Name of Vessel:

Abigail

Master of Vessel:

Rig of Vessel:

Sloop

Date of Capture:

28 February 1778

Place of Capture:

Fifteen miles southwest of Tiburon Peninsula, Sainte-Domingue

Captor:

HM Frigate Glasgow

Home Port:

From What Port:

[Sainte-Domingue]

To What Port:

Boston, Massachusetts

Cargo:

Rum, molassses

Tonnage:

100

Battery:

Crew:

Owners:

Prize master:

Prize crew:

Ordered Into:

Jamaica, British West Indies

Into What Port:

Jamaica, British West Indies

Date Arrived:

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

Action:

Yes

Recaptured:

No

Comments: HM Frigate Glasgow (Captain Thomas Pasley) was on a routine patrol off the coast of Sainte-Domingue, French West Indies on 28 February 1778. At noon her log indicated she was fifteen miles southwest of the Tiburon Peninsula in fair weather, with light breezes and calms. At 1600 Glasgow saw four sail to the southeast. At 1800 Pasley sent off his pinnace in chase, with the crew armed and the master in command. He spoke one of the vessels, a French schooner. After this fruitless exercise, the pinnace presumably returned to the frigate.

At 2230 a group of three vessels was sighted to the north, two sloops and a schooner. The cutter was manned and armed and sent off to the vessels with an officer in command. When the cutter approached the vessels the officer fired a musket as a signal for them to heave to. The schooner and one of the sloops returned fire on the British boat, wounding one man. The British put about and returned to the Glasgow.

Pasley brought his ship to action, firing twenty 9-pounder round shot, three double-headed shot, and five grape shot at the vessels. The use of grape shot indicates that he had closed the range to the vessels. The British crew also fired musketry at the vessels. The two armed American vessels, amid this relatively hot fire, broke out their oars and steered in close to shore. The third vessel was abandoned, her crew boarding the sloop and the schooner making off.

Pasley sent the cutter to take possession of the abandoned sloop, and then sent the pinnace to join the cutter. The two boats set out after the escaping American sloop and schooner. They got near the sloop and attempted to board her, but turned away with three more wounded. At midnight the boats returned to the Glasgow.

The prize was the 100-ton sloop Abigail, bound to Boston, Massachusetts with a cargo of rum and molasses. She was manned with a prize crew and dispatched to Jamaica.

[NDAR, XI, 469 and notes]