December 1783 British Navy Mystery

[sandlotball]

I need to call on those whose area of expertise is the British Navy.

In Cypress Hills National Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York (a government cemetery for soldiers, veterans and their spouses) is a large granite marker/tombstone. The cemetery records have no information on it.

I don't know if it's a grave or a cenotaph, nor does it list the name of the ship. Any information at all would be greatly appreciated.

The complete inscription, line by line, follows; (note; "Sandy Hook" is a location in Brooklyn):

HAMILTON DOUGLASS HALY BURTON
JAMES CHAMPION,
ALEXANDER JOHNSTON,
ROBERT HAYWOOD,
GEORGE PADDY, WILLIAM SPRY,
CHARLES GASCOIGNE,
ANDREW HAMILTON,
WILLIAM TOMLINSON,
WILLIAM SCOTT,
JOHN McCHAIN, ROBERT WOOD,
DAVITT REDDIE,
GEORGE TOWERS.
Officers And Men, British Navy
Perished On The Coast Off
Sandy Hook, December 30 or 31,
1783.

[DavidJP]

Hi Sandlotball,

Don't know if this helps or not, but googling around, I came across this on Find A Grave: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9597917

For A Hamilton Douglas Halyburton.

No ships name given unfortunately, a little detail about the man himself tho!

Hope this helps.

Kind regards

David

[DavidJP]

Hi Sandlotball,

Finding Halyburton's name was the key to solving this mystery!

He was commanding a barge belonging to the ship HMS Assistance, the barge was lost with the names that you posted aboard. HMS Assistance itself was not lost. Here is a link to a page on the Douglas Archives, giving detail about the sinking of the barge & subsequent erection of the memorial: http://www.douglashistory.co.uk/history/hamilton_douglas.htm#.U-LclWNJTcs

Also a link to a wikipedia page about HMS Assistance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Assistance_%281781%29

Hope this all helps.

Kind regards

David

[km1971]

The Captains log and muster and paylists for HMS Assistance are in the National Archives.

Ken

[sandlotball]

David -

Nice work. And fast too ! I came across a photo on findagrave while "cleaning-up" the websites names database for Cypress Hills cemetery. I was completely unaware of the link you sent of the grave in New Jersey.

The photo that aroused my interest must be a cenotaph. It reads as if Halyburton's name is 2 separate names:
HAMILTON DOUGLASS HALY BURTON

So I've been looking for Captains by one of those 2 names; Hamilton Douglass and Haly Burton.

As always, the wealth of knowledge and helpfulness of members of rootschat is absolutely awesome.

Thank you so much.

[sandlotball]

Post Script;

The link you sent me for the New Jersey cemetery isn't a cemetery at all - anymore. It was a Graveaite / memorial site only for the men of the HMS Assistance.

In 1909 the graves were moved to Cypress Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn.
So the tombstone photo I saw is just that, a tombstone. Not a cenotaph.

You've solved this mystery completely with all your information.

Thank you.