Minerva Commander Arthur [][] Hugh Helme Heim Schooner 19 October 1779-June 1780 Pennsylvania Privateer Schooner

Commissioned/First Date: 19 October 1779 Out of Service/Cause: June 1780/capture d by the British [ May 1780/wrecked in Chicoteague Inlet, Virginia ]

Owners: Stephen Girard & Co. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Tonnage:

Battery: Date Reported: 19 October 1779 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 12/4-pounders and 6-pounders Total: 12 cannon/ Broadside: 6 cannon/ Swivels:

Crew: 19 October 1779: 61 [] total

Description:

Officers:

Cruises: (1) Chestnut Neck, New Jersey to Chincoteague Inlet, Virginia, [][] 22 October 1779- 25 November 1779

(2) Chincoteague Inlet Virginia to sea, March 1780

Prizes: (1) Virginia pilot boat Barbary , 20 November 1779

Actions:

Comments:

Pennsylvania Privateer Schooner Minerva was commissioned on 19 October 1779 under Commander

Comment on this or any page at our ©awiatsea.com-posted August 2020 --1-- Arthur Helme 1 (or Heim) 2 possibly of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her battery was listed as twelve guns and her crew as sixty men. Her $10,000 bond was signed by Isaac Cox and Stephen Girard, both of Philadelphia. 3

Minerva sailed late in October. On 25 October she was off Cape May and steered north towards Sandy Hook, New Jersey. A series of gales and storms drove Minerva to the south and she was soon off the Virginia Capes. Two weeks passed before she recovered her cruising ground. The weather was very cold and the schooner leaked at “every nail head.” The crew was continually wet, and unable to stand the deck. Helme steered south, to cruise off the Georgia coast in, hopefully, warmer and milder weather. On 20 November 1779, at 32 EN, and some 135 miles off the coast, the dismasted wreck of a vessel was sighted. She was a Virginia pilot boat, newly built, with a cargo of tobacco aboard. The only crew were several dead men in the cabin and forecastle. A musket, a few cutlassses and a Hadley quadrant, with the name Edward Green on it, were removed. The name of the vessel was the Barbary . She was manned and made a prize, being sent in to Chestnut Neck, New Jersey.

The next day, 21 November, Helme headed north, the Minerva encountered another gale, which opened her seams and forced Helme to dump eight of 4-pounder and 6-pounder guns overboard, “expecting every moment to follow them to the bottom.” After a harrowing cruise Minerva put into the nearest harbor, Horn Town, Chingoteague Inlat, Virginia, losing part of his false keel going in. Helme notified Girard of the troubles, and Girard sent a $1000 for repairs, along with lengthy instructions on what to do with the Minerva . In the meantime most of the crew was discharged or deserted, taking most of the schooner’s rigging.

After an extended repair Minerva sailed in March 1780 for Philadelphia, but ran on the bar and was again damaged, to the tune of £2250 in Maryland money. After further repair Minerva sailed again for Philadelphia in May 1780, but was again wrecked: a total loss. 4

Other sources indicate Minerva was captured by the British in June 1780. 5 This vessel is mentioned in Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution , as a Massachusetts schooner under “Hugh” Helme, with twelve guns and sixty men. 6

1 NRAR, 392

2 Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution , 147

3 NRAR, 392

4 McMaster, John Bach, The Life and Times of Stephen Girard, Mariner and Merchant , J.B. Lippincott and Company: Philadelphia, 1918, vol I, 21-24

5 Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution , 147

6 Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution , 222