BEFORE THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION
Two of the trades in which the ships of the American colonies were largely
engaged during the seventeenth century are of special interest here--the
whale fishery and the slave trade. It was in 1712 that Captain Christopher
Hussey, while off Nantucket, in an open boat, looking for whales, was
blown away to sea, where he killed a sperm whale, the profitable sale
of which led the people of his famous home island to go cruising in deep
water for more whales of the kind. The growth of the fishery that followed
was swift. In 1730 Nantucket alone had twenty-five deep-water whalers,
and they brought home oil and bone that sold for £3200. In the meantime
the islanders had begun sending their products directly to London, thus
establishing a new line of trade. With the increase of profits came an
extension of the territory where the search for whales was made. In 1751
they went to Disco Island in the mouth of Baffin's Bay. In 1763 they were
found on the coast of Guinea (looking for whales and ignoring the slave
trade), and that, too, in spite of the wars that had covered the seas with
pirates. In 1767 no less than fifty whalers crossed the equator "by way of
experiment." That statement is perhaps the most significant of any that
can be made of the fishery. Nantucket alone owned 125 whalers in 1770;
they were, on the average, 93 tons' burden in size, and in the course of
the year they brought home 14,331 barrels of oil worth $358,200 as soon
as landed.
These facts are of special interest to the story of the American merchant
marine for several reasons. The oil and bone formed an important part of
what a farmer might call the cash crops of the nation. Then the whalers
were producers whose work added to the comfort and prosperity of the
world. Travellers from Europe were astonished to learn that America was
a land where "no one begged." Nantucket was a community not only where
no one begged but where every man was a capitalist, or at worst had
capital within reach. For every man went whaling, or might do so, and a
"greasy" voyage made every member of the ship's crew rich enough to buy
shares in a whale ship. The "lay" of the whale ship was like the private
venture of the freighter. Further than that the whaler carried a number
of petty officers found on no other kind of a ship--the "boatsteerers."
The ambitious youth before the mast found promotion nearer at hand. Many
a youth who went afloat as a "greenhorn" returned proudly wearing the
badge of the boatsteerer. It was a matter of no small importance in a
country wherein were many bond-servants looking forward to freedom and an
opportunity to rise in the world.
More important still was the influence of the adventures enjoyed and
dangers risked by the whalers. Wherever whale-oil was burned, men
were found telling the tales of the sea. The people who listened were
peculiarly susceptible, for they had come across the sea, looking for new
lands and opportunities, or they were the immediate descendants of those
who had done so. When Captain Shields led the way around Cape Horn, he not
only aroused a spirit of emulation in all other whalers, but he inspired
a whole people. As they listened to the story the people of the interior
were reminded that the streams before their doors were dimpling highways
to the sea and the wonder world beyond its borders; and there were no
other highways worth mention in the country in those days.[2]
In every story of the slave trade one must remember that modern readers
are able only with great difficulty to obtain the right point of view.
We err greatly in judging the people of the seventeenth century by the
standards of the twentieth. There was work to do--the world's work--and
many of the workers, though they saw dimly, or not at all, the task in
hand, were so eager to do their share of it that they voluntarily sold
themselves into bondage in order to go about it. Were such men as these,
or their contemporaries, likely to see anything wrong in compelling the
less developed but strong-armed Africans to take hold and "keep the ball
rolling"? Manifestly, slavery was an unavoidable feature of the evolution
of the race, and the slave-owners of yesterday were as well justified in
their belief that slavery was just, as we are in our belief that the able
financier--the good business man--is entitled to a much greater share
of the good things of life than a man of different mental caliber--say a
college professor, for example.
The traffic in slaves followed immediately upon demand. Says Winthrop's
_Journal_:--
"One of our ships which went to the Canaries with pipe-staves in the
beginning of November last, [1644] returned now and brought wine, and
sugar and salt and some tobacco which she had at Barbadoes in exchange
for Africans which she carried from the Isle of Maio."
