History | |
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Name: | Charming Sally |
Fate: | Scuttled 14 August 1779 |
General characteristics | |
Tons burthen: | c.300 (bm) |
Sail plan: | Sloop |
Complement: | 70 |
Armament: | 18–22 × 6 &/or 9-pounder guns |
Charming Sally was a privateer in service with the Continental Navy in 1779, during the American Revolutionary War.
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. The commission, also known as a letter of marque, empowers the person to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war, including attacking foreign vessels during wartime and taking them as prizes. Historically, captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, with the proceeds divided between the privateer sponsors, shipowners, captains and crew. A percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission. Since robbery under arms was once common to seaborne trade, all merchant ships were already armed. During war, naval resources were auxiliary to operations on land so privateering was a way of subsidizing state power by mobilizing armed ships and sailors.
The Continental Navy was the navy of the United States during the American Revolutionary War, and was formed in 1775. The fleet cumulatively became relatively substantial through the efforts of the Continental Navy's patron John Adams and vigorous Congressional support in the face of stiff opposition, when considering the limitations imposed upon the Patriot supply pool.
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was an 18th-century war between Great Britain and its Thirteen Colonies which declared independence as the United States of America.
Previously a merchant ship, Charming Sally entered Continental Navy service when her master, Alexander Holmes, master, received a letter of marque on 27 January 1779. [1]
A letter of marque and reprisal was a government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or corsair, to attack and capture vessels of a nation at war with the issuer. Once captured, the privateer could then bring the case of that prize before their own admiralty court for condemnation and transfer of ownership to the privateer. A letter of marque and reprisal would include permission to cross an international border to effect a reprisal and was authorized by an issuing jurisdiction to conduct reprisal operations outside its borders.
Around 20 May, Charming Sally, the Massachusetts letter of marque Cadwallader, and the New Hampshire letter of marque Minerva sailed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with cargoes of lumber for the West Indies. [2] In early June the three encountered the British privateer Revenge, of some 24 carriage guns, Sheppard, master, which had left Halifax, Nova Scotia, some 12 days earlier. [Note 1] A two-hour engagement ensued, with Charming Sally bearing the brunt of the action. Revenge struck after she had five men killed and several wounded, and had sustained substantial damage. Charming Sally had lost one man killed and three men wounded. The three American ships then escorted their prize to Boston, where they arrived on 10 June. Charming Sally remained in Boston to refit, while her two companions resumed their journeys, only to have the British capture them later. [3]
Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 21,233, and in 2017 the estimated population was 21,796. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmouth was formerly the home of the Strategic Air Command's Pease Air Force Base, since converted to Portsmouth International Airport at Pease.
Halifax, formally known as the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), is the capital of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It had a population of 403,131 in 2016, with 316,701 in the urban area centred on Halifax Harbour. The regional municipality consists of four former municipalities that were amalgamated in 1996: Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, and Halifax County.
Charming Sally participated in the disastrous, for the Americans, Penobscot Expedition in July and was destroyed there to prevent her capture. [1] The American colonel John Brewer declared her "burnt and blown up". [4] As Sally, she is one of the 15 American vessels that Schomberg lists as having been scuttled on 14 August by their crews to avoid their being captured. [5]
The Penobscot Expedition was a 44-ship American naval task force mounted during the Revolutionary War by the Provincial Congress of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The flotilla of 19 warships and 25 smaller support vessels sailed from Boston on July 19, 1779 for the upper Penobscot Bay in the District of Maine carrying a ground expeditionary force of more than 1,000 colonial Marines and militiamen. Also included was a 100-man artillery detachment under the command of Lt. Colonel Paul Revere. The Expedition's goal was to reclaim control of what is now mid-coast Maine from the British who had seized it a month earlier and renamed it New Ireland. It was the largest American naval expedition of the war. The fighting took place both on land and at sea in and around the mouth of the Penobscot and Bagaduce Rivers at what is today Castine, Maine over a period of three weeks in July and August of 1779. One of its greatest victories of the war for the British, the Expedition was also the United States' worst naval defeat until Pearl Harbor 162 years later in 1941.
Notes
Citations
References
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.
Daniel Waters was an officer in the Continental Navy and in the United States Navy.
Samuel Tucker was an officer in the Continental Navy and the United States Navy.
