Name of Vessel:

Active

Master of Vessel:

Commander John Foster Williams

Rig of Vessel:

Brig [Brigantine]

Date of Capture:

[December] 1777

Place of Capture:

New Jersey coast

Captor:

[New Jersey militia]

Home Port:

Boston, Massachusetts

From What Port:

[Newport, Rhode Island]

To What Port:

New York, New York

Cargo:

Tonnage:

Battery:

12x

Crew:

20

Owners:

Nehemiah Soames, Jacob Williams et al of Boston, Massachusetts

Prize master:

Prize crew:

Ordered Into:

Into What Port:

Date Arrived:

Date Tried:

[wrecked]

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: Massachusetts Privateer Brig (or Brigantine) Active was commissioned on 13 October 1777 under Commander John Foster Williams. She was listed as being armed with twelve guns and as having a crew of seventy men. Her bond lists her owners as Nehemiah Somes, Jacob Williams and others of Boston, Massachusetts. On the morning of 18 November 1777 Active was about 228 miles south of Cape Sambro (39°52'N) when she was sighted by HM Frigate Mermaid (Captain James Hawker). Mermaid chased at 0800 and was close enough to open fire at 1300. After a few shots Foster hove to at 1330. At 1600 the prisoners were removed to the Mermaid and a prize crew sent aboard Active. While en route to New York the prize was driven ashore on the New Jersey coast. Active was lost but the prize crew of about twenty men survived, and were taken prisoners by the Americans.

[NDAR, X, 528 and note; XI, 101 and note; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 65]