USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island privateers in King George's war, 1739-1748 > Part 6
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In October the Charming Betty, Captain Fry, and the Diana, Capt. William Wilkinson, captured the Nancy, a schooner of about 50 tons. They took her "under an island
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and examined her". On October II, 1746, Captain Wilkinson bought Fry's interest in her, after which they took her to Montserrat and had her condemned as a prize. The Charming Betty cruised with the Diana, the Nancy and the Reprisal in November 1746, as is related in the account of the latter vessel. In this cruise they captured the Eendragt.
The Charming Betty, Captain Fry, later cruised in consort with the schooner Three Brothers, Capt. Robert Kilby, and on March 21, 1746-7, off of Petit Goave, in the Bight of Leogane, captured the French schooner, St. Anne, Jean Joseph Boissy, master. She was a vessel of 60 tons, mounted one carriage gun, and had a cargo of sea-coal, mahogany, pine planks and rice. She had on board a crew of 6 men, together with 2 passengers and 2 prisoners of war, and claimed to be a flag-of-truce, carrying prisoners for exchange between Cape Francois and New Providence, and to have been driven into Port de Paix by a storm. Abel Michener, master of the Charming Betty, was put in charge of the St. Anne, and brought her into Newport, where she was libelled on April 7, 1747.
The Charming Betty was finally captured by two French frigates, and carried into Cape Francois with two other prize English privateers, the sloop Clinton of New York, Captain Bevan, and a Bermuda privateer brigantine of 16 guns com- manded by Captain Grantham. The crews of these three vessels were put on a flag-of-truce, which reached Charleston, S. C., on June 21, 1747. Captain Fry, however, died on board the flag-of-truce before she reached Charleston.
THE St. Andrew, CAPTAIN DAVIDSON.
The sloop St. Andrew of Newport, 85 or 95 tons, owned by John Gidley and Seuton Grant, and commanded by Capt. Charles Davidson of Newport, was beating up for volunteers
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in June, 1740. She was commissioned as a privateer on June II, sailed July 16 on a cruise against the Spaniards, carrying 80 men, and was the first Rhode Island privateer to cross the Atlantic in King George's War. She visited the Canary Islands, where she captured a sloop and sent a landing party on shore at Fuerteventura, one of these islands, in November.
This expedition was undertaken at the request of the crew themselves, and fifty-six of the bravest who volunteered, landed at a small harbor, and planned to surprise a nearby town. Richard Ross, quartermaster on the St. Andrew, had been put in command of the prize sloop, and cruised along the shore to prevent a surprise attack from the Spaniards, while the expeditionary force marched inland. Three anxious days Captain Davidson and his crew impatiently waited for news from their comrades. Then fearing the worst, Captain Davidson sent one of the prisoners to the Spanish Governor, and offered to free his prisoners, if the Spaniards would free those from the St. Andrew. The Governor replied that it was not in his power, as all the men were cut off, save three, who were mortally wounded. Abraham Rathbone of Newport, a mariner, was "one of the unhappy number that landed", and were overpowered by the Spaniards. Doubting the Governor, yet seeing no way of helping their friends, even if they still lived; the St. Andrew and her prize, a sorrowful company, sailed for America. Two days after sailing, they fell in with and captured a Spanish sloop with a rich cargo, but the vessels soon parted company during a squally night. Captain Ross arrived at Antigua before January 12, 1740-I, the prize being condemned there. The St. Andrew planned to refit at Surinam, which she reached before February 1, 1740-I.
Thomas Shilcock, Thomas Henderson, William Pollock and Peleg Burrows served on the St. Andrew on this voyage. On
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March 4, 1740-I, when off Crab Island near Porto Rico, she met the Spanish privateer sloop Amiable Theresa, 80 tons, 6 carriage guns and 8 swivel guns, commanded by Simon Langoiron. Captain Davidson ordered the captain of the sloop to come aboard the St. Andrew with his papers, which Captain Langoiron refused to do, whereupon the St. Andrew fired a shot over the Amiable Theresa as a command. The latter replied with a volley of small arms, powder and ball, but after a smart engagement surrendered. The Amiable Theresa had a crew of over 60 men, and the St. Andrew had only 28. When Captain Langoiran went on board the St. Andrew and beheld the "boys", as he called the members of her crew, "this brisk French blade" stamped and swore like an emperor and offering 1,000 pistoles for liberty to go on board of his sloop and fight the battle over again. Letters were found on this sloop that implicated the French West Indian fleet in a plot to join the Spanish fleet and surprise Admiral Vernon. Several of the crew carried silver hilted swords, and were said to be French gentlemen volunteers from Martinique. Twenty of the crew were set on shore at Crab Island. The St. Andrew convoyed her prize into Newport, where the vessels arrived about May 23, 1741. The Amiable Theresa, according to Captain Langoiran, was a French vessel belonging to the Marquis "Darigny", and had been chartered by the govern- ment of Martinique at near two hundred pistoles per month. She was said to be a tender to the French fleet. Captain Davidson claimed that she was in the service of the King of Spain, and as Captain Langoiran could produce no papers to prove his assertions, the vessel was condemned as a prize, and with her cargo, was valued at £8,000. In addition to small arms, bayonets, swords, cutlasses, powder, blunderbuses and iron-bound water-casks, there were 96 French crowns, 16
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milled pieces-of-eight, and 175 pieces-of-eight in double bills, also a silver sword, a silver hilted sword, a gold watch, two silver watches and 15 negro slaves. Many of the pistols were tipped with silver of curious workmanship.
