The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961 Page: 377

Notes and Documents

Zhe rexas a at bNVwe 1ark
Edited by GEORGE F. HAUGH
I. SCHOONERS Brutus AND Invincible
THE NAVY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS was formed by the
purchase of four schooners early in 1836: Liberty, Invin-
cible, Independence, and Brutus. After several successful
cruises the Invincible and the Brutus went to New York to refit.
The Invincible was ordered there but the Brutus sailed without
authority.
The Invincible was a schooner of about one hundred and
twenty-five tons burthen, drawing about twelve feet of water.
Her armament was two medium eighteen-pounders on pivots
amidships, with two nines and four six-pounders in the waist.
She was intended to have a crew of seventy but it is doubtful
whether the list ever approached that number except on her sail-
ing from New York. She was built in Baltimore and bought
through the agency of McKinney and Williams for $12,613.o02.
The total cost to the Republic of Texas was almost $ao,ooo.
The Brutus was of the same general description as the Invin-
cible and was bought through A. C. Allen.8 The Brutus was con-
sidered a slow sailer and the Invincible a fast one. Both vessels
were fitted out in New Orleans. The Invincible was put in com-
mission by Captain Jeremiah Brown and the Brutus by Captain
William A. Hurd. Both these officers were in command at the
time of the New York cruises.
In August the Invincible was ordered to New York to refit. She
1William C. Binkley (ed.), Official Correspondence of the Texan Revolution
(2 vols.; New York, 1936), II, 995, io88.
2lbid., II, 936.
slbid., I, 18o. Jim Dan Hill, The Texas Navy (Chicago, 1937), 44, rates the
Invincible with one nine-pounder, a swivel, and six carronades with a crew of about
forty men in 1837. The Brutus is here rated about 16o tons with one long eighteen-
pound swivel and nine short guns with about the same crew.