USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island privateers in King George's war, 1739-1748 > Part 11
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The Dutch authorities, it appears, being in sympathy with the French, resented Captain Potter's exploits at Oyapoc and Cayenne. After twelve days of negotiations, Captain Potter at last persuaded the Governor and Council to agree to allow him wood and water. They stipulated however, that the
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Prince Charles of Lorraine should not come within 20 miles of the town, and that none of her crew should come to town. They agreed to send wood and water down to the ship. More days slipped by, but neither wood nor water was sent. At last in desperation Captain Potter sent some sailors on shore, who got some wood and water from a "marooned place" as he called it. They could not, however, get a sufficient quantity of water.
It was found to be impossible to careen the Prince Charles of Lorraine because the current was too strong at the mouth of the river. They finally heeled the vessel over as best they could and "gave her a bout tops" or "bout topt" her, as they expressed it. They put some perishable goods and powder on board of Capt. Tucker's vessel in order to keep them dry, while they heeled the Prince Charles.
The Dutch governor relented somewhat and allowed Captain Potter to get a supply of water from the lower fort, but other troubles soon developed. Captain Potter invited some English and Dutch masters of vessels and merchants to dinner on board of the Prince Charles. After dinner the crew asked to be allowed to sell some of their own effects and an auction was held on board the vessel. Some clothes, hammocks and "loose plunder", all the property of the crew, and said to be worth only about 30 or 40 pieces-of-eight, were sold to the visitors." This auction was in violation of some of the Dutch regulations and the Governor of Surinam sent for the quarter- master and clerk of the Prince Charles. The quartermaster together with the clerk, Mark Anthony De Wolf, waited on the Governor and gave him a detailed account of the proceed- ings and of the goods sold.
This trouble was no sooner settled than others arose. One night a Dutch vessel entered the Surinam river and was fired
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upon by the Dutch guard sloop for entering at night. The vessel ran behind the Prince Charles of Lorraine, where the guns of the guard sloop could not reach her without firing across the privateer. The captain of the guard sloop called to Lieutenant Vaughn of the Prince Charles, Captain Potter being away in town, and asked Vaughn to fire on the strange vessel and bring her to. Vaughn ordered the gunner to fire, and the Prince Charles sent a shot at the other vessel. The shot went "thawart her fore foot" and the stranger hoved to and sent her boat over to the privateer. Lieutenant Vaughn ordered the boat to report to the captain of the Dutch guard sloop. This incident was not closed however, for later the boat was sent down the river from the fort to make an in- vestigation of the matter. They questioned the right of the English privateer to fire on a Dutch vessel in Dutch waters. At last they seemed satisfied by the explanations, but the matter was again revived months later in the English Admiralty Courts.
About this time some of the crew of the Prince Charles abused the officers of the fort by speaking disrespectfully of them and the Governor complained to Captain Potter of their behaviour. Captain Potter apologised and this matter was dropped.
Three slaves that had been captured from the French, left the Prince Charles and went on shore where they were arrested by the Dutch and imprisoned in the fort. Captain Potter complained to the Governor, but the latter refused to give them back to Captain Potter, as he claimed that they were freemen and not slaves. The next day some of the crew of the Prince Charles came up the river in the barge to get Captain Potter, who was in town. As they neared the upper fort they were fired upon, stopped and confined all night in prison.
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CANNON FROM THE TARTAR Now at Southwest corner of Washington Square, Newport, R. I.
CANNON FROM THE TARTAR Now at Northwest corner of Washington Square, Newport, R. I. Courtesy of Society of Colonial Wars
NAVAL CANNON OF 1740
n
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The next morning Captain Potter was informed of this and went to the fort where he saw them in prison. He later obtained their release by the Governor.
Meanwhile both the carpenters of the Prince Charles deserted. One of them, Joseph Spinney, joined the crew of the Dutch guard sloop. Captain Potter sent Lieutenant Vaughn in the barge to demand him back. The Dutch cap- tain concealed Spinney and said he was not there. Lieutenant Vaughn, who knew that Spinney had gone away at night in the guard sloop's long boat, asked permission to search the vessel for him, but this the Dutch captain refused. Two of the sailors also deserted.
Finally the Dutch Governor ordered Captain Potter to leave. After a stay of 23 days, the Prince Charles of Lorraine set sail and left the Surinam River. There were about 70 or 80 men in the crew at this time, according to Michael Phillips, the pilot.
Lieutenant Vaughn on Sept. 1, 1746, deposed that when at Surinam Captain Potter put a quantity of merchandise cap- tured at Oyapoc up at vendue or auction on board one of the other vessels in the harbor and "purchased the most of them himself and ship't them to Rhode Island on his own account".
