TROUBLE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND ALGIERS.--THE WAR WITH
FRANCE.--WHAT OUR NAVY DID.--FROM GIBRALTAR TO MARSEILLES.
"The first time our government ran against Algerine pirates," said
Haines, "was in 1785, when they captured two vessels from the United
States, and sold their crews--twenty-one men altogether--into slavery.
The President set about getting these men released just as soon as
he heard of the capture of the ships. The diplomatic agents of the
United States in Europe were instructed to make arrangements in that
direction; but the Dey of Algiers believed that he had found a new mine
of wealth, and demanded an enormous price for the ransom of the unhappy
sailors."
"Did our government pay it?" I asked, as Haines paused.
"No, they did not," was the reply; "they determined that they would
not establish a precedent for such exorbitant demands. In France there
was a religious society called the Mathurins, that was established
hundreds of years ago for the purpose of releasing Christian captives
who were held by the infidels. Our government employed the chief of
the Mathurins to negotiate the liberation of our men, but he didn't
succeed. Several other attempts were made, but the Dey refused to come
down in his price, because he thought the Americans would pay anything
rather than let their citizens be slaves, or, at any rate, their white
citizens, as we had plenty of negro slaves in our country and thought
that kind of slavery was all right.
"Well, the thing dragged along a good while. Our government
appropriated forty thousand dollars to ransom those men. One after
another two commissioners were appointed to negotiate the business, but
each of 'em died before he got to Algiers.
"Before the negotiations for these twenty-one men were concluded, ten
more American ships had been captured, and more than a hundred sailors
sold from them into slavery. It was not till 1795 that we brought the
miserable business to an end, and got the release of the prisoners by
paying eight hundred thousand dollars in cash, with a promise of an
annual tribute of twenty-five thousand dollars, and a ship-of-war worth
one hundred thousand dollars."
"Do you mean that we were to give them a ship-of-war every year?" I
asked.
"Oh, no," replied Haines; "not a ship-of-war every year, but a single
one as soon as we could build her, after giving the eight hundred
thousand dollars down."
"Oh, I understand," I answered. "Why didn't we take that eight hundred
thousand dollars and build ships-of-war with it, and then go and blow
the Algerines sky high?"
"That's what we ought to have done," said Haines, "and it's a big shame
we didn't do it. What we did every other nation of Europe had been
doing, and some of them for hundreds of years. It is like paying a
chicken thief five dollars a month to let alone robbing your hen-roost."
"Well, if we've been paying twenty-five thousand dollars a year to the
Dey of Algiers to let us alone, how is it that he is capturing our
ships now?"
"We were not very prompt in making our payments, I believe," Haines
answered; "and besides, them pagans don't pay any attention to their
treaties. They make an agreement that is to last five or ten years, and
get a certain amount of money; but when they've used that money up and
want more they go to capturing our ships again, and simply tell us that
they are out of money and must raise it somehow.
"I'm getting off the track a little," said Haines, after a pause, "as
I promised to tell you how we owe our present navy to the Algerine
pirates. The capture of our ships was a very bad blow to American
commerce, as it drove the American flag out of the Mediterranean, and
limited our trade altogether to the West Indies. Matters had come to a
very bad state. Mr. Humphreys was appointed Commissioner for the United
States in 1793, to negotiate with the Dey of Algiers. He was treated
with great contempt by that chief of pirates, and what do you suppose
the beggar said when he talked with the American about the business?"
"I don't know, I'm sure," was the reply of all of us.
"Well, he said, 'If I were to make peace with everybody what should I
do with my corsairs? They would take off my head for the want of other
prizes, not being able to live on their miserable allowance.'
"Mr. Humphreys did not waste any time in writing to President
Washington and telling him what the barbarian scoundrel said, and he
added this comment at the end of his letter. 'If we mean to have a
commerce we must have a navy to defend it.'
"Well, the President in his next message to Congress suggested that
we must have a navy, and he gave his reasons for the suggestion.
I disremember 'em exactly; but the substance of 'em was that the
United States would never have any rank among nations if she had the
reputation of weakness. We would be sure to be insulted if we hadn't
the strength to hit back, and the only way we could have peace was to
let everybody know we were always ready to fight.
"Congress took the words of the President in good part," Haines
continued, "and passed a bill authorizing the building of six frigates,
four of them forty-four gunners, and the two thirty-six gunners; and
that's the way we owe our navy to the Algerine pirates. Would you
believe it, there were a good many members of Congress who opposed
building the navy, and thought it would be better and cheaper to make
a trade with the Dey of Algiers by paying him ransom and tribute money
instead of spending our money on ships. They made a clause in the bill
appropriating a million dollars toward buying a peace with the Dey, and
in case they did so, the building of the ships was to be stopped.
"And that's just what happened. In 1795 we made a treaty of peace with
this sea-robber which cost the government a million of dollars, as I've
already told you about. They stopped work on the ships, but they were
pretty well along by that time; and when, in 1797, we got into trouble
with France and things looked very squally, it didn't take a great
while to finish the ships and get them ready for sea."
