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American Prizes October 1776 |
Name of Vessel:
Laurel
Master of Vessel:
John Whitney
Rig of Vessel:
Brigantine
Date of Capture:
[October] 1776
Place of Capture:
Captor:
Massachusetts Privateer Sloop Polly
Home Port:
From What Port:
Lisbon, Portugal
To What Port:
Cargo:
Salt
Tonnage:
100, 120
Battery:
Crew:
Owners:
Prize master:
Prize crew:
Ordered Into:
Marblehead, Massachusetts
Into What Port:
Marblehead, Massachusetts
Date Arrived:
17 November 1776
Date Tried:
17 December 1776
Date Sold:
5 December 1776
Action:
No
Recaptured:
No
Comments: Massachusetts Privateer Sloop Polly (Commander Nathaniel Leech) was commissioned on 10 September 1776. Not too long afterward Polly sailed from Marblehead, Massachusetts. Five days after sailing a large wave broke over the Polly, washing Leech overboard and drowning him. The cruise continued under First Lieutenant Isaac Collyer.
Collyer had some success. The 100 or 120 ton brigantine Laurel (John Whitney), bound from Lisbon, Portugal with a cargo of salt, was captured. She was sent into Marblehead, arriving there on 17 November 1776. Laurel was libeled on 28 November, listing Isaac Collyer as the commander of the Polly. Her trial was set for 17 December 1776. On 2 December an advertisement in the Boston Gazette announced the auction of the Laurel and her cargo, at Marblehead, on 5 December.
[Force, American Archives, Series 5, 2:758; NDAR, VII, 274; The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Thursday, November 28, 1776; The Boston Gazette, and Country Journal, Monday, December 2, 1776]
| Posted 5 September 2011 |
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