[August 1778] Thursday 13
Block Island N 26:50 E dis. 50 Leagues
Sandy Hook N 53:26W 47 leagues. AM Join’d the Volcano1 & made Sail. At ½ past 11 brot. too a French schooner call’d the Zemire from St. Domingo, bound to Nantucket.2
Block Island N47E. 59 Leagues. The first part strong gales, the middle & Latter light breezes with small rain. PM Sent [1] officer & 5 Men on board the Schooner & took the Prisoners out.3 Lay too & sent a pump on board the Volcano. At 4 Got up topgallt Masts & Yards, & loosed the Topsails At 7 Wore Ship & took the Volcano in tow.
D, UkLPR, Adm. 51/675, fol. 59.
1. H.M. fire ship Volcano, commanded by Lt. William Henry King O’Hara, R.N.
2. The French schooner Zemire, Master J. B. Gaspar, owned by LaCroix & Co., was bound for Nantucket with a cargo of “Sugar, Coffee &c.” Rivington’s New-York Royal Gazette reported that the vessel had been bound for Connecticut from Hispaniola carrying sugar, coffee, indigo, and cotton. Howe’s Prize List, 25 October 1777 to 28 September 1778, D, UkLPR Adm. 1/488, fol. 488, and Royal Gazette (New York), 19 Aug. 1778.
3. The prisoners were Jean Baptist Gaspar, Josepte Remmane, Plienne Lalast, Y: Toguree, Jean Bashich, Thomas Whylly, John Hudson, John Cross, and Joseph Rigger. After capture, the prize vessel was sent to New York, arriving there on 18 Aug. “A List of Supernumeraries borne at 2/3 Allowance being Rebel Prisoners,” UkLPR Adm. 36/7839 c8258; and New-York Gazette, 19 Aug. 1778.
