Privateers, Ships and Captains list

[JPett]

Ahoy MSW

 

In my travels, I found this and thought I would share it. Located in southern New Jersey it honors the privateers who fought in the war for American Independence, listing ships and their captains. I can not speak for its accuracy but did find including the captains name in a Google search very helpful for my research.

 

It is located at the Battle for Chestnut Neck Memorial

 

Enjoy

[lamarvalley]

Thanks for sharing. Makes me think about the lives these guys had.... here I sit playing with rigging for 'fun' and they needed it as their very lives depended on it. Good food for thought... Ahhh history...

[Jim Lad]

A privateer was a person licenced by his Government to attack capture enemy ships and to then have them 'condemned' for sale by a marine court.  If the privateer was from your own country then he was a brave and patriotic hero harrassing the enemy (for profit, of course).  If the privateer was from your enemies country, then he was a 'legalised pirate'. 

 

Of course if the colonists had lost the American Revolutionary War, then their privateers would have been hung as pirates as the British Government would have seen their licenses (called letters of marque) as worthless, having been issued by an illegal revolutionary committee.

 

It's all a question of where you stand!

 

John

[figuerres]

Interesting and intriguing.

Rufus Gardner of the Enterprize.

William Marun of the Enterprise.

OK, in those days spelling was optional.  No matter.  But I'm building the 1799 USS Enterprise/Enterprize right now (courtesy of Messrs Constructo), and nothing in the research I've so far done indicates it was a privateer.

What actually is (was) a 'privateer'?  The name suggests independence from governmental sponsorship.  The USS Enterprise seems to have been built by, and operated by, US government (such as it was, back then) -sponsored authorities.  Even when it was operating in the Mediterranean it was doing so on behalf of the US government.

 

I need to know more about all this.  My previous tutor (a certain John Depp) seems unreliable as a source of real information about these things.  But as a first step, please tell me exactly what a 'privateer' was.

 

probably just a ship's name that may have been used many times, then later the US built a ship by that name and it is the one we all think of.

[RiverRat]

1799 was after the war for independance, so a different Enterprizse or commisioned later as a navy ship.

 

Brian

[RiverRat]

I guess there were more than are on the plaque.

 

JPett, the Rattlesnake listed is isn't "ours"!  (but, maybe you realize that) Thats a Pennsylvania sloop, smaller than the Massachusetts Rattlesnake.

 

http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/R/Rattlesnake%20Pennsylvania%20Schooner%20%5bBall%20Craig%20Mansfield%20Treen%20Snell%20Stephens%5d.html

 

Here's a listing for the second:

 

http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/R/Rattlesnake%20Massachusetts%20Ship%20%5BClark%5D.html

 

Brian

[trippwj]

<<probably just a ship's name that may have been used many times, then later the US built a ship by that name and it is the one we all think of.>>

Oh, c'mon!  This is the sort of thing that you all seem to say!  I bet you don't even believe there was ever a Captain Jean-Luc Picard!

 

What - no Captain Picard????  Say it's not true!!!!!!

 

As to the one you are building, it sure seems to represent the real McCoy (although the use of USS to identify a ship did not come into vogue until some time later).

 

The First Enterprise was originally a British sloop named George, built at St. Johns (now Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu) in Quebec, Canada. In May 1775, a small American force under Colonel Benedict Arnold sailed up the Richelieu River on the recently captured Liberty. At 07:00 on 18 May, Arnold and 35 raiders captured the fort and shipyards at St. Johns, along with the newly-launched George, with no loss of life. The unlaunched schooner Royal Savage was also at the shipyard, and would be captured by the Americans later that year. Two hours later Arnold's raiders left with the newly captured sloop, which was later armed with 12 guns and renamed Enterprise.

 

The second American ship to bear the name  was a successful privateer before she was purchased for the Continental Navy in 1776. Commanded by Captain James Campbell, the schooner Enterprise operated principally in Chesapeake Bay. She convoyed transports, carried out reconnaissance, and guarded the shores against foraging raids by the British. Only meager records of her service have been found; they indicate that she was apparently returned to the Maryland Council of Safety in 1777.

 

The third Enterprise, a schooner, was built by Henry Spencer at Baltimore, Md., in 1799, and placed under the command of Lieutenant John Shaw.

[JPett]

Ahoy Brain

 

Sadly it did let some air out when I got home and found out.

 

That site you posted is a great source too, thanks for posting it. That was some of the information I spoke of finding in my first post

[PopJack]

I am going to have to go back and read more history.  I read the other day that George Washington hated Privateers,  and worked actively to keep US ships from being recruited- for the French if I recall.  I had understood that he tried to stop the practice.  Obviously, I have missed something.

 

 

Oh, c'mon!  This is the sort of thing that you all seem to say!  I bet you don't even believe there was ever a Captain Jean-Luc Picard!

 

 

 

Sorry to disapoint, but Jean-Luc was fictional.  Kirk, however (the real captain) is- or rather will be- real.  Here is a monument in Riverside, Iowa, USA where the mark the place of his birth.

 

(Seriously, I've always loved the nod to the Picard name.  It's a line of real heroes)

 

 

I have a friend who is a Trekkie.  He had never heard of Riverside, so while on a motorcycle tour of the US, we stopped by.  They have a little museum and everything.