Winter Storms Drive Five Ships onto Monmouth Shore

As noted in prior articles, the British naval presence around New York City and Sandy Hook weakened so much in 1779 that privateers were able to prowl the sea-lanes to Sandy Hook with impunity and Continental Army parties under Captain John Burrowes and Major Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee were able to raid Sandy Hook without reprisal. In addition, the weakened British navy was unable to rescue British and Loyalist ships when they stranded on shore—a risk made worse by winter. On December 30, Monmouth Militia captured the Loyalist brig, Britannia, near present-day Keansburg after it broke anchor at Sandy Hook and was driven ashore near present-day Keansburg. Storms on January 6 and 12, 1780, would lead to four additional captures.

Shipwrecks from the January 6 Storm

A large storm on January 6 resulted in the capture of at least two vessels along Monmouth County’s shores. The American Journal of Providence, Rhode Island, reported about the January 6 storm on February 1. The newspaper reported:

We are informed that in the late snow storm, a large copper-bottomed brig of 20 guns and 120 men, belonging to the enemy, was drove ashore near Middletown Point, and about 80 of the men were taken prisoners, the rest having escaped in a boat; and that 20 hogshead of rum and 4 pipes of wine were found on board her. A British shore ship was also driven a shore at the same time.

The report suggested that a total of 40 British and Loyalists ships were rumored to have washed ashore along the New Jersey and New York coastlines during the same storm.

On January 10, Philadelphia's Christopher Marshall recorded on two shipwrecks on the Monmouth shore from the same storm:

A twenty four gun frigate in the last storm was lost off Middletown Point near Shrewsbury, and crews of which mostly escaped in boats to New York, [also] the forty gun ship was drive ashore near Egg Harbor; one hundred crew was found dead aboard, the remainder, sixty in number, where happily relieved.

Shipwrecks from the January 12 Storm

The Providence and Virginia Gazettes both reported on the January 12 storm. They carried identical reports written the day of the storm:

We have had accounts of vessels being drove ashore along the seacoast, in the late severe gales; but cannot find that any of them are to be depended upon, except that a brig of 12 guns, belonging to the enemy, is ashore near South Amboy, and a ship of 20 guns at Squan.

Colonel Lewis Nicola, at Egg Harbor, reported to Congress on January 16 about a third ship lost day: "It was reported that a 40 gun ship was said to be lost off Egg Harbor, supposed to be the Romley as she was said to be last of the fleet that went with Genl. Clinton on board."

Also on January 12, amidst the storm, Captain Peyton of Lee’s cavalry crossed the frozen Sandy Hook Bay in sleighs to raid the British base at Sandy Hook. The 40-man party achieved total surprise: capturing several men and $45,000 in counterfeit money at a house on Sandy Hook. They then burned three small ships before departing without any losses. This is the subject of another article.

The British Response

The British did not pursue Peyton’s raiders or seek to rescue any of the five vessels lost during the January the two storms. The British naval presence in New York City at this time is unknown, but it was likely underwhelming, as it was known that a British squadron had left the area in early January. The prominent Loyalist, William Smith, of New York wrote, with displeasure, on January 14 that "we hear of [privateer] vessels, some times 2 or 8, and once 13, appearing off the Hook, and going away again towards nights end." Smith noted that the iced-in British naval vessels were unable to pursue.

The non-response to the ships lost on January 6 and January 12, as well as the non-responses to Peyton’s raid on Sandy Hook, and the continued privateer provocations just outside of Sandy Hook demonstrate the weakness of the British navy forces in January 1780. It also demonstrates a surprising lack of preparation by the British for the severe cold weather that iced-in their few ships.

Even before reaching their nadir of power in January, it was understood that the British were much weaker. In October 1779, Colonel David Forman of Manalapan, who periodically went to the Navesink Highlands to observe the British navy at Sandy Hook, wrote "they are reduced to a position more to be pitied than feared." This is a stunning reversal considering that just two years earlier, British forces on the heavily fortified Sandy Hook (bristling with a dozen warships, a shore battery, fireships, and 1,500 troops) had faced down a massive French fleet that had sailed the Atlantic specifically to enter Sandy Hook.

Related Historic Site: New Jersey Shipwreck Museum

Sources: American Journal (Providence), February 10, 1780; Christopher Marshall, The Diary of Christopher Marshall (Amazon Digital Services, 2014) p 235; Virginia Gazette, January 29, 1780; Providence Gazette, February 12, 1780; Lewis Nicola to Congress, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 187, item 169, #191; Lewis Nicola to Congress, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, I63, Letters from General & Other Officers, p 188; William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith: From 26 August 1778 to 12 November 1783 (New York: Arno, 1971)  p 214; David Forman is quoted in Nathanael Greene, The Papers of General Nathanael Greene (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 1976) vol. 4, p 428.