The _Desire_, with her slaves from Providence, was the first American
slaver, but long before the end of the seventeenth century the colonial
ships trading to the Madeiras and Canaries made a regular practice of
slaving. For the wine and salt which were obtained in the islands were
not of sufficient bulk to fill the holds of their ships. The enterprising
captains wanted to make use of the vacant space between cargo and deck,
and nothing they could find for that purpose would yield as much profit
as negro slaves bought on the coast of Africa, and carried to the one-crop
colonies like Barbados and Virginia.
It is true that when the captain of a Massachusetts ship helped to raid an
African village, and thus, by assault, captured two slaves, the General
Court ordered them returned to Africa. But in deciding the questions
arising in this case the Court distinctly, if indirectly, affirmed the
doctrine that slaves were property: "For the negroes, (they being none of
his _but stolen_), we think meete to alowe nothing." If he had obtained
them by purchase, the Court would have allowed him full value.
Between 1585 and 1672 inclusive, six monopolistic companies were organized
in England to control the African trade. Because of the monopolistic
work of the last one, the people of Barbados declared, at first, that
it was "killing the provision trade from New England." That is to say,
that for a time New England ships were driven from the island trade; but
the smugglers soon circumvented the monopoly. "Interlopers" attempting
to leave England for the slave trade were easily detained at the request
of the company, but American ships were not to be so detained. Then the
company appointed agents to intercept the cargoes brought to the Barbados
ports, but all in vain. "Armed multitudes on foot and on horseback"
attacked the unfortunate agents who tried to do their duty. Cargoes of
slaves were landed on the beach between ports while agents slept. The work
of the company simply increased the profits of the "interlopers."
When, in 1698, Parliament opened the trade to all merchantmen,
the increase of the trade was considered "so Highly Beneficial and
Advantageous to this Kingdom" that efforts were made to secure the slave
traffic of the Spanish islands also, and with success. The most valued
feature of the Peace of Utrecht (March 13, 1713) was the Assiento by which
Spain agreed to permit England to send not less than 4800 slaves every
year thereafter to the Spanish colonies.
With Spanish as well as all English West India islands open to the trade
of the New England slavers, it is interesting to note that one port soon
forged ahead of all others in the number of ships engaged in the traffic.
Rhode Island merchants secured a much greater share of it than those of
other parts of the coast. Their success appears to have been due in part
to geographical conditions. Thus the people of Massachusetts led those of
Rhode Island in the fisheries because they lived nearer the Banks, but
they had no advantage in carrying forest and farm products to the West
Indies. In fact, Newport was measurably nearer to Barbados than Boston
was; her ships did not have to risk the dangers of Cape Cod. This was
a small advantage, but all the more interesting on that account. Boston
gave her attention chiefly to fish; Newport perforce made a specialty of
something else, and of all the products of the soil used in trade, within
her reach, there was nothing that gave so large a profit as molasses,
when it was the raw material for the manufacture of rum. Newport thought
to fish, at one time; a bounty was paid on whale-oil taken by ships of
the colony. But the production of rum needed no artificial stimulation.
Molasses cost thirteen or fourteen pennies a gallon, and Rhode Island
distillers became so expert that some of them made a gallon of rum from
one of molasses, though the ordinary product was 96 gallons in 100. Rum
was not only cheap, it was satisfying. Even the French Canadians bought
rum, instead of brandy from their native land.
Gaining the lead in the manufacture of rum gave the Newport merchants
the lead in the slave trade, for of all goods carried by enlightened and
civilized white men to the degraded heathen of Africa nothing proved so
tempting as this deadly stupefier.
