Name of Vessel:

Amelia

Master of Vessel:

John Tyrie

Rig of Vessel:

Sloop

Date of Capture:

8 September 1777

Place of Capture:

Off Alto Velo Island, Santo Domingo, Spanish West Indies

Captor:

American Privateer Tyger

Home Port:

London, England

From What Port:

Senegal, British West Africa

To What Port:

Jamaica, British West Indies

Cargo:

68 slaves

Tonnage:

Battery:

Crew:

12

Owners:

Prize master:

Prize crew:

Ordered Into:

Baye des Flamands, Saint-Domingue, French West Indies

Into What Port:

Baye des Flamands, Saint-Domingue, French West Indies

Date Arrived:

8 September 1777

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: On 8 September 1777 sloop Amelia (John Tyrie) was en route from Senegal, West Africa, with a cargo of sixty-eight slaves bound from Senegal, West Africa to Jamaica. Amelia was owned in London. Off Alto Velo Island near Santo Domingo, Spanish West Indies, she was boarded by the [unknown] Privateer [unknown] Tyger (Davie). Davie was a Frenchman. Tyger mounted twelve guns, with twelve swivel guns, and had a crew of ninety men, mostly French. There was one American aboard: a common sailor. One Thomas Freeman informed the British he had an American commission, “although, at the same Time, he confessed it, to be, a mere Forgery . . .” No commission was shown to the British. The sloop was taken into the Baye des Flamands, Saint-Domingue, French West Indies. Two of the British escaped, and the remaining eight were robbed of the “Cash, papers, Clothes &c . . .” before they were put aboard a French merchant vessel on 20 September. The trader landed them at Fisher’s Bay, Jamaica, on 23 September. The slaves had been taken ashore, along with two free black crew members, and the Amelia was at anchor in the bay, when the British crew left. On 10 October 1777 Vice Admiral Clark Gayton forwarded copies of the master’s, and the crew’s depositions to Comte d’Argout, the French governor of Saint-Domingue, with a demand for restitution. On 2 February 1778 Gayton, writing to d’Argout, thanked the governor for taking up the “Pirate” and hoped the property illegally seized would soon be restored.

[NDAR, IX, 986; X, 113; XI, 269-270 and 270 notes]

Revised 9/21/08