New England Privateers Prey on Shipping at Sandy Hook

As discussed in prior articles, privateering along the New Jersey shore blossomed in the spring of 1778 when the British naval presence weakened, making ships coming to New York City vulnerable. In 1778, most of the privateers along the New Jersey shore were small Philadelphia vessels and boats manned by New Jersey militia. Privateers were, by nature, opportunists seeking the greatest possible prize at an acceptable level of risk. In New England, ship captains embraced privateering and went long distances to prey on British ships in Europe and the Caribbean. It was inevitable that New England privateers would prey on British ships bound for New York as well.

New Jersey historian, Franklin Kemp, counted the ships taken off the New Jersey shore during the Revolutionary War. He counted 194 prizes (of which 24 were shipwrecks taken by militia). Kemp’s tabulations are the most complete accounting of New Jersey’s Revolutionary War maritime events, but he did not review New England newspapers or have access to Internet-privateer datasets—rich sources of maritime incidents. So, Kemp’s work, while admirable, undercounts the number of captures and particularly undercounts New England privateer activity. This article seeks to fill that gap.

New England Privateers at Sandy Hook, 1777-1778

A few New England privateers were active off Sandy Hook as early as 1777; two maritime events are documented. Thomas Dunbar of Stonington, Connecticut recalled boarding the 14-gun privateer, Revenge, under Captain William Jager, and taking “the schooner Experiment, bound from N. York to Halifax & sent her into Mystic." However, the Revenge was soon captured by a larger British ship.

Captain Timothy Shaler of Connecticut, sailing in the Lion, was also active off the New Jersey shore in 1777. On April 17, he captured a supply ship, Hazard, with a cargo of coal, off Sandy Hook and towed the prize toward Egg Harbor. However, a British frigate, Mermaid, was dispatched from Sandy Hook and pursued Shaler. The privateer and her prize grounded in the shallows north of Egg Harbor (Stafford Township) where the Mermaid destroyed both vessels. In May, the Pennsylvania Journal advertised the sale of “the remains of the brigantine Hazard… captured by Captain Timothy Shaler" with 6 swivel guns, small arms and equipment, food stuffs. The Pennsylvania Evening Post advertised the sale of the wrecked Lion, "her hull and some spars & c. now lie on Long Beach" including, "eight excellent double fortified four pounders” and other combat-related materials.

In 1778, as in 1777, New England privateers were occasionally on the Monmouth shore. Captain Nathan Post sailing in the Revenge (probably a different vessel from Captain Jager’s above) captured two prizes near Sandy Hook in June 1778. One was carrying cargo of indigo and the second a cargo lumber—probably a London Trading vessel from New Jersey. The capture of these vessels was important enough to merit a report from General Philemon Dickinson, commanding the New Jersey militia, to George Washington. Dickinson wrote:

Two valuable Prizes were sunk into Toms River, two days ago, by a small New England Privateer, part of the Cargoes, consists of one hundred & fifty hogsheads Rum—this small Privateer within five weeks past, has taken Prizes, to the amount of, One hundred & fifty thousand pounds.

The other documented incident involving a New England privateer in 1778 is the confusing case of the sloop, Active, commanded by Gideon Olmstead. Olmstead captained a Connecticut sloop that went to Egg Harbor before sailing for Sandy Hook. On its way, it was intercepted and taken by a larger Loyalist vessel, Tyrol. However, Olmstead led an uprising against the four-man prize crew and claimed that he re-took his vessel. According to one of his men, Thomas Clark: “They succeeded in securing the [Loyalist] captain crew under the deck, and intended to run the sloop in Egg Harbour." However, because Active was still flying British colors, the Pennsylvania privateer Convention took it before she could reach Egg Harbor. The Pennsylvanians brought Active to Philadelphia as a prize. Olmstead and Captain Houston of the Convention engaged in years of litigation over the fate of the vessel.

