The Capture of the Blue Mountain Valley

By the start of 1776, the Continental Army had surrounded the British Army in Boston and invaded Canada. One of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution had been fought at Breed’s Hill (Battle of Bunker Hill) outside of Boston. Rebelling Americans were also growing increasingly bold in their attacks on vulnerable British ships.

The Blue Mountain Valley was a 100-foot British vessel that had sailed as part of a 24-ship convoy from London to Boston to supply the British Army camped there. The heavily-loaded vessel broke its rudder and was blown off course during a storm and made landfall on January 18 near Egg Harbor. It trudged north on the Jersey shore until it grounded, six miles south of Sandy Hook.

On January 21, 1776, the pilot at Sandy Hook, William Dobbs, ferried a few men from the ship to shore at the request of the ship’s captain, Dempster. The sailors headed for New York to alert the HMS Asia, the largest British warship anchored at New York at the time. Dobbs had already sent a boat ahead of the sailors to alert the New York Committee of Safety about Blue Mountain Valley and its vulnerable position.

That same day, the New York Committee of Safety, considered the matter. It recorded that a militia major in the city had “apprehended a certain Joseph Woolcombe” from the ship and “had also apprehended Capt. William Dobbs, the pilot, who had brought him on shore.” The guard had searched Woolcombe “and had found in his custody five letters” from British officers.

Woolcombe was interrogated and gave a lengthy deposition. He admitted that Blue Mountain Valley was “engaged to proceed to Boston with a Cargo for the Use of the King's Troops.” He described the ship’s cargo:

The Cargo consisted of one hundred & twenty chaldron of Sea Coal, one hundred Butts of Porter, ten pipes of Sour Crout, between two and three hundred Sacks of Potatoes, Eighty live hogs, with a number of Sacks of Horse beans to feed the said Hogs.

Woolcombe narrated the ship’s difficult voyage, including the loss of its rudder in a violent storm, the loss of its potable water due to “leaky” casks, and its grounding near Sandy Hook. Woolcombe described Dobbs, the resident pilot at Sandy Hook, coming aboard and arguing with Captain Dempster about whether the ship signaled for his services. Dobbs eventually agreed to take Woolcombe and two other sailors to New York in a skiff. During this trip, Dobbs refused Woolcombe’s request to bring the sailors to British warship, Asia, anchored at the city. Woolcombe stated:

On their Passage up to the City of New York from the said Ship the Deponent asked the said Dobbs whether he could not put him on board the Asia Ship of War, to which the said Dobbs answered, that he would not do it for a hundred pounds further saying, “Do you think I'll betray my Country?”

Woolcombe’s deposition, slightly abridged, is in the appendix of this article.

Though exonerated, Dobbs was also examined. He provided information about the ship. Dobbs denied helping the British, saying “he did not promise to put said Woolcombe on board of one of the ships of war, but only promised to bring him to the city.”

On January 22, the New York Committee of Safety, knowing that the Blue Mountain Valley was in New Jersey waters, alerted New Jersey’s top Continental Army officer, Lord Stirling (William Alexander). The New Yorkers warned Stirling that the vessel had six cannon and a crew of at least 20 men. Apparently not believing Woolcombe’s testimony, they also suggested to Stirling that the ship was heavily loaded with ammunition. The Council of Safety concluded, “It would greatly serve the public cause if she could be seized.”

The Committee wrote Stirling again. They warned him that the British warship, Asia, had sent “a pilot boat with mariners and marines to the relief of the transport ship at the Hook.” The Committee wrote:

My Lord ー This minute the captains of the men of war have taken a pilot boat, and sent her down towards the Hook with mariners and marines on board from 20 to 25 in number. If your party goes to secure the ship, they should secure the pilot boat first; or, in our opinion, there should be two or more boats with men, to contain at least 50 or more men in the whole, otherwise they may fail of success.

Stirling responded quickly. With 40 Continental Army volunteers, he left in a pilot boat from Perth Amboy; they were soon joined by 80 more volunteers from the Essex and Middlesex County militias in several small boats. One of those volunteers, a man named William Marriner, would go on to lead a number of successful maritime raids against British shipping between 1778 and 1780. Together, the motley flotilla headed for the stranded ship.

The New York Committee of Safety, knowing that the ship was in New Jersey waters, alerted New Jersey’s top Continental Army officer, Lord Stirling (William Alexander). The New Yorkers warned Stirling that the vessel had six cannon and a crew of at least 20 men. They also suggested that it was heavily loaded with ammunition. The Council of Safety concluded, “It would greatly serve the public cause if she could be seized.”

Stirling, with 40 Continental Army volunteers, left in a pilot boat from Perth Amboy; they were soon joined by 80 more volunteers from the Essex County militia in several small boats. One of those volunteers, a man named William Marriner, would go on to lead a number of successful maritime raids against British shipping between 1778 and 1780. Together, the motley flotilla headed for the stranded ship.

