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FOX
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(18) |
Schooner
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Purchased in 1799.
Lost in the same year. |
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- 1799 Lieut. James WOOLRIDGE, Jamaica.
FOX left Jamaica on the 5 September 1799 to land the chief of of the Creek Indians on the the Gulf of Mexico. She touched at the Isle of Providence on her way but could not procure a pilot then, on the 28th., while the master was taking soundings, she struck a sand bank about 9 miles from the shore, bilged and fell over on her larboard side near a coral reef.
The boats were all stove in and her people spent the night in the rigging expecting her to go to pieces at any moment.
At daybreak they managed to get some casks of pork on to the reef and by noon they were all safe there when the brig rolled over and broke up.
They were 32 days on the reef with only the pork and what water they could dig out of the sand to sustain them, when they were rescued by the Jamaican privateer PROVIDENCE. She met the THUNDERER (74) in the Gulf and FOX's officers and men were put on board and landed at Port Royal on the 1 December.
They were all acquitted of blame after a court martial.
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