Two other English privateers came into Surinam about the time Potter was there. One, commanded by Captain Bass of Boston was allowed to go up the river, past the fort. Captain Bass took the guns and powder out, careened his vessel, stayed ten days and obtained a supply of water. It is said that the reason he received better treatment than Potter was because he showed the Governor his original com- mission, but the difference in treatment was probably due to Potter's exploits at Oyapoc and Cayenne, the Dutch although neutral, being in sympathy with the French.
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The day after the Prince Charles left Surinam five stow- aways were found. These were Dutch sailors who came on board the privateer secretly from a small boat in the night and concealed themselves.
Lieutenant Shaler said that the strong current had taken the privateer so far to leeward of Surinam when the stowaways were found, that it would have taken two weeks for them to get back to the settlement by land through the wilderness. As they could not return them, nor set them on shore, they decided to let them stay on board. This increased the ill-will of the Dutch.
On the voyage from Surinam to Barbadoes, the crew de- manded that Captain Potter share with them the "money taken", according to the ship's articles, to which Captain Potter replied that he would not until his return, for all the men were indebted to the owners more than that amount. Captain Potter, according to Lieutenant Vaughn, then swore at and damned the crew and threatened them "with his drawn sword at their breasts which treatment obliged the men to hold their peace".
When they reached Barbadoes, Captain Potter put some of the prize goods on shore giving their custody to Mr. Charles Bolton. The other part of the goods, he kept himself and only gave the men "rum and sugar for their own drinking". About 24 of the crew, disappointed at not getting their shares, deserted at Barbadoes, and Captain Potter, according to Vaughn, retained their shares in his hands.
The Prince Charles of Lorraine, Captain Potter, cruised in consort with the brigantine privateer Queen of Hungary of Boston, commanded by Capt. Thomas James Gruchy. They captured four good prizes, one of which was a ship of 200 tons, laden deep with 40 tons of quick-silver and a cargo of dry
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goods. They put a prize crew on this vessel and sent her to New York. Captain Potter and Captain Gruchy sailed from St. Eustatia about April 5, bound for New York, and on April 14, in latitude 33º N, met with two deeply-laden French ships, homeward bound from the West Indies. Captain Gruchy attacked one of them, which was a vessel of about 300 tons. Captain Potter followed and attacked the other ship, but met with much greater resistance. The main-top-mast and the head of the mainmast of the Prince Charles of Lorraine were shot away and Captain Potter found himself fighting under so great a disadvantage that he was obliged to bear away to refit. The Queen of Hungary engaged both vessels for three glasses, when one of them told his consort that he had received a shot in his stern that had raked him fore and aft and had damaged him so much that he would have to make the best of his way off, hoping to escape. The Queen of Hungary then engaged the other vessel smartly, and the last three glasses of the fight the vessels were yard-arm to yard-arm. The French ship struck her colors at last. She was the letter-of-marque ship Valliant, 320 tons, 12 guns and 50 men, completely fitted with warlike stores, and carrying a cargo of 320 hogsheads of sugar and 35,000 weight of indigo from St. Domingo for Bordeaux. The Queen of Hungary lost two killed, one man lost his thigh, another his arm, and several more were wounded. The Valliant lost three killed and sundry wounded. The Queen of Hungary and the Valliant, under prize master, Thomas Reardon, arrived at New York on Wednesday, May 1, 1745.
Just after the Valliant struck, Captain Potter, having repaired the Prince Charles of Lorraine, went in pursuit of the other French ship, which was still in sight. He came up with her at dusk, and the vessels fought late into the night. During the darkness a great squall separated all the vessels, and Cap- tain Potter did not sight any of them again. He believed that
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had it not been for the squall, he would have taken the second French ship. Potter had 45 men in his crew, and Gruchy 49 at the time of this engagement, and only 8 of the latter's carriage guns were on deck. The French ship was well manned and armed with 18 guns. The Prince Charles of Lorraine sailed into Narragansett Bay on April 24, 1745, and dropped anchor about four o'clock in the afternoon off Bristol, Captain Potter's home port.
The privateer Prince Charles of Lorraine of Newport, Captain Potter of Bristol, must not be confused with the "Bristol privateer" ship, Prince Charles, Capt. George Gyles, which cruised in American waters two years later, in 1746 and 1747. In the winter of 1746-7, the Prince Charles took, off The Havana, the famous Spanish privateer sloop Packavet Real, 12 carriage guns and 12 swivels, 60 men, Capt. Don Pedro de Avillo, a consort of Don Pedro de Garaycoches.
