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British Prizes June 1779 |
Name of Vessel:
Berkley [Betsey]
Master of Vessel:
Benjamin Crane
Rig of Vessel:
Sloop
Date of Capture:
[15] June 1779
Place of Capture:
[Off New York, New York]
Captor:
British Privateer Schooner Sheelah
Home Port:
From What Port:
New Bern, North Carolina
To What Port:
Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Cargo:
Provisions
Tonnage:
Battery:
Crew:
Owners:
Prize master:
Young
Prize crew:
Ordered Into:
New York, New York
Into What Port:
New London, Connecticut
Date Arrived:
18 June 1779
Date Tried:
Date Sold:
Action:
No
Recaptured:
Yes
Comments: Sloop Berkley [Betsey] (Benjamin Crane) was bound from New Bern, North Carolina to Dartmouth, Massachusetts with a cargo of provisions. Off New York, Berkley was captured by the British Privateer Schooner Sheelah (Henry McKibbin), a twelve gun vessel out of New York. One Young was sent aboard as prize-master and ordered into New York, to deliver the Americans to the prison ships before going ashore in the port. On 17 June 1779 Berkley fell in with the American Revenue and was re-captured. She was sent into New London and arrived there on 18 June.
[Middlebrook, Maritime Connecticut During The Revolution, II, 51-53; The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Thursday, July 1, 1779, datelined New London. June 24, 1779; The Connecticut Gazette and the Universal Intelligencer [New London], Wednesday, August 4 1779, August 11, 1779; The Boston Gazette, and Country Journal, Monday, April 19, 1779: a list of privateers fitted out at New York]