Name of Vessel:

Active

Master of Vessel:

Commander John Osborne

Rig of Vessel:

Sloop

Date of Capture:

2 May 1777

Place of Capture:

Captor:

Mutinous crew members

Home Port:

Charlestown, South Carolina

From What Port:

Charlestown, South Carolina

To What Port:

France

Cargo:

Rice, tobacco, indigo

Tonnage:

Battery:

6x

Crew:

15 [total]

Owners:

John Lewis Gervais of Charlestown, South Carolina

Prize master:

Second Mate Joseph Ring

Prize crew:

6 [total]

Ordered Into:

Liverpool, England

Into What Port:

Liverpool, England

Date Arrived:

27 May 1777

Date Tried:

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: South Carolina Privateer Sloop Active (John Osborne) was in service by early 1777. Active was owned by John Lewis Gervais of Charleston. She was described as a Bermuda-built vessel. Active sailed from Charlestown on 21 April 1777 with three brigs (Bell-Savage) and a ship, bound for France, carrying a cargo of rice, tobacco, and indigo. She was manned with a scratch crew of fifteen men (including two Dutch, five Spaniards, and three English). In addition, the Second Mate, Joseph Ring, was English. On 2 May 1777 Ring and the three English sailors, assisted by the two Dutchmen, rose and took control of the sloop. The mutineers headed for England, but stopped long enough to put Commander John Osborne and First Mate Joseph Price on a pilot boat at Kinsale, Ireland. On 27 May Active arrived in Liverpool. The seven prisoners were ordered sent to Old Mill Prison on 31 May. The sloop was condemned in Admiralty Court and the six mutineers were paid two thirds of the King’s share as a reward and encouragement.

[Coker, Charleston’s Maritime Heritage, 300. Coker spells the name of the commander as Osborn; Chestnutt, Henry Laurens, Laurens to Sandilands, 22 March 1777, 314-315 and note; NDAR, “Captain James Rowley, R.N., to Philip Stephens,” IX, 403-404; NDAR, “Captain James Worth, R.N., to Philip Stephens,” VIII, 869-870; “Philip Stephens to Vice Admiral Molyneux Shuldham, Plymouth,” IX, 371-372; NDAR, “London Packet, or, New Lloyd’s Evening Post, Friday, June 13, to Monday, June 16, 1777,” IX, 403; HCA 32/260/14/1-131]

Revised: 11 November 2008