PRIVATEERS OF THE REVOLUTION
A TALE OF THE AMERICAN PATRIOTS WHO WENT AFLOAT OUTSIDE
OF THE REGULAR NAVY--THEIR PART IN DRIVING THE BRITISH
FROM BOSTON--REMARKABLE WORK OF THE _LEE_--TRUXTON AS A
PRIVATEER--DARING CAPT. JOHN FOSTER WILLIAMS--WHEN CAPT. DANIEL
WATERS, WITH THE _THORN_ OF SIXTEEN GUNS, WHIPPED TWO SHIPS THAT
CARRIED THIRTY-FOUR GUNS BETWEEN THEM--GREAT WAS JOSHUA BARNEY--THE
STORY OF THE MOST FAMOUS STATE CRUISERS OF THE REVOLUTION--WON
AGAINST GREATER ODDS THAN WERE ENCOUNTERED BY ANY SUCCESSFUL
SEA CAPTAIN OF THE WAR--BRITISH ACCOUNT OF THE WORK OF AMERICAN
PRIVATEERS--THE HORRORS OF THE _JERSEY_ PRISON SHIP.
Great as was the influence of the burning of Falmouth (Portland),
Maine, in driving the Continental Congress into providing a continental
navy, the whole story of the results of that infamous act has not
yet been told. The “indignation against the commissioned pirates and
licensed robbers” was not felt in the halls of the Congress alone. “The
General Court of Massachusetts passed an act encouraging the fitting
out of armed vessels,” and one for “erecting a court to try and condemn
all vessels that should be found infesting” the American coast. This
act was passed on November 10th, and John Adams declared it one of the
most important documents in our history.
Connecticut and Rhode Island immediately followed the example of
Massachusetts, and on March 23, 1776, the Congress provided for private
armed vessels under the continental flag.
Of the very early deeds of these privateers only meagre details
are found recorded, but it appears that Washington, when he found
the troops under his command, in the fall of 1775, were well-nigh
absolutely destitute of powder, determined to supply them from
the transports that were continually bringing munitions of war
to the British forces in Boston and to the British ships in the
harbor. Accordingly, he caused several small vessels to be armed
and sent afloat in Massachusetts Bay and along shore to intercept
the transports. He did this without waiting for authority from the
Congress, and the vessels sailed as Massachusetts cruisers.
[Illustration: _From the copy at the Lenox Library._]
Of the number sent, it is said that all but one proved to be manned
by incapable officers or mutinous crews, which is not quite true, but
the one, the schooner _Lee_, of eight small guns, Capt. John Manly,
redeemed any failure of the rest by the capture of the brigantine
_Nancy_, already noted. “This was an ordnance ship,” says Dodsley’s
“Annual Register,” of London, for 1776. She “contained, besides a
large mortar upon a new construction, several pieces of fine brass
cannon, a large quantity of small arms and ammunition, with all manner
of tools, utensils, and machines necessary for camps and artillery,
in the greatest abundance. The loss of this ship was much resented in
England.” As a matter of fact, she carried 2,000 muskets, 8,000 fusees,
31 tons of musket bullets, 3,000 solid shot for twelve-pounders, and
two six-pounder cannon, besides gunpowder, etc. The mortar was of
thirteen-inch calibre, and afterward exploded. She was brought into
Cape Ann Roads on November 29, 1775. On December 8th the _Lee_ took
three more transports that were less valuable to the Americans, but
the loss hurt the British rather more. For, insignificant as were the
vessels captured when considered as a part of the whole fleet employed
against the colonies, one need only glance at the state of affairs in
Boston to understand why the loss of one ordnance ship was “resented
in England,” and why the taking of three other transports was a still
more serious matter. Boston was cut off from the back country. All
supplies had to come from over the water. “Toward the end of the
season Government went to a vast expense in sending out provisions and
necessaries of all sorts,” says the British authority just quoted.
