The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-02-08
the slro gave chase. Her capture is de-
scribed as follows.


scribed as follows.
"Mav 1918. Light winds and smooth
sea, We came up with ard engaged our
chase. but after slight skirmish of about
80 minutes she hauled her colors down.
sent Mr.. Whitney, my first officer, and Mr..
Matthews, my s1percargo on board TO see
what she was. She proved to be the ship
Loyal Sam" of Glasgow, mounting ten
carriage guns, and having 80 men. She Is
laden with coffee, cotton and woods, indigo,
tortoise shell etc., with about twenty thons-
and dollars in specie. / put on board VIM.
Furong as first and George Williams as sec
ond prize masters, and ordered her for Bos-
ton, Portland, or any northern port. AT s
n ~ m. made sail, the Loyal Sam in COM
pany.'
a. meridian next day the Loyal Sam was
was out of sight astern.
On the second of June the Sino brought
to, an English fisherman and put on board
of her all the passengers and part Of the of
ficers and men of the prize ship and ordered
him for Halifax. The Slro arrived at Port
land on the 9th of July.
In his excitement Capt. Gray neglected to
note in his log where the Loyal Sam was
from, or where bound, but Capt. Coggeshall
IN his history of American privateers men
tions her as ling from Nassau, Y. p. bound
to England He also makes this erroneous
statement: s'The Loyal Sam had $23, 500 in
specie on board, which she brought safe TO
Portland" There is no mention in the
journal of anything being taken from the
prize to the schooner, but undoubtedly the
Captain took out the 1000 in specie. If he
did it was all he saved from his prize. Any
one would suppose that ship of such value
was worth conveying to her port Of destina-
ZION If she was slow saller. By this fatal
mistake the captain lost his prize, which
was tke closing misfortune of his disastrous
voyage. Tue log book of the Siro gives no
information of the fate of the prize, but in
Portland newspaper / find full account Of
her recapture af.er a smart fight with an en-
emy's brig and schooner, within thirty
miles of Portland, where she was bound, af-
ter expending all her ammunition.
From the Portland Gazette of Monday, June 21ss.
1881
LOSS OF THE PRIZE SHIP LOYAL SAM.
On Saturday came in town MI. w. For
long. Jr., prizemaster of the Loyal Sam,
prize TO the letter of marque schooner SirO,
arrived here on the 3rd inst, who very po-
itely favored us with the following particu-
lars relative to her recapture on Wednesday
last:
June 18Th, being bound into Portland,
we deserted an armed brig coming ont from
the land, and 1t gave chase to US, which in-
duced us to alter our course. At II o'clock
M, about four miles from land. discovered
a small schooner standing out from the
shore, who on discovering us, tackled ship
about three miles to leeward in order to cut
us off from the land, upon which we cleaned
our guns for action. At 2, finding that they
gained upon us fast, lowered. the stern boat
with three men in it, with view of making
our escape in her; who unfortunately lost
their hold of the ship just as light breeze
sprung up and shot her ahead of them about
two miles, when we dropped buoy with
line fastened TO 1t, which we payed out
about 100 fathoms of; but the people in tha
boat, being confused, did not take bold of
it, aud the prvateer having passed her, we
cut the line adrift. At half past 2, The pri-
vateer hoisted English colOrs aud fired gun,
which we returned. A she pckt up our
boat gave three cheers, again took to their
sweeps, and came up near enough to make
their guns bear upon us, and brisk fire was
kept up on both sides for an hour, when it
ceased and the privateer sheared off. At @.
within one quarter of a mile of Seguin light.
the brig (snpposed to be the Young Emulous)
came up to the prvateer's assistance, with
two boats manned in order to board as; at
which time we received a reinforcement of
four boats and about thirty troops from the
fort. After towing the ship about three
miles from the light, the brig commenced
firing upon us, which we returned till our
ammunition was all out; when we were
compelled to abandon the ship to superior
force, and escaped in our boals to the port,
where we received very polite treatment
from Lieut. Buley."
This fort was on Hunnewelps Point,
mouth of Kennebec river, where now stands
Fort Popham.