Loyalists Seek to Defend Waters Off Sandy Hook

Early in the Revolutionary War, the British military easily turned aside any threats to their base and ships at Sandy Hook (which they captured in April 1776). Troops at the lighthouse, backed by a guardship(s) anchored nearby, easily dispersed land-based attacks in June 1776 and March 1777. Fortifications constructed and troops deployed in July 1778 made Sandy Hook impervious to a landing by the marines in Admiral Charles Henri D’Estaing’s large French fleet.

However, by 1779 the British presence at Sandy Hook was dramatically weaker. Early in the war, the guardship was never less than a frigate and was frequently more than one ship. In 1779, with the British navy now fighting a global war that sapped its strength in New York, the guardship was often a sloop of war (less than half the guns of a frigate). Cannon were taken from Sandy Hook’s shore battery, and troop size dwindled down to a single under-strength company of New Jersey Volunteers. Loyalist irregular raiding parties camped at Sandy Hook intermittently, but did not greatly increase the peninsula’s security.

A collection of rebels successfully attacked Sandy Hook—including Captain John Burrowes of Middletown Point and Captain John Rudolph of Henry Lee’s Continental Army dragoons. A company of Loyalists was captured by a privateer on its way to Sandy Hook. On the ocean side of Sandy Hook, New England privateers took dozens of vessels coming in and out of New York. On the Raritan Bay side, local privateers such as William Marriner launched at least a dozen successful attacks against Loyalist vessels “London Trading” between New Jersey and New York. The large merchant ship, Britannia, and sloop of war, Alert, were taken in separate incidents.

Better Protecting Ships Near Sandy Hook

Loyalists were exasperated. In March 1781, the Board of Associated Loyalists, a British-tolerated paramilitary group, sought an armed boat to protect the waters around Sandy Hook without success on March 13 and March 20. Details on their attempts to gain a vessel are not revealed. The Associated Loyalists would continue trying to purchase vessels for the next six months before finally succeeding in doing so in September.

Isaac Lowe, chairing the New York City Chamber of Commerce, also believed an armed boat was needed to better protect London trading vessels coming into Sandy Hook and fishing vessels off Shrewsbury Inlet (at present-day Sea Bright). On May 1, the Chamber wrote Marriott Arbuthnot, the admiral commanding the British navy in New York:

The best cruising ground for the enemy, perhaps in the whole world, is within sight of Sandy Hook… many stout privateers are fitting out in different rebel ports, and that unless effectual measures may be taken to defeat and blast their designs, very few vessels, except of great force, will get safe in or out of this port.

The Chamber called for:

A couple of last-failing frigates constantly to cruise between Delaware and Block island, and making the lighthouse at Sandy Hook once or twice a week, as the winds might permit, would effectually protect the trade at this port from all invaders.

Arbuthnot responded two days later:

I have just received the letter you have honored me with, pointing out the necessity of frigates being constantly employed in cruising off Sandy Hook, for the protection of the trade bound to this place, as well as for protecting the fishery upon the banks of Shrewsbury, and to prevent the rebel privateers from making such near approaches to this port as they have lately done, to which they are reported to have met with too much success.

The admiral further wrote that British "frigates have not only been cruising almost constantly off the bar, but between Montauk point and the Delaware ...I have detached cruisers off this part of the coast.”

Arbuthnot then discussed a prior offer to protect the Shrewsbury fishing banks:

With respect to the protection of the fishermen employed on the banks of Shrewsbury, for supplying your market, I cannot help mentioning to you, that early after I took the command on this station, I purchased a vessel, mounting 12 carriage-guns; she was fitted out at a considerable expense; I requested that the city would man her, that I would pay the men, and that her services should never be diverted to any other purpose than giving such protection. My offer was received with a strong degree of coolness.

Lowe did not reply for nearly a month. When he did, on May 28, he expressed ignorance regarding Arbuthnot’s prior offer of a boat to protect the fishing banks off Shrewsbury:

With regard to your Excellency's request to the city, to man a vessel for the protection of the fishery on the banks of Shrewsbury, the Chamber of Commerce beg to assure your Excellency, that no application was ever made to this corporation upon that subject; or, in all probability, they had taken it up with the same zeal which they doubt not your Excellency will admit they manifested to procure volunteers for manning his Majesty's ships under your command.

Lowe promised to man the gunboat 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, but also raise funds for paying them provided that they shall be discharged as soon as the fishing season is over.

