Whaleboat Warfare
Whaleboat Warfare
WHALEBOAT WARFARE. Whaleboat warfare was the name given to the water-borne guerrilla operations and small-boat privateering that was waged across Long Island Sound and along the New Jersey coast (including Staten Island) between the British and the rebels after Sir William Howe captured New York City in September 1776. The name derives from the fact that the raiders typically used whaleboats—sturdy but handy and relatively capacious wooden boats, propelled generally by oarsmen, that had been developed to hunt whales along the New England coast—to sneak across the water quickly and quietly under cover of night.
SEE ALSO Blue Mountain Valley off Sandy Hook, New Jersey; Hyler, Adam; London Trading; Marriner, William; Meigs, Return Jonathan; Tallmadge, Benjamin, Jr.
revised by Harold E. Selesky