Name of Vessel:

Active

Master of Vessel:

Commander John Foster Williams

Rig of Vessel:

Brig [Brigantine]

Date of Capture:

18 November 1777

Place of Capture:

228 miles south of Cape Sambro, Nova Scotia (39°52'N)

Captor:

HM Frigate Mermaid

Home Port:

Boston, Massachusetts

From What Port:

[Boston, Massachusetts]

To What Port:

Cargo:

Tonnage:

Battery:

12x

Crew:

70

Owners:

Nehemiah Soames, Jacob Williams et al of Boston, Massachusetts

Prize master:

Prize crew:

20 [total]

Ordered Into:

New York, New York

Into What Port:

Date Arrived:

Date Tried:

[wrecked]

Date Sold:

Action:

No

Recaptured:

Yes

Comments: Massachusetts Privateer Brig (or Brigantine) Active was commissioned on 13 October 1777 under Commander John Foster Williams. She was listed as being armed with twelve guns and as having a crew of seventy men. Her bond lists her owners as Nehemiah Somes, Jacob Williams and others of Boston, Massachusetts. On the morning of 18 November 1777 Active was about 228 miles south of Cape Sambro (39°52'N) when she was sighted by HM Frigate Mermaid (Captain James Hawker). Mermaid chased at 0800 and was close enough to open fire at 1300. After a few shots Foster hove to at 1330. At 1600 the prisoners were removed to the Mermaid and a prize crew sent aboard Active. While en route to New York, about the end of December 1777, the prize was driven ashore on the New Jersey coast. Active was lost but the prize crew of about twenty men survived, and were taken prisoners by the Americans.

The Massachusetts Council was seeking the exchange of Williams by 23 February 1778. The next day, 24 February, the Rhode Island Council of War proposed an exchange to the British for the Active’s surgeon, Dr. John Sprague. The British agreed to the exchange of Sprague on 28 February.

[NDAR, X, 528 and note; XI, 101 and notes, 406 and note, 418-419 and 419 note, 462 and note; Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 65]