USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island privateers in King George's war, 1739-1748 > Part 7
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A story was in circulation in New York in October that a Rhode Island privateer engaged two French privateers in the West Indies, and that after an obstinate and bloody engage- ment in which the Rhode Islander lost all but 16 of his men, he was forced to surrender to the French and call for quarter. The French lost fifty men. It was said that the captors were so barbarous that they put to death the Rhode Islanders in
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cold blood. That part of the story, however, was probably a gross exaggeration. This account would seem to refer to the loss of the Young Godfrey.
THE Fame, CAPTAIN GRIFFITH.
The San José de las Animas, 8 carriage and 12 swivel guns, was a Spanish privateer owned by Don José Conderon of The Havana, and fitted out at Baracoa, Cuba. She was a vessel of 50 tons, and had ten pairs of oars, as well as being schooner rigged. Manned by about 40 men and sailing under the command of Capt. Francisco Perdomo, she had taken some 18 or 19 English vessels as prizes in the first half of 1742. On June 10 of that year, as we have related, she was captured off Cape Maisi, Cuba, by the Revenge, Captain Allen, and sent into Newport, where she arrived on July 4, and was condemned on July 7. On July 13 she was put up for sale at auction by Robert Taylor, and sold for frooo to Philip Wilkinson and Daniel Ayrault, Junior, the highest bidders. She was what we today would call a topsail schooner, her bill of sale showing that she carried yards. She was refitted at Newport, her armanent being increased to 10 carriage and 14 swivel guns, and it is probable that some of her oars were removed, as that form of propulsion was not popular with New Englanders. The "News-Letter" of July 23 says that she was to sail under the command of Captain Brown. Either this was an error, or the plans were changed, for Capt. John Griffith was com- missioned commander of her on August 25, 1742, and she soon sailed on a privateering cruise against the Spaniards. The Fame captured a Spanish vessel and carried her into New Providence, where the crew shared 500 pieces-of-eight per man, and the owners received £10,000. The "Boston Post-Boy" comments: "which is by far the greatest voyage that has
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been made by any of our Privateers this war". This cruise lasted almost eight months, and the Fame, returning from New Providence, arrived at Newport on April 14, 1743.
She sailed on another cruise in 1743 under the command of Captain Griffith. Ezekiel Fox served as captain's quarter- master and Richard Greenoak as company's quartermaster on this cruise. On July 2, 1743, in the river Nevetas on the north side of Cuba, the Fame surprised and captured from the Spaniards the English snow Caulker, which had been taken by a Spanish privateer on June 6. She had a valuable cargo consisting of 61 hogsheads, 4 tierces and 17 barrels of sugar, 81 bags of cotton, 6 boxes of copper rods and 8 elephant's teeth. She had been to the Guinea coast in Africa, and was returning to England by way of Barbadoes, when she was taken by the Span- iards. Lengthy litigation followed this capture, and by the cur- ious meandering of' 'blind justice", the Admiralty clerk, Fox, was eventually imprisoned for debt and kept in jail some two years, although entirely innocent of any crime. The leading merchants of Newport petitioned that a lottery be held to raise funds sufficient to pay his indebtedness, and so accomplish his release.
Sailing northward the Fame fell in with and captured the Spanish privateer sloop De la Rosa on July 24, 1743, in latitude 25° 33' N, off the Florida Keys. The De la Rosa was com- manded by Capt. Andrea Gonsalez, had served in the Spanish expedition against Georgia, and was returning from St. Augustine to The Havana with 56 men, soldiers and sailors. Three boat loads of soldiers went ashore and escaped, while the Fame was nearing the De la Rosa, but there were 31 men on board when she was taken, all of whom were put ashore on the Georgia coast, except three officers that were carried to Newport. The De la Rosa arrived at Newport on August 22, and the Fame two days later on Wednesday, August 24, 1743.
