Name of Vessel:

Apollo

Master of Vessel:

Tobias Collins [William Forsyth]

Rig of Vessel:

Schooner

Date of Capture:

26 May 1777

Place of Capture:

In Sinepuxent Inlet, Virginia

Captor:

HM Armed Sloop Haerlem

Home Port:

From What Port:

Martinique, French West Indies [Whitehaven, England]

To What Port:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Cargo:

Cordage

Tonnage:

Battery:

Crew:

Owners:

Prize master:

Prize crew:

Ordered Into:

New York, New York

Into What Port:

New York, New York

Date Arrived:

14 June 1777

Date Tried:

1777

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: Schooner Apollo was bound from Whitehaven, England with a cargo of cordage valued at £800. About April 1777 she was captured by Pennsylvania Privateer Ship Oliver Cromwell (Commander Harman Courter) and sent into Martinique, French West Indies. She had arrived there by the end of April. [NDAR, X, 965-966] Within a short time Apollo was dispatched to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania under William Forsyth as prize master. She next turns up on 26 May 1777, off Sinepuxent Inlet, Virginia, when she was captured by HM Armed Sloop Haerlem and sent into New York, New York. Apollo was probably the “Schooner from Liverpool for this Port, that had been taken by a Rebel Privateer and sent into Virginia,” as reported in the New York newspapers. She was said to have been “cut out of a Harbour by the Merlin.” From this we can deduce that the British sent in boats to Sinepuxent Inlet to re-capture the prize. She arrived in New York on 14 June 1777. Apollo was tried and condemned in the Vice Admiralty court as a re-capture, formerly being the Apollo (Tobias Collins).

[“The following is a List of Vessels seized as Prizes, and of Recaptures made, by the American Squadron, between the 27^th of May and 24^th of October, 1777, according to the Returns received by Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Howe,” in The London Chronicle, Tuesday, December 2, to Saturday, December 6, 1777; HCA 32/272/5/1-24; NDAR, X, 965-966; IX, 36-37, 123-124]