Loyalists and American Prisoners Fish Off Sandy Hook

Today, the waters off Monmouth County contain only a small fraction of the fish and shellfish that inhabited the same waters during the Revolutionary War. Based on surviving documents, the most important fishery on the Jersey Shore was “the Shrewsbury Banks” near Shrewsbury Inlet (which connected the Shrewsbury River with the ocean). Johann Schoef, a German naturalist, visited Sandy Hook and Raritan Bay in 1783. While he complained of the mosquitoes, he was impressed by the quantity of seafood readily available. He wrote of the oysters:

Often oysters climb so high on the beach, clinging to stones, roots of trees, &c. that at ebb-tide they are for many hours exposed quite to the air. Oysters are eaten raw, broiled on coals, baked with fat and in other ways; they are also dried, pickled, boiled in vinegar, and so preserved and transported.

Schoef also wrote about shellfish; he was concerned that it dropped precipitously during the war:

These waters furnish for the kitchen the Lobster... and crab. Before the war, lobsters were numerous, but for some years have been seldom seen. The fishermen's explanation was that the lobster was disturbed by the many ships' anchors and frightened by the cannon fire.

There is also abundant evidence that the Shrewsbury Banks contained a significant fishery. A traveler to Sandy Hook, Adam Gordon, discussed the bountiful waters in 1765: “Behind the Hook when at sea, you make the Highland of Neversink… One may catch good sea bass and black fish aplenty, with ground bait.” A March 1784, the Pennsylvania Gazette advertised the sale of a 120-acre estate a Long Branch, noting the productivity of local waters:

It [the estate] is directly opposite and within a mile of the great banks which supply the city of New York with black fish, sea bass and cod in such abundance, and the Jersey fishing-boats bring their fish to the very landing of this place.

Whig and Loyalist fishermen found eager buyers for their catch, but the British, penned into the garrison city of New York, were particularly dependent on the Sandy Hook fishery. For example, in July 1778, Lt. Colonel John Morris, commanding a Loyalist battalion stationed on Sandy Hook, tolerated a deserter from his unit living amongst his men because the deserter, Jacob Wood, was supplying the officers with fresh fish taken from the local waters.

The Dangers of Fishing Off the Shrewsbury Banks

By 1779, fishermen on both sides faced the danger of capture when fishing near Sandy Hook. John Burrowes, a Continental Army captain serving at Middletown Point in April 1779, discussed the insecurity of Whig fishermen, “The oystermen will not go out for fear of the enemy, a King's galley yesterday drove all the fishermen off the shore & lays there yet." Two months later, a Pennsylvania ship captain named Doane beached on Sandy Hook but avoided capture because he “prevailed upon the [Loyalist] fishermen to land him in New Jersey."

In 1780, James Mott, Jr., son of a New Jersey Assemblyman captured by Loyalists, sought a prisoner exchange—his father for Richard Reading who was “taken not many days ago, off the banks while afishing." A month later, Colonel Elias Dayton wrote George Washington of a plan to gain intelligence about the British fleet at Sandy Hook by sending spies "to follow the fishing [boats] to Sandy Hook until he gets thorough knowledge of every obstruction.” Meanwhile, Colonel David Forman wrote Washington of an American privateer sailing with London Trading and fishing boats at Sandy Hook:

On Monday last, a privateer laying under Long Island, found by means of her situation & her English colours to introduce herself unsuspectful amidst fifteen of the trading vessels from Shrewsberry to New York - they was on a general fish party on the banks of the Shrewsberry.

Throughout spring 1781, the Loyalist New York City Chamber of Commerce and the British Admiral commanding at New York, Marriott Arbuthnot, exchanged letters about manning a war galley to protect the Loyalist fishermen on the Shrewsbury Banks. Arbuthnot offered a vessel, but, due to confused communications, the Chamber of Commerce did not initially acknowledge it. In May, Isaac Lowe of the Chamber of Commerce promised to man the vessel if Arbuthnot would again make it available:

If your Excellency will be so good as to furnish-a proper vessel, with provisions and ammunition, to protect the fishermen on the banks of Shrewsbury, for the benefit of this market, the Chamber of Commerce will cheerfully exert their endeavors and they doubt not they will be able, in a short time, not only to procure as many men as your Excellency may think sufficient for that purpose.

It is unknown if this vessel ever put to sea.

Throughout 1781 and 1782, the daring privateer, Adam Hyler made a number of descents among the fishing boats near Sandy Hook. Two examples are offered below. The Loyalist New York Gazette reported on May 29, 1782 that:

Mr. [Adam] Hyler paid a visit to our fishing boats last Saturday and took three boats and a prize, inward bound, without [the Hook]; he was pursued by an armed vessel dispatched from one of his Majesty's ships, which obliged him to run the prizes ashore.

A Loyalist newspaper reported that on June 19, "a number of fishing boats were just on the eve of being captured on the bank's by Hyler's boats; but luckily the Lark, privateer, inward bound, saved them from being convoyed to Middletown, & c." The actions of Hyler and, no doubt, others prompted a British officer to plead for greater protection of local fishermen to British Governor General James Robertson. Robertson was asked to "encourage fishermen to take fish to supply the garrison" by protecting them, so that they are not "annoyed by the privateers and whaleboat men.”

