THE PRIVATEERSMEN OF ’76
Privateering has ceased to be a factor in civilized warfare. The swift
commerce destroyer as an arm of the naval service has taken the place
of the private armed ship which roamed the seas for its own profit
as well for its country’s cause. To-day the United States has a navy
prepared both to defend its own merchant vessels, what few there are,
and to menace the trade of a hostile nation on the high seas.
When the War of the Revolution began, however, Britannia ruled the
seas, and the naval force of the Colonies was pitifully feeble. In
1776 there were only thirty-one Continental cruisers of all classes in
commission and this list was steadily diminished by the ill-fortunes of
war until in 1782 only seven ships flew the American flag, which had
been all but swept from the ocean. During the war these ships captured
one hundred and ninety-six of the enemy’s craft.
On the other hand, there were already one hundred and thirty-six
privateers at sea by the end of the year 1776, and their number
increased until in 1781 there were four hundred and forty-nine of
these private commerce destroyers in commission. This force took no
fewer than eight hundred British vessels and made prisoners of twelve
thousand British seamen during the war. The privateersmen dealt
British maritime prestige the deadliest blow in history. It had been
an undreamt of danger that the American Colonies should humble that
flag which “had waved over every sea and triumphed over every rival,”
until even the English and Irish Channels were not safe for British
ships to traverse. The preface of the Sailor’s Vade-Mecum, edition of
1744, contained the following lofty doctrine which all good Englishmen
believed, and which was destined to be shattered by a contemptible
handful of seafaring rebels:
“That the Monarchs of GREAT BRITAIN have a peculiar and Sovereign
Authority upon the Ocean, is a Right so Ancient and Undeniable that it
never was publicly disputed, but by HUGO GROTIUS in his MARE LIBERUM,
published in the Year 1636, in Favour of the DUTCH Fishery upon our
Coasts; which Book was fully Controverted by Mr. Selden’s MARE CLAUSUM,
wherein he proves this Sovereignty from the Laws of God and of Nature,
besides an uninterrupted Fruition of it for so many Ages past as that
its Beginning cannot be traced out.”
When the War of 1812 was threatening, _The London Statesman_ paid this
unwilling tribute to the prowess of these Yankee privateersmen of the
Revolution:
“Every one must recollect what they did in the latter part of the
American War. The books at Lloyds will recount it, and the rate of
assurances at that time will clearly prove what their diminutive
strength was able to effect in the face of our navy, and that when
nearly one hundred pennants were flying on their coast. Were we able to
prevent their going in and out, or stop them from taking our trade and
our store-ships, even in size of our own garrisons? Besides, were they
not in the English and Irish Channels picking up our homeward bound
trade, sending their prizes into French and Spanish ports to the great
terror and annoyance of our merchants and shipowners?
“These are facts which can be traced to a period when America was in
her infancy, without ships, without money, and at a time when our navy
was not much less in strength than at present.”
At the beginning of the Revolution, Salem was sending its boys to fill
the forecastles of the vessels built in its own yards and commanded by
its own shipmasters. Hard by were the towns of Beverly and Marblehead
whose townsmen also won their hardy livelihood on the fishing banks
and along distant and perilous trading routes. When British squadrons
and cruisers began to drive them ashore to starve in idleness, these
splendid seamen turned their vessels into privateers and rushed them
to sea like flights of hawks. It was a matter of months only before
they had made a jest of the boastful lines which had long adorned the
columns of the Naval Chronicle of London:
“The sea and waves are Britain’s broad domain
And not a sail but by permission spreads.”
This race of seafarers had been drilled to handle cannon and muskets.