“The want of fresh provisions had caused much sickness there. ... No
less than 5,000 oxen, 14,000 of the largest and fattest sheep and a
vast number of hogs were purchased and sent out alive.” They also sent
out coal and even kindling wood, not to mention vegetables. But the
winds were against them. The live stock died on board before they got
away from the home coasts, “so that the channel was everywhere strowed
with the carcasses of these animals.” The vegetables “fermented and
perished.” On top of all these losses the capture of even such small
vessels as schooners of a hundred tons was a serious loss, for the
whole British force in Boston was hungry, while houses had to be torn
down to supply fuel.
To add to the mortification of the enemy, some of the captures were
made within sight of British frigates which, through the failure
of the wind or the action of the tide, were unable to interfere. A
British account of one of these audacious attacks that in the end was
frustrated will illustrate the character of the Yankee privateer.
“On the 23d of November a small fleet of transports under convoy of
the frigate _Tartar_ arrived off Boston, and with the exception of two
safely entered the port. The ship _Hunter_ and a brig, owing to a shift
in the wind, were obliged to anchor outside the harbor, which being
observed by two American privateers that had been following the convoy,
they in the most daring manner attacked and boarded them, setting them
on fire. A signal was immediately made for the _Raven_ to weigh anchor
and go in chase, but Lieutenant John Bourmaster, who had been appointed
to protect Boston Lighthouse, then under repair, and who was in command
of an armed transport, on observing the privateers fire upon the
_Hunter_, set sail and reached the transports in time to save them from
destruction.”
Among the little cruisers that saw the most service was the _Franklin_
schooner. Under Capt. John Selman she went with the _Lynch_ to the
St. Lawrence River to intercept the two transports mentioned in the
report of the doings of the Congress on October 5, 1775, wherein it was
resolved that “a letter be sent to General Washington to inform him
that Congress having received certain intelligence of the sailing of
two north country built brigs, of no force, from England on the 11th
of August last, loaded with arms, powder and other stores, for Quebec,
without convoy, which it being of importance to intercept,” etc., the
general was to send two cruisers after them.
[Illustration: _From the copy at the Lenox Library._]
Captain Selman failed to find the brigs, but “missing them, they took
ten other vessels and Governor Wright of St. John’s. All these vessels
were released as we had waged a ministerial war and not one against our
most gracious sovereign.”
They changed their tactics after their most gracious sovereign was
pleased to send Hessians to crush them.
The _Franklin_ was thereafter stationed in and near Massachusetts Bay,
and early in the spring of 1776, under Capt. James Mugford, captured a
transport having 1,500 barrels of powder in her hold, besides other war
supplies.
It is recorded that Capt. Samuel Tucker, while in command of
Massachusetts cruisers, captured no less than thirty vessels belonging
to the enemy.
The most brilliant achievement of this mosquito fleet during 1776 was
on June 17th. The Connecticut cruiser _Defence_, Captain Harding, heard
a cannonading to the north of Plymouth, and cruising in that direction,
met the schooner _Lee_, now under Capt. Daniel Waters, and three other
privateers. They had had a running fight with two big transports that
had gone into Nantasket Roads. So the Yankees determined to follow them
there. At 11 o’clock at night Captain Harding ran in between the two
transports and came to anchor. He was but a dozen yards from each of
them. Having everything ready, he hailed and ordered both of them to
strike.
“Aye, aye--I’ll strike,” said a voice from one of them, and then a
broadside was fired from it into the _Defence_. The _Defence_ replied,
but the enemy held out for an hour. When they surrendered it was found
that the two contained 200 regular soldiers of the Seventy-first
Regiment. Major Menzies, who had been in command, was the one to answer
the hail by saying he would strike, and then firing. He was killed with
seventeen others during the battle. The next morning another transport
with 100 more men of the same regiment was captured.
But if this was counted daring work by the British authorities, there
were other deeds to come which were unquestionably shocking to the
British merchants, for, following the example set by the _Revenge_ and
the _Surprise_ of the regular navy, the privateers went seeking prizes
on the coasts and in the very harbors of Great Britain herself. In
daring, these privateers quite equalled Connyngham and John Paul Jones.
