Rattlesnake

Type

Corvette

Period

18th Century

Nation

United States

Overview: Rattlesnake was an American Revolutionary War privateer, likely designed by John Peck of Boston and built at Plymouth, Massachusetts around 1779-1780 for a Salem ownership syndicate led by John Andrews. Though technically a privateer rather than a naval corvette, she was built in the style of a miniature frigate with a separate quarterdeck and forecastle, a design feature unusual for privateers of her era. Specifications: The ship measured 89 feet 3 inches long on deck with a molded beam of 22 feet, a mean draft of about 8 feet 1.5 inches, and was rated at 198-70/94ths tons burthen (with a molded displacement of 221.3 long tons). Contemporary sources disagree on her armament, variously reported as 14, 16, or 20 carriage guns, but she is generally credited with twenty 6-pounders and a crew of 85 men; despite modest firepower for her size, her hull lines suggest she was fast and weatherly. Service History: Rattlesnake was commissioned on 12 June 1781 under Commander Mark Clark and had barely begun her first cruise when she encountered the 44-gun HMS Assurance, which captured her on 17 June. She was sent into New York City, arriving on 8 July, and the Royal Navy purchased her on 28 July in New York. In November 1781 she carried to England the first news of Britain's defeat at the siege of Yorktown, an ironic footnote given her American origins. Notable Facts: Once in England she was renamed Cormorant, though the Royal Navy renamed her Rattlesnake again in 1783 after realizing the Cormorant name was already assigned elsewhere. She was paid off and sold in 1786; her fate after that is unclear, and one uncorroborated account claims she later served the French as a privateer named Le Tonnant. Her hull lines were taken off at Plymouth Dockyard in 1782, and those Admiralty draughts (with a Chapelle reconstruction) later formed the basis for the well-known Model Shipways kit, prepared by naval historian and Cutty Sark restoration draftsman George F. Campbell.