Underwater Archaeology

in the Service of History

Off the north coast of Hispaniola,now the Dominican Republic, on

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American War of Independence 1776-1783: From the Massachusetts

Privateer Washington to the French Corvette le Dragon.

. . . . .by Florence Prudhomme

Wednesday January 22, 1783, after achase, Chevalier Joseph de L’Espine(1759-1827) blew up his corvette to pre-vent it from falling into the hands of theeighteen-strong squadron of British Rear-

Figure 1, 2, & 3. Comparison of the rigs of the three ships; Massachusetts privateer brigantine Washington, British privateer brigDragon, French Royal Navy corvette le Dragon. Watercolor by Thierry Moné: author’s collection.

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Figure 2.

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Admiral Samuel Hood (1724-1812).More than two hundred years

later, a very degraded wreck was reportedin the same area. ADMAT-FRANCE—the Anglo-Danish Maritime Archaeolog-ical Team, an association specialized inthe search for wrecks in the Caribbean,whose French department is in the Insti-tut de Paléonotlogie Humaine (Instututefor Human Paleontology), an associationd’utilité publique (charitable organiza-

tion similar to a 501c(3) corporation inthe United States) since 1910 under theauspices of the Muséum nationale d’His-toire Naturelle (National Museum ofNatural History)—then conducted sev-eral dives and tried to identify the wreckusing a collection of three elements thatwere, at first glance, contradictory. InNovember 2000, on the remains of thisship, which was of typically Americanconstruction, divers found several Scot-

Figure 4. The ex-voto model in the nave of the Capuchin Church at Ostend. Author’s photograph.

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tish 9-pounder guns cast in 1778 at Car-ron and a uniform button bearing thenumber “90” that was identified as spe-cific to the Irish Regiment of Dillon, inthe service of France, for the period from1779 to 1783. This type of button corre-sponds to the period of the participationof Louis XVI’s armies in the AmericanWar of Independence.

Armed with this information, re-search was undertaken at the French Na-

tional Archives where the Campagnesaux Ameriques (Campaigns in the Amer-icas) archive provided a report by Cheva-lier de L’Espine on his naval action onJanuary 22, 1783. This important docu-ment linked the area where his ship sankto the location of the excavation wrecksite, since he indicated that the final po-sition of his corvette lay between PointeIsabellique and Pointe de la Grange; twocharacteristic points that served as day-

Figure 5. The model’s hull and its copper sheathing. Author’s photograph.

Figure 6. The six-pointed star carved on the model’s stern. Author’s photograph.

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marks for navigators approaching thereef-lined coast along the north of His-paniola. Having left Brest in France amonth earlier in command of the Royalcorvette, le Dragon, L’Espine was orderedto transport as discreetly and as quicklyas possible Captain de Courrejeolles ofthe Engineer Corps, carrying a letter ofthe highest importance to be delivered inperson to General de Bellecombe. (From1781 to 1785, Pierre Guillaume Sarrazinde Bellecombe (1728-1792) was “Gover-nor of Santo Domingo, Lieutenant-Gen-eral of the French Windward Islands, andinspector-general of the troops, artillery,

Figure 8. The pennant with 13 six-pointed stars flown at General George Washington’s command post (George Washington’s Head-quarters Flag). Courtesy of the Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia.

Figure 7. One of the 13 six-pointed stars of General GeorgeWashington’s command pennant. Courtesy of the Museum ofthe American Revolution, Philadelphia.

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Figure 10. A representation of the figurehead of the privateer brigantine Washington. Only new research diving on the wreck couldreveal the presence of a figurehead located under the bowsprit. Watercolor by Thierry Moné: author’s collection.

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militia and fortifications of the said is-lands”.Captain de Courrejeolles (1736-1805) was an unusual officer, who wasboth the author of several inventions anda warrior capable of fulfilling the mostperilous missions. This “Vauban of theAmericas” exercised his talents in

Louisiana and in the Caribbean, in SantoDomingo in particular.) This encryptedletter from the Minister of the Navy or-dered Bellecombe to place at Courreje-olles’ disposition the means necessaryfor the capture of the Turks Islands northof Hispaniola. (The Turks and Caicos Is-

Figure 11. The copper plate with the coat of arms of Louis XVI’s Navy, attached to the stern of the model. Author’s photograph.

