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MEDIATOR (10) Sloop Built in 1742, Virginia, purchased for RN in 1745.
Captured in 1745.

  • 1745 Lieut. HAMILTON, Portsmouth. Sailed from Spithead on 2th. May with dispatches for West Indies and North America but returned on 1st. June and sailed again the next day. At 7 am on the 3rd., soon after she had passed the Needles, a French snow privateer, later identified as the NAIAD.16, bore down on her and fired six or eight shots into her rigging. The master, David COULTER, after conferring with the captain, came on deck and ordered a seamen to strike the flag. This order caused an altercation between the officers and the seamen who wished to continue the fight and a seaman only struck the flag when threatened with a pistol. The surgeon had to remind the captain to throw the weighted dispatches overboard. The following afternoon the ASSISTANCE (50), gave chase to the NAIAD and her prize. The privateer escaped with HAMILTON and 50 men as prisoners, abandoning MEDIATOR with 43 Frenchmen and 9 Englishmen on board, and ASSISTANCE brought her back to Spithead. The master was found guilty of cowardice, he lost his pay and and was barred from ever serving as an officer in the navy. The captain was the son of a duke and by the time he returned from captivity in France the affair had been forgotten and he escaped punishment.


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