Vigilant
Schooner · Denmark · Lost 1928 · The Lesser Antilles
A Baltimore-built schooner that hunted a Spanish pirate ship for the Danish West Indies coast guard in the 1820s, sunk in a storm decades later as an inter-island packet.
The Vessel and Her Loss
Launched in 1794, possibly as the American schooner Nonsuch, the vessel was sold to the Danish West Indies government around 1824 and renamed Vigilant for coast guard duty. Under Danish command she captured a Spanish pirate ship that had been harassing merchant vessels in the passage between St Thomas and Puerto Rico. She later spent decades as a mail and passenger packet between St Thomas and St Croix before sinking in a storm on 12 September 1928.
Vessel
- 1794
- Not established
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Wood
- 90 ft
- 29 ft
- Not established
- Sail
- Government of the Danish West Indies
Loss
- September 12, 1928
- Storm
- Passage between St Thomas and St Croix, Danish West Indies (by then U.S. Virgin Islands)
- Caribbean Sea
- St Thomas → St Croix
- Mail and passengers
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Between St Thomas and St Croix
Evidence
Overall confidence: Partially documented (55/100)
Her exact wreck position and the identity of the pirate vessel she captured are not established in the sources reviewed.
Wikipedia (Vigilant, 1794 Baltimore schooner) citing Danish West Indies records
Career as Danish coast guard vessel and packet, pirate capture, and 1928 loss.