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SIGNATURES OF RHODE ISLAND PRIVATEERSMEN
From State Archives
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The command of the schooner Fame, 10 guns and 50 men, was given to Capt. Clement Lempriere, who soon sailed from Newport on a privateering voyage, and captured a large Spanish sloop bound from St. Jago (Santiago de Cuba) to Cartagena, which was taken into Jamaica for condemnation. On December 16, 1743, the schooner Fame and another priva- teer, the sloop New Exchange, were lying in Withywood Bay, Jamaica, and their captains agreed to cruise in consort, and signed articles of agreement of that purport, but curiously enough both copies of this agreement were lost. The New Exchange, 12 carriage and 12 swivel guns and 80 men, was commanded by Capt. George Hall, and owned by Moses Mendex, Abraham Pereira Musquita and John Edzor of Jamaica. She sailed from Withywood Bay on December 20, 1743, and went first to Savannah La Mar, where she waited twenty-four hours for the Fame and then went to Lucca, where she stayed until December 29, when the Fame not arriving, she proceeded on her cruise. Captain Lempriere had to remain a few weeks at Jamaica in order to settle up the matters relating to the prize sloop which he had taken in there. He also careened the Fame at this time. These matters finished, the Fame in January sailed on her cruise. She did not meet the New Exchange, but captured another prize vessel from the Spaniards, which she took into New Providence. Sailing from thence southward through the Bahama Islands, the Fame met the New Exchange off the north side of Inagua, or Heniagua as they called it, on March 9, 1743-4, and the two captains renewed their agreement to sail in consort. After this the Fame and the New Exchange cruised together for more than three weeks.
On April 1, 1744, they sighted a ship and weighed anchor. The New Exchange bore away, and the Spanish ship, which
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came up before the wind, followed her into the channel or Straits of Old Bahama. When the Spanish ship got well within the channel, the New Exchange hauled upon the wind and stood athwart the Spaniard's hawse and hailed her. She returned no answer and still kept on before the wind. Captain Hall thereupon fired on her, and then the Fame, coming up, ran aboard the New Exchange. The Spanish ship fired six shots at them from her stern guns and continued on her way. She was the San Francisco alias the Peregrine, a ship of 300 tons and 24 guns. Finally, while endeavoring to elude them, she became entangled amidst the treacherous reefs and shoals that abound in the Bahamas, and her captain, fearing disaster, dropped anchor near Sugar Key off the north coast of Cuba. The New Exchange ran up near to the San Francisco and anchored, but Captain Hall soon found that the water was too shoal and that his vessel was in danger of being aground. He therefore weighed anchor again and stood away further to the southward until he found a more suitable place to anchor. The Fame meanwhile unfortunately struck on one of the reefs off Sugar Key and bilged during the night of April I, filling with water.
Captain Lempriere went over in his boat to the New Ex- change, told Captain Hall of his predicament and asked him to help with his boat. They soon got all the men off of the shipwrecked schooner and on board the New Exchange. The latter sloop, now doubly manned, renewed the attack upon the San Francisco in the morning. The battle lasted the next three days, April 2, 3 and 4, the two vessels constantly firing at each other, and the New Exchange all the time cautiously edging nearer and nearer to the San Francisco, amidst the deadly reefs. The Spanish ship tried to extricate herself, but her captain being unfamiliar with the uncharted rocks could not get out of the pocket in which he found himself. Captain
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Hall and Captain Lempriere took their canoe and went over near to the San Francisco to examine her more closely. The Spaniards fired on them without success. Later Captain Lempriere and Francis Thwaites, the lieutenant of the New Exchange, went over to the wreck of the Fame and brought away all the small arms, preparatory to making a more determined attack on the Spanish vessel. The San Francisco fired twelve guns with langrage shot at the Fame without doing any great damage. The New Exchange was cleared for board- ing, and early in the morning on April 4, weighed anchor and approached the San Francisco. The New Exchange stood across her hawse and fired a broadside into the Spaniard. Then she tacked athwart her again and gave her another broadside. The Spaniards, though at a disadvantage, kept their guns going and bravely defended their ship. The sloop tacked again and poured more shot into the ship as she ap- proached. The Spaniards then ran their guns in and dumped them in order to be better prepared to resist boarders. The San Francisco had so many men and they seemed to be so well armed, that Captain Hall did not dare risk boarding her, so after exchanging a few more shots, the New Exchange withdrew and anchored. At three o'clock in the afternoon the San Francisco cut her cable, made sail, and risking being wrecked on the keys, tried to make her escape. The New Exchange weighed anchor and followed her, Captain Hall expecting that the Spaniard would soon run aground. In about half an hour the San Francisco ran ashore, and the New Exchange soon anchored under her stern and began to bombard her. After firing a few guns the San Francisco lowered her colors and surrendered. The captors floated their prize and took her into Jamaica, where she was condemned. On the way they landed most of the Spanish crew, some 200 men, at Sugar Key. The San Francisco carried a Spanish Governor, several ladies and 40
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priests, all of whom were all carried to Jamaica. The ship and cargo of wine, oil and dry goods was sold at Jamaica and netted £68,000, Jamaica money, after all charges and com- missions had been paid.
Much litigation followed this capture as so often occurred, when valuable spoils were divided. Captain Lempriere fitted out another privateer which he named the Fame's Revenge.