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lands are now a British overseas terri-tory.) These islands had strategic impor-tance because of the presence of theGrande Saline (a large salt lake on GrandTurk Island) which would have allowedthe King of France to ensure the monop-oly over salt in the Caribbean zone.

An English DragonSailed from Brest to Boston

The two-masted Liverpool priva-teer Dragon was captured off Brest onSeptember 12, 1781. At that time theEnglish privateer was armed with four-teen British 6-pounders. The Frenchfrigate la Friponne, aboard which then-enseigne de vaisseau Joseph de L’Espinewas serving at the time, was creditedwith this prize.

After its capture, the English two-masted Dragon was modified by the ad-dition of a mizzenmast and became theFrench corvette le Dragon. In April 1782,de L’Espine was sent with his corvette to

the Americas, carrying a courier for Gen-eral Rochambeau. Because of heavy seas,and the state of its hull, which was tak-ing on water from all sides, the corvettefailed to reach Philadelphia and made aforced stopover of more than threemonths in Boston. On May 24, 1782, leDragon, then armed with sixteen 4-pounder guns and four 6-pounder how-itzers, was moored in Boston Harbor atthe Ballard Wharf on Ship Street (nowCommercial Street). (This armament in-dicates that the transformation into acorvette was accompanied by a modifica-tion of the type of artillery. However,none of these new pieces of artillery cor-responds to those found in the wreck,which were 9-pounders. The artillerywas modified again when the hull re-ceived copper sheathing at Brest.) Thisshipyard within the great Massachusettsport restored the operational effective-ness of the corvette by completely re-building the hull, including replacingframes, part of the keel, and thebowsprit. (Record of the ship carpenter

Figure 12. The copper plate engraved “1783”, fixed to the port side of the model. Author’s photograph.

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Joseph Clarck, Boston, May 1782) Fol-lowing this, L’Espine’s corvette returnedto Brest where the brand-new hull ofAmerican white oak planks was quicklysheathed with copper, thus protecting itfrom the attack of shipworms in tropicalseas and increasing its speed.

When the Privateer WashingtonTurns into Dragon

While searching the archives of theRoyal Navy, we realized that the Liverpoolprivateer brig Dragon was itself a capturedvessel. This is also confirmed by Lloyd’sregisters which recorded the privateer forthe years 1779 and 1780, stating that itwas of American construction. (The brigDragon was not yet on the registers of1778, and was no longer on those of1781.) By picking up the lists of Americanprize vessels of the year 1778, all clueslead back to a single ship, built in theState of Massachusetts in 1776: the pri-vateer brigantine Washington.

On May 30, 1778, when the shipleft Plymouth, Massachusetts, com-manded for a few days by CaptainNathaniel Wardell, the privateer brigan-tine Washington was captured by CaptainJohn Mulligan’s British (ex-French) frigateBlonde. Sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia, thevessel was declared a legitimate prize andsold. Acquired by the shipowners Warren& Co. of Liverpool (England), the brigan-tine underwent some modifications be-fore being put into service as a privateerbrig under the name of Dragon.

Between September 1778 and Au-gust 1781, the Liverpool privateer Dragoncaptured at least five enemy ships, includ-ing the French privateer la Modeste inFebruary 1779, before being captured bythe French on September 12, 1781 and in-corporated into Louis XVI’s navy.

A Washington with an Impressive Record

The privateer brigantine Washing-ton was commissioned on October 3,1776 at the Beverly shipyard north ofBoston, Massachusetts. It was armedwith twelve 6- and 8-pounders, sixswivel-guns and four blunderbusses. Thecaptain, Elias Smith, distinguished him-self by capturing nine enemy shipswithin a single year. His successor in1777, Captain Nicholas Ogleby, recordedno prizes during the six months of hiscommand. The last captain of the priva-teer Washington, Nathaniel Wardell, wascaptured when he first put to sea.

The known technical characteris-tics of the French corvette le Dragonmatch the main characteristics of theMassachusetts privateer brigantineWashington. Examination of the differ-ent types of brigantines constructed dur-ing the same period by Americanshipyards reveals that Washington wassimilar to the privateer brigantine FairAmerican of 1776, a name carried bymany American ships of the period. Thelatter was armed with fourteen gunsarranged on a single deck about 21 me-ters long by 7.3 meters wide (69 feet by24 feet).

