Massacre at Barnegat
On the evening of October 25, 1782 during a storm, a Belgium cutter was driven off course until it ran aground on the Barnegat Shoals. The next morning, Capt. Andrew Steelman of Cape May and the crew of his privateer boat the Alligator `found' the abandoned cutter with its cargo. Steelman claimed the ship and sent crew members into town to enlist all extra hands to help unload the ship. The skulking William Wilson of Waretown, instead of joining the crew, went to inform John Bacon, the notorious Tory bandit of the prize capture.
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Pirates storing treasure - Image courtesy of Clipart et
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Bacon quickly gathered his men aboard his whaleboat Hero's Revenge and set sail for Long Beach Island. Capt. Steelman, his crew and energetic volunteers spent the day unloading barrels and boxes of Hynson Tea from the Cutter. In the evening, the men slept on the beach, resting from the hard day's work and drunk from celebration at such a rich prize. Many of the volunteers were unarmed. Under cover of darkness, John Bacon's crew made a stealth landing on the bay side of Long Beach Island. They snuck across the island to the beach and maliciously slaughtered around 20 to 30 sleeping men. A few managed to escape including one son of Joseph Soper.
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