A British account of one of these descents says:
“An American privateer of twelve guns came into this road (Guernsey)
yesterday morning, tacked about on firing of the guns from the Castle,
and just off the Island took a large brig bound for this port which
they have since carried into Cherbourg. She had the impudence to
send her boat in the dusk of the evening to a little island off here
called Jetto and unluckily carried off the lieutenant of Worthley’s
Independent Company, here, with the adjutant, who were shooting rabbits
for their diversion. The brig they took is valued at seven thousand
pounds.”
It is unfortunate that the log-books and diaries kept on most of these
cruisers have disappeared, for many a stirring tale of adventure has
thus been lost. Nevertheless, authentic details of some of the deeds
done are by no means wanting. For instance, there was one Thomas
Truxton of whom the British heard to their sorrow in after years.
He was in command of the privateer _Independence_, of New York, in
1777. Going to the Azores, he captured a number of small prizes,
and then had the luck to fall in with the convoy from the Windward
Islands. There were frigates to protect the fleet, but Truxton cut out
three big ships, of which one was armed and manned better than the
_Independence_, save only for the difference in captains.
Returning to port, he fitted out the _Mars_ with twenty odd guns and
made a cruise in the English Channel. Here his prizes were numerous,
and it is said that those he sent into Quiberon Bay “in a great measure
laid the foundation of Lord Stormonth’s remonstrance to the French
Court, against the admission into her ports of our armed vessels and
cruisers”--a remonstrance that was not heeded, and so the French became
involved in war with England to the great advantage of the colonies.
Later still, while _en route_ to France in the _St. James_ of twenty
guns, he beat off a ship of thirty-two guns that had been sent out
expressly to capture him. A good story is told of this fight. A ball
had passed through her side and lodged in her mainmast. “A fine
forecastle man named Jack Sutton, perceiving the ball the moment it
struck the mast, seized it, ran with it to a gunner, and said: ‘Here,
gunner, take this shot, write post paid upon it, and send it back to
the rascals.’”
Capt. John Foster Williams was another daring privateer. In 1778,
in the _Hazard_, that mounted fourteen four-pounders and two
three-pounders, he captured the brig _Active_, that mounted eighteen
six-pounders, six smaller guns, and ten one-pounder swivels. The fight
lasted forty minutes, and the _Active_ lost thirty-three in killed and
wounded to the _Hazard’s_ eight.
In May, 1779, he was placed in the twenty-gun ship _Protector_,
belonging to Massachusetts, and in June he fought the British
privateer _Admiral Duff_, an equal ship, yardarm to yardarm, for an
hour, when the enemy took fire and blew up. Only fifty-five of her
crew were picked up. Returning from this cruise, he fell in with the
thirty-two-gun frigate _Thames_, and after a running fire compelled her
to haul off.
And then there was Capt. Alexander Murray. In the _Revenge_, of
eighteen guns, in 1780, he beat off two ships of the British navy, of
which one mounted eighteen and the other sixteen guns. This was at
the capes of the Chesapeake. Afterwards he took a cargo of tobacco
from Richmond, Virginia, in a ship that had only five six-pounders
for armament. At sea he fell in with a privateer of fourteen guns and
100 men. Murray, having so few guns, shifted them across the deck as
occasion required, and blazed away. His ship, owing to the superior
number of guns of the enemy, was eventually so cut up aloft that only
the mainmast and bowsprit remained standing; nevertheless, Captain
Murray beat off the enemy in spite of four desperate attempts to carry
him by boarding.
[Illustration: Alexander Murray.
_From an engraving by Edwin of the painting by Wood._]
Greater still was the renown of Capt. Daniel Waters. Captain Waters was
sent to sea by General Washington in the _Lee_, as already mentioned
in this chapter. In 1778, while in command of the privateer _Thorn_,
of sixteen guns, he amply justified the confidence the general had
manifested in him by his fight with two English sloops-of-war. One
was the _Governor Tryon_, of sixteen guns, Captain Stebbins, and the
other the _Sir William Erskine_, of eighteen guns, Captain Hamilton.