THE Prince William, CAPTAIN ALLEN.
The brigantine Prince William, 100 tons, 12 carriage guns and 80 men, was fitted out by Messrs. John Brown, John Banister and William Mumford in the fall of 1743. The Prince William was probably named after the King's second son, William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, who had in the preceding June been wounded at the Battle of Dettingen, which had been victoriously won by the English and allies, King George himself commanding the troops. Capt. William Allen was put in command of her, and she sailed in consort with the sloop Prince Frederick, Captain Dennis, on a priva- teering cruise in the West Indies. George Shearman served on the Prince William at this time. In company with the Prince Frederick, the Prince William captured the snow Catherine and the schooner Serena. The details of this cruise are included in the account of the Prince Frederick. The Prince William lay near the Prince Frederick at the time of the threatened mutiny on the latter vessel. In fact Captain Allen was on the Prince Frederick at the time and assisted Captain Dennis. In the court proceedings dealing with this mutiny, William Allen and George Shearman are summoned as "of the brigantine Victory", clearly an error for brigantine Prince William. Brown and Banister were interested in both the brigantine Victory and the brigantine Prince William, which may account for this confusion.
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The brigantine Prince William, manned with 90 men, sailed on June 7, 1744, again under the command of Capt. William Allen, with provisions for a five months' cruise. Her officers were First Lieutenant Robert Bridges, Second Lieutenant Alexander McDonald, Master John Maudsley, Captain's Quartermaster George Goulding, Master's Mate James Brown, Surgeon Henry Hooper, Gunner George Shearman, Boatswain Isaac Copper, and Carpenter John Simson.
THE Hunter, CAPTAIN CLARKE.
The Hunter, a privateer sloop of 50 tons, mounting 6 carriage and 10 swivel guns, was fitted out at Newport in 1743. She was commanded by Capt. Michael Clarke, and manned with 40 men, John Smith being lieutenant and Thomas Toman, master. She carried provisions for a five months' cruise, and sailed soon after December 17, 1743. Sheffield gives Gideon Cornell and William Read as her owners, but the Admiralty return gives John Smith. The Hunter met with very bad weather soon after she sailed. Sixteen men were washed overboard and lost during the storm, and the side of the vessel was badly beaten in. The Hunter finally put in at Bermuda for repairs. Some years later Capt. Michael Clarke was murdered by Capt. Joseph Hewes, who was tried for this crime by the Admiralty Court on October 27, 1756.
THE Caesar, CAPTAIN GRIFFITH.
The sloop or sloop-of-war Caesar sailed from Newport as a privateer late in 1743, commanded by Capt. John Griffith. The Caesar was owned by Wilkinson & Ayrault, the owners of the Fame, and they had transferred Griffith from the command of that vessel to this larger and newer one. The Caesar
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mounted 14 carriage and 14 swivel guns, and was reckoned a vessel of 130 tons. She is described as a "sloop" of that tonnage and armament in an undated return in the State Archives, but as a snow in the Admiralty return in 1744, which gives her the same tonnage and armament.
The word "sloop" is rather confusing as it meant several different sorts of vessels even at the same period. The term "sloop" or "sloepe" is of Dutch origin, and was at the begin- ning of the seventeenth century, according to Chatterton, "applied less to the rig than to the size of the craft, denoting a somewhat small tonnage. Thus it was primarily applied to a ship's big boat, such as was used to run out the kedge anchor and for fetching provisions and water from the shore." He further tells us that the Dutch applied the name sloepe to the small craft of about 55-foot length which sailed to the Cape Verde Island, and at this period they also applied the name sloepe to a class of small two-masted sailing vessels, having both boom and gaff on each mast, the sail having a loose foot as in a moden schuyt. This sort of sloop had neither bowsprit nor headsails, and her foremast was stepped as far forward as possible, as in the case of a modern cat-yawl. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, ship nomenclature was undergoing a great change. The word sloepe became chaloup in French and sloop in English, and gradually came to be applied to any small armed vessel. In England, in the eighteenth century, the sloop was a naval vessel of the sixth class, the term being applied to tonnage and armament rather than rig. It was also used to designate a single-masted vessel, which carried a forestaysail, but no jib.
In the American colonies, in the eighteenth century, it seems to have meant a small armed vessel, and sometimes a single-decked vessel. It was used very loosely, often being
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applied to a snow or a brig. Later in America, it was used to designate the rig carried by the English cutters, or any single masted vessel that carried a headsail.
