HMS Vulture (1776)

Last updated

Atalanta (1775); Cygnet (1776); Hound (1776); Vulture (1776); Spy (1776); Hornet (1776); Alligator (1780). RMG J4431.jpg
Plans of the Vulture
History
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svgGreat Britain
NameHMS Vulture
Ordered30 October 1775
BuilderJohn and William Wells, Deptford
Laid downNovember 1775
Launched18 March 1776
CommissionedApril 1776
FateSold August 1802
General characteristics
Tons burthen3045894 bm
Length
  • 96 ft 9+12 in (29.5 m) (gundeck)
  • 79 ft 2 in (24.1 m) (keel)
Beam26 ft 10+34 in (8.2 m)
Depth of hold12 ft 11 in (3.9 m)
Complement125
Armament
  • 14 × 6-pounder guns;
  • 2 more added ca. 1780

HMS Vulture was a 14 to 16-gun ship sloop of the Swan class, launched for the Royal Navy on 18 March 1776. She served during both the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary War, before the Navy sold her in 1802. Vulture is perhaps best known for being the warship to which Benedict Arnold fled on the Hudson River in 1780 after unsuccessfully trying to surrender the Continental Army fort at West Point, New York to the British.

Contents

Career

Vulture was commissioned in April 1776 under Commander James Featios. She then sailed for North America on 9 September.

In May 1777, she captured Hannah in the Bay of Fundy. On 16 October 1777 she captured Polly in the River St. Johns. [1]

On 5 May 1779, Vulture and Hope shared in the proceeds of the capture of General Gates. [2] General Gates was a Massachusetts privateer brig or schooner of eight guns and 40 men, under the command of Captain William Carleton. Hope took General Gates into Halifax where she was condemned and sold. [3]

On 29 May 1779, Vulture was part of Admiral George Collier's small flotilla that sailed up the Hudson River and captured Stony Point, two months later the site of the American victory in the Battle of Stony Point. After dark, Collier sent Vulture and the galley Cornwallis further up the river past Fort Lafayette to prevent the Americans from escaping by water, in which task the British were successful. [4]

Vulture shared with Iris, Galatea, and Delight in the proceeds from the capture on 21 April 1780 of the American privateer General Reed. Vulture's captain at the time was Andrew Sutherland. [5] General Reed was a Philadelphia brig armed with 16 guns, with a crew of 120 men under the command of Samuel Davidson.

The highpoint of Vulture's career occurred in the action of 21 July 1781. Vulture was one of three Royal Navy ships and two armed vessels escorting a convoy of 13 unarmed merchant vessels carrying coal. The escorts comprised frigate Charlestown, the two sloops Vulture and Allegiance, the armed transport Vernon, and Jack, another small armed ship. Vernon was carrying troops from the 70th Regiment of Foot, who were to work in the coal mines. [6]

Two French frigates Astrée (38), commanded by La Pérouse, and Hermione (34), commanded by Latouche Tréville, attacked the convoy. [7] The French severely damaged Charlestown, which lost her mainmast and a number of her officers, including Captain Francis Evans. The French also significantly damaged Jack, which also lost her captain, and subsequently struck her colors. The engagement ended at nightfall. Captain Rupert George of Vulture led the damaged escorts into a safe harbor. [8] Six French sailors were killed. [8] Among the British, Captain Evans and seven sailors were killed, 14 were wounded on Charlestown. Vulture had one man killed and two wounded, and Vernon had six killed and seven wounded. [9]

Engagement at Teller's Point (1780)

Vulture is famously remembered as the warship upon which American traitor Benedict Arnold escaped. But it also brought British spy Major Andre to Haverstraw Bay and later abandoned him there due to an exchange of fire with two American soldiers, John "Jack" Peterson and Moses "George" Sherwood [10] [11] The engagement took place at a spot called Teller's Point, known today as Croton Point, on September 21 and 22. A plaque commemorating Vulture's battle with American rebels was erected in 1967 and reads "Commemorating the defense of Teller's Point by George Sherwood and Jack Peterson who repulsed the landing of British troops from the "Vulture" September 21, 1780, aiding in the capture of Major Andre." [12]

Other battles

Vulture and HMS Otter captured the brig Granada on 28 November 1781. [13]

On 21 April 1782, Narcissus, Vulture, and Savage captured the Virginia privateer brig Grand Turk, of 12 guns and 75 men. Vulture was under the command of Lieutenant John Laugharne. [14]

After her service on the North American Station, Vulture was paid off at Portsmouth in November 1783. At that time she received copper sheathing, but was laid up.

