Combat· American Revolutionary War
Alliance vs privateer brigs Mars and Minerva
On April 2, 1781, the Continental frigate Alliance, Captain John Barry, captured two British privateer brigs, the Mars and the Minerva, four days after sailing from L'Orient, France, with the French letter of marque Marquis de Lafayette.
At dawn the masthead reported two sail to the northward, and Barry signaled his consort to join the chase. Both enemy vessels bore down on the Alliance and poured a single damaging broadside into her. Barry struck back with two broadsides, cutting away most of the enemy's rigging, and both struck. The Mars, out of Guernsey, bore twenty 12-pounders and 111 men; the Minerva, out of Jersey, mounted eight 4-pounders and carried 55 men. Her Marine officers were Captain Matthew Parke and Lieutenants Thomas Elwood, James Warren, Jr., and Samuel Pritchard. One brig was turned over to the Lafayette, and both the Lafayette and her prize were later captured. The loss of the Confederacy and Saratoga left only three Marine detachments on board Continental Navy ships, the Alliance's among them.
Record no. 149