Combat· American Revolutionary War
Loss of frigate Randolph to HMS Yarmouth
On the night of March 7, 1778, the Continental frigate Randolph blew up while fighting the British 64-gun ship of the line Yarmouth, 60 leagues due east of Barbados.
Captain Nicholas Biddle had left Charleston on February 12 with four consorts. Captain Samuel Shaw was the frigate's only Marine officer, and two officers, two sergeants and 48 rank and file of the First South Carolina Regiment served on board as Marines. After dark the Randolph hoisted her colors and gave the Yarmouth a broadside. From the forecastle and quarterdeck her Marines, including the South Carolina infantrymen, fired their muskets onto the enemy's decks and into her tops, accounting for some of the Yarmouth's five killed and 12 wounded. A quarter hour into the action Biddle was wounded in the thigh, and while he sat propped in a chair an enemy shot reached the powder magazine. Only four of the crew of 305 seamen, Marines and infantrymen survived, found floating on wreckage on March 12. Shaw was lost with the ship.
Record no. 135