Name of Vessel:

George

Master of Vessel:

George Williams

Rig of Vessel:

Brig

Date of Capture:

[20] May 1777

Place of Capture:

Three miles from Tobago, British West Indies

Captor:

Connecticut Privateer Sloop Trumbull

Home Port:

From What Port:

Barbados, British West Indies

To What Port:

Cargo:

Rum, bricks, tiles

Tonnage:

Battery:

Crew:

Owners:

Prize master:

Joseph Cohoon [Cahoon]

Prize crew:

Ordered Into:

Boston, Massachusetts

Into What Port:

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Date Arrived:

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

Yes

Comments: About the end of May 1777, Connecticut Privateer Sloop Trumbull (Commander Henry Billings) was in the West Indies, where she captured the brig George (George Williams), bound from Barbados, British West Indies with a cargo of rum, bricks and tiles. George was captured three miles from a harbor on the western end of Tobago, which she was attempting to get into. The crew was removed to the Trumbull, except one sailor. The captors then proceeded to break up the cabin furniture, removed some provisions and a barrel of rum, and dispatched the prize to Boston, Massachusetts under prize master Joseph Cohoon [Cahoon]. On 17 June 1777, the George was in Boston Bay, where she was sighted by three patrolling British frigates (HM Frigates Amazon (Captain Maximilian Jacobs), Orpheus, and Juno). The British began chasing to the east southeast at 0730 and each sent a boat after George at 1000. She was captured at 1530, some nine miles north of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Midshipman Richard Raggate of the Orpheus was sent aboard the George as prize master and she was sent into Halifax, Nova Scotia. Cohoon was put aboard the Royal Bounty for exchange and was back in Boston by February 1778.

[NDAR, IX, 129 and note; XI, 356 and note; Middlebrook, Maritime Connecticut During the Revolution, II, 235]