Every merchantman that sailed for Europe or the West Indies carried
her battery of six pounders, and hundreds of Salem men and boys could
tell you stories of running fights and escapes from French and Spanish
freebooters and swarming pirates. Commerce on the high seas was not a
peaceful pursuit. The merchantman was equipped to become a privateer
by shipping a few more guns and signing on a stronger company. The
conditions of the times which had made these seamen able to fight as
shrewdly as they traded may be perceived from the following extracts
from the “Seaman’s Vade-Mecum,” as they appear in the rare editions
published both in 1744 and 1780: “_Shewing how to prepare a Merchant
Ship for a close fight by disposing their Bulk-heads, Leaves, Coamings,
Look-holes_, etc.”
“If the Bulkhead of the Great Cabbin be well fortified it may be of
singular Use; for though the Enemy may force the Steerage, yet when
they unexpectedly meet with another Barricade and from thence a warm
Reception by the Small-Arms, they will be thrown into great Confusion,
and a Cannon ready loaded with Case-shot will do great Execution;
but if this should not altogether answer the Purpose, it will oblige
the Enemy to pay the dearer for their Conquest. For the Steerage may
hold out the longer, and the Men will be the bolder in defending it,
knowing that they have a place to retire into, and when there they may
Capitulate for Good Quarter at the last Extremity....”
“... It has been objected that Scuttles (especially that out of the
Forecastle) are Encouragements for Cowardice; that having no such
Convenience, the Men are more resolute, because they must fight, die
or be taken. Now if they must fight or die, it is highly unreasonable
and as cruel to have Men to be cut to Pieces when they are able to
defend their Posts no longer, and in this Case the Fate of the Hero
and the Coward is alike; and if it is to fight or be taken, the
Gallant will hold out to the last while the Coward (if the danger runs
high), surrenders as soon as Quarter is offered; and now if there be a
Scuttle, the Menace of the Enemy will make the less Impression on their
Minds, and they will stand out the longer, when they know they can
retire from the Fury of the Enemy in case they force their Quarters.
In short, it will be as great a blemish in the Commander’s Politics
to leave Cowards without a Scuttle as it will be Ingratitude to have
Gallant Men to be cut to Pieces.”
“_How to Make a Sally_
“Having (by a vigorous defence) repulsed the Enemy from your
Bulk-heads, and cutting up your Deck, it may be necessary to make a
SALLY to compleat your Victory; but by the Way, the young MASTER must
use great caution before he SALLY out, lest he be drawn into some
Strategem to his Ruin; therefore for a Ship of but few hands it is not
a Mark of Cowardice to keep the Close-Quarters so long as the Enemy
is on board; and if his Men retire out of your Ship, fire into him
through your Look-holes and Ports till he calls for QUARTER. And if
it should ever come to that, you must proceed Warily (unless you out
Number him in Men) and send but a few of your Hands into his Ship while
the others are ready with all their Small-arms and Cannon charged; and
if they submit patiently disarm and put them down below, where there
is no POWDER or WEAPONS; but plunder not, lest your men quarrel about
Trifles or be too intent in searching for Money, and thereby give the
Enemy an opportunity to destroy you; and if you take the Prize (when
you come into an harbor) let everything be equally shared among the
Men, the Master only reserving to himself the Affections of his Men by
his Generosity which with the Honour of the Victory to a brave Mind is
equivalent to all the rest....”
“It is presumed that the Sally will be most Advantageous if made out
of the Round-house, because having cleared the Poop, you will have no
Enemy at your back; wherefore let all but two or more, according to
your Number, step up into the Round-house, bringing with them all or
most of the Musquets and Pistols there, leaving only the Blunderbusses.
Let all the Small-Arms in the Quarters be charged, and the Cannon that
flank the Decks and out of the Bulk-heads, traversing those in the
Round-house, pointing towards the mizzenmast to gaul the Enemy in case
of a retreat. All things being thus prepared, let a Powder-chest be
sprung upon the Poop, and four Hand Granadoes tost out of the Ports,
filled with Flower and fuzees of a long duration, then let the Door be
opened, and in the Confusion make your Sally at once, half advancing
forward and the other facing about to clear the Poop; when this is
done, let them have an eye to the Chains. At the Round-house Door let
two men be left to stand by the Port-cullis, each having a brace of
Pistols to secure a Retreat; let then those in the Forecastle never
shoot right aft, after the Sally is made, unless parallel with the
Main Deck. The rest must be left to Judgment.”
