HMS Diligent (1777)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Diligent |
| Builder: | America |
| Acquired: | 1777 by purchase |
| Captured: | 1779 |
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| Name: | USS Diligent |
| Acquired: | By capture May 1779 |
| Fate: | scuttled August 1779 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Brig |
| Tons burthen: | 236 (bm) |
| Length: | 88 ft 5 3⁄4 in (27.0 m) (deck) |
| Beam: | 24 ft 8 in (7.5 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 10 ft 10 in (3.3 m) |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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HMS Diligent was a brig the Royal Navy purchased in 1777. The Continental Navy captured her in May 1779 and took her into service as the USS Diligent. She then participated in the disastrous Penobscot Expedition where her crew her crew had to scuttled her in August to prevent the British from capturing her.
The Royal Navy commissioned Diligent under Lieutenant Thomas Farnham in August 1777. The Navy then purchased her on 25 October 1777 for £420 4s 0d.
Lieutenant Thomas Walbeoff was appointed in January 1778 to replace Farnham. In May, Walbeoff took commanded of York, which the French captured on 19 July.
Farnham was in command of Diligent on 26 April when at about 4p.m. she fired two shots at a rebel (American) schooner near Matinecoock Point, Long Island, and chased her into a creek that was too shallow for Diligent to enter. After firing another 60 shots, Farnham sent in his boats, but they were unable to retrieve the schooner. Diligent then sailed at 7p.m. and by 9p.m. had anchored at Hempstead, New York.
The next day, Diligent sent two boats in to cut off some rebel whaleboats that had landed at Loyds Neck. Cerberus and Raven also sent in boats. However, an American galley fired on the boats, which withdrew.
On 6 May Farnham sent his boats to intercept an American boat. The British boats returned after they had destroyed the American boat, whose crew had escaped on shore.
Ten days later, boats from Diligent, Cerberus, and Falcon, together with an un-named tender, cut out a brig from Newfield Harbour.
On 21 October 1778, Diligent and Diamond stopped the brig Recovery at 42°17′N 69°00′W / 42.283°N 69.000°W. Recovery was sailing from Portsmouth to Charles Town with a cargo of lumber, and her captors sent her into New York.
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