History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I

We learn from the records of the " Governor and Council, or Commit- "tee of War," of Connecticut, thai the Whiting and the ^ Vowe were owned by the State of Connecticut, and were, probably, those which were loaneil to General Washington ; that the Whiting wasa new vessel, cummanded by Captain .lohu McCleave, was manned with fifty men, including her officers, and armed with four cannon, taken from the Jlfi- /(ertv(, eight swivels, and five luusketj* ; and that the Crane was also a new vessel, (Commanded byt/apt;rin .lehial Tinker, was manned with fifty men, including her officers, and armed with two Continental nine-poundel's, two three-poundei-s, eight swivels, and ten muskets.

3 Sparks's Writings of George Washingtxin, iv., 19, note.

* Memoirs of General Heath, 51.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

Captain Thomas, both of them volunteers from the Army ; and tliey must liave succeeded in passing up the river and in being concealed, without having been seen by the enemy ; and no one, ashore, apjiears to have given the slightest inlbrmation eonceriiing them.

We are told these vessels were sloops, ' ])rol)ably such as ordinarily sailed on the North-river ; and that the night of the fourteenth of August was ap])()inted for the attempt to burn the ships; Init, from some unexplained cause, without having aroused any suspicion, however, the attempt was not, then, made. Two nights later, thatof the sixteenth of August, it was " pretty dark," and the tide was ;dso favorable ; and the mischief-laden sloops were unmoored, and allowed to drift with the tide, silently, up the river, toward their proposed victims. The jRo,se's tender is said to have been anchored as a look-out, ahead of the ships ; ' and Captain Thomas, without having been discovered by the enemy, steered his sloop alongside of her; grappled her; and lighted his tires.