Daniel Waters

Background

Daniel Waters was born at Charlestown, Massachussets, the tenth child of Adam and Rachel (Draper) Waters, and the great-grandson of Lawrence Waters who came to Charlestown from Lancaster, England, in 1675.

Career

Daniel took up seafaring and became a master mariner, making his home first in Charlestown but after 1771 in the adjoining town of Malden. He was one of the Malden minutemen who were engaged with the British on April 19, 1775, and, as one experienced in ordnance, he was shortly afterward requested by the Malden Committee of Safety to prepare the cannon of the town and "enlist a sufficient number of men to make use of them". After the American investment of Boston he had charge of a small gunboat in the Charles River and, on January 20, 1776, he was appointed by General Washington to command the schooner Lee, one of six vessels under John Manley. In the Lee he was active in the ensuing warfare on British communications and captured one enemy vessel in February and another on May 10, the Elizabeth, laden with merchandise seized in Boston. In early June, aided by the Warren, he took an armed troopship with ninety-four Scotch Highlanders on board, and on June 17 he shared with other vessels in the capture of the transports Howe and Annabella in Nantasket Road. Upon the recommendation of Washington and others, he was appointed, March 15, 1777, a captain in the Continental Navy. Serving thereafter as a volunteer under Manley in the Hancock, he was given command of the frigate Fox, but on July 6 both the Fox and the Hancock were surrendered to superior forces off Halifax. After he was exchanged in 1778, he made a West Indies cruise in the spring of 1779 in the Continental sloop General Gates. He then commanded the Massachusetts ship General Putnam in the ill-fated expedition against Castine, Me. , in which the American ships were destroyed in the mouth of the Penobscot River to prevent their capture. His most famous exploit came at the close of this year when, in the Boston privateer Thorn of eighteen six-pounders, he defeated, in a two-hour action on December 25, two enemy privateers of about equal armament but more heavily manned, the Governor Tryon and Sir William Erskine. The Tryon escaped after her surrender. The Thorn suffered eighteen killed and injured, and among the wounded was Captain Waters. John Adams wrote of the engagement, "There has not been a more memorable action this war". In January 1780 he also captured the Sparlin in a forty-minute battle, and brought both the Erskine and the Sparlin safely into Nantasket Road in February. His last cruise was in the Massachusetts privateer Friendship, to which he was appointed in January 1781. After the war he retired to his farm in Malden, where he died.

Achievements

• Daniel Waters has been listed as a noteworthy naval officer by Marquis Who's Who.

Connections

He was married first, in July 1759, to Agnes Smith, by whom he had a daughter; second, on June 8, 1779, to Mary (Wicox) Mortimer, a widow of Boston; and, third, on July 29, 1802, to Sarah Sigourney, of Boston.

Father:

Adam Waters

Mother:

Rachel (Draper) Waters

Spouse:

Sarah Sigourney

Spouse:

Mary (Wicox) Mortimer

Spouse:

Agnes Smith