Name of Vessel:

Defiance

Master of Vessel:

 

Rig of Vessel:

Brig

Date of Capture:

[15] October 1778

Place of Capture:

[Off the coast of Spain]

Captor:

Massachusetts Privateer Brig Vengeance

Home Port:

From What Port:

 

To What Port:

 

Cargo:

 

Tonnage:

 

Battery:

14

Crew:

72 [total]

Owners:

 

Prizemaster:

 

Prizecrew:

Ordered Into:

 

Into What Port:

 

Date Arrived:

 

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

 

Action:

Yes

Recaptured:

No

Comments: British Privateer Brig Defiance was seemingly sailing off the Spanish coast in October 1778. Defiance was armed with fourteen guns and had a crew of seventy-two men. She encountered the Massachusetts Privateer Brig Vengeance (Commander Wingate Newman), armed with twenty 6-pounders and with a crew of 100 men aboard. An unusually tough fight followed before Vengeance forced the British to surrender. Newman lost eight men killed and wounded, the British lost fifteen killed and wounded.

[The Pennsylvania Magazine of History or Biography, XIV, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia: 1890, 93, from The London Chronicle, October 22-24, 1778; also see Vengeance]

Posted 11 November 2009