| Battle off Halifax | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theAmerican Revolutionary War | |||||||
 Battle off Halifax byRobert Dodd[1] | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Great Britain |  United States | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 John Crymes[2][3][4][5] | David Ropes † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| BrigObserver | PrivateerJack | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 3 killed 5 wounded | 7 killed 13 wounded Jack captured | ||||||
 | |||||||
TheBattle off Halifax took place on 28 May 1782 during theAmerican Revolutionary War. It involved the AmericanprivateerJack and the 14-gunRoyal NavalbrigHMS Observer offHalifax,Nova Scotia.CaptainDavid Ropes commandedJack, and LieutenantJohn Crymes commandedObserver.[6][7][8][9][10] The battle was "a long and severe engagement" in which Captain David Ropes was killed.[11][12]
During the American Revolution, Americans regularly attacked Nova Scotia by land and sea. Americanprivateers devastated the maritime economy by raiding many of the coastal communities,[13] such as the numerous raids onLiverpool and onAnnapolis Royal.[14]
On the 7th of July, 1777, off the coast of Halifax, SirGeorge Collier, in command ofHMS Rainbow, with a force of two British frigates and a brig, opened fire on and capturedJohn Manley, the second in command of theContinental Navy, and the 13-gun frigateHancock (229 men) off the coast of Nova Scotia. After a running battle lasting 39 hours, the British succeeded in capturing bothHancock andBoston, and retakingFox (60 men). Collier returned to Halifax on 11 July with his prizes. Manley was transported to New York and imprisoned until March 1778.[15][16][17]
The engagement betweenJack andObserver was one of several in the region. On 10 July 1780, the British 16-gun privateer brigResolution under the command of Thomas Ross engaged the American 22-gun privateerViper (130 men) off Halifax at Sambro Light. In what one observer described as "one of the bloodiest battles in the history of privateering," the two privateers began a "severe engagement"[18] during which both pounded each other with cannon fire for about 90 minutes.[19][20] The engagement resulted in the surrender of the British ship and the death of up to 18 British and 33 American sailors.[21]
Jack herself had been involved in a previous naval engagement.Jack (orSaucy Jack) was originally a Massachusetts privateer commissioned in September 1779. After three successful cruises in which she captured a number of prizes,HMS Pandora andHMS Danae captured her in July 1780 in theSt. Lawrence River. The British tookJack into the Quebec Provincial Marine, though she was commissioned out of Nova Scotia. She then served as a patrol vessel for the fisheries and the St. Lawrence River. In anengagement off Cape Breton with two French frigates atSpanish River, nearCape Breton Island in 1781,[22] she was captured by the French. They tookJack back to Boston, where her previous owners purchased her and sent her to sea again as a privateer.
Observer was herself a former Massachusetts privateer, originally built as merchantmanAmsterdam, whichHMS Amphitrite captured on 19 October 1781.[23] The British sentAmsterdam into Halifax to be condemned as a prize, where the Royal Navy bought her.
The British shipObserver was returning to Halifax, having rescued ten crew members ofHMS Blonde stranded onSeal Island.[24] On 28 May 1782, asObserver arrived at theSambro Island Light near the mouth of Halifax Harbour,Jack approached her. WhenJack discovered her quarry was a British naval vessel, the Americans tried to escape.
Observer chasedJack for two hours before catching her. The ships were evenly matched. The British immediately killed the American captain David Ropes as a result of the cannon fire. Both ships had numerous holes shot through their sails, and the British sailors attempted to climb the rigging of their ship in an effort to board the American privateer. The Americans repulsed this initial boarding attempt, but the British were ultimately successful.Jackstruck her colours on the afternoon of 29 May.[25]
American privateers remained a threat to Nova Scotian ports for the rest of the war. The following month, after a failed attempt toraid Chester, Nova Scotia, American privateers struck again in theraid on Lunenburg in 1782.