Squirrel

Posted by Peter on Monday 22nd of July 2024 13:24

At the beginning of May 1746 (exact date unknown), a cutter from the Squirrel carried three of the survivors of the Wager disaster on their last leg of the journey back to England: Captain Cheap, Lieutenant Hamilton and Midshipman Byron, who later became an admiral. (Wrecking in southern Patagonia on 14 May 1741.) Contrary to the agreement to lead the men to Dover, the captain of a Dutch dogger sailed to the French coast. In his ‘Narrative of the Honourable John Byron’, London, Baker, Leigh and Davies, 1768, Byron writes on page 254/5:
We complained loudly of this piece of villany, and insisted of his returning to land us, when an Englishman of war appeared to windward, and presently bore down to us. She sent her boat on board with an officer, who informed us the ship he came from was the Squirrel, commanded by captain Masterson. (…) Captain Masterson immediately sent one of the cutters he had with him, to land us at Dover, where we arrived that afternoon.

Posted by Mark Weinheimer on Saturday 12th of June 2021 21:03

Edward P. Alexander, in "A Revolutionary Conservative, James Duane of New York", Columbia University Press, New York, 1938, pg. 13, writes of the death of Richard Duane, at Jamaica, in 1741, aboard Captain Peter Warren's "Squirrel". Is there any record of this young man, born 1721, in navy records.

Posted by Brian on Saturday 6th of February 2016 00:01

Charlestown, May 10, 1740 On Saturday last his Majesty's ship Squirrel commanded by Captain Peter Warren, and brought in with him a Spanish privateer sloop, which together with another attacked him of Augustine, being bound from that place to the Havannah, to buy provisions. After a short engagement Capt. Warren sunk one of them, whose men all swam ashore, she had on board 6000 pieces of eight. The other is that which he has brought in with him, she mounted 16 guns and had on board 8000 and odd pieces of eight, and 45 prisoners.