Name of Vessel:

Aurora

Master of Vessel:

Commander David Porter

Rig of Vessel:

Ship

Date of Capture:

[10] August 1781

Place of Capture:

Captor:

HMS Royal Oak

Home Port:

Boston, Massachusetts

From What Port:

Boston, Massachusetts

To What Port:

Cargo:

Tonnage:

230

Battery:

18x

Crew:

130

Owners:

Mungo Mackay, John Cushing et al of Boston, Massachusetts

Prize master:

Prize crew:

Ordered Into:

New York, New York

Into What Port:

New York, New York

Date Arrived:

20 August 1781

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: Massachusetts Privateer Ship Aurora (Commander David Porter) was captured by HMS Royal Oak (74 guns) about 10 August 1781 and was sent into New York, New York. She was there on 20 August. The British reported her battery as twenty-four guns. The Americans had the news rather quickly, in a garbled form: on 27 August 1781 the Boston Gazette reported that the Aurora had been captured by a ship of twenty guns and two brigs of sixteen guns each and taken into New York.

Aurora was tried and condemned at New York. She was purchased into the Royal Navy at New York on 11 September 1781, as HM Sloop Mentor. She was listed as measuring 230 tons, and as having a battery of eighteen guns and a crew of 125 men. Admiral Graves added the comment that she was a “New” vessel.

[New-York Gazette, August 20, 1781; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 77; HCA 32/275/2/1-5; “A List of Ships Purchased into His Majesty’s Service, P^r order of Thomas Graves Esq^r Rear Admiral of the Red &c^a &c^a &c^a North America between the 27^th of July 1781, and the 26^th of September 1781,”  from UK/PRO, ADM 1/489, f. 480. Transcribed and annotated by Robert Carver Brooks. Kindly furnished by Mr. Brooks in e-mail 12/17/2006.]