“The Martinico privateer has lately taken a great number of Merchant ships in the West Indies. Among others are the Thomas Henry, Capt. Pearle;1 the Lively, Captain Calvert;2 and the Dungannan, Capt. Kirby,3 who sailed from this Port January 25, under convoy of some ships of war.”
Lloyd’s Evening Post, and British Chronicle (London), 8–10 June 1778.
1. Snow Thomas & Henry, John Pearl, master, 120 tons burthen, built in Cork, Ireland, in 1751 and extensively rebuilt in 1771. Lloyd’s Register of Ships, 1777–1778.
2. Brig Lively, John Calvert, master, 90 tons burthen, built in Lancaster in 1773 and owned by Calvert & Co. Ibid.
3. Brigantine Lord Dungannon, Charles Kirby, master, 120 tons burthen, built in 1766 at Philadelphia, and owned by Campbell & Co., of Belfast. Lloyd’s Register of Ships, 1777–1778. Kirby provided an account of the capture and recapture of Lord Dungannon in a statement to the Vice Admiralty Court of Halifax: “on his Passage from Cork to Antigua in the Lat. 17.10. Long. 60.30. on the 5 of March last they fell in with two American privateers called the Cumberland and Fanny, the Cumberland was a 20 Gun ship, & had upwards of a Hundred men, the other 16 Guns, 80 or 90 men, that they Chased him about four Hours when the Privateers came up with & Boarded the said Brig, took out all the men except the Deponant & a Boy, & then put on Board a Prize Master and 8 men, gave the Prize Master orders to make the best of his way for any Port near Boston, New England, that on the 6h of April Inst. Being in the Latitude 42° 12. Long 67, they fell in with the Blond Man of War who retook the said Brig & brought her into this Port of Halifax, that the Privateers people took out Sundry articles of the Cargo while the said Brig was in their possession.” George F. Dow, ed., American Vessels Captured by the British during the Revolution and War of 1812: The Records of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Halifax, Nova Scotia (Salem, Mass., The Essex Institute, 1911), p. 50. On the recapture of Lord Dungannon, see Journal of H.M. frigate Blonde, 6 Apr., above. The brig was libeled on 11 Apr. and declared a recapture on 1 May. CaNSHP, Vol. 496, Vice Admiralty Register, vol. 6 (1777–1782), pp. 121–22.