On June II, 174I, an express from Block Island reached Newport with news of a Spanish privateer snow in the neigh- borhood of the island. The colony sloop Tartar and the privateer St. Andrew, which happened to be lying in Newport harbor at this time, were ordered out in pursuit of the enemy snow under orders issued by the Governor on June 12. The St. Andrew was manned with 70 men on this cruise, and was commanded by Captain Davidson. After a short cruise the St. Andrew returned on the evening of the 17th. She could not keep up with the Tartar, which went further westward in search of the Spanish snow, which had escaped.
On July 9, 1740, Captain Davidson beat up for volunteers for the St. Andrew, which was to sail in consort with the Revenge on "a voyage projected for them by that brave and successful Captain Warren", who later became Admiral Sir Peter Warren.
From Charleston, S. C. it was reported that the Rhode Island privateer Victory, Captain Davidson, arrived there on October 14, 174I. She left Newport about the middle of August, touched at Bermuda, where they took on board Capt. Edward Lightwood of Charleston as a passenger, and then went to New Providence. Later she sprung her mast, and so put into Charleston to get a new one. This privateer was probably the St. Andrew not the Victory.
Late in December or early in January, the St. Andrew, Captain Davidson, was lying at anchor in a harbor on the north coast of Cuba. It was night, and all the crew were asleep below decks in the hold, when suddenly out of the
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darkness came a small boat manned with 18 Spaniards, who surprised and boarded the St. Andrew. At the time of the attack only Captain Davidson and his lieutenant were on deck. The Spanish lieutenant snapped his pistol at Captain Davidson, whereupon the latter took up his musket and shot out the Spanish lieutenant's brains. Davidson then stamped as hard as he could upon the deck and thus aroused his men, who jumped out of the hold. Soon all hands were on deck and engaged in a most bitter hand to hand conflict with the Spanish boarding party. The Spaniards were cut to pieces by the cutlasses wielded by the strong arms of the New England sailors, fighting desperately for their lives. Only one Spaniard was taken alive. They held him for whatever in- formation they could extract from him. The next morning, when day dawned, the Spanish privateer, from whom the attacking party had come, could be seen in the distance. The St. Andrew immediately made sail and gave chase to the Spaniard. When the two vessels came within shot of each other, another desperate battle ensued. The gun-fire lasted for an hour and a half, at the end of which time the Spanish privateer struck her colors. She had lost all her men killed, except sixteen or eighteen, and had "the Blood of the wounded and killed running over the Deck by Gallons, so hot was the Action". Captain Davidson lost one man killed and none wounded. The St. Andrew then went to New Providence, where she arrived before January 5, 1741-2. The prize was daily expected.
Capt. James Wimble, a privateersman from London, lost his vessel, the Revenge, on Antling's Key in the Bahamas, and then proceeded to New Providence, where he bought the Spanish privateer sloop San Antonio, which had recently been captured by H. M. S. Rose and taken in there. Captain
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Wimble renamed this vessel the Revenge, and sometime about March 1742 sailed from New Providence on a privateering cruise in consort with the St. Andrew, Captain Davidson. In April or thereabouts, the St. Andrew and the Revenge attacked a Spanish man-of-war of 60 guns. A terrific engagement lasting two hours followed, in which the Spaniard's main-top- mast and bow-sprit were carried away and great damage was done to her rigging. The privateers ran alongside the large vessel, and while Captain Wimble was leading a boarding party over the Spaniard's rail, amidst a melee of hand to hand fighting, one of his arms was cut off close up to the shoulder. Temporarily bereft of leadership and disheartened by the misfortune of their commander, the men retreated from the Spaniard, who was thereby enabled to escape. In the old Straits of Bahama on their way back to New Providence, the two privateers captured three small Spanish vessels of no great value, which arrived at New Providence about the middle of April.