The Prince Charles of Lorraine did not capture the Grey- hound in 1747, as stated by Sheffield on page 48. In fact the Greyhound was not a prize.
According to the nautical usage of those days "Bristol" meant Bristol, England, and "Providence" meant New Provi- dence in the Bahamas.
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CHAPTER IX
THE Defiance, -- CAPTAIN DENNIS
After the disastrous explosion of the Prince Frederick's stores and the resulting fatality to her owners, she was not refitted for sea as doubtless had been planned, and her commander, Capt. John Dennis, was soon offered another command.
The brigantine Defiance of 130 tons and 14 guns was fitted out at Newport in the autumn of 1744 by John Tillinghast, Henry Collins, Solomon Townsend and Daniel Coggeshall. The Defiance's certificate to the Admiralty clerk, which was dated November 14, 1744, stated that she carried six months' provisions and was officered by Capt. John Dennis, First Lieutenant Daniel Denton, Second Lieutenant Daniel Beebe, who had served under Dennis on the Prince Frederick, Master John Sweet, also formerly of the Prince Frederick, Master's Mate William Wyatt, Captain's Quartermaster John Calder, Gunner Daniel Moorhead, Carpenter Zebulon Geers, all three of whom held the same position on the Prince Frederick, and Boatswain William Woodward.
The Defiance probably sailed on this privateering cruise in November, 1744, in consort with the Queen of Hungary, Captain Conklyn. Captain Dennis was very successful and captured seventeen prizes on this cruise, which lasted about six months. When off Barcelonga Keys, the Defiance captured a Dutch sloop bound for Hispaniola with a cargo of dry goods valued
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at 3,000 pieces-of-eight. Captain Dennis put a prize crew on her with orders to take her to New Providence, but soon after she parted from the Defiance she sprang a leak and the prize crew was obliged to put into Cape Francois in order to save their lives. Of course the French authorities took possession of the sloop and cargo, and sent the men to prison.
After leaving the sloop, Captain Dennis in the Defiance captured three more prizes from the Spaniards, two of which were soon taken away from him by two large Spanish men-of- war, that attacked his fleet a short distance from The Havana. The Defiance herself narrowly escaped capture in this engage- ment. Later the Defiance captured a Spanish privateer from The Havana with a crew of 120 men, and sent her into New Providence where she was sold and refitted as an English privateer.
On April 27, 1745, in the old Straits of Bahama, the Defiance captured the Spanish brigantine Neustra Senora de la Lux San José y las Animas, 150 tons and 5 guns, bound for The Havana, manned by 28 Spaniards and 2 Portuguese and commanded by Don Manuel de la Torre. The Defiance sailed northward with her prize, was reported off Sandy Hook on May 10, and arrived at Newport on Wednesday evening, May 15, 1745. The cargo consisted of 30,000 dollars, some 2,000 ounces of wrought silver plate, many tons of copper, drugs, china, merchandise and two negro slaves. The Spanish captain estimated the cargo as far more valuable than the money.
The Defiance was refitted and her armament increased, so that she mounted 16 carriage guns and 26 swivels. Her out- fitting return, which was dated July 13, 1745, reports that she carried a crew of 110 men, provisions for a nine months' cruise, and was owned by Tillinghast, Coggeshall and Townsend.
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John Dennis continued as captain, John Calder as captain's quartermaster, and Daniel Moorhead as gunner, while John Sweet was advanced to the rank of first lieutenant. The other officers were Second Lieutenant John Mundun, Master Henry Stevenson, Master's Mate Andrew Martin, Surgeon Robert Gardner, Boatswain William Woodward and Carpenter William Proctor.
Late in 1745 the Defiance, Captain Dennis, cut out a rich Spanish settee, which had on board 22,500 pieces-of-eight, and carried her into New Providence for condemnation. A settee is a vessel with a long sharp prow and with two or three masts, carrying lateen sails. This settee is perhaps identical with the Spanish privateer of 10 guns that Captain Dennis is reported to have taken into New Providence about this time.
On January 29 or 30, 1745-6, within sight of Cape Tiburon, the Defiance chased and engaged three French vessels of force in a smart conflict. After fighting for an hour and a half, Captain Dennis decided to board the largest of the three, which was a ship of 20 guns and 82 men. Running alongside the Frenchman, Dennis' bold attempt to board her succeeded, and the other vessels, a ship and a snow, frightened by such audacity, immediately made off and escaped. Just after they boarded the French ship, her quarter deck blew up, killing a number of Captain Dennis' men. The French vessel, which soon surrendered, was bound from Port St. Louis to Leogane or Petit Goave on Hispaniola, with 500 hogsheads of sugar, 57 hogsheads of indigo, cotton and other valuable effects. The Defiance lost 15 men killed and 15 wounded, most of them being blown up on the quarter-deck of the prize. Seven of those killed were white men, among whom was the captain's quartermaster, John Calder. The other eight killed were blacks. The enemy had 20 men killed and as many wounded.
