Name of Vessel:

Hawk

Master of Vessel:

Thomas Sheehy [Sheeby]

Rig of Vessel:

Schooner

Date of Capture:

[1] December 1776

Place of Capture:

[European waters]

Captor:

Massachusetts Privateer Sloop Union

Home Port:

From What Port:

To What Port:

Cargo:

Fish

Tonnage:

70

Battery:

Crew:

Owners:

Prize master:

Prize crew:

Ordered Into:

Massachusetts

Into What Port:

Cape Ann, Massachusetts

Date Arrived:

26 December 1776

Date Tried:

28 January 1777

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: Massachusetts Privateer Sloop Union (Commander Isaac Somes) was at sea in November and December 1776, in European waters. She captured the 70-ton schooner Hawk (Thomas Sheehy [Sheeby]), with a cargo of fish, and sent her into Cape Ann, Massachusetts. She had arrived at Cape Ann on 26 December 1776, in company with another prize, the ship George. The Hawk was libeled in the Maritime Court for the Middle District on 9 January, and was to be tried on 28 January. Sheehy appears as “Sheeby” in these papers. Sheehy petitioned the Massachusetts Council, for permission to return to England in a brig being prepared to return prisoners, on 14 February 1777. Permission was granted by the Council, provided no written intelligence or letters could be carried with him. He signed a testimonial to the good treatment of the prisoners by the Americans on 28 March 1777, before it departed for Ireland.

[The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Thursday, January 9, 1776; NDAR, VII, 844-845 and 845 note, 906-907, 868 and note, 1197; VIII, 217-219; The Boston Gazette and Country Journal, Monday, January 6, 1777; January 13, 1777]

Posted 29 July 2011

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