Name of Vessel:

Fly

Master of Vessel:

Master James Wilson

Rig of Vessel:

Continental Navy Trading Sloop

Date of Capture:

8 January 1777

Place of Capture:

174 miles SE of Sandy Hook, New Jersey

Captor:

HM Frigate Phoenix

Home Port:

[Bermuda, British West Indies]

From What Port:

Martinique, French West Indies

To What Port:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Cargo:

400 barrels of gunpowder, 150 small arms

Tonnage:

Battery:

Crew:

Owners:

Prize master:

Midshipman

Prize crew:

5 [total]

Ordered Into:

New York, New York

Into What Port:

New York, New York

Date Arrived:

[1 February] 1777

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: Sloop Fly was a longtime blockade runner owned by Clark & Nightingale of Providence, Rhode Island. This sloop had imported a cargo of gunpowder from the West Indies for Washington’s army at Boston in September 1775. In March 1776 the same master, in what was probably the same vessel, was at Port-au-Prince, Saint-Domingue, on “Continental” account, to purchase munitions. Apparently Fly was returning from yet another voyage when she was captured by HM Frigate Roebuck (Captain Hyde Parker, Jr.). She was sighted at 0700 and captured at 1000 on 8 January 1777, during her approach to Delaware Bay.

[NDAR, II, 149, 254; VII, 896-897 and 897 note, 1095 and note; VIII, 1053-1063; IX, 240-241]