Hyler’s privateer peers at New Brunswick, including Jacob Story, were also active off Sandy Hook. 

William Corlies, formerly of Shrewsbury, went over two New York in January 1781 and operated two London Trading vessels. In 1782, he admitted to London Trading with two other disaffected Monmouth Countians, Richard Hartshorne and William Salter. Corlies discussed the terms of his release:

I was taken a prisoner in Sandy Hook Bay by Captain Story of an American whaleboat and lost most of my property - he ransomed the sloop & I was employed several weeks going back and forth to Woodbridge, settling the ransom money.

Hyler, on some occasions, also ransomed captured Loyalists and released them on Sandy Hook.

American Prisoners Fish the Shrewsbury Banks

By June 1782, the British were making conciliatory gestures toward the Continental government. However, American prisoners continued to be held in New York Harbor on horrid, overcrowded prison ships (on which hundreds of Americans died from disease and malnutrition). Adequately provisioning these prisoners was a genuine challenge for the British—as New York was a garrison city unable to adequately feed its own loyal citizens, much less thousands of prisoners.

An idea was proposed to let some prisoners provision themselves by fishing the Shrewsbury Banks. On June 12, 1782, Abraham Skinner, the Commissary of Prisoners for the Continental Government, wrote the Continental Congress:

I am solicited by our Board of Prisoners at New York and the British Commissary to obtain permission for a boat to fish on the banks near Sandy Hook on the New Jersey coast. This boat they propose to man by some of the prisoners on board the prison ships and other places they are confined.

Skinner noted that the prisoners needed a fishing boat. Accordingly, “the British commissary has also proposed to purchase within our lines a quantity of wood for which he will pay cash and it shall be for the use of the prisoners solely."

Two weeks later, the War Office of the Continental Congress directed George Washington to permit fishing off the banks of Sandy Hook for the benefit of the prisoners. They told Washington that “our marine prisoners in New York… might be permitted to fish on the banks near Sandy Hook for their benefit.” To do this, a British commissary would need to “purchase wood for the use of our prisoners, within our lines, where it can be procured much cheaper than with the enemy, and will enable him to afford the prisoners a greater supply.”

Washington was requested to support the plan:

The distressed situation of those prisoners--the little probability there is that all of them will soon be liberated, and the necessity we are under not only to do every thing in our power to alleviate their sufferings but to convince them that they are the objects of our attention; in order to reconcile them as much as possible to the miseries of a Loathsome confinement, until they can be exchanged.

While Congress supported the plan, it also apparently worried that supplies purchased in New Jersey to be shipped to New York could devolve into a London Trading scheme—indeed, ingenuous schemes were underway to do exactly that. Therefore, Congress asked Washington to “suspend it [sending wood to New York] whenever he finds that it is injurious or does not answer the good purposes intended." On July 1, James Madison, serving in Congress, penned a report "Respecting a Supply of the Marine Prisoners of Fish & Fuel," further supporting the proposal.

There is no record of the fishing vessel(s) that the prisoners built. But because there is no documentation of the plan being halted, it is probable that the prisoners did build at least one boat and put to sea. Soon, Loyalist departures to Canada would at least partially relieve food shortages in New York. Nonetheless fishing the Shrewsbury Banks remained a dangerous activity—as clashes between British and American vessels continued off Sandy Hook into 1783.

Caption: Small boats like this one fished the “Shrewsbury Banks” off Sandy Hook. In June 1782, the British permitted American prisoners to fish the banks to bring food to the horrid prison ships.

Related Historic Site: Sandy Hook Lighthouse

Sources: Alfred Morrison, Travels in the Confederation, 1783-4, (Philadelphia: Joseph Campbell, 1911) p 15-9; Gordon’s account is in Newton Mereness, Mereness's Travels in the American Colonies, (Carlisle, MA: Applewood, 1916) p453; Pennsylvania Gazette, March 17, 1784; Charles Todd, Whale Boat Privateersmen of the American Revolution, p180; John Burrowes to Lord Stirling, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 57, April 5, 1779; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, June 23, 1779, Pennsylvania Evening Post; Isaac Lowe, letter, John Stevens, Colonial Records of the Chamber of Commerce of New York, 1768-1784 (New York: John F. Trow, 1867) p 285; James Mott to Asher Holmes, John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany, 4 vols, Genealogical Publishing Co, 1970, v4, p90, 117; Elias Dayton to George Washington, June 1780, Monmouth County Historical Association, Diaries Collection, box 2, John Stillwell's Diary (photocopy); David Forman to George Washington, Monmouth County Historical Association, Diaries Collection, box 2, John Stillwell's Diary (photocopy); Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, May 29, 1782, reel 2906; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, June 19, 1782, reel 2906; Abraham Skinner to Congress, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 162, item 149, vol. 1, #433; Journals of the Continental Congress, June 28, 1782, American Memory, Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hlawquery.html; the narrative of William Corlies in is Library of Congress, Revolutionary War Prize Cases, M162, reel 1, cases 91-2, David Forman v. Nathan Jackson;  Report, July 1, 1782, The Papers of James Madison (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977) vol. 4, pp. 380-1.