Try to imagine, if you please, advice of such tenor as this compiled
for the use of the captains of the transatlantic liners or cargo
“tramps” of to-day, and you will be able to comprehend in some
slight measure how vast has been the change in the conditions of
the business of the sea, and what hazards our American forefathers
faced to win their bread on quarterdeck and in forecastle. Nor were
such desperate engagements as are outlined in this ancient “Seaman’s
Vade-Mecum” at all infrequent. “Round-houses” and “great cabbins” were
defended with “musquets,” “javalins,” “Half-pikes” and cutlasses, and
“hand-granadoes” in many a hand-to-hand conflict with sea raiders
before the crew of the bluff-blowed, high-popped Yankee West Indiaman
had to “beat off the boarders” or make a dashing “Sally” or “capitulate
for Good Quarter at the last Extremity.”
Of such, then, were the privateersmen who flocked down the wharves and
among the tavern “rendezvous” of Salem as soon as the owners of the
waiting vessels had obtained their commissions from the Continental
Congress, and issued the call for volunteers. Mingled with the hardy
seamen who had learned their trade in Salem vessels were the sons of
wealthy shipping merchants of the best blood of the town and county who
embarked as “gentlemen volunteers,” eager for glory and plunder, and a
chance to avenge the wrongs they and their kinfolk had suffered under
British trade laws and at the hands of British press gangs.
The foregoing extracts from the “Seaman’s Vade-Mecum” show how
singularly fixed the language of the sea has remained through the
greater part of two centuries. With a few slight differences, the terms
in use then are commonly employed to-day. It is therefore probable
that if you could have been on old Derby Wharf in the year of 1776,
the talk of the busy, sun-browned men and boys around you would have
sounded by no means archaic. The wharf still stretches a long arm
into the harbor and its tumbling warehouses, timbered with great hewn
beams, were standing during the Revolution. Then they were filled with
cannon, small arms, rigging and ships’ stores as fast as they could
be hauled hither. Fancy needs only to picture this landlocked harbor
alive with square-rigged vessels, tall sloops and topsail schooners,
their sides checkered with gun-ports, to bring to life the Salem of the
privateersman of one hundred and forty years ago.
Shipmasters had no sooner signaled their homecoming with deep freights
of logwood, molasses or sugar than they received orders to discharge
with all speed and clear their decks for mounting batteries and
slinging the hammocks of a hundred waiting privateersmen. The guns
and men once aboard, the crews were drilling night and day while they
waited the chance to slip to sea. Their armament included carronades,
“Long Toms” and “long six” or “long nine” pounders, sufficient muskets,
blunderbusses, pistols, cutlasses, tomahawks, boarding pikes, hand
grenades, round shot, grape, canister, and double-headed shot.
When larger vessels were not available tiny sloops with twenty or
thirty men and boys mounted one or two old guns and put to sea to
“capture a Britisher” and very likely be taken themselves by the first
English ship of war that sighted them. The prize money was counted
before it was caught, and seamen made a business of selling their
shares in advance, preferring the bird in the bush, as shown by the
following bill of sale:
“BEVERLY, ye 7th, 1776.
“Know all men by these presents, that I the subscriber, in
consideration of the sum of sixteen dollars to me in hand paid by
Mr. John Waters, in part for ½ share of all the Prizes that may be
taken during the cruize of the Privateer Sloop called the _Revenge_,
whereof Benjamin Dean is commissioned Commander, and for the further
consideration of twenty-four dollars more to be paid at the end of
the whole cruize of the said Sloop; and these certify that I the
subscriber have sold, bargained and conveyed unto the said John
Waters, or his order, the one half share of my whole share of all
the prizes that may be taken during the whole cruize of said Sloop.
Witness my hand,
“P. H. BROCKHORN.”
