Name of Vessel:

Active

Master of Vessel:

John Craig

Rig of Vessel:

Brig

Date of Capture:

[before] 5 March 1781

Place of Capture:

Captor:

HM Frigate Stag

Home Port:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

From What Port:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

To What Port:

L’Orient, France

Cargo:

Tonnage:

Battery:

10

Crew:

20

Owners:

John Patton and James Craig of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Prize master:

Prize crew:

Ordered Into:

Into What Port:

Date Arrived:

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: Pennsylvania Privateer Brig Active was commissioned on 12 December 1780 under Commander John Craig of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Aboard as First Mate was Nathan Solly of Philadelphia. She was listed as being armed with ten guns and as having a crew of twenty men. Her $20000 bond was signed by Craig and John Patton of Philadelphia.

It is possible that this Active was the former HM Brig (Lieutenant William Quarme; 14 guns) and captured by the Americans off New York in 1780.

Active presumably sailed soon after, bound from Philadelphia to L’Orient, France.

Active was captured, probably by HM Frigate Stag (Captain Robert Palliser Cooper; 32 guns) before 5 March 1781. She was tried in the Admiralty Court on 5 March (or her crew was committed to prison on that date). Active is listed in the High Court of Admiralty records as an American merchant vessel, and as a recapture.

[NRAR, 218; R. C. Brooks email 1/12/2004; Clowes, IV, 110; Kaminkow, 219, where the notation “A re-capture” appears; HCA 32/261/5/1-11, HCA 30/277]