Name of Vessel:

Hiram

Master of Vessel:

Rig of Vessel:

Schooner

Date of Capture:

27 June 1776

Place of Capture:

Off Fire Island Inlet, New York

Captor:

Continental Army Sloop General Schuyler, New York Navy Sloop Montgomery

Home Port:

Cape Ann [Gloucester], Massachusetts

From What Port:

St. Lucia, French West Indies

To What Port:

Cape Ann [Gloucester], Massachusetts

Cargo:

Coffee, cotton, molasses, sugar, firearms

Tonnage:

Battery:

Crew:

Owners:

Prizemaster:

Prizecrew:

Ordered Into:

Fire Island Inlet, New York

Into What Port:

Fire Island Inlet, New York

Date Arrived:

27 June 1776

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: Schooner Hiram had sailed from Gloucester (Cape Ann), Massachusetts, in the spring of 1776. She called at St. Lucia, picked up a standard West Indies cargo of coffee, cotton, molasses and sugar, added a few muskets and sailed for home. On 19 June she was 140 miles southeast of Sandy Hook, New York when she fell in with HM Frigate Greyhound (Captain Archibald Dickson). Greyhound sighted Hiram at 0400 and captured her quickly. A petty officer and six men were put aboard as a prize crew and the schooner ordered to keep company with the Greyhound. This she did until 24 June, when Greyhound was twenty-seven miles east of Sandy Hook. At 0600 she parted company, with three other prizes that Greyhound had captured. On 27 June Hiram was recaptured by New York Navy Sloop Montgomery (Captain William Rogers) and Continental Army Sloop General Schuyler (Captain Charles Pond), along with Greyhound's other prizes, and taken into Fire Island Inlet, New York. The prisoners were forwarded to headquarters, and the New York Marine Committee sent William Mercier down to see about the vessels and cargoes on 28 June. Mercier was to unlade the vessels, transport the cargoes to Huntington by wagon, along with the necessary papers for condemnation. The vessels were to be left at Fire Island Inlet, as it was unsafe to try to take them around the east end of Long Island to New York City. The sloop was left at Long Island when that place fell, but part of her cargo was removed to Milford, Connecticut about 3 September 1776. The cargo was libeled on 6 November 1776 at New Haven, with trial set for the second Wednesday in December. According to the libel, Montgomery was the sole captor.

[NDAR, V, 626, 713 and note, 770 and note, 789, 789-790, 790, 853-855; VII, 62-63 and 63 note; 9, 219-220 and 220 note]

Revised 10 August 2009