Name of Vessel:

Generous Friend [Generous Friends]

Master of Vessel:

Stilman [Stillman]

Rig of Vessel:

Brig

Date of Capture:

23 June 1777

Place of Capture:

Off the New England coast

Captor:

HM Frigate Scarborough

Home Port:

From What Port:

New London, Connecticut

To What Port:

Bordeaux, France

Cargo:

Tobacco, flax seed

Tonnage:

100

Battery:

Crew:

Owners:

Prize master:

Prize crew:

Ordered Into:

New York, New York

Into What Port:

New York, New York

Date Arrived:

25 June 1777

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: HM Frigate Scarborough (Captain Andrew Barkley) sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia with a small convoy bound for New York, New York on 12 June 1777. On 23 June Scarborough was off the coast of Long Island, New York, nearing her destination. She fell in with the 100-ton brig Generous Friend [Generous Friends] (Stilman [Stillman]), bound from New London, Connecticut to Bordeaux, France with a cargo of tobacco and flax seed. Other sources indicate she was bound from South Carolina. The Generous Friend was captured and taken in to New York, where the convoy arrived on 25 June. The British listed Generous Friend as a re-capture. Prize money was being paid on this recapture as late as 1779.

[NDAR, IX, 191; XI, 184-185; The London Gazette, Saturday, February 6, to Tuesday, February 9, 1779; “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]