After two hours of such desperate fighting as was shown but rarely,
the _Tryon_ struck and the _Erskine_ hauled off. But Captain Waters
would not let the _Erskine_ escape. He set more sail, overhauled her,
and compelled her to strike. As night came on the _Tryon_ managed to
escape, but Captain Waters manned the _Erskine_ and sent her in. He had
but sixty men left in the _Thorn_. Nevertheless, when he fell in with
the _Sparlin_, of eighteen guns and ninety-seven men, next day, he gave
battle and captured her also.
If any further proof be wanted of the fact that it is the heart of the
commander and not the number of his men or the weight of his metal
that wins in a sea-fight, it will be found in the tale of the American
privateer _Hyder Ali_ and the British ship _General Monk_. Capt.
Joshua Barney commanded the _Hyder Ali_, and he had had a lot of good
training before he became the hero of the story now to be told. He had
had (through accident) command of a ship when but seventeen years old,
and acquitted himself with honor. He had sailed in the _Hornet_ in the
first American naval squadron. He had seen exciting service in the
_Wasp_ under Captain Alexander. He had captured a British privateer
while commanding the little sloop _Sachem_. He was in the _Andrea
Doria_ when she fought the _Racehorse_. He had been captured while
bringing in a prize, and had survived the frightful ill-treatment the
prisoners on the prison ship _Jersey_ received. He escaped thence, and
while in command of a cargo ship, had beaten off the _Rosebud_, Captain
Duncan, a ship of sixteen guns, by firing a crowbar at her, and so
cutting away all her headgear and disabling her foremast.
[Illustration: _From an engraving by Gross after a miniature by
Isabey._]
And so the 8th of April, 1782, arrived. On that day he took command
of the _Hyder Ali_, of the Pennsylvania State service, and started
to convoy a fleet of merchantmen from Philadelphia out to sea. The
_Hyder Ali_ carried sixteen six-pounders and 110 men. At the capes the
fleet found the British frigate _Quebec_, the brig _Fair American_, of
sixteen guns, and the brig _General Monk_, Captain Rogers, carrying
“only (_sic_) sixteen carronades, twelve-pounders, and two long
six-pounders” (so says Allen). The _Quebec_ could not get around the
shoals, and had no part in the affray. The _Fair American_ went hunting
the convoy, and the _General Monk_ came after the _Hyder Ali_.
As the Englishman approached, Captain Barney saw his immense
superiority in men and metal, but determined to make a fight. Calling
his officers and men around him, he said:
“If I direct you to prepare for boarding you are to understand me as
meaning that you are to remain at your guns, and be ready to fire the
moment the word is given. If on the contrary I order you to give him a
broadside, you are to consider me as calling for boarders, and to hold
yourselves ready to board as soon as we gain a proper position.”
A little later the Englishman ranged up within a dozen yards or less,
and in a loud voice demanded that the _Hyder Ali_ strike her colors.
“Hard a port your helm--do you want him to run aboard us?” bawled
Captain Barney to the man at the wheel of the _Hyder Ali_.
“The ready witted seaman understood his cue and clapped his helm hard
a starboard. The enemy’s jib boom caught in the fore rigging of the
_Hyder Ali_ and there remained entangled during the short but glorious
action that ensued. The _Hyder Ali_ thus gained a raking position of
which she availed herself to its utmost benefit. More than twenty
broadsides were fired in twenty-six minutes and scarcely a shot missed
its effect; entering in at the starboard bow and making their way out
through the port quarter. In less than half an hour from the firing
of the first broadside the British flag waved its proud folds no longer
in the breeze.”
[Illustration: Fight of the _Hyder Ali_ with the _General Monk_, 1782.
_From a painting by Crépin at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._]
This quotation is from a “Biographical Memoir” of Barney, made from his
private papers by Mary Barney. Having captured the _Monk_, Barney stood
up the Delaware, drove the _Fair American_ ashore, and easily escaped
the frigate. A comparative statement of the forces of the combatants is
worth giving. The British ship carried a crew of 136 men; the American,
110. The British ship was armed with sixteen twelve-pounders and two
long sixes--she could throw 102 pounds of metal at a broadside; the
American carried sixteen six-pounders--she could throw forty-eight
pounds of metal at a broadside. The British had more than twice the
metal and they had a much greater number of men--men, too, who had long
been fighting together, while the American crew had not been on board a
month.