Dudley Saltonstall (1738–1796) was an American naval commander during the American Revolutionary War. He is best known as the commander of the naval forces of the 1779 Penobscot Expedition, which ended in complete disaster, with all ships lost. Norton (2003) argues the Penobscot Expedition was a total failure due to poor planning, inadequate training, and timid leadership on the part of Saltonstall.
The Massachusetts Naval Militia, was a naval militia active during the American Revolutionary War was founded December 29, 1775, to defend the interests of Massachusetts from Great Britain's forces.
HMS Porcupine was a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1777 and broken up in 1805. During her career she saw service in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.
Tyrannicide was a 14-gun brigantine-rigged sloop of the Massachusetts State Navy. The ship was built for the American Revolutionary War and participated in commerce raiding until destroyed in the Penobscot expedition.
Rossie was a schooner launched at Baltimore in 1807. At the outbreak of the War of 1812 she became a privateer, operating under a letter of marque. She made two voyages, the first as a privateer, and the less successful second as a letter of marque. The British captured her in January 1813.
HMS Tapageur was the French privateer cutter Tapageur, launched in 1778 or 1779, possibly at Dunkirk. The British captured her in 1779, while she was operating out of Saint Malo. She wrecked a year later in the West Indies.
His Majesty's hired armed ship Prince William served the Royal Navy on two contracts, one during the French Revolutionary Wars and one during the Napoleonic Wars. She had been built in 1797, and was returned to her owners at the end of each contract.
The Hired armed ship London Packet served the Royal Navy from 31 March 1793 to at least 30 September 1800, and despite some records, apparently for a year or more beyond that. She was built in 1792, was of 191 tons burthen (bm), and was armed with ten 4-pounder guns.
The Action of 12 December 1779 was a minor naval engagement that took place in the Bay of Honduras during the Anglo-Spanish War between a British Royal naval Fourth-rate fifty gun ship and a fifty gun Spanish privateer.
Robert was a 16-gun French privateer corvette launched in 1793 at Nantes. The British captured her in 1793 and named her HMS Espion. The French recaptured her in 1794 and took her into service as Espion. The British recaptured her in 1795, but there being another Espion in service by then, the British renamed their capture HMS Spy. She served under that name until the Navy sold her in 1801. She then became a slave ship, whaling ship, and privateer again. The French captured her in mid-1805 and sent her into Guadeloupe.
HMS Barbuda was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1780 after having briefly served as an American privateer. Barbuda was one of the two sloops that captured Demerara and Essequibo in 1781, but the French Navy captured her there in 1782 and took her into service as Barboude. The French Navy sold her to private owners in 1786, and she served briefly as a privateer in early 1793 before the French Navy purchased her again and named her Légère. She served them until mid-1796 when the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service as HMS Legere. She was wrecked off the coast of Colombia, without loss of life, in February 1801.
HMS Diligent was a brig the Royal Navy purchased in 1777. The Continental Navy captured her in May 1779 and took her into service as the USS Diligent. She then participated in the disastrous Penobscot Expedition where her crew her crew had to scuttled her in August to prevent the British from capturing her.
Two vessels named His Majesty's hired armed lugger Sandwich served the British Royal Navy, one during the French Revolutionary Wars, and the other during the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Swallow was an 18-gun, Albatross-class, brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1795 and sold in 1802. During her naval career she captured a number of French privateers while on the Jamaica station. After her sale she became an armed whaler sailing under a letter of marque. As a privateer she captured two French whaling vessels but then is no longer listed after 1810.
Pursuit was launched at Whitby in 1795. She made two voyages for the British East India Company and then traded with the West Indies. She repelled one attack by a French privateer that caused severe casualties, but eventually an American privateer captured her in August 1812.
Princess of Wales was launched at Stockton in 1795. She made three voyages as an "Extra ship", i.e., under charter, for the British East India Company (EIC). On her return she became a West Indiaman. A privateer captured her in 1803 as she was coming back to England from Jamaica, but British privateers immediately recaptured her. She continued sailing to Jamaica though later, under a new owner, she traded more widely. She probably foundered in 1828, and is last listed in 1830.
The Raid on Annapolis Royal took place on 29 August 1781 during the American Revolutionary War. The raid involved two American privateers attacking and pillaging Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia to revenge the British destruction of the Penobscot Expedition. One historian described it as "one of the most daring and dramatic raids upon Nova Scotia."