Solomon Drowne, sailing on the Massachusetts privateer Hope, recalled capturing a snow loaded with rum from Jamaica as it neared Sandy Hook (the year of the incident is not stated):

She sails very heavy and Captain Munro is very sanguine in the belief we shall make a prize of her. There seems to be something awful in the preparation for an attack, and the immediate prospect of an action. She hauls up her English colours. I take my station where I remain not long before I hear the huzza on deck in conveyance of her striking [surrender]. Send our boat for her Captain and papers. She sailed from Kingston, Jamaica, upwards of 40 days since, in a fleet, and was bound for New York, Captain William Small commander. She has ten men on board and four excellent 4 pounders.

Hope towed the prize toward Egg Harbor, but then lost the prize: "About sunset, sail seen from the masthead which excites no small anxiety. Cast off the snow [to escape]."

New England Privateers at Sandy Hook, 1779

Starting in June 1779, a half-dozen of Connecticut privateers began regularly “cruising the lanes” into Sandy Hook. The New London privateer, Beaver (65 crew, 12 cannon) was the most prolific, taking seven prizes in 1779. Twice, Captain William Havens of the Beaver teamed up with other privateers to capture larger prizes, including the Otter on July 1 with a valuable cargo of Caribbean rum. In 1779, New England privateers, including vessels from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, took at least twenty prizes off Sandy Hook. Their activity was greater in 1779 than any other year. See chart 3.

The largest prize taken in 1779 was the 16-gun Belona, taken by the pairing of the Beaver and the Hancock. Three other times, two or three privateers combined to take a prize. But tandem attacks did not always work. On June 5, 1779, the Hancock (80 crew, ten cannon) teamed up with Oliver Cromwell, with a crew of 140 men and 18 cannon. They attacked the HMS Daphne 20 leagues from Sandy Hook, a vessel about the size of the Oliver Crowell. The privateers shot down one of Daphne’s masts, but the battle was then joined by two Loyalist privateers, Union and Delaware, which crippled and took the Oliver Cromwell. The Virginia Gazette reported:

The ship Oliver Cromwell, owned by the state of Connecticut, and the privateer Hancock, were cruising some leagues south of Sandy Hook, they fell in with three British cruising ships and a brig; one of the ships was a very fast sailor, and coming up with the Oliver Cromwell, they engaged for near two hours, in which time the Oliver Cromwell shot away the main top mast; but the other ships coming up she was obliged to strike [surrender] after making a gallant defence. The Oliver Cromwell mounts 20 guns and had about 130 men. The Ship which engaged her appeared to be larger, but her force we did not learn.

Massachusetts privateers also prowled the lanes into Sandy Hook. The Jason, under Captain Manley (120 men, 18 cannon) on June 23 came on the Hazard, a 16-gun Loyalist vessel approaching Sandy Hook. After a two-hour battle, Jason had one dead, three wounded; 30 were killed or wounded on the Hazard. A sailor on the Jason, Joshua Davis, recalled:

The Captain ordered the helm hard-a-port, which brought us alongside. Our Captain said 'fire away boys'. We gave them a broadside which tore off her side very much & killed & wounded some of them. The rest all ran below, except their Captain who stood on deck like a man amazed. Our Captain ordered Lt Frost to go out on the driver boom and get on board her, and send the Captain on board of us, and keep the prisoners below.

Captain Manley sent the prize back to Boston and then captured another vessel, Adventurer, immediately afterward, which it towed home. Davis described taking this second prize:

When we got disentangled [from the Hazard], we bore away for the other privateer that began to run from us. We gave her a few shot from our bow chasers... Our Captain told them to come aboard, they answered 'Our boat won't swim', our Captain answered 'Then sink in her. You shall come on board or I will fire into you.' They then came on board.