An endorsement on the back of the document records that Mr. Waters
received the sum of twenty pounds for “parte of the within agreement,”
which return reaped him a handsome profit on the speculation. Many
similar agreements are preserved to indicate that Salem merchants
plunged heavily on the risks of privateering by buying seamens’ shares
for cash. The articles of agreement under which these Salem privateers
of the Revolution made their warlike cruises belong with a vanished
age of sea life. These documents were, in the main, similar to the
following:
“_Articles of Agreement_
“Concluded at Salem this Seventh day of May, 1781, between the owners
of the Privateer Ship _Rover_, commanded by James Barr, now fixing
in this port for a cruise of four months against the Enemies of the
United States of America, on the first part and the officers and
seamen belonging to said Ship _Rover_ on the other part as follows,
_viz._:
“Article 1st. The owners agree to fix with all expedition said Ship
for sea, and cause her to be mounted with Twenty Guns, four Pounders,
with a sufficiency of ammunition of all kinds and good provisions for
one Hundred men for four months’ cruise, also to procure an apparatus
for amputating, and such a Box of medicine as shall be thought
necessary by the Surgeon.
“Article 2nd. The Officers and Seamen Shall be entitled to one half
of all the prizes captured by Said Ship after the cost of condemning,
etc., is deducted from the whole.
“Article 3rd. The Officers and Seamen agree that they will to the
utmost of their abilities discharge the duty of Officers and Seamen,
according to their respective Stations on board Said Ship, her boats
and Prizes, by her taken, and the Officers and Seamen further agree
that if any Officer or Private shall in time of any engagement with
any Vessell abandon his Post on board said Ship or any of her boats
or Prizes by her taken, or disobey the commands of the Captain or any
Superior Officer, that said Officer or Seaman, if adjudged guilty by
three Officers, the Captain being one, shall forfeit all right to any
Prize or Prizes by her taken.
“Article 4th. The Officers and Seamen further agree that if any
Officer shall in time of any engagement or at any other time behave
unworthy of the Station that he holds on board said Ship, it shall be
in the power of three officers, the captain being one, to displace
said Officer, and appoint any one they may see fit in his place. That
if any Officer belonging to said Ship shall behave in an unbecoming
character of an officer and gentleman, he shall be dismissed and
forfeit his share of the cruise.
“Article 5th. The owners, officers and Seamen agree that if any one
shall first discover a sail which shall prove to be a Prize, he shall
be entitled to Five hundred Dollars.
“Article 6th. Any one who shall first board any Vessell in time
of an engagement, which shall prove a Prize, Shall be entitled to
one thousand Dollars and the best firelock on board said Vessell,
officers’ prizes being excepted.
[Illustration: Agreement by which a Revolutionary privateer seaman
sold his share of the booty in advance of his cruise]
“Article 7th. If any officer or Seaman shall at the time of an
Engagement loose a leg or an arm he shall be entitled to Four Thousand
Dollars; if any officer or Seaman shall loose an Eye in time of an
Engagement, he shall receive the Sum of Two thousand Dollars; if any
officer shall loose a joint he shall be entitled to one thousand
Dollars, the same to be paid from the whole amount of prizes taken by
said Ship.
“Article 8th. That no Prize master or man, that shall be put on board
any Prize whatever and arrive at any port whatever, Shall be entitled
to his share or shares, except he remain to discharge the Prize, or he
or they are discharged by the agent of said Ship, except the Privateer
is arrived before the Prize.
“Article 9th. That for the Preservation of Good order on board said
Ship, no man to quit or go out of her, on board of any other Vessell
without having obtained leave from the commanding officer on board.
“Article 10th. That if any person Shall count to his own use any part
of the Prize or Prizes or be found pilfering any money or goods, and
be convicted thereof, he shall forfeit his Share of Prize money to the
Ship and Company.
“That if any person shall be found a Ringleader of a meeting or cause
any disturbance on board, refuse to obey the command of the Captain,
or any officer or behave with Cowardice, or get drunk in time of
action, he shall forfeit his or their Share of or Shares to the rest
of the Ship’s Company.”
