Name of Vessel:

Margaret [Magretta, Maragretta]

Master of Vessel:

Moses Tenney

Rig of Vessel:

Schooner

Date of Capture:

16 July 1777

Place of Capture:

6-9 miles south of the Seal Islands [off Cape Sable, Nova Scotia]

Captor:

HM Frigate Ambuscade

Home Port:

From What Port:

St. Peter’s, Nova Scotia

To What Port:

[Newburyport, Massachusetts]

Cargo:

Assorted goods

Tonnage:

Battery:

Crew:

Owners:

Prize master:

Mate

Prize crew:

5 [total]

Ordered Into:

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Into What Port:

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Date Arrived:

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: Massachusetts Privateer Brigantine Washington (Commander Elias Smith) was at sea by July 1777. She took the schooner Magretta [Margaret, Maragretta] (Moses Tenney) between Canso and Louisburg, Nova Scotia. She was bound out of St. Peter’s Nova Scotia with a cargo of assorted goods. Smith put a prize crew aboard and sent her off for home. On 16 July, at 1200, some six to nine miles south of the Seal Islands (or off Cape Sable, Nova Scotia), she was seen by HM Frigate Ambuscade (Captain John Macartney), and was soon chased down. Ambuscade sent a prize crew of five men aboard and removed the prisoners. It was the second time that Ambuscade had introduced herself to one of Washington's prize crews. Ambuscade then took the Magretta in tow. She was eventually sent into Halifax, Nova Scotia.

[NDAR, IX, 293; “List of Vessels seized, destroyed or retaken by the American Squadron between the 25^th of October 1777, and the 28^th of September 1778, according to the Returns received by the Vice Admiral the Viscount Howe, exclusive of those seized or destroyed by His Majesty’s Ships in Chesapeake Bay, and on the Parts of the Coast of North America to the Southward thereof, of which a Return was made on the 23^rd of April 1778,” in The London Gazette, Saturday, November 21, to Tuesday, November 24, 1778]