Captain Thomas Creigher Sails the Monmouth Coast

As discussed in a prior articles, the British Navy took Sandy Hook in April 1776. They also set up a blockade of the now-rebelling colonies and sent ships and down the Jersey Shore. Eleven of the thirteen colonies responded by establishing state navies to patrol their shores, While New Jersey did not establish a state navy, in April 1776, New York Committee of Safety ordered ships to patrol the Jersey Shore in order to keep the sea lanes to New York City open.

Historian Donald Shomette noted that the Committee of Safety first ordered two schooners, General Mifflin and General Schyler, to cruise the Jersey Shore in April. In addition, and George Washington’s Continental Army ordered the sloop Hester to patrol Raritan Bay. In comparison to British warships, these ships were very small. For example, General Putnam was "lightly armed, carrying only a dozen swivel guns" and only 30 men.

On April 16, General Alexander MacDougall wrote John Jay about three ships. He also discussed the need to protect Little Egg Harbor on the Jersey shore (at the southern tip of Monmouth County). “You know that Egg Harbour is not in our colony, but it is frequented by the trade of Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, and should therefore be secured.”

Three days later, the New York Committee of Safety ordered Captain William Rogers to sail the Jersey shore:

You are to cruise along shore on our coasts, any where between Sandy Hook and Cape May, or from Sandy Hook lo the east end of Long island. You are always too keep some inlet under your lee, so that you may secure a retreat from a superior force. Be careful to send such prizes as you may take, into some place of safety in the United Colonies. It is very necessary to have a good pilot on board, and also that you make yourself well acquainted on the coast. You are to assist any of the friends of the United Colonies by every means in your power, and assist to carry them into some place of safety; and where different objects for assistance offer at the same time, you are to give the preference to the vessels and inhabitants of this Colony. You are always and by every opportunity, to advise the Provincial Congress, or Committee of Safety of this Colony, of your proceedings.

There appears to be only one record of Rogers sailing the Jersey shore. On May 22, Rogers reported to the New York Provincial Congress on his cruise a few days earlier:

The 18th, we were off Sandy-Hook; saw but two ships in the bay; they did not send anything out after us, which we expected they would. I expected to find the schooner Putnam on this coast, but have not seen or heard anything of her; we have not seen a sail of any kind since we left cruising off Montauk but the ships we saw in at Sandy-Hook.

It would be two other New York State Navy vessels—the General Schuyler and the General Putnam—that first engaged the enemy on the Jersey shore. Letters from Captain Thomas Creigher, commanding the General Putnam, in particular, document the difficult position of a single, midsized ship in protecting a long coastline menaced by large British warships.

On June 20, Creigher recorded needing to avoid a larger British vessel during his first cruise of the Jersey shore:

I am to inform you that on my passage here from Barnegat, I saw three sail of vessels plying to the northeast — they appeared to be three ships. I immediately hauled my wind to speak to them, the wind about north by west. After standing for them some time, I found one of them to be a very large ship, and was soon convinced she was a ship of war [probably the British frigate Lively] of about fifty guns. I then bore away for this harbor [Little Egg Harbor].

Creigher reported his next encounter with a ship, which came after cruising off Barnegat for five days:

A sloop that was driven on shore by the Lively frigate, on the 11th of June. She came from the West-Indies, having on board about three hundred bushels of salt, with other goods. The owners were one Schenck & Vanvechten. The [Lively’s] ship' s boats, after she struck the beach, immediately boarded her, but the inhabitants coming to them, acquitted her without plundering. They [the British sailors] endeavored to set fire to her, but to no effect, as timely assistance prevented their scheme.

Captain Creigher’s next letter was authored on July 9. He was at Shrewsbury; the General Putnam was being repaired at Shrewsbury Inlet (a waterway at present-day Seabright that connected the Shrewsbury River to the ocean). This followed a battle with a larger British vessel off Manasquan that drove the General Putnam into the beach. Creigher recorded what transpired after he was beached:

I got all my arms and ammunition on the beach as the Enemy began a heavy firing on us; at last she hoisted out two barges and manned them with about 50 men; but as they approached the shore, we handled them so roughly that they were obliged to make a scandalous retreat. She [the British] continued her fire on the boat until after dark.