So immensely popular was the privateering service among the men and
youth of Salem and nearby ports that the naval vessels of the regular
service were hard put to enlist their crews. When the fifes and drums
sounded through the narrow streets with a strapping privateersman in
the van as a recruiting officer, he had no trouble in collecting a
crowd ready to listen to his persuasive arguments whose burden was
prize money and glory. More than once a ship’s company a hundred
strong was enrolled and ready to go on board by sunset of the day the
call for volunteers was made. Trembling mothers and weeping wives could
not hold back these sailors of theirs, and as for the sweethearts they
could only sit at home and hope that Seth or Jack would come home a
hero with his pockets lined with gold instead of finding his fate in a
burial at sea, or behind the walls of a British prison.
It was customary for the owners of the privateer to pay the cost of the
“rendezvous,” which assembling of the ship’s company before sailing was
held in the “Blue Anchor,” or some other sailors’ tavern down by the
busy harbor. That the “rendezvous” was not a scene of sadness and that
the privateersmen were wont to put to sea with no dust in their throats
may be gathered from the following tavern bill of 1781:
DR.
Captain George Williams, Agent Privateer Brig _Sturdy Beggar_ to
Jonathan Archer, Jr.
To Rendezvous Bill as follows:
1781 Aug. 8-12 to 11 Bowls punch at 3-1 Bowl tod. at 1-3 1.14.3
14 to 8 bowls punch 1 bowl chery tod. at 1-9 1. 5.9
20 to 6 bowls punch 8 Bowls Chery tod. 2 Grog 1.14.6
22 to 7 bowls punch 7 bowls Chery tod. 1.13.3
30 to 14 Bowls punch 8 bowls Chery tod. and 2½
Grog 2.19.1
Sept. 4 to 7 Bowls punch 10 bowls chery 3 Grog 2.13.9
6 to 10 bowls punch 1 bowl chery tod. 2 grog 1.14.3
10 to 4½ bowls punch 1. 2.6
There were stout heads as well as stout hearts in New England during
those gallant days and it is safe to say that the crew of the _Sturdy
Beggar_ was little the worse for wear after the farewell rounds of
punch, grog and “chery tod.” at the rendezvous ruled by mine host,
Jonathan Archer. It was to be charged against privateering that it drew
away from the naval service the best class of recruits.
An eye witness, Ebenezer Fox of Roxbury, wrote this account of the
putting an armed State ship into commission in 1780:
“The coast was lined with British cruisers which had almost annihilated
our commerce. The State of Massachusetts judged it expedient to build a
gun vessel, rated as a twenty-gun ship, named _Protector_,[9] commanded
by Captain John Foster Williams, to be fitted as soon as possible and
sent to sea. A rendezvous was established for recruits at the head of
Hancock’s Wharf (Boston) where the National flag, then bearing thirteen
stars and stripes, was hoisted.
“All means were resorted to which ingenuity could devise to induce men
to enlist. A recruiting officer bearing a flag and attended by a band
of martial music paraded the streets, to excite a thirst for glory and
a spirit of military ambition. The recruiting officer possessed the
qualifications requisite to make the service alluring, especially to
the young. He was a jovial, good-natured fellow, of ready wit and much
broad humor. Crowds followed in his wake, and he occasionally stopped
at the corners to harangue the multitude in order to excite their
patriotism. When he espied any large boys among the idle crowd crowded
around him he would attract their attention by singing in a comical
manner:
“‘All you that have bad Masters,
And cannot get your due,
Come, come, my brave boys
And join our ship’s crew.’
“Shouting and huzzaing would follow and some join the ranks. My
excitable feelings were aroused. I repaired to the rendezvous, signed
the ship’s papers, mounted a cockade and was, in my own estimation,
already half a sailor.
