52nd Annual Delaware Show

a successful privateering voyage with the Irwins’ 80-ton brig Lady Gates, from Saint Eustatius. On September 29, the Revolution launched on the Delaware River, where she remained docked through December. On December 8, Samuel Morris and Robert Paisley bonded the vessel for $10,000 and received a letter of marque. 2 The following day the ship sailed downriver to Camden, New Jersey. Finally, laden with fifty-two hogsheads of dried fish, barrel staves, pickled herring, onions, and tar, she began the journey toward the Caribbean. It was not to be an easy excursion. Still on the Delaware, during the night of December 17, the wind changed to the north and brought snow, heavy gales, and ice flows, prompting McNachtane to “force the ship” to open water. Several days later, however, the captain wrote distressingly, “half past 6 o’clock have up the main sail not long under way before we found it difficult to pass the ship through the ice.” By 10:00 the next morning, the ship could no longer move. Stuck on the Delaware, in early January 1780, McNachtane ordered his crew to disembark, cross the frozen river to New Jersey, and cut wooden fenders to protect the vessel. Despite his efforts, the Revolution began to list. To prevent her from capsizing, McNachtane had the masts and rigging cut Fig. 2. William Birch, Preparation for War to Defend Commerce. From William Russell Birch, The City of Philadelphia . . . as it appeared in the year 1800 (Philadelphia: W. Birch & Son, 1804). Printed Book & Periodical Collection, Winterthur Library — 152 —