British Counter-Attack American Privateers Off Sandy Hook

Prior articles have discussed the rise of privateering along the Jersey shore starting in 1778. American attacks on British shipping climaxed in 1779 and 1780 when New England privateers, often in small packs, hovered outside of Sandy Hook and took dozens of British ships. In spring 1780, New York-based Loyalist privateers scored some victories against small New Jersey ships and boats. Further, the British navy, though spread too thin to chase off the privateers, also scored victories against a few larger privateers.

HMS Galatea and Vulture Attack Privateers

In spring 1780, British frigates based at Sandy Hook, came outside the Hook to engage American privateers. In May 1780, the Connecticut Journal reported an April 13 incident off Manasquan:

A few days ago, the privateer brig Rattlesnake, from Boston, on a cruize, was drove ashore on Squan beach by a British frigate from New York. As soon as she struck, and the guns were thrown overboard, 33 of the hands determined to make their escape by swimming but unfortunately, three were drowned. In the interim, the brig, by the swelling of the tide and the wind setting on shore, drifted inside the bar, by which means the remainder of the crew, except one, got on shore before the enemy reached the vessel. On taking possession, they [the British] plundered and set fire to her.

The New York Royal Gazette, on April 19, reported on three incidents close to Sandy Hook:

Last Saturday, a rebel brig privateer of 8 guns and 52 men was driven ashore about a half a mile from the Light House at Sandy Hook by his Majesty's ship Galatea; the crew are now prisoners and the vessel will probably be saved.

The report continued with two other actions, one being the Rattlesnake (discussed above) and the other being the ship, Blacksnake, “the same day was driven ashore on Deal Beach, 12 miles off the Hook, another rebel privateer brig, by his Majesty's ship Vulture.” It was noted that these two privateers “sailed in company with two [other] privateers."

The report concluded by noting one additional action.

A rebel privateer was driven ashore near Sandy Hook by the Galatea. The crew, consisting of six officers and forty-five men, fitted [sic?] their vessel and attempted escape into the country; but being observed by the officer commanding at the Light House, a detachment was immediately sent in pursuit under Lt. [Samuel] Leonard, by whose address and gallant behavior the whole were made prisoners.

Leonard was an officer in the New Jersey Volunteers, a Loyalist corps of the British Army that camped on Sandy Hook to defend the lighthouse and peninsula.

Word of the beached privateers spread quickly and reached William Marriner, the daring privateer of the Raritan Bay. Marriner loaded a crew into a whaleboat and rowed outside Sandy Hook and down the shore to the stranded Blacksnake, which he reached on April 20. Within sight of the Vulture, Marriner’s men moored themselves to the privateer and quietly climbed on board. They floated the vessel and sailed off. That evening, at 5:00, they came upon the Loyalist privateer Morning Star, under Captain Robert Campbell, with four swivel guns and 33 men. Marriner made for the ship and grappled onto it. After an “obstinate” fight, Marriner’s men took the Loyalist vessel and brought both vessels into Little Egg Harbor. The fifty-two prisoners taken from the two vessels were taken overland to prison in Philadelphia, and New Jersey’s admiralty courts would condemn both prizes to Marriner.

The Attack on the Arterial

The best-documented action off New Jersey in spring 1780 was the near-capture of the British ship, Arterial, carrying the Army’s mail. The Connecticut Gazette and Boston’s Independent Ledger reported on the May 23 incident:

Yesterday, returned into port [New London] from a cruize, the Hancock, Experiment and Young Beaver privateers. Last Tuesday, the above privateers, in company with the Holker of Philadelphia, fell in the Arterial, a packet commanded by Charles Newman, mounting 20 guns, at which time, the ship being near the east point of Sandy Hook, run ashore, by which they [the privateers] carried off the mail. The prize would soon have been got off, but the fleet coming out of the Hook the next morning, the privateers were obliged to flee, taking out a few articles.

The Virginia Gazette published a June 17 report from New Jersey that adds some additional details on the incident:

We learn that four privateers, three of them belonging to New London, on Wednesday last, drove a copper-bottomed ship ashore on Long Island beach six miles from Sandy Hook; she mounted 22 nine pounders and by some papers found on board proves to be the London packet, from Falmouth.

The report stated that Arterial had a 55-man crew. While the privateers had to give up the prize when British frigates sailed toward them, the privateers “escaped with the mail.”

Christopher Prince, a Connecticut privateer sailor, confirmed the reports. He wrote in his autobiography: "sailed in Hancock, which, along with Experiment, Young Beaver, and Holker, chased Arterial, a twenty gun packet, on shore near Sandy Hook on May 23."

The Cruise of the HMS Eagle

There may only be a single British naval source that documents the spring 1780 crackdown on privateers along the Jersey shore. Captain Henry Duncan of the HMS Eagle recorded his sail down the Jersey shore, starting from Sandy Hook on May 27. He recorded that "I was sent along the Jersey shore to endeavor to pick up two privateers said to be on the coast." He spotted the vessels the next day:

In the morning, I saw a sloop & a schooner & gave chase; drove them both close to the beach; they then separated, the sloop [carrying 12 cannon], by far the larger, went before the wind to the northward; chased her but she kept close to shore. When I found she would not quit, we drove her on shore; the people [privateer sailors] dropped from the bowsprit into the water and got to shore; the sea broke all over her & I suppose she will not get off again. One of our boats stood in close for her, [but] was fired at by the people on shore; called her off.

Surviving documents do not reveal whether the British counter-attacks on American privateers in spring 1780 were part of a deliberate strategy to retake the waters outside of Sandy Hook or were merely the byproduct of a temporary increase in British naval strength. In either event, the spike in British activity proved temporary and American privateers again were attacking British shipping with impunity by the end of the summer.

Caption: British frigates were uncommon at Sandy Hook later in the war, but a few frigates were based at Sandy Hook in spring 1780. They took several American privateers during a temporary offensive.

Related Historic Site: Connecticut River Museum

Sources: Connecticut Journal, May 4, 1780; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, p 308; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/B/Black%20Snake%20Rhode%20Island%20Schooner%20%5bCarr%20Pierce%20French%5d.html; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 70; Henry Duncan, The Naval Miscellany: The Journals of Henry Duncan, vol. 1 (London: Navy Records Society, 1909) p 192.