“The recruiting business went on slowly, however; but at length upward
of 300 men were carried, dragged and driven on board; of all ages,
kinds and descriptions; in all the various stages of intoxication from
that of sober tipsiness to beastly drunkenness; with the uproar and
clamor that may be more easily imagined than described. Such a motley
group has never been seen since Falstaff’s ragged regiment paraded the
streets of Coventry.”
When Captain John Paul Jones, however, was fitting out the _Ranger_
in Portsmouth harbor in the spring of 1777, many a Salem lad forsook
privateering to follow the fortunes of this dashing commander in the
service of their country. On Salem tavern doors and in front of the
town hall was posted the following “broadside,” adorned with a wood
cut of a full-rigged fighting ship. It was a call that appealed to the
spirit of the place, and it echoes with thrilling effect, even as one
reads it a hundred and forty years after its proclamation:
“Great
Encouragement
For SEAMEN
“All GENTLEMEN SEAMEN and able-bodied LANDSMEN who have a Mind to
distinguish themselves in the GLORIOUS CAUSE of their COUNTRY and make
their Fortunes, an opportunity now offers on board the Ship RANGER of
Twenty Guns (for France) now laying in Portsmouth in the State of New
Hampshire, Commanded by JOHN PAUL JONES, Esq.: let them repair to the
Ship’s Rendezvous in PORTSMOUTH, or at the Sign of Commodore MANLEY in
SALEM, where they will be kindly entertained, and receive the greatest
Encouragement. The Ship RANGER in the Opinion of every Person who has
seen her is looked upon to be one of the best CRUIZERS in AMERICA. She
will be always able to fight her Guns under a most excellent Cover;
and no Vessel yet built was ever calculated for sailing faster.
[Illustration: Proclamation posted in Salem during the Revolution
calling for volunteers aboard Paul Jones’ _Ranger_]
“Any GENTLEMEN VOLUNTEERS who have a Mind to take an agreable Voyage
in this pleasant Season of the Year may, by entering on board the
above Ship RANGER meet with every Civility they can possibly expect,
and for a further Encouragement depend on the first Opportunity being
embraced to reward each one Agreable to his MERIT. All reasonable
Travelling Expences will be allowed, and the Advance Money be paid on
their Appearance on Board.
“In CONGRESS, March 29, 1777.
“Resolved,
“That the MARINE COMMITTEE be authorized to advance to every able
Seaman that enters into the CONTINENTAL SERVICE, any Sum not exceeding
FORTY DOLLARS, and to every ordinary Seaman or Landsman any Sum not
exceeding TWENTY DOLLARS, to be deducted from their future Prize Money.
“By Order of Congress,
“JOHN HANCOCK, President.”
It was of this cruise that Yankee seamen the world over were singing in
later years the song of “Paul Jones and the _Ranger_,” which describes
her escape from a British battleship and four consorts:
“’Tis of the gallant Yankee ship
That flew the Stripes and Stars,
And the whistling wind from the west nor’west
Blew through her pitch pine spars.
With her starboard tacks aboard, my boys.
She hung upon the gale,
On an autumn night we raised the light
On the old Head of Kinsale.
* * * * *
“Up spake our noble captain then,
As a shot ahead of us past;
‘Haul snug your flowing courses,
Lay your topsail to the mast.’
Those Englishmen gave three loud hurrahs
From the deck of their covered ark,
And we answered back by a solid broadside
From the decks of our patriot bark.
‘Out booms, out booms,’ our skipper cried,
‘Out booms and give her sheet,’
And the swiftest keel that ever was launched
Shot ahead of the British fleet.
And amidst a thundering shower of shot,
With stern sails hoisted away,
Down the North Channel Paul Jones did steer
Just at the break of day.”
The privateersmen were as ready to fight, if needs be, as were these
seamen that chose to sail with Paul Jones in the Continental service.