"How did the trouble with France come about? Please tell me."
"As near as I can remember," said Haines, "this was the way of it,--
"France and England were at war, and the French government took offense
at a treaty we had made with Great Britain. They issued a secret order
authorizing French ships-of-war to capture neutral ships in the West
Indies, if they were found carrying supplies to British ports. The
French cruisers, under this authority, began to seize American ships,
and treated their crews with great cruelty. We had felt very friendly
to the French down to that time, owing to the way they helped us
during the Revolution, but they acted so badly that we didn't feel so
well afterward. Next they issued a decree which almost amounted to a
declaration of war, and I don't believe you can guess what it was."
"I have read somewhere," I said, "that the French not only authorized
the capture of American ships trading between the United States and
Great Britain and its colonies, but declared further that any American
found on board of a hostile ship, though placed there without his
consent by impressment, should be hanged as a pirate! Wasn't that it?"
"Yes, it was," said Haines; "just think of it! British ships were
constantly impressing American seamen. Suppose an English war-ship
with impressed Americans on board should be captured by a French
cruiser; those Americans were liable to be hanged as pirates! Did you
ever hear of anything so outrageous?"
"Certainly I never did," I answered; "it's difficult to believe that
such an order was possible. Did the United States declare war against
France after that?"
"They didn't do it in the regular form of a declaration," said Haines;
"but they sent out war-ships as fast as they could get them ready,
with orders to capture French ships, and at the same time they passed
a law for raising a land-force to defend our seaports. A good many
French privateers were fitted out to capture American ships, and
American privateers to capture French ships. As fast as we could get
our war-ships ready we sent them out, and the fighting very soon became
lively. The frigates United States, Constitution, and Constellation
were the first to get to sea, and the Constellation captured a French
cruiser a few days after she sailed. She was the first vessel captured
in the war, and, in fact, the first ever captured by the navy of the
United States.
"There's a funny thing about that cruiser," continued Haines, and I
listened attentively to hear what he was saying; "she was called Le
Croyable, that's what I think it was, and carried fourteen guns; she
was taken into port, where she was condemned by a prize-court, and
added to the United States navy. They named her the Retaliation, and
sent her out with two other small ships to cruise in the West Indies.
"One day they sighted two ships that they thought were British, and
sailed up within shooting distance. They discovered their mistake when
it was too late; what they had thought to be English ships turned
out to be Frenchmen, and big ones too. The French ships captured the
Retaliation, and the other two started to sail away. One of the big
French ships started after them, and she was one of the fastest sailers
in the world.
"Captain Bainbridge of the Retaliation had been taken on board the
other French ship as a prisoner. When he got there the French captain
asked him the strength of the two ships that were running away.
He promptly answered, 'Twenty-eight twelve-pounders, and twenty
nine-pounders,' which was more than double what their armament really
was. The French captain immediately signaled to the other Frenchman to
give up the chase and come back. As the one who signaled was the senior
officer the other one was obliged to obey his orders, which he did very
reluctantly, as he had got near enough to the American ships to see
that they were very much inferior to him, and he was pretty certain to
capture them."
"Didn't they punish Captain Bainbridge for telling such a falsehood?" I
asked.
"No, not at all," said Haines; "you know the old saying, 'All's fair
in love and war;' they used a few hard words about him, and then the
French captain complimented him on the success of his deception and
asked him to take a glass of wine. The trick was by no means a new one,
either on sea or on land.
"There was another hard-fought battle in February, 1800," continued
Haines, "between Commodore Truxton's ship, the Constellation,
thirty-eight guns, and a French ship called the Vengeance, of
fifty-two guns. It began at eight o'clock in the evening and lasted
till one in the morning. The ships sailed along side by side all that
time, and kept firing broadsides into each other. The rigging of the
Constellation was so cut away that her mainmast fell overboard, and
just before that happened the French ship sheered off and disappeared
in the darkness. The Constellation had fourteen men killed and
twenty-five wounded, while the Vengeance had fifty killed and one
hundred and ten wounded. Her captain said that he had lowered his flag
twice during the engagement, endeavoring to surrender, but the American
hadn't discovered it."
Haines further told me that from the beginning to the end of the
war about fifty ships, large and small, were captured by American
privateers. The frigates and other war-ships made a good many captures;
and, on the other hand, the French ships took a considerable number of
American craft.
Just as he told me this, there was a commotion outside of the room
where we were, and the same officer whom I have mentioned as wearing
so much uniform appeared at our door, accompanying the keeper of the
jail. The keeper unlocked the door, and opened it, and then we were
called into the corridor of our prison. The officer questioned us as
to whether we belonged to the crew of the Washington, and we promptly
answered that we did.
"You'd better go back to your ship at once," said he; "and if you come
ashore again try to behave yourselves. If you get into trouble here a
second time you may not get off so easily. That's all; you can go now."
We didn't stop to thank him; and, in fact, we could hardly have done
so had we thought of it, as he turned on his heel and walked away the
instant he pronounced the last word of his little speech that I have
quoted. We were only too willing to go back to the ship, and hurried to
the landing place as fast as we could go.