But to return to the middle of the eighteenth century, we find the snow Greyhound called both a snow and a sloop in the receipts for outfitting her at Newport in 1740. The snow Caesar is called a sloop in "Griffith vs. Allen". The bilander Young Eagle is called a "private man of war sloop" in 1740, and a sloop in 1741 in the Admiralty records. Admiral Vernon, referring to colonial privateers, uses the word sloop as nearly equivalent to privateer, although many of the colonial privateers were rigged as ships, snows, brigantines and schooners. Banister appears to use the word sloop as equiva- lent to a single-decked vessel. In 1696 the privateer Mary is called both a "sloop" and a "brigantine" in the Massa- chusetts Records.
The officers of the Caesar are given in the undated return (which must have been late in 1743 or early in 1744) as Captain John Griffith, First Lieutenant Thomas Thompson, Second Lieutenant John Eldred, Master Benjamin Ingraham, Doctor Samuel Nixon, Mate William Sanford, Quartermaster Esek Fox, Gunner John Ellison, Boatswain Ralph Couch, and Carpenter David Smith, and her crew as IIo men. It will be remembered that Esek or Ezekiel Fox had served as captain's quartermaster under Captain Griffith on the Fame during the cruise in which she captured the Caulker.
The Caesar, Captain Griffith, sometime during the winter of 1743-44, chased a Spanish privateer of 8 carriage and 8 swivel guns, which was manned by 55 men. The Spanish vessel ran ashore on the coast of Cuba, and the crew escaped, but Captain Griffith destroyed the vessel and carried off her guns.
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In March the Caesar went into New Providence to refit, and on March 25 the Revenge, Capt. James Allen, came in. Negotiations in regard to sailing in consort were begun be- tween Captain Allen and Captain Griffith, as has been related in the account of the Revenge. Capt. Clement Stanton, who had commanded the merchant brigantine Prince of Orange in 174I, had at this time become master of the Caesar in place of Benjamin Ingraham. About March 30 the Caesar and the Revenge sailed from New Providence.
The Caesar proceeded to Keesale or Vresale, where she was scrubbed and "boot-topped". When she was ready to sail again, according to Captain Stanton, "a letter was writ and put into a bottle, which I understand was to find one another in case they lost company and Captain Allen came alongside in his barge about the roth of April for Captain Griffith to go on shore that they might hide a bottle that they might know where to find it. When he came on board again we sailed". The fight off The Havana, in which the Caesar and the Revenge participated, has been related at some length in the account of the Revenge. Thomas Doughty was company's quarter- master at this time on the Caesar. This Thomas Doughty may have been of the family of the famous Thomas Doughty, who, two centuries earlier, led the mutiny on Sir Francis Drake's ship, the Pelican alias the Golden Hind, when off Brazil, and was executed at Port St. Julian. A list of most of the crew, who served on the Caesar in this engagement of April 13, 1744, follows: John Griffith, Thomas Thompson, Daniel Denton, Samuel Nixon, Richard Thomas, Ezekiel Fox, John Ellison, David Smith, Ralph Couch, Benjamin Sweet, Thomas Scranton, John Cozzins, Thomas Ferguson, Peter Delaport, Briant Raily (Riley), James Osborn, Richard Wilmot, Daniel Cavanaugh, William Anthony Garrett, John Mathews, Will Cornell (there are the original signatures of
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CAPTAIN MARK ANTHONY DE WOLF. (1720)
Mark anth? D'wolf -
De Wolf was clerk of the privateer Prince Charles of Lorraine in 1744.
From the De Wolf genealogy
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both Will Cornell and William Cornell in the list), Thomas Tarpey, Richard Smith, Morris Poor, Thomas Goodman, Richard White, James Filey (Filee), Jacob Benion, William Preston, Caleb Jetters (signed Affers) Daniel Macfee, Peter McDaniel, Elias Ayrault, Jack Wickham, Newport Jepson, Closh Brown, Cudjoe Nichols, Cuff Ayrault, Deptford Nixon, Edward Almy, Daniel Bridges, Thomas Doughty, Patrick Herring, James Kearney, Nicholas Otis, William Brown, Henry Freeborn, Jandy Forlindy, Oliver Arnold, Nicholas Paris, Daniel Vaughn, Henry Pratt, Thomas Warren, Perkins Chace, Thomas Cranston, John Axton, John Levigne, John Wood, Andrew Watson, Thomas Griffith, Nathaniel Partridge, Sharper Robinson, Samuel Hunt and William Cornell. Clement Stanton was master of the Caesar on this cruise.