Many stories of the early slave trade remain, but none shows the
conditions as they were better than that of a voyage made by Captain
David Lindsay, in the 40-ton brigantine _Sanderson_, belonging to
William Johnson & Co., of Newport, in 1752. She sailed for the black
coast on August 22, at 11.32 o'clock, the exact minute being noted on an
astrologer's chart which the captain had obtained as a guide. The chief
part of her cargo consisted of "80 hhds. six bbs. and 3 tierces of rum,
containing 8220 gals." Lumber and staves for sale at Barbados, as well
as for use in making the slave deck, were also carried, but in small
quantities. A partial description of the vessel before sailing says she
was "tite as yet." In a letter dated "Anamaboe 28th Feb. 1753," Captain
Lindsay reports progress:--
"I have got 13 or 14 hhds of Rum yet left a board & God noes when I shall
get clear of it. Ye traid is so dull it is actually a noof to make a
man Creasy." Officers and men had been sick, one was likely to die, "and
wors than yt have wore out my small cable & have been obliged to buy one
heare.... I beg you not blaime me in so doeing. I should be glad I could
come rite home with my slaves for my vesiel will not last to proceed farr.
_We can see day Lite al round her bow under deck._"
In his next report (Barbadoes, June 17, 1759), the captain says:--
"These are to acqt you of my arivel heare ye day before yesterday from
anamaboe. I met on my passage 22 days of very squaly winds & continued
Rains so that it beat my sails alto piceses.... My slaves is not landed
as yet: they are 56 in number for owners all in helth & fatt.... I've got
40 ounces gould dust & eight or nine hundred weight maligabar pepper for
owners."
As we see it the trade was horrible, but consider the courage and
fortitude of the captain and crew who, after seeing "day Lite al round
her bow under deck," headed away across the ocean on a passage lasting
ten weeks, during which, for twenty-two days, they faced storms which beat
the sails to pieces and poured floods of water through the open seams.
A report of the consignee shows that forty-seven of the slaves sold for
£1432 12_s._ 6_d._ The usual price of a slave on the African coast was
110 gallons of rum. After deducting expenses, the consignees credited the
owners of the ship with £1324. After adding the gold dust, the pepper,
and the small sums received for the lumber and staves, one sees that the
dividend on the cost of the _Sanderson_ (£450) was large. Of the price
received for the remaining negroes, and the profit on the molasses which
was probably carried home, nothing is said in the record. (See _Am. Hist.
Record_, August and September, 1872).
The income of the slaver captain was large for that day. In addition to
the ordinary monthly wages, he received several commissions. "You are to
have four out of 104 for your coast commission," wrote the owner of the
schooner _Sierra Leone_, in which Captain Lindsay made a voyage in 1754,
"& five per cent for the sale of your cargo in the West Indies & five per
cent for the goods you purchase for return cargo. You are to have five
slaves Privilege, your cheafe mate Two, if he can purchase them, & your
second mate two."
The "Privilege" was the "private venture" of the trade. The foremast hands
had no "privilege." Their pay was about £3 per month.
As a matter of record, to show something of the way business was done by
the ship-owners of the day, here is a copy of a bill of lading, followed
by a letter of instructions to a captain about to sail in the slave
trade:--
"Shipped by the Grace of God in good order and well conditioned, by
William Johnson & Co., owners of the Sierra Leone, in & upon the said
Schooner Sierra Leone, where of is master under God for this present
voyage David Lindsay, & now riding at Anchor in Harbour of Newport, and by
God's Grace bound for the Coast of Africa: To say, Thirty-four hogsheads,
Tenn Tierces, Eight barrels & six half barrels Rum, one barrel Sugar,
sixty Musketts, six half barrels Powder, one box beads, Three boxes Snuff,
Two barrels Tallow, Twenty-one barrels Beef, Pork and Mutton, 14 cwt. 1
qr. 22 lbs. bread, one barrel mackerel, six shirts, five Jacketts, one
piece blue Calico, one piece Chex, one mill, shackles, handcuffs &c.
"Being marked and numbered as in the Margent; & are to be delivered in
like good Order & well conditioned, at the aforesaid port of the coast
of Affrica (the Dangers of the Seas only excepted) unto the said David
Lindsay or to his assigns, he or they paying Freight for the said Goods,
nothing, with Primage and Average accustomed. In Witness whereof, the
master or purser of the said Schooner hath affirmed unto three Bills of
Lading: all of this Tenor and date: one of which Three Bills of Lading
being accomplished the other two stand void. And so God send the good
Schooner to her desired Port in Safety: Amen."