During the first week of May, Captain Davidson careened the St. Andrew and refitted for another cruise. On June 15, 1742, N. S., the St. Andrew entered the harbor of St. Nicholas, Hispaniola, and cut out the French sloop St. Jean, 70 tons, Jean Helias Baudry, master, while lying at anchor. She was laden with wine, Irish beef, molasses, codfish, indigo, dry- goods, salt, dutch cheese, negroes, small arms and money amounting to 425 pieces-of-eight, and "6 bitts in silver con- sisting of bitts and double bitts". She is said to have been "the tenth prize taken by Capt. Davidson on this cruise". This doubtless meant from the time he left Newport, and only goes to show how meagre are the privateering records which have come down to our time. John Poseland of the St. Andrew was placed in charge of this prize sloop, which touched
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at Charleston, later ran out of wood and water, and finally put in at Nantasket, July 5, 1742, in order to take on pro- visions and other necessaries before proceeding to Newport. Evidently the master of this prize had made a considerable error in his nautical calculations, and so ran far north and east of his destined port. The St. Jean was adjudged not a prize, being a French vessel taken in a French port in a time of peace with France. Captain Davidson's action bordered closely on piracy. William Vernon of Newport was at this time one of the owners of the St. Andrew.
Meanwhile the St. Andrew had crossed the Caribbean Sea, and on June 24, in latitude 16° 25' N. near Truxillo, surprised a Dutch sloop called the Nooyt Godagt, which mounted 6 carriage and 4 swivel guns. The St. Andrew was flying English colors, and the Nooyt Godagt raised the Dutch flag. The Dutch captain, John Oyman, fired a shot at the St. Andrew in order to bring her to, claiming afterwards that he thought she was a Dutch vessel he expected to meet there. The St. Andrew naturally did not heave to upon the Dutch- man's firing, but returned shot and ran alongside the Nooyt Godagt. The crew of the latter vessel threw overboard many warlike stores and ammunition, and as the New England privateersmen rushed aboard the Nooyt Godagt, the Dutch crew, some 25 men, jumped overboard, swam ashore, and made their escape back into the country. Captain Oyman, however, stayed with his ship and was taken prisoner. The sloop hailed from Curacao, but had no passport nor other essential ship's papers. She was in a leaky condition and her mast had sprung. Captain Davidson transferred to the St. Andrew 90 boxes and bales of goods valued at £22,000 and a mulatto boy slave. Thomas Brooks, one of the officers of the St. Andrew, was put in command of the Nooyt Godagt with a prize crew with orders to bring her to Newport. She
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never arrived at Newport, and was probably lost at sea on the voyage north, or else captured by the Spaniards. Two or three days after the Nooyt Godagt was captured, Captain Oyman escaped and disappeared into the woods.
In the Bay (Gulf) of Honduras, or according to another account in the River Dew (?Dulce), the St. Andrew was attacked by four or five Spanish perriaugers with 160 men. They ran alongside the St. Andrew and boarded her. A hand to hand conflict took place on her deck, and as Captain Davidson expressed it, they "had like to have been taken". The Rhode Islanders fought with desperation, and finally after killing a majority of their assailants, succeeded in driving off the rest of them. The small vessel, rolling on the waves of the Caribbean under the scorching southern sun, her parched decks reeking in the slippery blood, that was freely flowing from the wounds of her Spanish and English combatants, struggling in a confused melee of friend and foe, without distinguishing uniforms, amidst a babel of shouts and curses in two languages, presents a picture of the hardships and dangers which eclipse the glamor of romance and the glitter of gold that made privateering so attractive. The St. Andrew poured her great guns into the retreating Spaniards, and killed many of them, four of whom were taken prisoners.
Soon after this the St. Andrew captured a schooner laden with provisions, wine, and small arms. She was the St. Francis, John Labord, master, bound for The Havana, and manned with thirteen hands, ten of whom were Spanish. The St. Andrew con- voyed this prize schooner into New Providence, where the two vessels arrived on September 7, 1742, in the evening. John Cranwell served as captain's quartermaster on the St. An- drew on this cruise. According to the "Boston News-Letter", the St. Andrew was owned by Grant, Girdley and Co., but Shef- field says that she was owned by Sueton Grant and John Godfrey.