We gave a boatman a shilling to take us to the Washington, and you
can believe we scrambled up the side in a hurry. We reported to the
mate, who was on duty at the time, and he gave us a sharp ratting for
over-staying our liberty on shore. I endeavored to explain matters,
that our liberty had been mostly passed in jail, at which he smiled and
ordered us to go below.
Captain Dawson was ashore at the time we got back, and didn't return
for several hours. Soon after he came back he sent for Haines to come
aft and tell the story of our experience. None of the rest of us were
sent for, and we were somewhat solicitous as to the treatment Haines
would receive. The captain heard his story; and when Haines explained
that we had been set upon and provoked by the English sailors with whom
we got into the fight, and also that we had done our full share of
the knocking down before we were arrested, the captain appeared quite
satisfied, and did not make any reproof of us for over-staying our
liberty. He did say, however, that he thought it would be well for us
to heed the advice of the British officer--and not go on shore again.
Then he told Haines to "go forward," and we heard nothing more about
the matter.
We remained four or five days at Gibraltar, taking in water and
fresh provisions, repairing a few damages resulting from the gale I
have told about, and also disposing of a part of our cargo to good
advantage. There were no docks where we could lie, and our cargo was
unloaded into lighters which came alongside. Two or three times we
got into wordy altercations with the lighter men; and if order hadn't
been maintained by the captains of the lighters and our own officers,
I think we might have indulged in some hand-to-hand fighting. The men
on the lighters were mostly English, and as we were all Americans you
can readily understand that it would have been quite easy to provoke
a fight. After all our arrangements had been completed, I supposed
we would sail away at once; but to the surprise of all the crew we
continued to lie at our anchorage. The captain didn't choose to tell us
why we were delaying; and, of course, we couldn't ask him.
We lay there the next day and the next, and then the reason for our
delay became apparent. An English cruiser got up sail and proceeded out
of the harbor. When she began operations for leaving port, we followed
her example, and left our anchorage not many minutes after she had
left hers. As she reached the end of the peninsula she turned to the
eastward, and we followed her example. It then became plain to all of
us that we were sailing in her company, and she would protect us from
any further attack by the Algerines.
England was then at peace with Algiers, having made a truce with the
Dey, the real object being to concentrate the attacks of the pirates
upon the French, and also to break up American commerce in the
Mediterranean. The Dey had ordered his people not to plunder any ship
bearing the English flag. I've no doubt it caused them many a pang in
their hearts to see a large and apparently valuable ship sailing by,
and they forbidden by the orders of their ruler to capture it.
We were headed for Marseilles; and for a considerable part of the way
the coast of Spain and of southern France was in sight. We saw two or
three corsairs from the Barbary coast. Whenever they were sighted the
British war-ship slackened her speed, so that we easily closed in upon
her, and were literally under her protection. The maritime force of
Algiers at that time consisted of four frigates with an aggregate of
one hundred twenty-four guns, one polacca with eighteen guns, one brig
of twenty, four xebecs with an aggregate of one hundred sixty-eight
guns, three _galliotas_ or galiots with four guns each, and sixty
gunboats. The vessels were all manned at the rate of twelve men for
each gun. Tunis had at the same time twenty-two corsairs, mounting from
four to twenty-two guns each. So, you see, those Barbary coast pirates
had a large fleet of ships; and, bear in mind, I've not included the
fleets of Morocco and Tripoli, which were equal to about half of the
combined force of Algiers and Tunis.
I ought to explain, perhaps, that a polacca is a vessel with three
short masts, without tops, caps, or cross-trees to the upper yards. A
xebec is a small three-masted vessel used in the Mediterranean; and
a galliota is a vessel with one mast, and has from sixteen to twenty
seats for rowers. This sort of vessel is very useful for piratical
purposes, as it can be propelled at a fair speed by means of oars when
the weather is calm, which is impossible with a ship of the ordinary
build of England or the United States. As the piratical craft always
carry plenty of men they can use the oars to great advantage.
We got to Marseilles without trouble, though our convoy left us when
we were just within sight of land. It was fortunate that we did not
encounter a French fleet while on the way from Gibraltar to Marseilles,
else we might have lost our convoy and been left to take care of
ourselves.
Ordinarily, when either the French or the English ships ventured out
of port at that time they went in fleets of considerable size, for the
double purpose of offense and defense. Several ships together could
make themselves reasonably sure of capturing any straggling vessel
of the enemy; and in case of attack by an enemy's fleet they might
possibly cut some of the ships off singly, even though the enemy's
fleet was stronger than their own number. I presume it was in order to
avoid drawing an attack from the French that our British convoy turned
away at the time he did. Moreover, there was little chance that the
Algerine corsairs would venture very near the French coast for fear of
capture, and therefore we were fairly safe.
We sold our cargo to good advantage at Marseilles, and very quickly
obtained a return one. As soon as we could make ready after our cargo
was completed, we hauled out of Marseilles and headed for the Straits
of Gibraltar.