The enormous profits of the slave trade were made in spite of active
competition. In 1750 there were 101 Liverpool merchants in it, while
London had 135, and Bristol 157. The English slavers were much larger
than the American, on the average, being able to carry 300. Nevertheless,
New Rhode Island held her own well. In 1740 she had, according to _The
American Slave Trade_, 120 vessels in the trade, and in 1770 the number
was 150.
An interesting view of the seafaring people of New England in the
seventeenth century is found in the autobiography of the Rev. John
Barnard, who served Marblehead well, beginning in 1714. He says that upon
his arrival in the place "there was not so much as one proper carpenter
nor mason nor tailor nor butcher in the town. The people contented
themselves to be the slaves that digged in the mines [figuratively
speaking] and left the merchants of Boston, Salem and Europe to carry
away the gains; by which means the town was always in dismally poor
circumstances, involved in debt to the merchants more than they were
worth; ... and they were generally as rude, swearing, drunken and fighting
a crew as they were poor.
"I soon saw that the town had a price in its hands, and it was a pity
they had not a heart to improve it. I therefore laid myself out to get
acquainted with the English masters of vessels that I might by them be
let into the mystery of the _fish trade_; and in a little time I gained
a pretty thorough understanding of it. When I saw the advantages of it
I thought it my duty to stir up my people ... that they might reap the
benefit of it.... But alas! I could inspire no man with courage and
resolution enough to engage in it, till I met with Mr. Joseph Swet, a
young man of strick justice, great industry, enterprising genius, quick
apprehension and firm resolution, but of small fortune. To him I opened
myself fully, laid the scheme clearly before him, and he hearkened unto
me.... He first sent a small cargo to Barbadoes.
"He soon found he increased his stock, built vessels and sent the fish to
Europe, and prospered in the trade.... The more promising young men of the
town soon followed his example," and "now, [1766] we have between thirty
and forty ships, brigs, snows and topsail schooners engaged in foreign
trade."
Moreover (and it is an important matter in that it shows one influence
of shipping in that day), foreign trade had improved the manners of the
people. "We have many gentlemanlike and polite families."
[Illustration: Captain Kidd's House at Pearl and Hanover Streets,
New York, 1691
Copyright, 1900, by Title Guarantee and Trust Company]
One finds in the documents many glimpses and not a few detailed stories
of life in what may be called the ordinary trades of the American merchant
marine during the eighteenth century. Here, for example, are some extracts
from a diary kept by a Salem youth, who had recently graduated from
Harvard and was making a voyage to Gibraltar with Captain Richard Derby,
in 1759. The diary is to be found in the possession of the East India
Marine Society of Salem:--
"Nov. 12.--Saw a sail standing to the S. W. I am stationed at the
aftermost gun and its opposite with Captain Clifford. We fired a shot at
her and she hoisted Dutch colors.
"15.--Between 2 and 3 this morning we saw two sail which chased us, the
ship fired three shots at us which we returned. They came up with us by
reason of a breeze which she took before we did. She proved to be the ship
Cornwall from Bristol.
"23.--We now begin to approach to land. At eight o'clock two Teriffa
(Barbary) boats came out after us, they fired at us which we returned as
merrily. They were glad to get away as well as they could. We stood after
one, but it is almost impossible to come up with the piratical dogs.
"Dec.--10.... In the morning we heard a firing and looked out in the Gut
and there was a snow attacked by 3 of the piratical Teriffa boats. Two
cutters in the Government service soon got under sail, 3 men-of-war that
lay in the road manned their barges and sent them out, as did a privateer.
We could now perceive her (the snow) to have struck, but they soon retook
her. She had only four swivels and six or eight men.... They got some
prisoners (of the pirates) but how many I cannot learn, which it is to
be hoped will meet with their just reward which I think would be nothing
short of hanging."
Tales of the resourcefulness of the foremast hands on the colonial vessels
are of special interest here. As an example, consider that of the brig
_Sally_, which turned bottom up while on her way from Philadelphia to
Santo Domingo, on August 8, 1765. Six of the crew who were on deck saved
themselves at first by clinging to such wreckage as floated beside the
hull, and then, when the squall was over, climbed to the upturned keel.