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All of the Defiance's wounded men "were in a likely way to do well" six weeks later. Most of the prisoners were put on shore at Cape Tiburon, and the Defiance, convoying the prize northward, reached Newport on Wednesday, March 19, 1745-6. The prize parted from the Defiance on March 17, and had not reached Newport on the 21st, although she was "hourly expected".
The prize, which arrived in due time and was condemned on April 2, 1746, was the letter-of-marque ship Comte de Toulouse of Nantes, 250 tons, 20 guns, and 55 or 84 men, commanded by Bernard de Saas or Pierre Benoist, when she was engaged by the Defiance. Before Captain Dennis was ready to sail again, he found himself in serious trouble with the Rhode Island General Assembly.
Sometime in the first half of 1745 three privateers, the brigantine Defiance, Captain Dennis, the snow Duke of Marl- borough, Captain Morris, and the brigantine Hester of New York, Capt. Thomas Greenell or Greenhill, captured a Spanish galley. Nine captured negroes were brought into Newport by one of Dennis' consorts, condemned as prize slaves by the Admiralty judge, and sold. The other negroes were also con- demned and sold at New York, having been carried in there by Captain Greenhill.
News of the sale of these colored men as slaves reached The Havana, where it was known that they were freemen, and the Governor of Cuba thereupon in reprisal seized and im- prisoned such members of Captain Dennis' crew as had been captured and brought into The Havana, when the Spaniards recaptured one of Captain Dennis' prizes. The members of the crew of the Defiance, that were held at The Havana, were, according to Sheffield: John Greene, R. Munroe, Ben. Easterbrooks, Erasmus Phillips, Alex. Finley, Guilford Chan-
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Thomas Jury Frase Doubt
Tho! Brewer
John Paret
North be. Dotter Will Higgins Peter marshall
Ahniel Fam Illihardy
SIGNATURES OF RHODE ISLAND PRIVATEERSMEN
From State Archives
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ler, Henry Jefferson, Thomas Sweet, Jacob Billitt, John Kinney, John Hease, James Miller, Sylvester Morrison, James Wheeler, Joseph Berto, Thomas Jones, Jas. Greeg, Mark Tillinghast, London Hatch and Daniel Denton. The Rhode Islanders were released during the summer.
Information in regard to the detention of these sailors was presented at the May, 1746, session of the Rhode Island General Assembly, and a committee, consisting of Abraham Redwood, founder of the Redwood Library, Peter Bours and Stephen Hopkins, was appointed to inquire into the affair. In the meantime the Governor was requested to withhold from Capt. John Dennis, a commission as a privateersman. The committee collected as many as possible of these black free- men, and sent them back to The Havana in a flag-of-truce, with Daniel Denton, first lieutenant on the Defiance, who had been put in command of the prize, that was retaken by the Spaniards, and had been detained at The Havana, but had finally been relased on parole and sent to Rhode Island to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. One of the negroes had died, two had already been sent back to Cuba, and one was away at sea. The owners of the Defiance and the Duke of Marlborough were ordered to reimburse those persons who had bought the said colored freemen as slaves, and the act pro- hibiting Dennis from having a commission was finally repealed in June.
The Defiance was rapidly fitted out for another cruise, and her owners at this time are given as Tillinghast, Coggeshall, Townsend and Hart. Abraham Hart of Newport, having bought a part interest in the vessel, appears to be the first Rhode Island Hebrew to participate in privateering. Owing to Captain Dennis' difficulties with the General Assembly, the command of the brigantine was given to Capt. John Sweet,
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who had served as first lieutenant. The master's mate, Andrew Martin, was advanced to the rank of mate, and other officers were First Lieutenant Robert Boyd, Second Lieutenant Samuel Cooper, formerly boatswain on the Queen of Hungary, Mate Archie Tosh, formerly of the Ranger, Captain's Quarter- master Joseph Thurston, Boatswain William Jackson and Car- penter William Butts from the Hector. Godfrey Hanley, from the Reprisal, signed up as gunner, but apparently threw up the berth in order to sail on the Prince Frederick. . The Defiance's outfitting return, dated June 17, 1746, states she carried pro- visions for a cruise of six months, was armed with 14 carriage and 22 swivel guns and manned by a crew of IIo men.
