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American Prizes December 1776 |
Name of Vessel:
Betsey
Master of Vessel:
William Clarke [Clark]
Rig of Vessel:
Schooner
Date of Capture:
6 December 1776
Place of Capture:
Captor:
Rhode Island Privateer Sloop Charming Sally
Home Port:
From What Port:
Gaspee, Nova Scotia
To What Port:
Jamaica, British West Indies
Cargo:
Fish
Tonnage:
30
Battery:
Crew:
Owners:
Prize master:
Prize crew:
Ordered Into:
Connecticut
Into What Port:
Martinique, French West Indies [Beverly, Massachusetts]
Date Arrived:
10 February 1777 [16 March 1777]
Date Tried:
[April] 1777
Date Sold:
19 February 1777 [cargo only?]
Action:
No
Recaptured:
No
Comments: On 6 December 1776 Rhode Island Privateer Sloop Charming Sally (Commander Francis Brown) captured the schooner or brigantine Betsey (William Clarke [Clark]), bound from Gaspee to Jamaica with a cargo of fish. She was a 30-ton vessel, which was sent or taken into Beverly, Massachusetts on 16 March 1777. Betsey was libeled on 10 April 1777. Another account states that Charming Sally took a vessel from Gaspee to Jamaica with a cargo of fish. She was ordered into Connecticut, but proved to be leaky and bore away for Martinique, French West Indies, where she was sold on 19 February 1777. It can be presumed that only the cargo was sold at Martinique.
[Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 97; Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 36 gives 6 September 1776 as her date of capture; was sent into Boston, and refers to her as a brigantine; NDAR, VII, 1235 and note; VIII, 309-310, 527-528 and 528n4]
| Posted 29 July 2011 |
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