Long and Varied Career of USS Nightingale-- Part 5: Slaves Freed and the Disastrous Cruise Home

SAGA AS A PRIZE

The Saratoga's skipper, Commander Alfred Taylor,  placed a prize crew on board the Nightingale, under the command of Lt. John J. Guthrie.  The captured slaver/clipper got underway on the 23rd April for Liberia, a nation founded in 1822 by the American Colonization  Society as a refuge for  freed American slaves.

En route,  a fever raged through the ship, killing 160  of the now freed slaves  and one member of the crew.  After arriving in Monrovia, Liberia's capital,  on 7 May, the Nightingale landed her  passengers, fumigated the living quarters and sailed for the United States on May 13.

During the first part of the cruise, fever  seriously weakened the crew, at one point leaving  only 7 of her  34-man crew fit for duty.    Two more sailors died before the scourge began to subside.

The Nightingale reached New York City on June 15, 1861.

--Old B-Runner