Royal Louis Commander Stephen Decatur Frigate 23 July 1781-9 October 1781 Pennsylvania Privateer Ship

Commissioned/First Date: 23 July 1781 Out of Service/Cause: 9 October 1781/captured by HM Frigate Amphion and HM Sloop Nymphe

Owners: Francis Gurney of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Tonnage: 100, 319, 450

Battery: Date Reported: 23 July 1781 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 22/ Total: 22 cannon/ Broadside: 11 cannon/ Swivels:

Date Reported: 9 October 1781 Number/Caliber Weight Broadside 20/9-pounder 180 pounds 90 pounds Total: 20 cannon/180 pounds Broadside: 10 cannon/90 pounds Swivels:

Crew: (1) 23 July 1781: 201 [] total (2) 9 October 1781: 188 [] total

Description:

Officers: (1) First Mate George Duck, 23 July 1781-9 October 1781

Cruises:

Prizes: (1) HM Brig Tender Active (Lieutenant George Augustus Delanoe), July 1781

Comment on this or any page at our ©awiatsea.com-posted July 2020 --1-- (2) Sloop Nancy (Hugh Morrison), July 1781, with Pennsylvania Privateer Governor Clinton

(3) Schooner Polly (Emmanual Joseph), [] August 1781

(4) Sloop Lively (John Jones), [] August 1781

Actions: (1) Action with Active , July 1781

Comments:

The 100, 1 319, 2 or 450-ton 3 Pennsylvania Privateer Ship Royal Louis was commissioned on 23 July 1781 under Commander Stephen Decatur of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. George Duck of Philadelphia served aboard as First Mate. She was reported with twenty-two guns and having a crew of two hundred men. Royal Louis was bonded for $20,000 by Decatur and Gurney. 4 Royal Louis measured 96 N9O in overall length, 80 N length on the deck, with a beam of 27 N4O and a depth in the hold of 12 N7O.5

Royal Louis was at sea soon after her commission. About late July 1781, she fell in with the sloop Phoenix , en route to New York under a British prize master from HM Sloop Swallow . Royal Louis easily re-captured the Phoenix . This sloop was originally a British vessel, out of New York, and was taken by a French frigate, and then re-captured by the Swallow . Decatur sent her into Philadelphia. 6

Continuing in her cruise, Royal Louis encountered HM Brig Tender Active (Lieutenant George Augustus Delanoe, 7 of HMS

Stephen Decatur, painted about 1783.

1 Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, volume 1:638

2 Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792 , 291

3 Almon’s Remembrancer , 13:238; Beatson, Naval and Military Memoirs , 5:307

4 NRAR, 449

5 Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792 , 291

6 The Pennsylvania Journal, or, Weekly Advertiser [] Philadelphia , Wednesday, August 22, 1781

7 The Pennsylvania Journal, or, Weekly Advertiser [] Philadelphia , Wednesday, August 22, 1781

Comment on this or any page at our ©awiatsea.com-posted July 2020 --2-- Royal Oak ). 8 She was bound to New York, from the British fleet at Antigua in the British West Indies, with dispatches. On her return, on 7 July, Active recovered some shipwrecked sailors from the Philadelphia brig James .9 According to Maclay, the Royal Louis fought a ""desperate action with the Active , and took her after heavy casualties on both sides. 10 There is no mention of this in the local newspapers, but there was evidently some fight involved. Active was sent into Philadelphia and arrived there on 21 August 1781. 11 Active was advertised for sale on 28 August, with the sale to be held on 3 September 1781. 12 On 29 September an advertisement appeared for the distribution of prize money for the Active .13

Either on going out of Delaware Bay, or on her return, Royal Louis joined with the Pennsylvania Privateer Boat Governor Clinton (Commander William Mornyer []Mariner to re-capture the Sloop Nancy (Hugh Morrison). She had been captured by an un-named British privateer in Delaware Bay. The Nancy was libeled on 23 August 1781. 14