The comparison of losses is equally significant. The _Monk_ lost twenty
men killed and thirty-three wounded--fifty-three out of 136. The _Hyder
Ali_ lost four killed and eleven wounded. The first lieutenant, purser,
surgeon, boatswain, and chief gunner were among the _Monk’s_ killed,
and her captain was severely wounded.
It is said that the _General Monk_ had captured sixty American vessels
in two years.
[Illustration: A Relic of Two Revolutionary Captains: Bill of Lading
for John Barry Signed by Joshua Barney.
_From the original at the Lenox Library._]
Did space permit, many other brave deeds of the privateers might be
given. Of especial interest, though of small moment in their immediate
effect upon the war, was the work done in whaleboats along the coast
and especially upon Long Island Sound. The adventures of these
brave--they were often even reckless--men lived in the tales told at
the firesides long after the Revolution, and stirred the hearts that in
another war were to emulate the deeds of this one, and with a success
that astounded the natural enemy of the struggling young nation.
But if all the tales may not be repeated here, something may be told of
what these Yankee privateers accomplished. In the following quotation
from Dodsley’s “Annual Register” for 1778 is found a statement made in
Parliament regarding this work up to the end of 1777. It says:
“The number of vessels belonging to Great Britain and Ireland, taken
by ships of war and privateers belonging to the said colonies, amount
to 733.--That of that number, it appears that 47 have been released,
and 127 retaken; but that the loss on the latter, for salvage, interest
on the value of the cargo, and loss of a market, must have been very
considerable.--That the loss of the remaining 559 vessels, which have
been carried into port, appears, from the examination of merchants, to
amount at least to 2,600,000 l.--That of 200 ships anually employed in
the African trade, before the commencement of the present civil war,
whose value, upon an average, was about 9,000 l. each, there are not
now forty ships, employed in that trade, whereby there is a diminution
in this branch of comerce of 160 ships, which at 9,000 l. each, amount
to a loss of 1,440,000 l. per annum.--That the price of insurance to
the West Indies and North America, is increased from two, and two and
a half, to five per cent with convoy; but without convoy, and unarmed,
the said insurance has been made at fifteen per cent. But generally
ships in such circumstances cannot be insured at all.--That the price
of a seaman’s wages is raised from one pound ten shillings, to three
pounds five shillings per month.--That it appears to this committee,
that the present diminution of the African trade, the interruption
of the American trade to the West Indies, and the captures made of
the West-India ships, have greatly distressed the British colonies in
the West Indies. That the numbers of American privateers, of which
authentic accounts have been received, amount to 173; and that they
carried 2,556 guns, and at least 13,840 seamen, reckoning 80 men in
each ship.--And that, of the above privateers, 34 have been taken,
which carried 3,217 men, which is more than 94 men to each vessel.”
[Illustration: “The Howes Asleep in Philadelphia.”--A Caricature Drawn
forth by the Doings of Revolutionary Privateers.
(The cow represents British commerce; while the American cuts off
her horns, a Hollander milks her, the Frenchman and Spaniard help
themselves to the milk, the British merchant wrings his hands
in despair, and the British Lion sleeps through it all. In the
background are the two Howes asleep, and the _Eagle_ high and dry,
the rest of the fleet being nowhere visible.)
]
To this may be added a statement from the London “Remembrancer” (vol.
v), which says that “the number of English vessels employed in the
West India trade, captured by American cruisers, amounted on the
1st February, 1777, to two hundred and fifty sail: value of their
cargoes, about ten millions of dollars. In the course of one week
fourteen English vessels were carried into Martinique. So overstocked
was the market of this island, by these privateers, that English silk
stockings, which had usually sold for two or three dollars, were
disposed of for _one_ dollar. Sailors went from door to door, offering
their prize goods for sale; nor could they dispose of Irish linens for
more than _two dollars per piece_. Other goods sold in proportion.