On August 18, 1746, the brigantine Defiance, Captain Sweet, sighted and chased a Dutch sloop. As the Rhode Island vessel approached, someone on the Dutch vessel threw overboard a packet of papers tied to a cannon ball. This led Captain Sweet to believe that the vessel was one of that large class of contraband-carrying Dutch sloops, and that those on board were destroying incriminating evidence by sinking it, a very common practice. The Defiance seized the Dutch vessel without resistance about 14 leagues west of Orcheale near Barcelona, off the South American coast. She was the Catharina, 80 tons, 8 swivel guns, 18 men, commanded by Capt. John Paasch, and had been built at Bermuda in 1743, and named the Deborah, but in 1745 had been sold to Jan Ambrosius Duan of Curacao, and rechristened. The Catharina had taken on a cargo of 30 mules at Ricklaw on the Spanish Main, and had then proceeded to Curacao, and from thence to the French Island of Grenada, where they landed the mules, some money and 4 pieces of crocus. Here they took on a cargo of rum, sugar and coffee, and sailing on August 17, 1746, were soon captured by the American privateer. The Catharina was taken into Newport, where she and her cargo
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were valued at over £18,000 old tenor. The clever Dutch captain refused to come to Newport with his vessel, allowed it to be condemned, and then appealed, and finally succeeded in getting the colonial decision reversed in the High Court in England. This is only one of the many cases of the slick Dutch illicit traders obtaining final judgments in their favor. From other evidence we know that Captain Paasch was on another occasion engaged in illegal trade, and that when his sloop, the Elizabeth, was captured in November, 1746, he claimed her to be a Dutch vessel, until his captors found a set of French papers, which Paasch had hidden in the underpart of the boat's chock.
While the eighteenth century privateersmen have been subject to much criticism by contemporary and subsequent generations, and have been accused of great irregularities bordering on piracy, it must be remembered that they were constantly lashed into exasperation by the duplicity of the so-called Dutch neutrals, who reeked in all the sorts of trickery, forgery, lying and deceit, that natually accompanies illegal traffic.
On October II, 1746, off Cape San Antonio, Cuba, the Defiance, Captain Sweet, chased and captured the brigantine Delaware of Philadelphia, formerly Captain Taylor, which had been taken by the French ten days earlier. The Defiance fired one shot at the Delaware, which surrendered without resistance. She was laden with molasses, rum and sugar. Four Englishmen, members of the former crew of the Delaware were on board when she was retaken. Jonathan Hidden was appointed prize master of the Delaware, and Cromwell Child and Benjamin Cranston served in the prize crew. On the voyage northward Burges and Crawford, members of the former crew, tried to induce Captain Hidden to take the
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Delaware into Philadelphia, and when Crawford was ordered to steer NNE, he steered NNW, and then by altering the ship's compass, succeeded in getting her far to the westward of her course. On November 15, 1746, with Burges at the helm, they sighted land, and immediately Burges steered for it, with the result that the Delaware struck bottom and was soon a total loss, not far from Cape Henlopen. Captain Hidden was not considered in any way responsible for the loss of the vessel.
Capt. John Sweet was recommissioned captain of the Defiance on June 4, 1747, and filed his outfitting return on June 8, in which the Defiance is listed as having two less swivel guns than on her preceding cruise, but as carrying the same number of men. Her officers were: First Lieutenant Samuel Cooper, formerly second lieutenant, Second Lieutenant William Woodward, who had served as boatswain on the Defiance in 1745, Master Edward Martin, Mate Erasmus Phillips, Cap- tain's Quartermaster Joseph Thurston, who had served in that capacity in 1746, Gunner Edward East, and Boatswain Samuel Maskel. On August 9, 1747, off the coast of Spanish America, near Porto Cabello, the Defiance chased and captured the Dutch sloop Jonge Johannes, Daniel Soorbeck, master. The Jonge Johannes offered no resistance, but rowed away as fast as possible until overtaken. Her papers were thrown over- board before she was captured. She was bound from Curacao for "Chuao" with a cargo of 3,700 wt. of cocoa, a number of hides, $1,992 in milled dollars, pieces-of-eight and "ryals", one negro slave named Antonio, a silver snuff box, some gold rings and other trinkets. The Jonge Johannes was a sloop of 40 or 50 tons, mounted 4 swivel guns and carried a crew of 17 men. When captured she was flying an unusual flag, which had four stripes, "two of blue one above and one below, one of white and one of red". Apparently the upper blue stripe was
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