It appears that Royal Louis had returned to the bay with the Active . She sailed from the bay on 20 August 1781, escorting six vessels out to sea. Two of the convoy were later captured by the British blockaders. 15 This may have been when two prizes were captured: the schooner Polly (Emmanual Joseph) and the sloop Lively (John Jones). Both were sent into Lewis Creek in Delaware and libeled on 27 September 1781. They were tried in the Delaware Court of Admiralty on 13 October 1781. 16

Royal Louis was at sea again in October 1781, turned south towards the Chesapeake Capes. Ahead were two British frigates blockading the entrance to the Chesapeake, HM Frigate Amphion (Captain John Bazeley) and HM Sloop Nymphe (Commander John Ford). On 8 October, at 0600, the Nymphe sighted three sail away to the NW, and signalled Amphion . Amphion ordered Nymphe to chase and identified the three as a ship and two brigs. The ship stood away before the wind, the brigs kept their course. Amphion began chasing, setting topgallants and studdingsails. Nymphe peeled away after the brigs, Amphion continued after the Royal Louis . Amphion had now

8 The Freeman’s Journal: or, The North-American Intelligencer [] Philadelphia , Wednesday, August 22, 1781

9 The Pennsylvania Journal, or, Weekly Advertiser [] Philadelphia , Wednesday, August 22, 1781

10 Maclay, History of American Privateers , 88

11 The Pennsylvania Journal, or, Weekly Advertiser [] Philadelphia , Wednesday, August 22, 1781

12 The Pennsylvania Packet, or, the General Advertiser [] Philadelphia , Tuesday, August 28, 1781

13 The Pennsylvania Packet, or, the General Advertiser [] Philadelphia , Saturday. September 29, 1781

14 Mcmanemin, Captains of the Privateers , 307

15 The Pennsylvania Journal, or, Weekly Advertiser [] Philadelphia , Wednesday, September 5, 1781, datelined New York, August 28, September 5, 1781

16 The Pennsylvania Packet, or, the General Advertiser [] Philadelphia , Thursday. September 27, 1781

Comment on this or any page at our ©awiatsea.com-posted July 2020 --3-- identified the chase as a “cruizer.” At 1130 Amphion fired a shot at the Royal Louis and hoisted French colors. Decatur was not even close to being deceived. He raised his American colors and fired a stern chaser at Amphion . So much for the mandatory civilities. 17

As Amphion gained on the Royal Louis , she continued to fire at her. At 1300 she was quite near the American. Amphion raised her English colors, and the Royal Louis lowered hers in surrender. Amphion reported she had 180 men and twenty 9-pounders aboard, and had left the Delaware Capes on 7 October. Amphion began shifting prisoners after sending a midshipman, a mate and twenty-seven sailors aboard as a prize crew. Seventy-five of the prisoners were placed on the Nymphe .18 The admiral later reported that she had 188 men aboard. 19

Amphion anchored in the East River at New York on 16 October. 20 Her prisoners were transferred to the Jersey prison ship. 21

This is the vessel that James Forten served aboard. James Forten was a young boy of fourteen or fifteen, and his story is one of the most remarkable of all those of the Revolution. Here is a brief quote from Burrows, Forgotten Patriots , 203:

“…one of the African American seamen taken on the Royal Louis was a fourteen-year-old African- American powder boy named James Forten.

James Forten, painted much later in his life. Portraits of Young Forten could have avoided imprisonment common sailors are rare, and African-American sailors by agreeing to accompany the son of Amphion ’s even more rare. captain back to England, but he declined to abandon the cause. For a full biography see here .

Royal Louis was captured by the British in 1781 and sent in to New York, New York. She was tried and condemned there. Decatur appears in the court’s papers as “Ducature.”22 Royal Louis was taken into the Royal Navy as HM Sloop Albacore .23

17 McManemin, Captains of the Privateers , 307-308, from the Master’s Log of the Amphion

18 McManemin, Captains of the Privateers , 307-308, from the Master’s Log of the Amphion

19 Almon’s Remembrancer , 13:238; Beatson, Naval and Military Memoirs , 5:307

20 The Pennsylvania Gazette, and Weekly Advertiser [] Philadelphia , Wednesday, October 24, 1781, datelined New York

21 McManemin, Captains of the Privateers , 308

22 HCA 32/443/29/1-8

23 Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792 , 291

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