HMS ''Blonde'' (1760)

HMS Blonde was a 32-gun fifth rate warship of the British Royal Navy captured from the French in 1760. The ship wrecked on Blonde Rock with American prisoners on board. An American privateer Captain Daniel Adams rescued the American prisoners and let the British go free. The Captain's decision created an international stir. Upon returning to Boston, the American privateer was banished for letting go the British crew and he and his family became Loyalist refugees in Nova Scotia.[1]

Career

On 24 February 1760, during the Seven Years' War, a British squadron under Captain John Elliot in HMS Aeolus met a French squadron under Captain François Thurot in the Maréchal de Belle-Isle. In the subsequent Battle of Bishops Court, the British captured Maréchal de Belle-Isle (after Thurot was killed), Terpsichore, and Blonde. The Royal Navy took the latter two into service.

During the American Revolution, the Blonde was in the Battle off Liverpool, Nova Scotia (1778). In 1780 the Blonde captured the commander of the Resolution, for which his crew took revenge the following year in the Raid on Annapolis Royal (1781). Blonde was wrecked on Blonde Rock, Nova Scotia on the 21st January 1782.[2] [3] [4][5][6] The 60 American prisoners on board HMS Blonde made their way to Seal Island, Nova Scotia. American privateer Noah Stoddard in the Scammell reluctantly allowed the British crew to go free and return to Halifax in HMS Observer, which was involved in the Naval battle off Halifax en route.[7][8]

Legacy

See also

References

  1. ↑ RADDALL, Thomas H. "Adventures of H.M.S. Blonde in Nova Scotia, 1778–1782". Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, Vol. 35. 1966. Pp. 29–52.
  2. ↑ The Town and Country Magazine, Or, Universal Repository of ..., Volume 14, p. 502
  3. ↑ The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review, Volume 36, p. 162
  4. ↑ Wrongly reported by Colledge and Warlow as wrecked off Nantucket; mistake repeated by Hepper (1994), p.68.
  5. ↑ RADDALL, Thomas H. "Adventures of H.M.S. Blonde in Nova Scotia, 1778–1782". Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, Vol. 35. 1966. Pp. 29–52.
  6. ↑ "HMS Blonde – 1782". Marine Heritage Database. Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  7. ↑ Sacking of Lunenburg. Saga of the Seas, Archibald MacMechan, 1923
  8. ↑ Thomas Head Raddall. "Adventures of H.M.S. Blonde in Nova Scotia, 1778–1782". Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society. 1966.
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