Then, to procure food and drink, they cut the wreath (a flat bar of iron
encircling the mainmast head) from its place, using their jackknives, it
may be supposed, and with that as a tool made a hole through the bottom
of the hulk. It took six days of continuous labor, watch and watch,
of course, but they succeeded, and got out a barrel of bottled beer
and another of salt pork. During the six days of work they subsisted
without water, and with no other food than the barnacles on the planking.
Moreover, they built a platform of staves and shingles upon the sloping
bottom of the hull, upon which they could sleep without danger of rolling
into the sea. In this fashion they lived until September 1, twenty-three
days, when they were rescued.
Of the lost rudders that were replaced with pieces of spare spars bound
together with rope, and the small boats made by castaways who had nothing
but barrel hoops and staves with canvas for planking, no more than mention
need be made.
In the log of the sloop _Adventure_, Captain Francis Boardman, during a
West India voyage, in 1774, are found the following entries:--
"This Morning I Drempt that 2 of my upper teeth and one Lower Dropt out
and another Next the Lower one wore away as thin as a wafer and Sundry
other fritful Dreams. What will be the Event of it I can't tell."
"this Blot I found the 17th. I can't tell, but Something Very bad is going
to hapen me this Voyage. I am afeard but God onley Noes What may hapen on
board the Sloop Adventure--the first Voyage of being Master."
There were terrors of the sea of which the masters were more "afeard"
than they were of the "Teriffa" pirates, but, in spite of all, they held
fast tack and sheet, continued on the course, and finally told in the
log-book--at least Captain Boardman did--just what came after the dire
portents. On arriving off Boston, Boardman wrote:--
"The End of this Voyage for wich I am very thankful on Acct. of a Grate
Deal of Trouble by a bad mate. His name is William Robson of Salem. He
was drunk most part of the voyage."
The Captain Richard Derby mentioned above was one of several generations
of Salem Derbys that followed the sea with success. A letter written by
him while at Gibraltar, in 1758, gives a good idea of the state of trade
at that time:--
"I wrote you the 1st instant by way of Cadiz and Lisbon; since which I
have landed my white sugar and sold it for $17½ per cwt., and my tar I
have sold at $8½ per bbl. I have not as yet sold any of my fish, nor at
present does there appear to be any buyer for it; but as it is in very
good order, and no fear of its spoiling, I intend to keep it a little
longer. I am in hopes that this Levanter will bring down a buyer for it.
I hope to get $12 for my brown sugar. We have this day had the Sallie
delivered up to us, and intend to sell her for the most she will fetch;
as to sending her to the West Indies, I am sure if she was loaded for St.
Eustia, she would be seized by the privateers before she got out of the
road, and having no papers but a pass, would be sufficient to condemn her
in the West Indies, if she should be taken by an English cruiser. I have
bought 140 casks of claret, at $10 per cask, which I intend to bring home
with me. I have written Alicant for 500 dozen handkerchiefs, if they can
be delivered for $4 current per dozen. My cargo home I intend shall be
140 casks of claret, 20 butts of Mercil wine, 500 casks of raisins, some
soap, and all the small handkerchiefs I can get."
By way of illustrating the dangers of losses from assaults by armed
vessels under the English flag, it should be told that in 1759 a Salem
schooner named the _Three Brothers_ was overhauled by an English privateer
that took away such specie from her as was found on board, and then sent
her to one of the West India Islands "to be robbed again by a court of
admiralty," as the senior Derby, her owner, wrote. In 1672 another Derby
vessel was captured by a Frenchman who took a bond of, and released, her.
The old captain sent a cartel in due course to redeem the bond, but a
British warship seized her on the charge that she was bound to a port of
the enemy. The court in England acquitted the cartel, but in the meantime
the owner of the vessel had been put to a great expense unnecessarily,
and he had no redress.
