Indien (1778) - Service As South Carolina and Capture

Service As South Carolina and Capture

In 1781 the South Carolina, manned by American officers and a group of European seamen and marines, sailed from Texel via Scotland and Ireland. On the way she captured a privateer. She then stopped at Corunna and Santa Cruz before sailing across the Atlantic toward Charleston. On the way to Tenerife she captured the brig Venus, loaded with a cargo of salt fish from Newfoundland for Lisbon. When she found that the British had already occupied Charleston she sailed for the West Indies. On the way she captured five Jamaican vessels in the Gulf of Mexico. She then took her prizes to Havana, Cuba.

South Carolina arrived at Havana on 12 January 1782. At Havana, after negotiations between Gillon and the Spanish, the South Carolina joined a force of 59 vessels sent to capture the British colony of New Providence in the Bahamas. On 22 April the expedition sailed and by 5 May the whole fleet had reached New Providence. On 8 May the colony surrendered. This was the third capture of New Providence during the American Revolutionary War.

South Carolina then sailed north, arriving at Philadelphia on 28 May. On the way, on 25 May a British privateer, the Virginia of New York, trailed her, firing the occasional cannon to try to draw the attention of any vessels of the Royal Navy that might be cruising in the area. South Carolina sustained no damage.

She remained in Philadelphia nearly six months. While she was there the Duke of Luxembourg dismissed Gillon and replaced him as captain with Captain John Joyner. She sailed in November but not very far. Most of her crew had never been out to sea and began to have regrets. Fortunately she had some 50 Hessian marines and eight British soldiers aboard who had been captured from General John Burgoyne’s army at the Battle of Saratoga and who had been recruited from prison. Ironically, they remained loyal, thus forestalling the brewing mutiny.

On 20 December, while she was attempting to dash out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, through the British blockade she ran into a squadron of three British frigates. South Carolina was in the company of the brig Constance, schooner Seagrove and the ship Hope, which had joined her for protection. The three British vessels were the 44-gun fifth rate two-decker HMS Diomede, Captain Thomas L. Frederick and the two 32-gun Fifth Rate frigates HMS Quebec, Captain Christopher Mason, and HMS Astraea, Captain Matthew Squires.

The British chased South Carolina for 18 hours and fired on her for two hours before she struck in the Delaware River. She had a crew of about 466 men when captured, of whom she lost six killed or wounded. The British suffered no casualties.

Astraea and Quebec captured Constance, which was carrying tobacco. Prize crews then took South Carolina and Constance to New York. Seagrove and Hope escaped.

The British did not take South Carolina into service because she was too lightly framed for the Royal Navy. The problem was that South Carolina's hull had hogged (sagged in the middle) as a consequence of the weight of her guns. (American warship designers subsequently put much more longitudinal strength into the design of their frigates.)