Elk was built of fir (pine) which made for speedier construction at the cost of reduced durability in service.

Elk's masts had received damage in the chase and fearing that he might lose the prize if the winds changed, Morris rammed her.

In her five days out of Guadeloupe, she had taken three prizes, two American schooners and the British brig Neptune, which had been on a voyage from Jamaica to Exuma.

[5] At about this time Elk detained the Johanna Adriona, a neutral ship, which she sent in to the Vice admiralty court in Jamaica and which condemned her.

Coghlan commanded Elk for nearly four years and during this time was also senior officer of a light squadron that protected the Bahamas.

Harlequin had captured an American ship (under Swedish colours) sailing from Cape François, St. Domingo, (present day Cap-Haïtien) to Philadelphia with a cargo of coffee and sugar.

[10] On 7 November Coghlan captured the one-gun Spanish letter of marque schooner Posta de Caracas.

She was sailing from Campeche in Yucatan, Mexico, to Havana with a cargo of leather and rope and twenty-four thousand dollars in specie.

[1] This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales Licence, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project.