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Massachusetts Privateer Brig Wild Cat |
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| Wild Cat | Commander David Ropes |
| Sloop-of-War [Brig/Sloop] | 22 May 1779-14 July 1779 |
| Massachusetts Privateer Brig [Brigantine] |
| Commissioned/First Date: | 22 May 1779 |
| Out of Service/Cause: | 14 July 1779/captured by HM Frigate Surprize |
| Owners: | John Fisk et al of Salem, Massachusetts |
| Tonnage: | 127, 130, 34156/94 |
| Battery: | Date Reported: 22 May 1779 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 12/ Total: 12 cannon/ Broadside: 6 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: [July] 1779 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 12 [14]/ Total: 12 [14] cannon/ Broadside: 6 [7] cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 14 July 1779 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 14/6-pounder 84 pounds 42 pounds Total: 14 cannon/84 pounds Broadside: 7 cannon/42 pounds Swivels: |
| Crew: | (1) 22 May 1779: 66 [total]
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| Description: | New built, launched about April 1779, with a length on the deck of 95′4′′, a beam of 26′, and a depth in the hold of 11′6′′ |
| Officers: | (1) Surgeon Gridley Thaxter, 22 May 1779-14 July 1779 |
| Cruises: | (1) At sea in June 1779 |
| Prizes: | (1) Brigantine Mercury (Jonathan Lovgrove), [June] 1779
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| Actions: | (1) Action with Egmont, 14 July 1779 |
Comments:
Massachusetts Privateer Brigantine Wild Cat was commissioned on 22 May 1779 under Commander David Ropes of Salem, Massachusetts.1 She was listed as measuring either 1272 or 130 tons;3 as being armed with twelve guns; and as having a crew of sixty-five men. Her $10000 Continental and £5000 Massachusetts bonds were signed by Ropes and by John Fisk and John Norris, both of Salem.4 Dr. Gridley Thaxter (of Illingham, Massachusetts), sailed as Surgeon of the Wild Cat.5 Wild Cat was a spanking new brig, built about April 1779.6
Wild Cat was soon at sea. At least two prizes were captured by Ropes on this cruise. On 24 August 1779, the 120-ton brigantine Mercury (Jonathan Lovgrove) and the 160-ton ship Ocean (Christopher [Du?]non) were libeled in the Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Middle District. Both of these prizes were probably captured in July7
On 14 July 17798 Wild Cat was near Cape Spear, Newfoundland. About the same time HM Schooner Egmont (Lieutenant John Gardiner) sailed from an anchorage near Cape Spear, on a routine patrol. Not long after the British sighted a strange brig (the Wild Cat) in pursuit of the Egmont. The British made the private signals, which were not answered, and then made away with the Wild Cat in pursuit. The Americans closed and began firing bow chasers and then got alongside and fired into the Egmont, killing one sailor. The weather was windy and choppy, with water washing over the Egmont’s deck, which hampered her return fire. The two vessels collided and the Americans sent a boarding party on to the Egmont’s deck. A hand to hand fight followed in which another British sailor was killed, before Egmont was carried.9
Lieutenant Gardiner and twenty of Egmont’s crew were removed to the privateer brig, with the Egmont retained in company. News of the attack and capture of the Egmont arrived at St. Johns, Newfoundland the same day. HM Frigate Surprize (Captain Samuel Reeve)was in port, preparing for sea. Reeve slipped his cables and set sail at once, seeking the Wild Cat. As the sun went down Surprize sighted the brig and the chase was on, lasting into the night. Egmont parted company from Wild Cat. About midnight Surprize got up to the Wild Cat which was immediately captured. The British reported she was brand new, “ . . . not ten Weeks off the Stocks, mounting fourteen Carriage Guns, and had 75 Men when she came out . . .”10
Other sources indicate one member of Wild Cat’s crew was sent to Old Mill Prison on 16 December 1779. He later entered British service.11 Ropes was sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia and confined in irons. Hearing of his severe treatment the Massachusetts General Court ordered, on 2 October 1779, that an English officer of equal rank be put in close confinement until Ropes was exchanged or liberated.12 Dr. Thaxter was put on the prison ship at St. Johns for three months, and then transferred to Halifax. About a month later he was exchanged and sent to Boston.13
On 6 August 1779 Wild Cat was taken into the Royal Navy as HM Brig Trepassey (Commander Henry Edward Stanhope). She was then measured as 34156/94 tons with a length on the deck of 95′4′′, a beam of 26′, and a depth in the hold of 11′6′′. Her battery as a British brig/sloop was fourteen 6-pounders,14 and this was likely her battery as a privateer.
1 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 325-326; Emmons, 168
2 The Royal Gazette, Saturday, August 23, 1783; The New York Gazette, and the Weekly Mercury, Monday, August 25, 1783. These references and others herein were pointed out by R. C. Brooks.
3 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 325-326
4 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 325-326
5 Hurd, Duane Hamilton, History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis and Co. 1884, 472
6 “Extract of a Letter from Rear-Admiral Edwards Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Ships at Newfoundland, to Mr. Stephens, dated St. John’s, July 24, 1779" in The London Gazette, Tuesday, September 7, to Saturday, September 11, 1779
7 The Independent Chronicle, and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Thursday, August 19, 1779
8 Maclay, History of American Privateers, 136, gives this date as 13 July.
9 Hepper, David J., British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859, Jean Boudriot Publications, 1994
10 “Extract of a Letter from Rear-Admiral Edwards Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Ships at Newfoundland, to Mr. Stephens, dated St. John’s, July 24, 1779" in The London Gazette, Tuesday, September 7, to Saturday, September 11, 1779. Hurd, History of Plymouth County, 472, contains a very garbled account of both captures.
11 “A List of the Americans Committed to Old Mill Prison Since the American War,” in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. XIX, p. 138, Boston: The New England Historical-Genealogical Society, 1865.
12 Felt, Joseph Barlow, Annals of Salem, W. & S. B. Ives, Boston: 1849, II, 269-270
13 Hurd, History of Plymouth County, 472
14 Winfield, British Warships In the Age of Sail 1714-1792, 317; also information from R. C. Brooks dated 4/17/2008.
| Posted 10 April 2011 |
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