight        Broadside 20/12-pounder     240 pounds   120 pounds Total: 20 cannon/240 pounds Broadside: 10 cannon/120 pounds Swivels:

Crew:

(1) 4 August 1781: 121 [total] (2) 29 September 1781: 120 [total]

Description:

Officers:

(1) First Lieuteant Samuel Phillips, 4 August 1781-29 September 1781; (2) Surgeon Joseph Bradford, 4 August 1781-29 September 1781

Cruises:

(1) Boston, Massachusetts to sea, 19 August 1781-29 September 1781

Prizes:

Actions:

Comments:

The 320-ton¹ Massachusetts Privateer Brigantine Wexford was commissioned on 4 August 1781 under Commander John Peck Rathbun of Boston, Massachusetts.² Joseph Bradford served aboard her as Surgeon.³ Samuel Phillips of North Kingston, Rhode Island, served aboard as First Lieutenant.⁴ She was reported as being armed with twenty guns and as having a crew of 120 men. Her $20000 bond was executed by Rathbun and by Henry Mitchell and William Foster, both of Boston.⁵ Wexford was the former prize ship Mars.⁶

Wexford apparently sailed about 19 August, heading across the Atlantic. On 28 September 1781, as dawn broke, she was about sixty miles SW of Cape Clear, Ireland. At sunrise Wexford was sighted by HM Frigate Recovery (Captain Lord John Hervey), under his lee bow.⁷ Recovery was a considerable overmatch for the Wexford, having a nominal crew of 210 men and being armed with twenty-six 12-pounders and six 6-pounders. She measured just over 664 tons.⁸

Rathbun began running at once. Recovery gained on the American brig. Hervey reported that he was “still in Chase at 1/2 past 12 p.m. saw the Chace standing on the larboard Tack passed by her and fired a Broadside at her and chased after her.”⁹ The chase continued into the night.

The next morning the Recovery was ninety-eight miles from Cape Clear. At 0530 Recovery got up to the Wexford and discovered who she was. Rathbun surrendered looking at the broadside of the frigate. At 1030 the Recovery’s boats went over to the Wexford and took possession of her. The prize was kept in company.¹⁰ Hervey reported she was armed with twenty 12-pounders and had a crew of 120 men aboard. He estimated her as measuring 320 tons.¹¹ Wexford was tried in the High Court of Admiralty. She is described there as the re-captured English vessel Mars.¹²

The Recovery got into Cork, Ireland, about the middle of October 1781. Lieutenant Phillips recalled later that “We were carried to Ireland and from thence to Kinsale Prison.”¹³ On 26 October 1781 Surgeon Bradford was apparently released by the British.¹⁴ No less than seventeen of the crew had died in Kinsale Prison by 25 January 1782. Rathbun and Phillips were moved to HMS Midway, where they were on 4 February 1782, and then transferred to HMS Dunkirk the next day. Phillips escaped about this time, with the help of some friends, and worked his way back to Rhode Island.¹⁵

Rathbun was sent to Mill Prison (Plymouth, England) on 7 February. On 15 June 1781 a fellow prisoner, William Russel, noted that Rathbun was dangerously ill. Rathbun was sent to the prison hospital, but died there on 20 June.¹⁶

¹ The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser [Philadelphia], January 5, 1782, datelined Admiralty Office, October 1, 1781

² NRAR, 491

³ Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 30

⁴ McManemin, Captains of the Continental Navy, 373

⁵ NRAR, 491; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 325; Emmons, 168

⁶ HCA 32/489/3/1-20

⁷ The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser [Philadelphia], January 5, 1782, datelined Admiralty Office, October 1, 1781

⁸ Winfield, British Warships In the Age of Sail 1714-1792, 189-190

⁹ McManemin, Captains of the Continental Navy, 374, from Recovery’s log book.

¹⁰ McManemin, Captains of the Continental Navy, 374, from Recovery’s log book.

¹¹ The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser [Philadelphia], January 5, 1782, datelined Admiralty Office, October 1, 1781

¹² HCA 32/489/3/1-20

¹³ McManemin, Captains of the Continental Navy, 374, from Phillips’s memoirs, 374

¹⁴ Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 30

¹⁵ McManemin, Captains of the Continental Navy, 374, from Phillips’s memoirs, 374

¹⁶ McManemin, Captains of the Continental Navy, 374

Posted 11 April 2011

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