In May 1790, Lieutenant Timothy Bird commissioned Vulture as a storeship. Lieutenant Samuel Short recommissioned her as slop ship in April 1791, but she was not fitted for that role until December 1792. Lieutenant William Crosbe recommissioned her that month. In 1799 Lieutenant Jeffrey Gawen replaced Crosbe.

Disposal

The Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy offered the "Vulture, 304 Tons, laying at Portsmouth" for sale on 11 August 1802. [15] She sold in August.

Citations

  1. "Naval Documents of The American Revolution Volume 11 AMERICAN THEATRE: Jan. 1, 1778–Mar. 31, 1778 EUROPEAN THEATRE: Jan. 1, 1778–Mar. 31, 1778" (PDF). U.S. Government printing office via Imbiblio. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  2. "No. 12243". The London Gazette . 17 November 1781. p. 2.
  3. American War of Independence at Sea - Granville Hough's list of ships: General Gates. [usurped]
  4. "No. 11995". The London Gazette . 10 July 1779. p. 3.
  5. "No. 12419". The London Gazette . 1 March 1783. p. 3.
  6. Tennyson & Sarty (2000), p. 18.
  7. Gwyn (2004), p. 155.
  8. 1 2 "Battle off Spanish River". www.awiatsea.com. 12 September 2010. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 1 December 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  9. "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 1304. 21 September 1781. hdl:2027/uc1.c3049061.
  10. G.P. Wygant (19 October 1936). "Peterson and Sherwood, Local Men Real Heroes of "Vulture" Episode". Peekskill Evening Star.
  11. "Revolutionary Incidents". Skaneatles, New York: Skaneateles Democrat. 13 October 1859.
  12. "Commemorating the Defense of Teller's Point". Historical Marker Database. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  13. "No. 12467". The London Gazette . 16 August 1783. p. 2.
  14. American War of Independence at Sea - Granville Hough's list of ships: Grand Turk. [usurped]
  15. "No. 15503". The London Gazette . 3 August 1802. p. 818.

Related Research Articles

USS <i>Boston</i> (1777)

The second USS Boston was a 24-gun frigate, launched 3 June 1776 by Stephen and Ralph Cross, Newburyport, Massachusetts, and completed the following year. In American service she captured a number of British vessels. The British captured Boston at the fall of Charleston, South Carolina, renamed her HMS Charlestown, and took her into service. She was engaged in one major fight with two French frigates, which she survived and which saved the convoy she was protecting. The British sold Charlestown in 1783, immediately after the end of the war.

HMS Antigua was a 14-gun sloop that served in the British Royal Navy from 1779 to 1792. In contemporary records she is sometimes referred to as "His Majesty's armed brig Antigua".

HMS <i>Ariel</i> (1777)

HMS Ariel was a 20-gun Sphinx-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. The French captured her in 1779, and she served during the American Revolutionary War for them, and later for the Americans, before reverting to French control. Her French crew scuttled Ariel in 1793 to prevent the British from recapturing her.

HMS <i>Ambuscade</i> (1773) 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Ambuscade was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, built in the Grove Street shipyard of Adams & Barnard at Deptford in 1773. The French captured her in 1798 but the British recaptured her in 1803. She was broken up in 1810.

HMS Amphitrite was a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. She served during the American Revolution primarily in the economic war. On the one hand she protected the trade by capturing or assisting at the capture of a number of privateers, some of which the Royal Navy then took into service. On the other hand, she also captured many American merchant vessels, most of them small. Amphitrite was wrecked early in 1794.

