Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
September 14, 1811
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 56
Additional Source Text:
"(Which struck on a Rock & sunk at Hell Gate. (See Gordons American Revolution.) She came about 31 years since, from England with specie on board to pay the British Navy & Army, and as she was going from New York to Rhod[e] Island, she struck and was cast away and sunk opposite to Govr. Morris's estate in 10 fathem water. This piece was brought up with the diving Bell (which was under water 60 minutes) in presence of the donor."
The donor was from New York.
Notes:
The British frigate Hussar sank on 23 Nov 1780 in Hell Gate, a narrow tidal strait in the East River in New York City. "The minutes of the Royal Navy's court martial into the loss of the frigate . . . make no mention of any payroll money or other special cargo aboard. The document appears to be little more than an administrative formality. It suggests that whatever valuables were aboard Hussar had been off-loaded by the time of her accident." Wikipedia
No passage concerning this incident has been found in William Gordon's The history of the rise, progress, and establishment, of the independence of the United States of America: including an account of the late war; and of the thirteen colonies, from their origin to that period, 4 vols. (London, 1788).
