Wednesday, February 2, 2022

USS Confederacy-- Part 4: Captured By the British

Captain Nicholson replaced Seth Harding on 20 October 1780.

The Confederacy was homeward bound on  from Cape Francois in the West Indies in 1781 with military stores and other supplies and escorting a fleet of 37 merchantmen on 14 April when she encountered the HMS Roebuck (44 guns) and HMS Orpheus (32 guns) off the Delaware Capes.

The British ships forced the Confederacy to strike her colors.

Most of the merchantmen she was escorting escaped.  Many of her crew were sent to the old prison hulk ship Jersey, though some ended up in Mill and Forton prisons.

The Royal Navy took her into service as the HMS Confederacy, under the command of Captain James Cumming.  He paid her off in September 1781.  She was broken up at Woolrich in March 1782.

--Cooter


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