All British merchantmen carried guns and heavy crews to man them,
and while many of them thought it wisdom to strike their colors to
a heavily armed privateer without a show of resistance, the “packet
ships” and Indiamen were capable of desperate actions. The American
privateers ran the gauntlet also of the king’s ships which swarmed in
our waters, and they met and engaged both these and British privateers
as formidable as themselves. The notable sea fights of this kind are
sometimes best told in the words of the men who fought them. Captain
David Ropes, of an old Salem seafaring family, was killed in a
privateer action which was described in the following letter written
by his lieutenant, later Captain William Gray. Their vessel was the
private armed ship _Jack_ of Salem, carrying twelve guns and sixty men.
“SALEM, June 12, 1782.
“On the 28th of May, cruising near Halifax, saw a brig standing in for
the land; at 7 P. M. discovered her to have a copper bottom, sixteen
guns and full of men; at half-past nine o’clock she came alongside
when a close action commenced.
“It was our misfortune to have our worthy commander, Captain Ropes,
mortally wounded at the first broadside. I was slightly wounded at
the same time in my right hand and head, but not so as to disable me
from duty. The action was maintained on both sides close, severe, and
without intermission for upwards of two hours, in which time we had
seven killed, several wounded and several abandoned their quarters.
Our rigging was so destroyed that not having command of our yards,
the _Jack_ fell with her larboard bow foul of the brig’s starboard
quarter, when the enemy made an attempt to board us, but they were
repulsed by a very small number compared with them. We were engaged in
this position about a quarter of an hour, in which time I received a
wound by a bayonet fixed on a musket which was hove with such force,
as entering my thigh close to the bone, entered the carriage of a bow
gun where I was fastened, and it was out of my power to get clear
until assisted by one of the prize masters.
“We then fell round and came without broadsides to each other, when
we resumed the action with powder and balls; but our match rope,
excepting some which was unfit for use, being all expended, and being
to leeward, we bore away making a running fight. The brig being far
superior to us in number of men, was able to get soon repaired, and
completely ready to renew the action. She had constantly kept up a
chasing fire, for we had not been out of reach of her musketry. She
was close alongside of us again, with fifty picked men for boarding.
“I therefore called Mr. Glover and the rest together and found we had
but ten men on deck. I had been repeatedly desired to strike, but I
mentioned the suffering of the prison ship, and made use of every
other argument in my power for continuing the engagement. All the
foreigners, however, deserted their quarters at every opportunity. At
2 o’clock P. M. I had the inexpressible mortification to deliver up
the vessel.
“I was told, on enquiry, that we were taken by the _Observer_, a sloop
of war belonging to the navy, commanded by Captain Grymes. She was
formerly the _Amsterdam_, and owned in Boston; that she was calculated
for sixteen guns, but then had but twelve on board; that the _Blonde_
frigate, being cast away on Seal Island, the captain, officers, and
men had been taken off by Captain Adams, in a sloop belonging to
Salem, and Captain Stoddart in a schooner belonging to Boston, and by
them landed on the main. Most of the officers and men having reached
Halifax were by the Governor sent on board the brig in order to come
out and convoy in the captain of a frigate who was, with some of his
men, coming to Halifax in a shallop, and that the afternoon before
the action, he and some others were taken on board the brig, which
increased his number to one hundred and seventy-five men.
“Captain Ropes died at 4 o’clock P. M. on the day we were taken, after
making his will with the greatest calmness and composure.”
The Nova Scotia _Gazette_ of June 4, 1782, contained this letter as a
sequel of an incident mentioned by Lieutenant Gray in the foregoing
account of the action:
“To the Printer, Sir: In justice to humanity, I and all my officers
and Ship’s company of His Majesty’s late Ship _Blonde_ by the
commanders of the American Private Ships of War, the _Lively_ and the
_Scammel_ (Captains Adams and Stoddart), have the pleasure to inform
the Public that they not only readily received us on board their
Vessels and carried us to Cape Race, but cheerfully Supplied us with
Provisions till we landed at Yarmouth, when on my releasing all my
Prisoners, sixty-four in number, and giving them a Passport to secure
them from our Cruisers in Boston Bay, they generously gave me the
Same to prevent our being made Prisoners or plundered by any of their
Privateers we might chance to meet on our Passage to Halifax.