Richard Derby mentioned above bought a French prize of 300 tons at
Gibraltar, loaded her with wine, and sent her under Captain George
Crowninshield to the West Indies, where her cargo was sold to good
advantage, and sugar purchased. With this she headed away for Leghorn, but
was taken by an English privateer on the plea that she had no register.
As a matter of fact the voyage was entirely lawful; she had no register,
but being a purchased prize, she did not need one until she should be able
to go to an English port. Nevertheless, when the vessel was taken before
the court in the Bahamas, she was at once condemned. It was sheer robbery.
The records of that court showed that, of 200 ships that had been brought
in, the only ones escaping condemnation were a few belonging to owners who
had been willing to pay the judge a higher price than the privateers were.
The governor of the colony as well as this judge had gone to their posts
poor, but in a few years they retired worth fortunes of £30,000 each.
The Derby vessels were seized in each case on the charge that they had
violated one or another section of the navigation laws. The navigation
laws had at last begun to injure the shipping of the colonial owners. A
remarkable change had taken place in the condition of affairs. What had
happened, and through what agencies had the change come?
A small space only is needed for a statement of the important facts,
but the reader is reminded that here, as in the case of slavery, it is
difficult to get the right point of view. The eighteenth-century state of
morality, not that of the twentieth, prevailed.
From the beginning of the eighteenth century until well past the middle,
England was constantly at war with France and Spain in spite of treaties
that were made from time to time to provide for peace. There was never a
day from 1700 to 1763 when the ships of either nation were free to sail
the seas unmolested. It was the period during which Lord Clive fought
the battles of his country in the East Indies, and when, in America, the
frontiersman never saw the sun set without a well-grounded fear that the
night would bring bloodthirsty and fiendishly cruel enemies prowling
around his cabin. According to the documents that remain, these long
wars were seemingly no more than disputes over boundaries (neighborhood
quarrels over line fences), or efforts to avenge some such personal injury
as that when Captain Jenkins had his ear cut off by the Spaniards while
sailing near the coast of Cuba. But as seen now, each seemingly petty
quarrel was but a feature of a prolonged struggle between races for the
commercial control of the New World.
"Shall half the World be England's for industrial purposes, ... or shall
it be Spain's for arrogant-torpid, sham-devotional purposes contrary
to every Law?" is the way Carlyle put the question in his history of
Frederick the Great, and he adds: "The incalculable Yankee Nation itself,
biggest Phenomenon (once thought beautifullest) of these Ages,--this too
... lay involved."
In the middle of the century, while the prolonged struggle was
culminating, privateering as a method of warfare reached its zenith. The
Thurots and De Cocks of France and the Wrights of England swarmed over
the seas, gathering fortune and a sort of fame not soon to be forgotten.
They captured thousands of ships--literally, and if the truth be told,
the French got more ships than the Wrights did. But during the period
preceding the declaration of open war in 1756 the English privateers were
alone especially active and successful. They brought in 300 ships manned
by 10,000 men, and the ships were confiscated and the men imprisoned.
Still more important to this story, however, is the fact that many Dutch
as well as French ships were looted by the English. While the assaults
upon the French were justified because they avenged similar assaults made
by French privateers, and because enough French sailors to man a fleet of
battleships were thereby sequestered, there was no such excuse for looting
the Dutch. Nevertheless, by the real standards of international law of
that century (not the avowed standards), these captures were justified
on the ground of necessity in connection with the end for which the
war was waged with such "fierce, deep-breathed doggedness"--commercial
supremacy. For when war was raging, the ships of neutral nations were
permitted by ordinary international usage to carry on their commercial
operations unmolested. The Dutch, being neutrals, gained rapidly in the
carrying trade of the world. They even had hope that they might attain
the proud position they had occupied in the early part of the seventeenth
century. The situation looked ominous to the English. If they were to
retain the supremacy which good fighting in Cromwell's time had given
them, it was absolutely necessary to destroy, or at least check, in
some way, the growing prosperity of the Dutch. It was to this end that
English privateers (even fishermen in open boats, armed with clubs) were
encouraged in looting Dutch merchantmen. To give color of law to this
form of piracy, the "Rule of 1756" was provided. Under this rule, which
was merely a dictum of the English crown, neutral ships were forbidden
to enter any trade in time of war from which they were commonly excluded
in time of peace. For example, the Dutch were excluded from the trade
between France and the French colonies in time of peace; when war was
declared, the French were glad to have Dutch ships in the trade, but
England declared she would confiscate every Dutch ship found in it.
