Combat· American Revolutionary War
Hyder Ally vs HMS General Monk (Battle of Delaware Bay)
On April 8, 1782, the Pennsylvania privateer Hyder Ally captured the British sloop of war General Monk in Delaware Bay off Cape May.
Philadelphia merchants had fitted her out with four 9-pounders, 12 sixes and a crew of 120, of which a number were Marines. Joshua Barney, a lieutenant in the Continental Navy, commanded. The morning after she took a convoy down the bay, General Monk and the privateer Fair American stood in toward the fleet. An Englishman aboard General Monk wrote that the ships closed to within close pistol shot, that her carronades became unmanageable, and that after ten minutes with musketry only Captain Rogers struck his colours. Bucks County riflemen under a Captain Scull served as Marines; the men had never before been on board a ship. Mary Barney later wrote that every man of the enemy killed by small arms was shot in the head or breast. The Pennsylvania legislature resolved its sense of the gallantry and good conduct of Barney and his officers, seamen and Marines.
Record no. 91