“For the relief and comfort they so kindly affoarded us in our common
Sufferings and Distress, we must arduantly hope that if any of their
Privateers should happen to fall into the hands of our Ships of War,
that they will treat them with the utmost lenity, and give them every
endulgance in their Power and not look upon them (Promiscuously) in
the Light of American Prisoners, Captain Adams especially, to whom I
am indebted more particularly obliged, as will be seen by his letters
herewith published. My warmest thanks are also due to Captain Tuck
of the _Blonde’s_ Prize Ship _Lion_ (Letter of Marque of Beverly)
and to all his officers and men for their generous and indefatigable
endeavors to keep the Ship from Sinking (night and day at the Pumps)
till all but one got off her and by the blessing of God saved our
Lives.
“You will please to publish this in your next Paper, ... which will
oblige your humble Servant,
“EDWARD THORNBROUGH,
“Commander of H. M. late Ship _Blonde_.”
A very human side of warfare is shown in this correspondence, coupled
with the brutal inconsistency of war, for after their rescue the
officers and men of the _Blonde_, who felt such sincere friendship and
gratitude toward the crews of two Yankee privateers, had helped to
spread death and destruction aboard the luckless _Jack_.
The log books of the Revolutionary privateersmen out of Salem are so
many fragments of history, as it was written day by day, and flavored
with the strong and vivid personalities of the men who sailed and
fought and sweated and swore without thought of romance in their
adventurous calling. There is the log of the privateer schooner
_Scorpion_, for example, during a cruise made in 1778. Her master has
so far sailed a bootless voyage when he penned this quaint entry:
“This Book was Maid in the Lattd. of 24:30 North and in the Longtd.
of 54:00 West at the Saim time having Contryary Winds for Several
Days which Makes me fret a’most Wicked. Daly I praye there Maye be
Change such as I Want. This Book I Maid to Keep the Accounts of my
Voyage but God Knoes beste When that Will be, for I am at this Time
very Empasente[10] but I hope there soon be a Change to Ease my
trobled Mind. Which is my Earneste Desire and of my people. ********
(illegible) is this day taken with the palsy, but I hope will soon gete
beter. On this Day I was Chaced by two Ships of War which I tuck to be
Enemies, but comeing in thick Weather I have Lost Site of them and so
conclude myself Escapt which is a small Good Fortune in the Midste of
my Discouragementes.”
A note of Homeric mirth echoes from the past of a hundred and forty
years ago in the “Journal of a Cruising Voyage in the Letter of Marque
Schooner _Success_, commanded by Captain Philip Thrash, Commencing 4th
Oct. 1778.” Captain Thrash, a lusty and formidable name by the way,
filled one page after another of his log with rather humdrum routine
entries; how he took in and made sail and gave chase and drilled his
crew at the guns, etc. At length the reader comes to the following
remarks. They stand without other comment or explanation, and leave one
with a desire to know more:
“At 1-2 past 8 discovered a Sail ahead, tacked ship. At 9 tacked ship
and past just to Leeward of the sail which appeared to be a damn’d
Comical Boat, by G—d.”
[Illustration: Schooner _Baltic_ (1765), type of the smaller vessels in
which the Revolutionary privateersmen put to sea. Paintings of American
ships as old as this are exceedingly rare]
What was it about this strange sail overhauled in midocean by
Captain Philip Thrash that should have so stirred his rude sense of
humor? Why did she strike him as so “damn’d Comical”? They met and went
their way and the “Comical” craft dropped hull down and vanished in a
waste of blue water and so passed forever from our ken. But I for one
would give much to know why she aroused a burst of gusty laughter along
the low rail of the letter-of-marque schooner _Success_.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] See Captain Luther Little’s story of the _Protector’s_ fight with
the _Admiral Duff_. Chapter VI, Page 109.
[10] (impatient)