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VIEW OF NEWPORT ABOUT 1739
For discussion of the date, see R. I. H. S. Col. July 1925. The types of vessels shown in the view are typical of the period of King George's War.
From engraving in the Society's Library
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According to tradition, Sueton Grant was son of Donald and Marjorie (Stewart) Grant of Bellvadoan, Iverness, Scot- land, and came to America in 1725. He settled in Newport, and was one of the friends of Bishop Berkeley, who formed the famous Philosophical Society in 1730. Grant was admitted a freeman at Newport in 1734, and became one of its leading citizens. He was one of the original incorporators of the Artillery Company of Newport in 1742, and was chosen captain of the First Company of Newport Militia in 1743, an office he held at his death in 1744. The name of the privateer St. Andrew is clearly reminiscent of Captain Grant's native land.
Girdley, mentioned in the "Boston News-Letter" as part owner of the St. Andrew, is undoubtedly intended for John Gidley. John's father, of the same name, was judge of Vice- Admiralty, and died at Newport in 1710. Young John con- tinued to reside in Newport, and became a prosperous dis- tiller and merchant. He married in 1728 his second wife, Mary, daughter of Col. John Cranston, of whom we have spoken, and in 1738 his third wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Capt. John Brown, who was part owner of the Revenge and the Victory. John Gidley was vestryman of Trinity Church in 1731 and 1734, eldest church warden in 1735, and was appointed judge of Vice-Admiralty at Newport in 1742. He, with Sueton Grant, was killed in the explosion of 1744.
The St. Andrew and the St. Francis came north in the early autumn, the prize schooner arriving at Newport on Monday, October II, and the St. Andrew on Friday morning, October 29.
Perhaps the affair of the St. Jean may explain why Captain Davidson did not sail again as commander of a privateer. He may on that account have been refused a commission, and so had to content himself with the post of lieutenant.
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CHAPTER V
OTHER NEWPORT PRIVATEERS, 1740-1743
THE Victory,-CAPTAIN POWERS
One of the privateers fitting out in June, 1740, was the sloop Victory, 12 carriage and 12 swivel guns, which was owned by John Brown, John Banister and William Mumford. She is described as a very deep vessel of upwards of 100 tons and a good sailor. The enlistment of the crew was begun in June, 1740, but her departure was delayed by the difficulty of obtaining cannon. She was under command of Capt. Joseph Powers, who seems to have advanced from the occupation of ferryman to deep sea sailor, and was finally commissioned captain of a privateer on September 29. The Victory with a crew of 93 men sailed from Newport on October 1 or 2 for the Vineyard to convoy the Boston transports, which sailed from Nantasket on September 29 for New York, where they joined the main body of the northern colonial contingent, which was to serve under Admiral Vernon in the West Indies. She then sailed to the Gulf of Paria on the north coast of South America, where Captain Powers surprised and captured the Spanish town of St. Thomas at Oroonoque or Orinoco. The Victory's crew were guided in the attack on St. Thomas by an English- man, who had been a prisoner there several years, and who went to Rhode Island in the summer of 1740 for the purpose of inducing someone to undertake this expedition. The town,
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which was defended by a battery of 10 or 12 guns, was captured by the privateersmen without the loss of a man. They imme- diately plundered the town, obtaining a small quantity of gold and silver coins, some 2000 pieces-of-eight, a considerable amount of wrought plate and sixty Indian slaves. They also took as prizes two richly laden Dutch vessels (one Captain Fassin), that were lying at anchor in the harbor, and had cargoes of great value consisting of money and cocoa.
Cruising northward the Victory fell in with a large Spanish privateer Bermuda-built sloop off the island of St. Thomas early in January. The Spaniard attacked the Victory, but met with such a warm reception that he sheared off after an exchange of several broadsides, having lost a considerable number of men. The Victory lost one man killed, and Captain Powers was shot in the thigh. Powers immediately gave chase to the Spaniard, but as the Victory's bottom was foul with barnacles and sea growths, which thrive in warm southern waters, the Spanish privateer easily escaped. The Victory arrived at Kingston, Jamaica, on January 9, 1740-I, the same day that the English fleet arrived, and many of the crew of the Victory were impressed into service on the fleet. From Jamaica the Victory may have gone to Aruba, a Dutch island west of Curacao, where a Rhode Island privateer was careened and cleaned in February or March.
