ELIAS HASKET DERBY AND HIS TIMES
(1770-1800)
Elias Hasket Derby, the son of Captain Richard Derby, and a brother
of Captain John Derby, was the most conspicuous member of this great
seafaring family, by reason of his million-dollar fortune, his
far-seeing enterprise and his fleet of ships which traded with China,
India, Mauritius, Madeira, Siam, Arabia and Europe. He was the first
American to challenge the jealous supremacy of the East India, the
Holland, the French and the Swedish chartered companies in the Orient.
He made of commerce an amazingly bold and picturesque romance at a time
when this infant republic was still gasping from the effects of the
death grapple of the Revolution. He was born in 1739, went to sea as
had his father and his grandfather before him, and like them rose to
the command and ownership of vessels while still in his youth. As told
in a previous chapter, he was the foremost owner of Salem privateers
during the Revolution, and finding the large, swift and heavily manned
ship created by the needs of war unfitted for coastwise and West India
trade, he resolved to send them in search of new markets on the other
side of the globe.
No sooner was peace declared than he was making ready his great ship,
the _Grand Turk_, for the first American voyage to the Cape of Good
Hope. The _Grand Turk_ had been built in 1781 for privateering and as
a letter of marque. She was of three hundred tons burden, the largest
vessel built in a Salem shipyard until after the Revolution, and Elias
Hasket Derby was proud of her speed, her beauty and her record. During
the Revolution she mounted twenty-two guns and fought them handily. On
her second cruise as a privateer she captured two rich prizes, took
them into Bilboa, and more than paid for herself. Later the _Grand
Turk_ made several cruises in West India waters and, among other
successes, captured a twenty-gun ship, the _Pompey_, from London.
This was the ship with which Elias Hasket Derby blazed a trail
toward the Orient, the forerunner of his pioneering ventures to the
East Indies. Of the methods and enterprise of Elias Hasket Derby,
as typified in such voyages as this of the _Grand Turk_, one of his
captains, Richard Cleveland, wrote in his recollections of the methods
and enterprise of this typical merchant of his time:
“In the ordinary course of commercial education, in New England, boys
are transferred from school to the merchant’s desk at the age of
fourteen or fifteen. When I had reached my fourteenth year it was my
good fortune to be received in the counting house of Elias Hasket Derby
of Salem, a merchant who may justly be termed the father of American
commerce to India, one whose enterprise and commercial sagacity were
unequalled in his day. To him our country is indebted for opening
the valuable trade to Calcutta, before whose fortress his was to be
the first vessel to display the American flag; and following up the
business, he had reaped golden harvests before other merchants came
in for a share of them. The first American ships seen at the Cape of
Good Hope and the Isle of France belonged to him. His were the first
American ships which carried cargoes of cotton from Bombay to China,
and among the first ships which made a direct voyage to China and
back was one owned by him. Without possessing a scientific knowledge
of the construction and sparring of ships, Mr. Derby seemed to have
an intuitive faculty in judging of models and proportions, and his
experiments in several instances for the attainment of swiftness in
sailing were crowned with success unsurpassed in this or any other
country.
“He built several ships for the India trade immediately in the vicinity
of the counting house, which afforded me an opportunity of becoming
acquainted with the building, sparring and rigging of ships. The
conversations to which I listened relating to the countries then newly
visited by Americans, the excitement on the return of an adventure from
them and the great profits which were made, always manifest from my own
little adventures, tended to stimulate the desire in me of visiting
those countries, and of sharing more largely in the advantages they
presented.”
The _Grand Turk_, “the great ship,” as she was called in Salem, was
less than one hundred feet long, yet she was the first of that noble
fleet which inspired a Salem historian, Rev. George Bachelor, to write
in an admirable tribute to the town in which his life was passed:
“After a century of comparative quiet, the citizens of this little town
were suddenly dispersed to every part of the Oriental world and to
every nook of barbarism which had a market and a shore.... The reward
of enterprise might be the discovery of an island in which wild pepper
enough to load a ship might be had almost for the asking, or of forests
where precious gums had no commercial value, or spice islands unvexed
and unvisited by civilization. Every shipmaster and every mariner
returning on a richly loaded ship was the owner of valuable knowledge.
