Sons Speaker Series – June Lecture
J.P. Hand is widely known for his carvings of duck decoys. He is also recognized as a historian of Cape May County, N.J., where his family has lived since before the Revolution. On June 3, he brought his historical expertise to the PSSR.
Hand was the featured speaker at the society’s second lecture of 2025 at Historic Waynesborough. He talked about his book, “The Cape May Navy: Delaware Bay Privateers in the American Revolution,” which he co-wrote with Daniel P. Stites.
The United States, he said, had little in the way of an official Navy. The privateers were voluntary sea captains commissioned by the Continental Congress to capture British ships in the bay and along coastal waters. Cape May, he said, had at least 25 privateers commanding perhaps 200 crewmen. They did great service for the patriot cause.
Society member Matt Forester, himself a descendant of Cape May privateers, introduced J.P. Hand to the full house of attendees.