AH-WR-1452

Eagle

Privateer Schooner · United States · Lost 1814 · Long Island Sound & the Connecticut Shore

An Essex-built privateer schooner captured and burned by a British raiding party during the devastating April 1814 raid on Essex, Connecticut.

Become Captain of Record

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Interpretive Reconstruction, drawn to convey the vessel's era, type and general form. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Eagle was among the merchant and privateer vessels built and fitted out at Essex (then called Pettipaug), Connecticut, during the War of 1812. On the night of April 7-8, 1814, a British raiding force of about 136 sailors and marines rowed up the Connecticut River and burned or destroyed 27 vessels at Essex, the single greatest loss of American shipping of the war. The British loaded plundered naval stores and rum aboard the captured schooner Eagle and towed her downriver, but under fire from gathering militia they set her ablaze and slipped away by night. The raid effectively ended Essex's wartime privateering.

Vessel

Built: Not established
Builder: Not established
Yard: Essex (Pettipaug), Connecticut
Material: Wood
Length: Not established
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Sail, schooner rig
Owners: Essex, Connecticut shipbuilding interests

Loss

Date: April 8, 1814
Cause: Fire
Location: Connecticut River, near its mouth toward Long Island Sound, Connecticut
Water: Connecticut River / Long Island Sound
Voyage: Not established
Cargo: Loaded with plundered naval stores and rum taken from Essex before being burned
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: No deaths aboard Eagle herself are recorded; the raid overall cost the British two marines killed during the withdrawal
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Not established
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: 2011 (possible related wreckage fragments found in the river)
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: Not established
Accuracy: Position not established
Nearest: Essex, Connecticut, on the lower Connecticut River
Region: Long Island Sound & the Connecticut Shore

Eagle was burned somewhere along the lower Connecticut River as the British withdrew; no precise position for her remains has been published

Evidence

Overall confidence: Partially documented (68/100)

Eagle's builder, dimensions, and precise position of loss on the river are not established in the sources reviewed; her remains have not been separately confirmed among wreckage occasionally found in the Connecticut River.