The Victory was taken out of the privateering service in I74I, and went to Surinam, took on a cargo, and sailed for Rhode Island, where, after a long voyage, she arrived about the end of December. In January 1741-2, the Victory was again fitted out in a warlike manner with 20 guns. Banis- ter planned to send her with a cargo to Cape Fear, and after the cargo was discharged, to lease her to the government there for a few weeks' service as a coast-guard vessel. He intended
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then to send her to England, in order to recover the £20 for each man that the Admiral had pressed out of the Victory, when she was at Jamaica. It is probable that at this time the Victory was entirely overhauled and her rig changed from that of a sloop to that of a brigantine. In April news reached Newport that a snow had been employed as a coast-guard vessel at Cape Fear, and on that account the Victory's voyage there was cancelled. She was then fitted out for a genuine privateering cruise.
On Wednesday, May 19, 1742, the privateer Victory, again under the command of Capt. Joseph Powers, and mounting 12 carriage and 12 swivel guns, sailed from Newport on a cruise against Spanish commerce. She carried a crew of 90 men, and was "very well fitted and sails to Admiration," according to a contemporary newspaper account.
In July, 1742, Capt. Joseph Powers, cruising in the brigan- tine Victory off the coast of Caracas, noticed a sloop sending a landing party on shore at Socou, apparently to trade with the Spaniards. Considering the actions suspicious and believing contraband trade was being carried on, Captain Powers on July 14 seized the "sloop or vessel", which was the Amiable du Cap, a French vessel of 60 tons, mounting 6 swivel guns, commanded by Pierre Simon, and owned by Bernard Gran- gene of Cape Francois. The Victory and the Amiable du Cap sailed over to Aruba where the mate of the Amiable du Cap ran away and made his escape, while the vessels were being warped out of the harbor on a calm day. The rest of the crew, some 20 hands except for two men brought to Newport, were put on board a French vessel bound for Curacao. The Victory convoyed the Amiable du Cap to Newport, where they arrived about August 20. The French sloop had on board 2240 pieces-of-eight, two slaves, some dry goods, arms, ammu-
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nition, and 6 cannon in her hold. Captain Simon claimed that he was on a legitimate trading voyage, and planned only to "buy mules for money". He claimed that the cannon and ammunition were not cargo, but equipment of the vessel, that had been used on a previous voyage. The Vice-Admiralty Judge stated that Captain Powers was justified from the cir- cumstances in making the seizure, but adjudged the vessel not a prize. The vessel was given back to Captain Simon, who on June 14, 1743, petitioned the Governor's Council for per- mission to sell her. Captain Pierre (or Peter) Simon sold his vessel, settled in Newport, and joined Trinity Church. His son Peter, born March 31, 1745, was baptised on April 26, 175I. This Peter, junior, later became famous in South County traditions by eloping with the ill-fated Hannah Robinson.
CAPTAIN BULL.
On March 27, 174I, news was received at Newport from St. Eustatia that Captain Bull in a Rhode Island privateer and Captain Place in a St. Christopher privateer, sailing in consort, went in pursuit of a rich Dutch ship that had been trading on the Spanish coast. They had the misfortune to fall in with a Spanish or French man-of-war of 30 guns, which attacked them and sank Captain Place's vessel. Captain Bull received so many shots through his sloop that the water leaked in until it was above his ballast. However, he was able to get away from the man-of-war, and with great difficulty succeeded in saving all of Captain Place's crew except one. Bull arrived safely at St. Eustatia. Captain Bull may have been Capt. Joseph Bull who commanded John Banister's sloop Fortune later in 174I.
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THE Young Godfrey, CAPTAIN WHITE.
Sheffield, who used papers in the State Archives, which appear to have been lost, tells us that the privateer Young Godfrey was owned by Godfrey Malbone and Sueton Grant. She was fitted out as a privateer in 1743, and was named after Malbone's son, Godfrey Malbone, Jr.
The sloop Young Godfrey was commaned by Capt. Nicholas White, and captured the French schooner Elizabeth, 50 tons, Capt. Louis Calmel, off the west end of the island of Cuba. She brought the Elizabeth, which was laden with wine and brandy into Newport during the second week in March, where on March 20, 1743, Judge Lockman declared the vessel not a prize. Capt. Nicholas White had a pew in Trinity Church, Newport, in 1738.
The Young Godfrey, Captain White, cruised in consort with the Jamaica privateer sloop Kouli Kan and captured a large and valuable prize. They convoyed her to Cartagena to ransom her, but as they approached that port they encoun- tered two French privateers of much superior force. A terrible conflict ensued in which Captain White and his crew were all cut to pieces and his vessel taken. The Kouli Kan, after being badly shot to pieces, finally had the good fortune to escape, and reached the old harbor, Jamaica, on the evening of August 21, 1744.
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