The Caesar continued to cruise in Cuban waters after the escape of the vessel flying French colors, and on July 17 captured a small Spanish sloop. On the next day, June 18, I744, about twelve leagues east of The Havana, the Caesar fell in with a Spanish snow of about 200 tons, the Senora de la Rosara, Don Juan Gonsales Valdes, master. She was a new vessel that had been launched the day the Caesar sailed from Newport late in the autumn of 1743. The Senora de la Rosara had been built at the river Sina, and originally mounted 16 large carriage guns, but had been captured by H. M. S. York at Porto Bello and her guns removed. She was ransomed for a large figure, one account says 70,000 pieces-of-eight, or dollars as they were also called, and still had on board 2200 scroons of cocoa (150 tons Guayqui cocoa), 80 scroons of Jesuits bark, 4600 pieces-of-eight, 7 negro slaves and some "loose plunder", a cargo that it was estimated would net 48 pieces-of-eight per share. According to the "Boston News-Letter", "she is much the best prize brought in here (Newport) this war". There were several merchants and gentlemen among the prisoners
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taken, which numbered in all over 90. Captain Griffith gave to these prisoners a small sloop, that he had taken the day before, and allowed them to proceed to The Havana on their parole of honor to redeem and release as many English prisoners there. The "News-Letter" comments: "Which is rather to be mentioned to his just praise, because our privateers have heretofore been strangely careless of their unfortunate country- men, or so many of them needed not to have languished so long in captivity." The Caesar, after a cruise of about eight months, arrived at Newport on July 8, 1744, with eight prison- ers, that Captain Griffith brought with him to Newport for legal purposes, and the prize snow, the Senora de la Rosara, arrived that evening.
The Caesar, Captain Griffith, went on another cruise in the autumn, but did not meet with much success. She captured only two prizes, and these were of no great value. Seven of her crew were blown up during an engagement with a Spanish privateer, and 35 of the crew were impressed into His Majesty's service by an English man-of-war. The Caesar, returning, arrived at Newport on November 8, 1744.
Privateersmen suffered greatly from impressment by men- of-war. Captain Kidd's now famous expedition was ruined by this means, and throughout this period it was the bête-noir of sailors, sea-captains and ship-owners. The press-gangs, however, were not always successful. Late in 1743, an English man-of-war sailed down from Antigua to St. Kitts to impress seamen from the privateers, which made that island a rendezvous. The English captain sent this ship's barge ashore to impress the men, but the privateersmen, being about 1000 strong, overpowered the press-gang as soon as they came ashore, seized the barge as a trophy and carried it into the middle of the town, where they filled it full of punch-good
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strong punch-and the whole town had one grand glorious celebration.
Thomas Hutchinson, (who was later governor), on behalf of the Province of Massachusetts, went to Newport and chartered the privateer snow Caesar from her owners, Philip Wilkinson and Daniel Ayrault, Jr. She was to be used in the secret expedition against Louisbourg, and Hutchinson so en- thused the Newporters with Governor Shirley's ideas, that some of the wealthy Newport merchants got together and subscribed £8000 towards the hire of the Caesar for this pur- pose. John Griffith was retained as captain of the Caesar, and most of her old crew continued in the service.
The following is a list of those who served on the snow Caesar in 1745 in the Louisbourg Expedition: Capt. John Griffith, Lieut. Clement Stanton, Second Lieut. William Sandford, Master Benjamin Langworthy, Doctor Anthony Wigneron, Mate Robert Bridges, Captain's Quartermaster Ezekiel Fox, Gunner Peter McDaniel, Carpenter Thomas Sargent, Boatswain Thomas Griffith, Second Mate Samuel Wilburn, Pilot Abijah Wheeler, Pilot Adonirum Griffen, Carpenter's Mate Richard Burke, Doctor's Mate Nicholas Otis, Boatswain's Mate Daniel Macfee, Joseph Keys, Peter Delaport, Edward Smith, William Armstrong, Samuel Hunt, Thomas Cranston, Benjamin Dring, Jonathan Sabin, Junr., George Lacoton, William Whitehead, George Sawyer, John Nichols, John Durrent, Benjamin Trim, Peter Crandol, Joseph Crandol, Edmund Stacey, Arnold Lacoton, Zadock Bradford, Thomas Nash, Peter Brown, Youghl Sargent (servant), John Niles, Benjamin Paine, Daniel Cavanaugh, Israel Hubbard, Joseph Man, Robert Tucker, Jafry Sharnon (servant), Philip Steward, Robert Lunday, John Bagley and Nehemiah Ward.
The Caesar was ordered to Cape Ann in February, and on
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