A Belgian Surprise Visitor in the Form of an Ex-Voto

Research in the archives revealedthe three lives of the American brigan-tine Washington from its origin in 1776to its end in 1783, becoming in turn theEnglish brig Dragon and, eventually, theFrench corvette le Dragon. No plan forthe ship was located in the American,British, or French archives, and the

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Figure 13. A poster for the initial recruitment of the crew of the privateer brigantine Washington, dating from 1776.

wreck of the blown-up corvette provideslittle information. However, an enig-matic ex-voto dated 1783 could possibly

be a three-dimensional representation ofthe corvette le Dragon.

In the Belgian Church of the Ca-

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puchins at Ostend, a model suspendedfrom the vaulted ceiling displays someintriguing points in common with ourcorvette. (The deep-sea captain FreddyVan Daele self-published a booklet,L’Énigmatique maquette d’Ostende,<<le Dragon- 1783>> (The enigmaticOstend model, le Dragon – 1783) in2015.) In March 2017, the rector of thechurch authorized both photography andthe on-site study of the model.

This ex-voto has a three-mastedhull, and is sheathed with genuine cop-per plates, something rare enough to benoted. The model appears to have beenmade to a scale of 1:39 and its propor-

tions correspond to those of the corvettele Dragon of 1783. The presence of aforecastle and quarterdeck conforms tothe description of the ship’s carpenter inBoston. On the other hand, since themodel has been restored many times, itis difficult to say which elements couldhave been added or modified by certainnon-expert hands. Thus, the guns arequite out of proportion and bronze em-bellishments have obviously been addedto the hull. In 1999, one of these addi-tions adorning the stern broke by acci-dent when the ex-voto fell to the floor ofthe church, thus unveiling a star carvedin the wood with six branches of very

Figure 14. A representation of the privateer brigantine Washington, based on the plans of the brigantine Fair American. Thissketch shows the flag of the Navy of the State of Massachusetts in 1776. Watercolor by Thierry Moné: author’s collection.

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Figure 14. A representation of the privateer brigantine Washington, based on the plans of the brigantine Fair American. Watercolor by Thierry Moné: author’s collection.

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Figure 15. A representation of the privateer brigantine Washington, based on the plans of the brigantine Fair American. Watercolorby Thierry Moné: author’s collection.

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Origin of the Musée de la Marine (part 1,1735/1827).

Alain Niderlinder

Traditional Lake Geneva sailing boats. Michel Pittaco

Société des Régates du Havre, FranceÊs oldest yaching club (part 1: 1838-1900)

Philippe Valetoux

Camouflaging cargo ships during WW1. Cécile Coutin

Building a Model of the Japanese Battleship Fuso (part.4)

Michel Mantin

NeptuniaNo. 287 (September 2017) Table of Contents

distinctive form. Remember that thebrigantine Washington was built in 1776in one of the thirteen founding states, inthis case, Massachusetts. The shape ofthe star resembles that of certain starsused on the first American flags and, inparticular, on the famous pennant ofGeneral George Washington’s commandpost. Moreover, despite its poor state ofpreservation, the figurehead could haverepresented the general. Furthermore,the arms of the French Royal Navy ap-pear on the stern castle and a drawing inthe cabin reproduces the coat of arms ofthe maternal side of L’Espine’s family. Fi-nally, a copper plate fixed to port bearsthe engraved inscription “1783”. Up tonow, research has not yet determinedwhen and how this ex-voto arrived in theChurch of the Capuchins at Ostend.

Even though there are several in-dications that it may be a representationof the French corvette le Dragon, for-merly the British brig Dragon, and itselfthe former Massachusetts privateer brig-antine Washington, it is not possibletoday to state definitively that the ex-voto in Ostend represents the Frenchcorvette le Dragon.

In a near future, the hypothesishere formulated could be confirmed orreversed by new indicators emergingfrom the archives or by the excavation ofthe prow of le Dragon in the DominicanRepublic. Thus, only a new researchcampaign could reveal the presence of apossible figurehead, perhaps an effigy ofGeorge Washington.