It is unknown if Arbuthnot and Lowe ever put the discussed vessel to sea to protect the Shrewsbury shore. The Associated Loyalists nearly did so. On May 21, Daniel Coxe of the Associated Loyalists wrote:

You will please to inform the Board that there is now fitting out at this place three large whaleboats in order to protect the trade to you by cruising along the Jersey Shores from Cape May to the Hook, they are now ready to go down.

However, as noted above, it appears that these boats never put to sea (or may have put to sea and suffered quick capture rebel privateers). The Associated Loyalists, on July 20, had to again request a vessel from the British navy "to annoy the sea coast southward of Sandy Hook, and check the trade of the Delaware."

Meanwhile, the most successful Loyalist whaleboat, the vessel Trimmer, neared the end of its career. According to newspaper accounts in the Loyalist New York Gazette and the New Jersey Gazette, the Trimmer captured a New Jersey galley, Bulldog, and two small sloops on April 21, which it brought into Sandy Hook. This added to its impressive list of captures: "these three makes nine prizes brought into here by the Trimmer in the last month, besides the number destroyed."

However, the Trimmer soon met with disaster. On June 13, the New York Gazette, reported that the Trimmer, while returning back to New York, "was overset by means of a sudden gust of wind within sight of the Light House, by which melancholy incident 35 people drowned, the remainder of the crew taken up by some vessels near at hand." The newspaper further reported that “among the saved was Capt. Phillips, the vessel's master.” It appears that Phillips did not return to the dangerous work of privateering.

Efforts to Better Protect Sandy Hook Fizzle

For all of the letter-writing in spring 1781, there is no evidence that the British navy, the New York Chamber of Commerce, or the Associated Loyalists put a vessel to sea to protect the London Traders or fishermen of the Shrewsbury banks in spring 1781. Lowe again sought British protection for the Shrewsbury Banks fishermen in July 1782, writing the British Admiral:

The trade and fishery [off Sandy Hook?] are unprotected, and requesting that some means be pursued to encourage the fishermen to take fish and supply this garrison, and that its commerce may not be annoyed by the privateers and whale-boats that infest even the Narrows.

New England privateers continued to prowl the approaches to Sandy Hook and small New Jersey privateers, including the bold Adam Hyler, continued to pluck small vessels off Sandy Hook.

The Associated Loyalist vessels (the sloops Colonel Martin and Association, and the brig Sir Henry Clinton) that finally put to sea in September 1781 had undistinguished tenures. Newspapers do not attribute any captures to them. When the British finally sought to check Hyler and the Raritan Bay privateers in June 1782, their efforts were lampooned rather than feared. The Pennsylvania Freeman's Journal reported on June 19:

The enemy have a stout galley stationed near the mouth of the Raritan, and gun boat or two cruizing about the bay, who appear to do little more else then firing now and then upon such rebel oystermen and fishermen as venture too near them.

That same month, Congress approved a plan to provide wood and supplies to American prisoners held in New York to build a fishing boat if the British would permit the prisoners to fish the Shrewsbury Banks alongside Loyalist fisherman. It is unknown if his plan was ever fully-executed.

For short periods of time, such as May 1780, British fleets docked at New York and put ships on patrol on the Jersey shore. They took some prizes, and forced rebel privateers to back off. But, for long stretches in between, rebel vessels operated with impunity. The illegal trade between the Monmouth shore and New York was too profitable to be ended by the capture of some Loyalist vessels. London Traders knew the risks they were taking and enjoyed cooperation from locals along long stretches of the largely disaffected New Jersey shoreline. The capture of Loyalist fishermen engaged in peaceful activity, was that much more heart-wrenching for Loyalists. This is the subject of another article.

Caption: Isaac Lowe, Chairing the New York City Chamber of Commerce, sought a vessel to protect the waters outside of Sandy Hook in spring 1781. Neither he, nor the British, found a vessel to do this job.

Related Historic Site: New York City Chamber of Commerce (Manhattan, New York)

Sources: New York Chamber of Commerce of Marriott Arbuthnot, John Stevens, Colonial Records of the Chamber of Commerce of New York, 1768-1784 (New York: John F. Trow, 1867) pp. 255-81; S.W. to Daniel Coxe, John Austin Stevens, Magazine of American History, 1884, vol 11, p161; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; The Scots Magazine, v43, p 373-5; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Clements Library, Proceedings of the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists, March 1781 p. 8-13, August, p. 5, July p. 11, and September 1781, p. 5.