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NC Navy & Privateering during the Revolution 

Compiled by Jennifer Baker, DAR Vesuvius Furnace Chapter

The North Carolina State Navy during the American Revolutionary War consisted of a relatively modest number of ships and was active from 1776 to 1779. The state and the Continental Congress were concerned about the defense of Pamlico Sound, and the key Ocracoke Inlet, through which a large number of inbound merchant ships traveled, bringing war-related supplies from Europe and the West Indies. 

Wooden gunboats were built in North Carolina that were designed for use in shallow water, propelled by both sails and oars. The first of these ships used in the Revolutionary War were armed merchantmen intended to protect coastal towns in 1776. Three, the Pennsylvania Farmer, King Tammany, and General Washington, were outfitted as guard vessels. 

On December 21st, 1775, the North Carolina Council of Safety passed a resolution authorizing the acquisition of three ships. Committees were established in Cape Fear, Edenton, and Newbern for their acquisition and outfitting. The provincial congress established pay scales in May 1776, Captains were to be paid £10; lieutenants, masters, captains of marines, and doctors, £8 each; marines, £2, 13s., 4d.; "seamen complete," £4; "seamen not complete," £3.3. By October of that year, brigantine General Washington entered service at Cape Fear, the Pennsylvania Farmer entered service at Newbern, and the King Tammany began service at Edenton. Staffing and supply issues, however, meant that these ships actually saw little service in 1776. Some of the crew of the Pennsylvania Farmer, which lay idle due to a lack of ammunition, attempted to desert to the British fleet of Lord Dunmore.

The state embarked on a joint venture with Virginia in May 1776, since the trade of both states depended on the security of Pamlico Sound. The entrance to Chesapeake Bay was regularly patrolled by the Royal Navy, so supply ships bringing goods from France, St. Eustatius, and other ports in the West Indies, instead entered the sound through the Ocracoke Inlet, and offloaded their cargos in the ports of both states that were accessible from the sound. Virginia constructed two ships, Caswell and Washington, for the purpose of monitoring Ocracoke, and North Carolina agreed to contribute to their outfitting and operating expenses. By the end of 1777 the expense of maintaining these ships led the state to begin selling them off. The General Washington was sold in December 1777 and Pennsylvania Farmer was auctioned off in May 1778. Virginia complained that North Carolina was not contributing sufficiently to their upkeep, North Carolina purchased the Caswell and continued her use as a sentry at the Ocracoke Inlet. The Caswell sank in June 1779, ending North Carolina's operation of ships during the war. 

The state established admiralty courts to adjudicate maritime matters, including the distribution of captured prizes. It also authorized privateering, and there was quite a bit of that going on too – especially later in the war…The NC Coast was quite busy for most of the war.

On February 10th, 1776, the HMS Cruizer captured privateer America on the Cape Fear River but had to burn it since they had no one to man it. A few months later on April 14th, the Patriot Schooner Polly was captured by the Virginia Royalist sloop Lilly. In August that same year at the Roanoke Inlet, the British navy landed a foraging party, but they were quickly driven off by Capt. Dennis Duage and his militia. In November, the Core Sound Independent Company led by Capt. Enoch Ward seized a foundering British brig at the Ocracoke Inlet at Cape Lookout called the Aurora - taking its cargo, captain, and crew. 

British activity off the coast heated up in 1777. In February, the frigate HMS Solebay cruised off Cape Fear and captured four merchant vessels. In May, the frigate HMS Daphne captured the brig Fanny off Cape Hatteras and took it to St. Augustine. In an encore performance, the Core Sound Independent Company led by Capt. Enoch Ward seized a privateer schooner, the Liverpool, taking its cargo, captain, and crew in October of 1777. 

Until 1778, the trade which passed through Ocracoke Inlet was rather free from annoyance. It was in January of that year that Josiah Martin, the late Royal Governor of North Carolina, wrote from New York to Lord George Germaine in London: "That the contemptible port of Ocracock has become a great channel of supply to the rebels, while the more considerable ports have been watched by the King's ships. They have received through it considerable importations." At Ocracoke in April 1778, there was a St. Augustine privateer that captured a French ship loaded with tobacco, and a Bermuda sloop with a load of salt. A letter from Edenton, dated June 9th, informs us that several foreign vessels were at the Inlet, and that a sloop had recently arrived at Edenton from France, which had on board for the Continental Congress thirteen thousand pairs of shoes, a large quantity of clothing, and a "marble Monument for Genl. Montgomery." 

In the Topsail Inlet on May 12th, 1778, Loyalist privateer Capt. John Goodrich teamed up with two other privateers and sailed into Topsail Inlet and burned a brig that had just been taken by NC Navy. Late on that summer just below Ocracoke, the HMS Enterprise captured a French snow and three other prizes, then headed back to New York harbor and a New Bern privateer Bellona captured the brig Elizabeth, the schooner Actason and another sloop, and a NY privateer named the Harlecan. 

By 1779, the activity off the NC coast had subsided. The only reported activity was when the Impertinent which had been recently re-outfitted as a Patriot privateer, was sent out to harass British shipping and captured the sloop HMS Harlem. 

That next year, most of the recorded activity was with privateers. Over the summer, the privateer Adventure battled two Bermuda privateers, Hammond, and Randall. That fall, the New Bern privateer General Nash captured two brigs in September and in November captured more three brigs, the Aggie, the Prince of Wales, and the Kattie near Ocracoke Inlet. 

There were no recorded incidents for the next year and a half. In February of 1782, the British frigate Savage captured a NC sloop and the Loyalist ship, the Orphan's Frigate, ran two ships onto the shore, then took a NC sloop. Col. Enoch Ward and his Carteret County Militia encountered Loyalists aboard ships looking for foraging supplies near Beaufort on April 4th, 1782. This lasted almost two weeks and virtually ended naval incidents off the NC Coast.

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