With these facts in mind,--remembering especially that in the state of
civilization then prevailing, some forms of piracy were justified by
expediency,--recall the feeling with which an influential part of the
people of England were coming to regard the colonies.
"How much I despise them!" wrote Lord Bellomont, in 1700, when some New
England merchants objected to his seizure, confessedly contrary to law, of
a cargo of timber. In 1724 the master ship-builders of the Thames united
in a formal complaint to the king, in which they said, truthfully, that
their trade was depressed and their workmen were emigrating because of
the competition of the New England yards. Nor were the ship-builders the
only ones in England who were depressed by American competition. The books
of Sir Josiah Child were, perhaps, no longer read, but his warnings were
coming to be heeded more and more, and the contempt which Lord Bellomont
had expressed was well-nigh universal among the nobility.
As the reader remembers, the petition of the Thames ship-builders was not
granted. As late as 1739 Walpole said:--
"It has been a maxim with me to _encourage_ the trade of the American
colonies _in the utmost latitude_. Nay, it has been necessary to pass over
some irregularities."
That was a most important statement. In 1739 Walpole encouraged the trade
of the Americans in the utmost latitude. With inconsiderable exceptions
as to time and conditions, the Americans had been, in fact, encouraged in
the utmost latitude during nearly 100 years. Even a tax laid on foreign
molasses, at the request of the English West Indies, in 1733, had been as
dead as the navigation laws of Charles II.
But when the privateers of England were loosed to prey upon neutral
ships as well as on those of the enemy, the navigation laws were suddenly
revived. The privateers found, in the colonial evasions of these laws,
golden opportunities to secure plunder, for colonial ships were constantly
evading the laws, and the penalty for doing so was confiscation in favor
of the informer. Naturally the English privateers seized the colony ships
all the more eagerly because of England's growing jealousy of American
shipping. The rôle of these piratical privateers as guardians of the law
was supported by courts of admiralty which were composed of judges who
received fees that were increased by every condemnation.
For the sake of emphasis let the facts be repeated. After a period of
nearly 100 years, during which such leaders as Walpole had "encouraged"
American ship-owners "in the utmost latitude," a horde of pirates and
corrupt judges resurrected the law; and when a valuable prize was in
question, they even disregarded the law they pleaded, as well as justice,
to condemn her. And there was no redress.
Of the acts of the British government in connection with the Stamp Act,
the duty on tea, and the other efforts to tax the American colonists
contrary to their constitutional rights as British citizens, nothing need
be said here except to remind the reader that ships of the royal navy
were commissioned as revenue cutters and stationed on the American coast
(1764), from Casco Bay to Cape Henlopen.
To illustrate the conditions that prevailed thereafter until the War of
the Revolution, here is a brief account of the events in Rhode Island
waters that led to the destruction of the British naval revenue cutter
_Gaspé_.
The schooner _St. John_, Lieutenant Hill commanding, was the first of
the naval fleet stationed in Rhode Island waters. It was the duty of
Lieutenant Hill to examine every vessel trading in those waters to learn
whether she were violating the laws. A brig that had discharged cargo
at Howland's Ferry was suspected of being a smuggler, but she was not
molested until she had gone to sea. Then she was followed, brought back,
and found to be entirely innocent. If examined before sailing, no injury
to her owners would have resulted, but to bring her back when well under
way, and that, too, at the whim of a supercilious naval officer, not only
caused loss but roused indignation. A mob of Newport people gathered to
attack the schooner, but they were prevented doing so by the arrival of
another man-o'-war in the harbor.
While the people were yet fretted by the needless interference with the
brig, the man-o'-war _Maidstone_ came to port, and began impressing seamen
from the merchant ships in the bay, and finally took the entire crew
from a ship just home from the year-long voyage to the coast of Africa.