Stirling’s small boats were mistaken for British boats (antiquarian accounts suggest they were mistaken for fishing vessels) by Captain Dempster. So, Blue Mountain Valley did not fire upon Stirling’s boats as they rowed closer. The New Jerseyans came up on the ship and climbed aboard. Stirling’s men were too numerous to be resisted by the small crew of the Blue Mountain Valley. “We boarded her and took her without opposition,” Stirling would report.

Stirling’s timing was fortunate. According to historian Donald Shomette, a boat with 15 men from the HMS Phoenix was on its way to help Blue Mountain Valley when Stirling boarded the vessel. One antiquarian narrative of the capture also suggests that Blue Mountain Valley had just floated off a sandbar when Stirling’s party arrived; the vessel might have escaped with just a little more time.

Stirling reported to the Continental Congress that the Blue Mountain Valley carried: “107 tons of coal, 100 butts of porter, 15 tons of potato, 112 tons of bean, 10 casks of sour krout [sic] and 8 hogs.” He predicted that more British vessels would seek to supply the British and recommended stationing “four or six small vessels” near Sandy Hook to pick them off. This did not happen, but the state of New York would soon assign two sloops to cruise the New Jersey shoreline.

Captain Dempster also provided an account of the capture of the Blue Mountain Valley. He wrote:

They fitted out four vessels, about sixty men each, about 200 men, an overmatch as you may easily believe for a ship of four small guns, and sixteen hands after twelve weeks at sea, and hardly able to keep the ship from sinking. When the vessels made their appearance, I took from the vessels they [were] from the men-of-war, the officer commanding the party being dressed in the uniform of a Lieutenant of the Navy, and I did not then know my mate had been taken prisoner. They boarded the ship and carried her for about ten or twelve miles up a river from which two of the King's ships lay in a place called Elizabethtown, making a prize of the ship and cargo and myself a prisoner on parole.

Stirling’s time off Sandy Hook also exposed him to something troubling – he apparently witnessed locals and Loyalists illegally traveling to British naval vessels in New York Harbor. He wrote: “Attempts have been made in this Province to break through the prohibition ordered by Congress to the shipping of lumber and provisions [to the British]. I have taken every step in my power to prevent it, and have laid the whole proceedings before the Convention of this Province.” Curbing illegal trade and emigration between the Monmouth shore and British interests would remain a problem for the next seven years.

On January 29, the New Jersey Provincial Congress affirmed the seizure of the Blue Mountain Valley as legal, and the Continental Congress concurred two weeks later. The capture of the Blue Mountain Valley was reported in New York and Philadelphia newspapers. Word of the capture spread--even the Virginia Gazette in far off Williamsburg noted the capture.

The cargo of Blue Mountain Valley was sold at Elizabethtown on March 18. The British retaliated, if half-heartedly. On March 26, boats from the HMS Phoenix came into Elizabeth harbor. They re-took a small British vessel, Lady Gage (now the property of Stirling) and set fire to Blue Mountain Valley. But locals rallied to defend the harbor and the fires were extinguished after the British withdrew.

The Blue Mountain Valley was the third British ship taken off the Monmouth shore; the British Navy would soon increase in strength and take American ships along the New Jersey shore.

Related Historical Sites: Sandy Hook Lighthouse

Sources: Calendar of New York Historical Transcripts, (Albany, NY: privately printed, 1868) vol. 1, 220; Benson Lossing, Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution (reprint: Kessinger Publishing, NY, 2006) v1, p328-9; David Paul Nelson, The Life of William Alexander - Lord Stirling (Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama Press, 1987) p71; Peter Force, American Archives, (Force and Clarke: Washington, DC, 1837) Series 4, vol. 4, 1064; New Jersey State Archives, Dept of Defense, Military Records, Revolutionary War Copies, box 28, #6; "Peter Force, American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-6 (digitized: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/amarch/find.doc.html), v3: p 867; Donald Shomette, Privateers of the Revolution: War on the New Jersey Coast (Shiffer: Atglen, PA, 2015); Larry R. Gerlach, Prologue to Independence: New Jersey in the Coming of the Revolution (New Brunswick, N.J., 1976), p 304; Coldham, comp., American Loyalist Claims (Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1980), p 9;  Franklin Kemp, The Capture of Enemy Vessels by Ground Troops in New Jersey 1775 – 1783, (privately printed: Egg Harbor, NJ), p 19; National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 179, item 162, #384; Virginia Gazette, February 10, 1776; Fehlings, Gregory E. “ 'Act of Piracy': The Continental Army and the Blue Mountain Valley,” New Jersey History vol. 115, 1997, pp. 61-6; Peter Force, American Archives, (Force and Clarke: Washington, DC, 1837) Series 4, vol. 4, P851; Library of Congress, NY Gaz & Weekly Mercury, reel 2904; Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, p 39 note; Peter Force, American Archives,  v4: 913.