Gratitude (pilot boat)
{{short description|New York Pilot boat}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2023}}
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= }}{{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1844}} |Ship name= Gratitude |Ship namesake= |Ship owner=New York Pilots |Ship operator=Enon Harris |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Brown & Bell |Ship original cost=$6,000 |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship launched= January 1825 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= 1824 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= 1825 |Ship out of service= August 28, 1839 |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport=New York |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Sank |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class=Schooner |Ship displacement= |Ship length= |Ship beam= |Ship draft= |Ship depth= |Ship propulsion=sails |Ship sail plan=Schooner-rigged |Ship speed= |Ship range= |Ship complement= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament= |Ship armour= |Ship notes= }} |
The Gratitude was a 19th-century Sandy Hook pilot boat built in 1824 by Brown & Bell for New York pilots. She helped transport maritime pilots between inbound or outbound ships coming into the New York Harbor. In 1839, she had a narrow escape from the slave ship La Amistad. In 1839, the Gratitude No. 3, was shipwrecked when a hurricane swept the New York coast. The New Jersey Pilot Boat John McKeon was lost in the same storm.
Construction and service
The New York pilot boat Gratitude, No. 3, was a built in 1824, by Bell & Brown and launched in January 1825. She was valued at $6,000.
File:La Amistad (ship) restored.jpg schooner La Amistad. ]]
Several New York pilot boats came across the Baltimore slave ship La Amistad with 25-30 black slaves on board that had taken control of the ship. The pilot boat Blossom discovered the ship on August 21, 1839, but fled when the captives attempted to board her. Two days later, the pilot-boat Gratitude came across the La Amistad when she was twenty-five miles east of Fire Island. Captain Seaman of the Gratitude said "I will bring your schooner in safely," with the intention of putting a pilot aboard. One of the ringleaders of the La Amistad ordered the men to fire on the Gratitude. Gun shots hit the pilot boat but the pilot boat was able to escape.{{cite book|last= Hunt|first= Bernice Kohn |url=https://archive.org/details/amistadmutiny00hunt/page/4/mode/2up?q=Gratitude |title=The Amistad mutiny. |work=McCall Pub. Co. |place= New York |date=1971|pages=4–5|access-date=25 Oct 2021}} The pilots on the Blossom communicated what they felt was a slave ship to the Collector of the Port of New York. The La Amistad was later captured by the U.S. Navy off Montauk, New York and detained in New London, Connecticut.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74695463/priate/|title=Something like a Pirate. |work=Hartford Courant |place= Hartford, Connecticut |date=27 Aug 1839|page=2|access-date=15 Jan 2021}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74717425/slave-ship/|title=Reprduced slave ship will house black history exhibit. |work=Hartford Courant |place= Hartford, Connecticut |date=13 Mar 1995|page=9|access-date=15 Jan 2021}}
End of service
In August 1839, the pilot schooner Gratitude No. 3, went out at sea with six pilots. Two of the pilots had left to board outbound ships to sea. A few hours later, the Gratitude was caught up in a severe hurricane that swept the coast from South Carolina to Maine on August 28 and 30. The Gratitude lost four of her pilots, three apprentices and a cook. The names of the pilots that were lost were: Enon Harris, Joseph Hendarchott, Owen Wilson, and Sydney Waite. The pilots had no insurance. The New Jersey Pilot Boat John McKeon was lost in the same storm with four of her crewmen.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77882628/john-mckeon/ |title=The Missing Pilot Boats.|work=New York Daily Herald |place=New York, New York|date=1 Oct 1839|page=6|access-date=2021-10-25}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77510831/gratitude/ |title=List Of Vessels Stranded On New-York Pilot Ground Since 1839.|work=New York Daily Herald |place=New York, New York|date=28 Apr 1846|page=1|access-date=2021-10-25}}{{cite book|last=Russell|first=Charles Edward|date=1929|title=From Sandy Hook to 62°|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7KBOAQAAMAAJ&q=Gratitude|publisher= Century Co.|oclc=3804485|pages=113, 385}}
See also
References
{{List of Northeastern U. S. Pilot Boats}}
{{1839 shipwrecks}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gratitude}}
Category:Service vessels of the United States
Category:Individual sailing vessels