It seems impossible, now, that a naval officer should be guilty of such
needless cruelty as taking men under such circumstances, but the truth is
that the naval officers of that period found pleasure in cruelty. It was
because of inhumanity--the harshness with which men were treated in the
navy--that impressment was necessary. The friends and relatives of the
impressed seamen were unable to obtain redress, but they expressed their
feelings by burning one of the _Maidstone's_ small boats.
In 1769 Captain William Reid, commanding the war-sloop _Liberty_, seized
a merchant brig on Long Island Sound and brought her to Newport, where,
although it was found that she was not, and had not been, violating the
law in any way, she was held for several days. And when the captain of
the brig went to the _Liberty_ in an effort to secure release, and, on
failing, expressed his indignation in sailor language, a number of muskets
were fired at him. To avenge this indignity, a mob boarded the _Liberty_
that night, cut away her mast, threw her guns overboard, and when she
drifted ashore on Goat Island, burned her.
Finally the _Gaspé_, commanded by Lieutenant William Dudingston, came to
the bay. Dudingston thought that every innocent colonial vessel in those
waters ought to be subjected to every inconvenience rather than let one
smuggler escape. In fact, the naval officers on the coast had all come to
the opinion that all colonists were criminals, as well as of the lowest
class of people in the social scale, and that it was a duty to inflict
punishment upon them whenever possible.
In this frame of mind Dudingston stopped everything afloat, including the
open boats carrying farm produce across the bay; threw here and there
the cargoes, regardless of the losses thus created; looted some of the
produce, and finally seized a sloop (_Fortune_), carrying twelve hogsheads
of rum, and sent her to the Court of Admiralty at Boston, although the
law expressly provided that vessels seized in Rhode Island waters should
be tried by the Rhode Island court.
"I was not ignorant of the statute to the contrary," wrote Dudingston
to Admiral Montegue. He violated the law because he supposed the
Massachusetts court would be more likely to condemn the sloop. The zeal
of the lieutenant was highly commended by the admiral.
Having thus roused the indignation of every American living in the
region, Dudingston went in chase of the packet sloop _Hannah_, in her
passage from Newport to Providence, on the memorable 8th of June, 1772.
The _Hannah_ was called a packet because she plied regularly on one
route. She had fully complied with the laws before leaving Newport, but
Dudingston stopped everything, as said, and he now tried to bring-to the
_Hannah_, but Captain Lindsey, commanding her, held his course. She had
sailed at noon with a fair tide, but Lindsey knew that she would have the
tide against her for two hours, at best, and he was not going to spoil
the passage by stopping, and thus losing what tide was coming his way.
Indignant at this lack of respect for one of the king's naval officers,
Lieutenant Dudingston made all sail in chase, and followed the _Hannah_
until she tacked across what was called Namquit (now Gaspee) point, when,
in trying to follow her, the _Gaspé_ grounded.
When Captain Lindsey told his story in Providence, a drummer paraded the
streets, gathering recruits, and enough men assembled to fill eight "long
boats," the largest size of boat carried by merchant ships. Though these
men were going to attack a naval vessel armed with cannon, they were armed
with but few weapons better than clubs and paving-stones. Having disguised
themselves in the garb of Indians, they rowed with muffled oars to the
stranded schooner, shot down the lieutenant with one of the few muskets
carried, clubbed the rest of the crew into submission, and then burned
the schooner.
The owner of the _Hannah_, who instigated this attack upon the king's
vessel, was Captain John Brown, the wealthiest merchant in Providence. The
leader of the expedition was Captain Abraham Whipple, who, as a privateer,
had taken a million dollars' worth of prizes during the wars with France
and Spain. The whole mob, for a mob it was in the eyes of the law, were
representative citizens not only of Rhode Island but of all the seafaring
people of the colonies. The time had come when Americans would, in defence
of Justice, do more than evade an unjust law; in burning the _Gaspé_ they
were, as Lord Dartmouth declared, "_levying war_ against the king."