Samuel Tucker

Samuel Tucker (1 November 1747 – 10 March 1833) was an officer in the Continental Navy and the United States Navy.

Born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Tucker began his naval career in the spring of 1760 as a cabin boy in the warship, King George. He subsequently rose to command of a merchant ship in July 1774. Tucker was in England at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, but returned to Massachusetts in the autumn of 1775.

Upon his return, Tucker was selected by General George Washington to command a small flotilla of armed schooners which Washington had purchased and fitted out to prey on the British shipping. Tucker also served as commanding officer of the schooner Franklin.

In Franklin and later in schooner Hancock, Tucker cruised off the Massachusetts coast, taking many prizes in the year 1776. His first, taken jointly with the schooner Lee, came on 29 February, when the two Continental ships cornered the 300-ton Henry and Esther, bound for Boston laden with wood from Halifax, Nova Scotia. In April 1776, in Hancock, Tucker sighted two supply brigs making for Boston. Standing in to the harbor, near the protecting cannon of British warships anchored in the roadstead, he soon captured brigs Jane and William, out of Ireland. Tucker took both, escaping with the two ships and their valuable cargoes of foodstuffs and other items needed by the Continental Army.

On 15 March 1777 Tucker received a commission in the Continental Navy, and in September 1777 replaced Captain Hector McNeill in command of the new frigate Boston, following McNeill's suspension from duty.

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