American Privateers of the Revolutionary War by Angus Konstam & Paul Wright

Author:Angus Konstam & Paul Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781472836335
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

A two-masted schooner of 1780, from a contemporary illustration. This sail configuration originated in America, and was well suited to the sailing conditions there. Therefore, schooners were widely used as privateers during the war.

These ship-rigged privateers were among the largest American privateers to put to sea during the war. More typical were the small brigantines or schooners displacing less than 200 tons, and carrying half the guns of the American Tartar or the Belisarius. Unfortunately we only have partial records for many of these privateers, such as that of the 90-ton sloop Phoenix of Norwich, Connecticut, armed with 14 4-pounder guns, and carrying a crew of 76 men. The schooner Success, of Newburyport, Massachusetts carried just eight guns, and a crew of 41 men. She first put to sea in the summer of 1776, and while her size is unrecorded, she probably displaced around 60 tons. Still, she captured six prizes, ranging as far afield as the Spanish coast. Then there was the Fair American, a brig – a square-rigged version of a brigantine – of 150–180 tons, built in Philadelphia during 1779–80. She carried 16 guns and a crew of 112, and was described as being 68ft on her lower deck, with a 24ft beam. These vessels, though, were probably typical of the smaller purpose-built privateers of the conflict, and were certainly far more numerous than their larger ship-rigged counterparts.

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