The surge of captured vessels fed the growing rift between Loyalist and British leaders. William Smith, Chief Justice of the Loyalist government in New York, wrote on August 14, 1779: “How scandalous is the conduct of the [British] Administration and the naval officers under them? The [Loyalist] privateers' business languishes and owners are selling out at a rate of six vessels in a week." He wrote of the New England privateers off Sandy Hook: "The rebels make this their cruising ground, and send several armed vessels in concert, there is a want of naval strength there."

By October, privateering off Sandy Hook lightened due to worsening weather and fewer vessels coming in. The Boston Independent Chronicle reported on the Beaver spending three weeks off Sandy Hook with “blowing weather almost the whole of the time,” but taking no prizes. The one opportunity to take a vessel was fouled by weather. Beaver “brought to a schooner which had been taken by the enemy, but it being very windy, and a large sea going, they could not board her."

New England Privateers at Sandy Hook, 1780 through War’s End

The first prize taken off Sandy Hook in 1780, was by Captain William Treen of Rhode Island. Sailing in the Black Snake, Treen captured the vessel Dispatch and towed her into Egg Harbor. However, on his next voyage, Treen was chased by the Royal Navy’s frigate, Galatea. Black Snake grounded on a sandbar off Deal. As the frigate sent a boarding party, Treen’s 33 sailors crowded into a boat that overset in the rough water. One account claims the men drowned; another claims the men made it to shore where they were taken by a guard of New Jersey Volunteers. The British took the vessel. Treen returned to Sandy Hook later in the war in the galley, Skunk, and took a number of small prizes.

The demise of the Black Snake was part of a larger campaign by the British navy to re-assert control of the sea lanes to Sandy Hook. On May 1, the Loyalist New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, reported on "the following prizes were brought in by his Majesty's ships Iris and Delaware, taken last week within a few leagues of Sandy Hook." This crackdown included taking at least seven privateers, including three with crews of 100 or greater. However, the crackdown (the subject of another article) did not last.

On May 17, the Royal Gazette reported that "a large ship from London for New York was captured off the Hook, after an obstinate action for four hours, by two New England privateers." Two days earlier, the Gazette & Weekly Mercury reported that privateer sloops were cruising the Sandy Hook lanes again and had taken at least one prize. Some of the prizes taken in 1780 were remarkable—as when Captain Elisha Hart, in the Connecticut privateer Retaliation, captured a small sloop transporting a company of Loyalist soldiers to Sandy Hook.

However, 1780 was the only year of the war where New England privateers lost more engagements (11) than they won (9). New England privateers were never again as successful as they were in 1779—though they continued to capture vessels into spring 1783, a year and a half after the British surrender at Yorktown “ended” hostilities.

The New England privateers were not alone. Philadelphia privateers were also active around Sandy Hook and the exploits of Yelverton Taylor and Stephen Decatur are discussed in other articles. Privateers from Baltimore and southern ports were also involved in a few actions off Sandy Hook. Raritan Bay privateers, such as William Marriner and Adam Hyler, also took several small prizes, as did Monmouth County militia.

New England privateers were also visitors on the Jersey shore. They purchased provisions and, on a few occasions, teamed with local militia in actions against London Traders and Pine Robbers. As discussed in other articles, Revolutionary War privateering changed the Jersey Shore Region—creating boomtowns at Little Egg Harbor and Toms River—and bringing people and capital to the shore as never before. New England privateers played a significant role in raising up this formerly sleepy and poor region.

Related Historic Site: Connecticut River Museum

Sources: Franklin Kemp, The Capture of Enemy Vessels by Ground Troops in New Jersey (-----) pp 16-7; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Thomas Dunbar of CT, www.fold3.com/image/#18457531; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/pl/Br/British%20Prizes%20April%201777/Experiment%20%5bunknown%5d%20%5bunknown%5d.html Pennsylvania Journal, May 14, 1777; PA Evening Post in William Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1970), vol. 9, p 179; Philemon Dickinson to George Washington, Philemon Dickinson to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 15, May–June 1778, ed. Edward G. Lengel. 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