At nightfall, the British ship captain apparently grew tired of firing on Creigher’s beached vessel and sailed away. The larger British vessel probably lacked a local pilot who could bring the ship close enough to finish off the General Putnam.

Captain Creigher’s final letter was written from Cranberry Inlet (near Toms River) on August 23. Creigher noted that three days earlier he “fell in with a ship and sloop tender, about ten guns, the frigate being about a mile and a half from the sloop, and was determined to give the sloop battle, but could not bring her to battle.” Creigher broke off his pursuit and, instead, assisted “2 prizes taken from the West Indies by 2 different privateers.” One of the vessels, lacking a local pilot, “lay aground on the bar of Egg Harbour.” It took three days to float the vessel and bring it into port. But the valuable cargo of sugar, rum, and molasses validated the effort.

Historian Shomette examined New York documents that narrate the demise of the New York Navy’s schooners on the Jersey Shore. On September 21, Thomas Quigley, serving under Captain Creigher, wrote a letter from Cranberry Inlet. General Putnam was out of supplies and the crew had quit the vessel. Creigher returned to New York without his ship. He reported to the New York Convention (the state’s legislature) on September 26:

My vessel being very small and low in the water, my greatest ordinance being swivel guns, the shrouds very old and not trustworthy, the vessel very weak and leaky, which weakness proceeded from her lying on a bar and heavy surf breaking over her when I was run on shore by a [British] man of war, the people much exposed when under sail... which prevents them from lying in their beds, daily complaints being made by my people in this regard to the vessel's condition, and the season of the year advancing toward cold and story weather - This, gentlemen, is certainly the condition of the vessel.

On October 7, the Convention ordered that the officers of the ship should be paid back wages. It also ordered the sale of General Putnam (presumably still beached at Cranberry Inlet). There is no record of the New York Navy sending additional vessels to patrol the Jersey Shore.

The mediocre results of Creigher’s voyages did not dissuade Continental authorities from seeking to protect the Jersey shore with their own midsized vessels. On November 1, the Continental Congress's Marine Committee issued orders to the Captains of the Continental Navy sloops Fly and Wasp to cruise the Jersey shore. Informed by the experience of the New York vessels, the Continental ship captains were ordered to stay in shallow waters when facing a larger British vessel:

You must be careful not to let any British frigate get in between you and the land… for they cannot pursue in shore and they have no boats and tenders that can take you; besides, the country people will assist you in driving them from the shore, if they [British] should attempt to follow you in.

On the other hand, the captains were encouraged to risk their vessels for a good prize: "We should deem it more praiseworthy in an officer to lose a vessel in a bold enterprise than to lose a good prize by too timid a conduct." The voyages of the Continental Navy on the Jersey shore are discussed in another article.

Related Historic Sites: National Museum of the U.S. Navy (Hampton Roads, VA)

Sources: John Jay Papers, Columbia U., digitized, http://wwwapp.cc.columbia.edu/ldpd/jay/image?key=columbia.jay.01088&p=3&level=2&originx=0&orginy=0&fullheight=2768&fullwidth=2133&image.x=129&image.y=20; Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York (Albany: Thurlow Weed, printer to the State, 1842) vol. 1, p414; Donald Shomette, Privateers of the Revolution: War on the New Jersey Coast (Shiffer: Atglen, PA, 2015); William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 4, p 204; Peter Force, American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-6 (digitized:
http://dig.lib.niu.edu/amarch/find.doc.html), v6, p 992-3; Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York (Albany: Thurlow Weed, printer to the State, 1842) vol. 2, p279; Peter Force, American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-6 (digitized: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/amarch/find.doc.html), v6, p 992-3"; Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York (Albany: Thurlow Weed, printer to the State, 1842) vol. 2, p241; William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 5, pp. 991-2; Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York (Albany: Thurlow Weed, printer to the State, 1842) vol. 2, p279;  Gardner W. Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution (1912, 1940, reprinted New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962), pp. 128-9.