Name of Vessel:

Hunter

Master of Vessel:

Robert McLarty [M'Larty]

Rig of Vessel:

Sloop

Date of Capture:

[15] April 1779

Place of Capture:

Off Sandy Hook, New Jersey

Captor:

Connecticut Privateer Sloops Hancock and Beaver

Home Port:

New York, New York

From What Port:

St. Augustine, East Florida

To What Port:

New York, New York

Cargo:

Rum, molasses, naval stores

Tonnage:

90

Battery:

8x

Crew:

20 [total]

Owners:

 

Prizemaster:

 

Prizecrew:

Ordered Into:

New London, Connecticut

Into What Port:

New London, Connecticut

Date Arrived:

1 May 1779

Date Tried:

10 June 1779

Date Sold:

8 June 1779

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: Connecticut Privateer Sloop Hancock (Commander Elisha Hinman) and Connecticut Privateer Sloop Beaver (Commander William Havens) sailed in April 1779. In late April they captured a sloop. On 1 May they brought her into port at New London. She was described as a British privateer of eight guns and twenty men, bound from St. Augustine, East Florida to New York with rum, molasses and naval stores. This sloop was probably the British Privateer Sloop Hunter (Robert M’Larty [McLarty]), eight guns, which was taken off Sandy Hook. Hunter was libeled on 20 May and tried and condemned on 10 June 1779. The 90-ton sloop Hunter was advertised for sale on 27 May, with the sale to take place on 8 June.

[The Connecticut Gazette and the Universal Intelligencer [New London], Wednesday, May 5, 1779; May 20, 1779; May 27, 1779; Middlebrook, Maritime Connecticut During The Revolution, II, 54; The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Friday, May 7, 1779; The Pennsylvania Evening Post [Philadelphia], Saturday, May 15, 1779, datelined New York, May 3]

Posted 11 November 2009