Name of Vessel:

Paris

Master of Vessel:

Captain Tristram Coffin

Rig of Vessel:

Ship

Date of Capture:

28 April 1777

Place of Capture:

50 miles SE of Cape Ann, Massachusetts

Captor:

HM Frigates Diamond and Greyhound

Home Port:

From What Port:

Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, French West Indies

To What Port:

Boston, Massachusetts

Cargo:

Arms, ammunition, warlike stores

Tonnage:

220

Battery:

Crew:

Owners:

Massachusetts Board of War

Prize master:

Midshipman

Prize crew:

5 [total]

Ordered Into:

Into What Port:

Date Arrived:

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: The 220-ton Massachusetts Navy Trading Ship Paris (Captain Tristram Coffin) was bound to Boston, Massachusetts from Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, French West Indies with a cargo of arms, ammunition and other military stores on 28 April 1777. Paris was about fifty miles to the southeast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts when she was sighted by one of three patrolling British frigates at 1100 and was chased by HM Frigates Scarborough and Greyhound (Captain Archibald Dickson). Around 1300 the Greyhound began firing at the Paris. It took only seven 9-pounder balls to bring Coffin to heave to. A Midshipman and four sailors went aboard the Paris as a prize crew. In Howe’s prize list of 22 May 1777, the capture is credited to Greyhound and HM Frigate Diamond (Captain Charles Fielding).

[NDAR, VIII, 454-455 and note, 478-479, 1053-1063; see Massachusetts Navy Ship [Trading Vessel] Paris]