The ''Caprice'' was a 19th-century

Sandy Hook Sandy Hook is a barrier spit in Middletown Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The barrier spit, approximately in length and varying from wide, is located at the north end of the Jersey Shore. It encloses the southern ...

pilot boat A pilot boat is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting. Pilot boats were once sailing boats that had to be fast because the first pilot to reach the incoming ship ...

built in 1871 by Brown & Lovell in

East Boston East Boston, nicknamed Eastie, is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts annexed by the city of Boston in 1637. Neighboring communities include Winthrop, Revere, and Chelsea. It is separated from the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown and d ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

for Peter McEnany and other New York pilots. In 1876, she was run down and sank, off Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, by the steamship ''New Orleans.'' She was raised and was one of the pilot boats that survived the Great Blizzard of 1888. The ''Caprice'' was last reported sailing off the coast of New York in 1891.

Construction and service

The pilot boat ''Caprice'' was built in 1871 by Brown & Lovell shipyard at

, Massachusetts, originally as a Boston schooner

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

. She was later made into a New York pilot boat in 1877 for Pilot McEnany and other New York Sandy Hook pilots. The ''Caprice'' was launched on April 10, 1871, as a clipper yacht from the shipyard of Brown & Lovell, at East Boston. She was registered with the ''Record of American and Foreign Shipping'' from 1874 to 1885. From 1874 to 1875, the ship

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

was George H. Sisco; her owners were Eugene Sullivan and Peter McEnry; and she belonged to the Port of New York. From 1876 to 1885 the ship master changed to pilot E. H. Sullivan and her owner changed to the New York Pilots. On February 28, 1876, the pilot boat ''Caprice'', No. 15 was run down and sank, off Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, by the Cromwell line steamship ''New Orleans.'' The crew were able to escape onto the ''New Orleans'', and there were no deaths. Captain Derborn, the captain of the ''New Orleans'' provided his account of the collision. The ''Caprice'' was later raised and towed to the city to be refurbished and put back to service. On February 3, 1878, the pilot boat ''Caprice'', No. 15 was in heavy icy storm off Barnegat Light and was completely wrecked.

Seaman Seaman may refer to: * Sailor, a member of a marine watercraft's crew * Seaman (rank), a military rank in some navies * Seaman (name) (including a list of people with the name) * ''Seaman'' (video game), a 1999 simulation video game for the Seg ...

Charles Walburg of the ''Caprice'' was washed overboard and drowned. Six of the other crew were taken safely off the pilot boat by a passing bark and returned to the city. Caprice in winter storm

In 1881, two gentlemen, Mr. Burns and Mr. Benjamin, were invited to take a voyage, for a week, on the working pilot schooner ''Caprice''. The story ''A Cruise In A Pilot-Boat'' was published in ''

The Century Magazine ''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associatio ...

'' in the November 1881 – April 1882 edition. From the article and references to ship's logs, we learn that the ''Caprice'' went past

Castle Garden Castle Clinton (also known as Fort Clinton and Castle Garden) is a circular sandstone fort within Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan in New York City. Built from 1808 to 1811, it was the first American immigration station, predating ...

, out to Barnegat light, by the Little Egg Harbor, and up the coast to

. They continued to Nantucket Lightship where they described having spotted a steamer and a race to board it. They took out a

yawl A yawl is a type of boat. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig (or sailplan), to the hull type or to the use which the vessel is put. As a rig, a yawl is a two masted, fore and aft rigged sailing vessel with the mizzen mast p ...

with two seamen and a pilot, and reached the

leeward side Windward () and leeward () are terms used to describe the direction of the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e. towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point of reference ...

of the steamer. The pilot then climbed up the ladder to board the ship. The story ends with the pilot boat going through

The Narrows __NOTOC__ The Narrows is the tidal strait separating the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It connects the Upper New York Bay and Lower New York Bay and forms the principal channel by which the Hudson Riv ...

back into port. In the

Blizzard of 1888 The Great Blizzard of 1888, also known as the Great Blizzard of '88 or the Great White Hurricane (March 11–14, 1888), was one of the most severe recorded blizzards in American history. The storm paralyzed the East Coast from the Chesapeake B ...

Pilot Sullivan was in the ''Caprice'' when the blizzard struck. The boat was fifteen miles south of the Sandy Hook Lightship and was driven seventy-five miles south. The Caprice weathered out the blizzard and was only slightly damaged as her steering gear was disabled. Peter Campbell Airship

On July 16, 1889, the pilot boat ''Caprice'' and pilot John Phalan, reported seeing Peter C. Campbell's

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. As of the 2020 United ...

. He was seventy-four miles south of

Montauk Point Montauk ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, on the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2020 United States census, the CDP's population was 4,318. The ...

, when Phalan saw a big yellow, oval-shaped balloon dragging in the ocean. The balloon then separated from the airship and flew up into the air. Professor Edward D. Hogan was believed to be lost at sea. On February 8, 1890, during a dense fog, the pilot boat ''Caprice'', No. 15, on station duty, when she struck the shoal at the end of the

West Bank Light West Bank Light, officially West Bank Front Range Light, is a lighthouse in Lower New York Bay, within New York City, and acts as the front range light for the Ambrose Channel. It is currently active and not open to the public. The tower was built ...

in the

Lower New York Bay Lower New York Bay is a section of New York Bay south of the Narrows (the strait between Staten Island and Brooklyn). The eastern end of the Bay is marked by two spits of land, Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and Rockaway, Queens. The waterway b ...

and then sank. The pilot and crew escaped in life boats and went to Staten Island. A wrecking company was able to raise the boat and tow it to back to Brooklyn. The last report of the pilot boat ''Caprice'' was on June 9, 1891, when she was struck by a large whale off the coast of New York. Pilots Cameron and J. J. Kelly of the ''Caprice'' were awaken when they heard a thump and discovered that a whale had struck their boat. The whale followed them for a while as they sailed away but soon tired as he was badly hurt.

References

{{1876 shipwrecks Schooners of the United States Service vessels of the United States 1871 ships Pilot boats Ships built in Boston Maritime incidents in February 1876 Blizzards in the United States

Construction and service

See also

References