Sir John Sherbrooke (Halifax)
| History | |
|---|---|
 Nova Scotia
|
|
| Owner: | Joseph Freeman, Enos Collins, John Barss, Joseph. Barss, Benjamin Knaut |
| Port of registry: | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| Commissioned: | 11 February 1813 |
| Honours and awards: |
18 captures |
| Fate: | Captured and burned 1814 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Privateer Brig |
| Tons burthen: | 278 bm |
| Sail plan: | brig |
| Crew: | 150; reduced to 40 men when engaged in mercantile trade |
| Armament: | 18 x 9-pounder cannons; reduced to 12 when engaged in mercantile trade |
Sir John Sherbrooke was a successful and famous Nova Scotian privateer brig during the War of 1812, the largest privateer from Atlantic Canada during the war. In addition to preying on American merchant ships (she captured 18 between her commissioning on 11 February 1813 and her conversion to a merchant vessel in 1814), she also defended Nova Scotian waters during the war. After her conversion to a merchantman she fell prey to an American privateer in 1814. She was burnt to prevent her reuse.
She was originally the American privateer brig Thorn, Asa Hooper master, and was armed with eighteen long 9-pounder guns.Thorn was from Marblehead, Massachusetts, and she was on her first cruise when the British captured her. At the time of her capture she had already taken as prizes the brig Freedom, loaded with salt, and the American vessel Hiram, with a cargo of flour and bread on a voyage to Lisbon and traveling with a British license (safe conduct pass) that asked all British naval vessels and privateers to let her pass, provided that she was on a bona fide passage to Spain or Portugal with flour. This capture, on 15 October, gave rise to a US Supreme Court court case in which the court ruled that Hiram, although an American vessel, was a legitimate prize. The British naval vessels Tenedos, Shannon, Nymphe and Curlew captured Thorn on 31 October 1812.Thorn was sold at Halifax as a prize and renamed after the former colonial administrator Sir John Coape Sherbrooke.
She had three letters of marque issued to her: 27 November 1812 (Captain Thomas Robson); 15 February 1813 (Captain Joseph Freeman); and 27 August 1814 (Captain Wm Corken). Sir John Sherbrooke's primary captain was Joseph Freeman, an experienced privateer officer from Liverpool, Nova Scotia, who was a veteran who did everything in navy fashion. (Freeman was eventually buried in the Old Burying Ground (Halifax, Nova Scotia)). Freeman co-operated with the navy, which treated him with the same respect as a naval officer.
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