HMS Hinchinbrook was the French privateer Astrée, which the British captured in 1778 and took into the Royal Navy as a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate. She was Captain Horatio Nelson's second navy command, after the brig HMS Badger, and his first as post-captain. She was wrecked, with no loss of life, in January 1783.

HMS Eurydice was a 24-gun Porcupine-class post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1781 and broken up in 1834. During her long career she saw service in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She captured a number of enemy privateers and served in the East and West Indies, the Mediterranean and British and American waters.

HMS <i>Lowestoffe</i> (1761) British fifth-rate frigate

HMS Lowestoffe was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Built during the latter part of the Seven Years' War, she went on to see action in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary War, and served often in the Caribbean. A young Horatio Nelson served aboard her shortly after passing his lieutenant's examination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action of 21 July 1781</span> Naval battle

The action of 21 July 1781 was a naval skirmish off the harbour of Spanish River, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, during the War of American Independence. Two light frigates of the French Navy, captained by La Pérouse and Latouche Tréville, engaged a convoy of 18 British ships and their Royal Navy escorts. The French captured one of the British escorts while the remainder of the British convoy escaped.

HMS <i>Camilla</i> (1776) Royal Navy 20-gun post ship

HMS Camilla was a Royal Navy 20-gun Sphinx-class post ship. Camilla was built in Chatham Dockyard to a design by John Williams and was launched in 1776. She served in the American Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars, before being sold in 1831.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle off Halifax (1782)</span> Naval battle in American Revolutionary War

The Battle off Halifax took place on 28 May 1782 during the American Revolutionary War. It involved the American privateer Jack and the 14-gun Royal Naval brig HMS Observer off Halifax, Nova Scotia. Captain David Ropes commanded Jack, and Lieutenant John Crymes commanded Observer. The battle was "a long and severe engagement" in which Captain David Ropes was killed.

HMS <i>Surprise</i> (1774) Enterprise-class Royal Navy frigate

HMS Surprise was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, which served throughout the American Revolutionary War and was broken up in 1783.

HMS <i>Medea</i> (1778) Enterprise-class Royal Navy frigate

HMS Medea was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Medea was first commissioned in May 1778 under the command of Captain William Cornwallis. She was sold for breaking up in 1805.

HMS <i>Sprightly</i> (1778) Cutter of the Royal Navy

HMS Sprightly was a 10-gun cutter of the Royal Navy, built to a design by John Williams, and the name ship of her two-vessel class of cutters. She was launched in 1778. The French captured and scuttled her off the Andulasian coast in 1801.

HMS Resolution was a cutter that the Royal Navy purchased in 1779. She captured two French privateers in 1781 and a Dutch privateer in 1783 after a single ship action. Resolution captured one more small French privateer in June 1797; later that month Resolution went missing in the North Sea, presumed to have foundered.

The French brig Duc de Chartres was built between 1779 and 1780 at Le Havre as a 24-gun privateer. As a privateer she captured one British warship before in 1781 the Royal Navy captured her. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Duc de Chartres. She then captured several American privateers and armed merchant vessels, and one French naval corvette in a noteworthy single-ship action. The Navy sold Duc de Chartres in 1784.

HMS Allegiance was the American vessel King George, which the British captured in 1779 and brought into the Royal Navy as a sloop armed with fourteen 6-pounder guns. The French captured her in 1782, and the British recaptured her in 1783, but did not take her back into service.

HM galley Comet was the South Carolina Navy's brigantine Comet, which the government of South Carolina purchased in 1775. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1777. She grounded and was destroyed in 1780.

HMS Keppel was the American privateer brig New Broome, of New Haven, Connecticut, that Ariel and Savage captured on 21 October 1778. She was sold on 5 August 1783 at Boston.

HMS Otter was the French merchantman Glanure, which the Royal Navy (RN) captured early in 1778. The Royal Navy took her into service as the sloop HMS Otter and she served in the American theatre. The Navy sold her in 1783. She became a merchantman and then a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made two complete voyages bringing captives to Jamaica. The French captured her in December 1795 as she was on her way to deliver her third cargo of captives.

References

39°34′41″N74°18′00″W / 39.578°N 74.300°W / 39.578; -74.300