_Of a fleet of sixty vessels, from Ireland, for the West Indies,
thirty-five were captured by American privateers!_”
Still another British account of the distress occasioned by the
privateers, written from Grenada, says:
“We are happy if we can get anything for money by reason of the
quantity of vessels that are taken by American privateers. A fleet
of vessels came from Ireland a few days ago. From sixty vessels that
departed from Ireland not above twenty-five arrived in this and
neighboring islands, the others, it is thought, being all taken by the
American privateers. God knows if this American war continues much
longer we shall all die with hunger. There was a Guineaman that came
from Africa with 450 negroes, some thousand weight of gold dust and a
great many elephant teeth; the whole cargo being computed to be worth
twenty thousand pounds sterling, taken by an American privateer, a brig
mounting fourteen cannon, a few days ago.”
[Illustration: The British Prison Ship _Jersey_.
_From an old wood-cut._]
A brief reference to the prison ship in which the privateers were
confined when captured by the enemy on the American coast will serve
very well to close this chapter. The reference may be brief, because
it is so notorious in the annals of civilized warfare as to be known
to every schoolboy. The special jail of the privateers was the
dismantled man-o’-war hulk _Jersey_. As consorts she had four other
hulks, but the _Jersey_ was the receiving ship. If the unfortunates
captured and taken to England were, by the deliberate and publicly
debated act of Parliament, fed with an allowance of bread that was
half a pound less per day than was allowed to the hated Frenchmen, one
would naturally expect still worse treatment for those who were kept by
jailers unrestrained by the sentiments of the humane portion of their
countrymen.
The _Jersey_ was at first anchored near the city of New York. She
leaked constantly, and her hold, where the prisoners were confined,
was damp and rotten. They had no means for cleaning themselves or the
hold. The careless were herded with those who would have been careful.
The damnable conditions there bred the ship-fever and other diseases.
Instead of disinfecting the hulk the authorities moved it over to
Wallabout Bay, where the Brooklyn Navy Yard is now located. This was
done to keep the contagion from spreading to the city. Then a regiment
of renegade Americans was quartered in most comfortable fashion within
sight of this prison ship, and the terrors of the ship were then
deliberately increased. The food of the prisoners consisted of the
bread and meat that had been ordered for the British forces, but was
condemned as unfit for human beings. And the quantity was very scant at
that.
[Illustration: A Permit to Visit One of the Prison Ships.
_From the original at the Lenox Library._]
The sick were placed in bunks where the snow could sift down through
hatchways and in through open seams on to the one blanket allowed for
covering. To the ravages of disease were added the horrors of frozen
limbs, and living men saw their own feet drop off because of this
treatment.
At night the prisoners were driven to their bunks with curses and the
cry of “Down, rebels, down!” In the morning they were turned out with
other imprecations and the words “Rebels, turn out your dead!”
And there were dead a-plenty to turn out every day in the year. The
British jailers would point to the well-kept renegades and offer to
send any prisoner who would join them to enjoy the same comforts, but
the love of home and of liberty was so strong in the hearts of these
men that they chose death instead of such a release from prison--more
than ten thousand Americans chose death by lingering torture on the
British prison ships in New York rather than dishonor.
David Sproats was the chief keeper of the prison ships. He boasted
that he had killed more “rebels” than all the king’s armies had done.
To aggravate his offences, he offered to exchange the sick and dying
privateersmen in his charge for an equal number of British regulars
who could pass inspection as fit for service, and because Washington
refused to thus aid in recruiting the waning forces of the enemy the
horrors of the prison ships were increased. And because of this
refusal the English writers say to this day that if any American died
on the prison ship it was his own fault, or the fault of the American
authorities who refused to make an exchange!
[Illustration: MAP OF THE WALE BOGT AND ITS VICINTY.
AT THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR]
[Illustration: A Relic of the Prison Ships: Entrance to the Vault of
the _Martyrs_.
_From an old wood-cut._]
If those Englishmen who wonder why it is that American schoolboys,
when playing games of “war,” invariably speak of the “enemy” as “the
British”--if those wondering English wish to learn why this is so, let
them read with candid minds the true story of the American struggle for
life and liberty.