Name of Vessel:

Crawford

Master of Vessel:

James McLean

Rig of Vessel:

Ship

Date of Capture:

19 June 1776

Place of Capture:

Off Fire Island Inlet, New York

Captor:

Continental Army Sloop General Schuyler and Continental Army Schooner General Mifflin

Home Port:

From What Port:

Greenock, Scotland

To What Port:

Boston, Massachusetts

Cargo:

British troop transport

Tonnage:

Battery:

Crew:

[15]

Owners:

Prizemaster:

Prizecrew:

Ordered Into:

Fire Island Inlet, New York

Into What Port:

Fire Island Inlet, New York

Date Arrived:

19 June 1776

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

Yes

Comments: British Troop Transport Ship Crawford (James McLean) sailed from Greenock, Scotland, lifting a company of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, on 3 April 1776, a part of convoy of thirty-three sail lifting 3000 soldiers to America. On 29 May 1776 she was captured by Continental Navy Brig Andrea Doria (Captain Nicholas Biddle), along with sister transport Oxford. Crawford's soldiers were removed to Oxford and a prizecrew put aboard. Biddle then escorted the two transports to Providence, Rhode Island. On 11 June the three vessels ran into HM Frigate Cerberus (Captain John Symons), off Block Island, and scattered. Cerberus recaptured Crawford the next day, removed her prizecrew, and put a few men aboard to take the transport to New York. Symons also sent a 35 ton sloop tender along as an escort. On 19 June the tender and the transport were rolling along, two miles off the Long Island coast, under a west wind. Just off Fire Island Inlet, the Continental Army Sloop General Schuyler (Captain Charles Pond) and the Continental Army Schooner General Mifflin (Captain Clarke) ran out and captured both transport and tender. Pond got Crawford into the Inlet with much effort, getting her aground on thebar in the process. She was seen in the Inlet by patrolling British frigates on 23 June. The prisoners were forwarded to New York, nine soldiers, some women, and Cerberus' prize crew, where they arrived on 25 June. When Fire Island Inlet was abandoned in early September 1776, the Crawford was left behind. The Loyalists recovered her. Apparently she was captured again by the General Schuyler in October 1776, during a raid on Long Island, for she was libeled at New Haven on 6 November 1776.

[NDAR, V, 293-294 and 294 note, 294 and note, 473 and note, 492-493 and 493 note, 564-565 and 565-566 note, 586, 626 and note, 642-643 and 643 note, 661 and note, 679 and 680 note, 710-712, 729 and note, 771 and note, 789 and note, 836-837 and 837 note, 837-838 and 838 note, 975-976 and 976 note, 1270-1271 and 1271 note; VI, 104-105 and 105 note, 125, 219, 539-540 and 540 note, 600-601 and 601 note, 626 and 626-627 note, 650 and note; VII, 62-63 and 63 note, 105, 114, 1079-1080; 9, 648 and note]

Revised 10 August 2009