“Rival merchants sometimes drove the work of preparation night and
day when virgin markets had favors to be won, and ships which set out
for unknown ports were watched when they slipped their cables and
sailed away by night, and dogged for months on the high seas in the
hope of discovering the secret well kept by owner and crew. Every man
on board was allowed a certain space for a little venture. People in
other pursuits, not excepting the merchant’s minister, intrusted their
savings to the supercargo, and watched eagerly the results of their
ventures. This great mental activity, and profuse stores of knowledge
brought by every ship’s crew, and distributed, together with India
shawls, blue china, and unheard of curiosities from every savage shore,
gave the community a rare alertness of intellect.”
It was the spirit as is herein indicated that achieved its finest
flower in such merchants as Elias Hasket Derby. When his ships took
their departure from the Massachusetts coast they vanished beyond his
ken for one or two years. His captains were intrusted with the disposal
of the cargo to the best advantage. There was no sending orders by mail
or cable. It was this continual sense of facing unknown hazards, of
gambling with the sea and hostile, undiscovered shores that prompted
those old shipmasters to inscribe on the title pages of their log books:
“A Journal of an Intended Voyage by God’s Assistance ... Cape Ann bore
W.N.W. from whence I take my departure. So God send the good ship to
her Desired Port in Safety. Amen.”
[Illustration:
From a painting made by a Chinese artist at Canton, 1786
The _Grand Turk_, first American ship to touch at the Cape of Good Hope]
When the _Grand Turk_ made her first voyage to the Cape of Good Hope in
1784, commanded by Captain Jonathan Ingersoll, the scanty navigating
equipment of his time is said to have consisted of “a few erroneous
maps and charts, a sextant and a Guthrie’s Grammar.”[24] The _Grand
Turk_ made her passage in safety and while she lay in Table Bay,
Major Samuel Shaw, an American returning from Canton, sent a boat
aboard for Captain Ingersoll and later wrote of this Salem venture:
“The object was to sell, rum, cheese, salt, provisions and chocolate,
loaf sugar, butter, etc., the proceeds of which in money with a
quantity of ginseng, and some cash brought with him, Captain Ingersoll
intended to invest in Bohea tea; but as the ships bound to Europe
are not allowed to break bulk on the way, he was disappointed in
his expectations of procuring that article and sold his ginseng for
two-thirds of a Spanish dollar a pound, which is twenty per cent.
better than the silver money of the Cape. He intended remaining a short
time to purchase fine teas in the private trade allowed the officers
on board India ships, and then to sail to the coast of Guinea, to
dispose of his rum, etc., for ivory and gold dust; thence without
taking a single slave to proceed to the West Indies and purchase sugar
and cotton, with which he would return to Salem. Notwithstanding the
disappointment in the principal object of the voyage and the consequent
determination to go to the coast of Guinea, his resolution not to
endeavor to retrieve it by purchasing slaves did the captain great
honor, and reflected equal credit upon his employers, who, he assured
me, would rather sink the whole capital employed than directly or
indirectly be concerned in so infamous a trade.”
The _Grand Turk_ returned by way of the West Indies where the sales of
his cargo enabled her captain to load two ships for Salem. He sent the
_Grand Turk_ home in charge of the mate and returned in the _Atlantic_.
During the voyage Captain Ingersoll rescued the master and mate of
an English schooner, the _Amity_, whose crew had mutinied while off
the Spanish Main. The two officers had been cast adrift in a small
boat to perish. This was the first act in a unique drama of maritime
coincidence.
After the castaways had reached Salem, Captain Duncanson, the English
master of the _Amity_, was the guest of Mr. Elias Hasket Derby while
he waited for word from his owners and an opportunity to return to his
home across the Atlantic. He spent much of his time on the water front
as a matter of course, and used to stand at a window of Mr. Derby’s
counting house idly staring at the harbor.
One day while sweeping the seaward horizon with the office spyglass,
the forlorn British skipper let fly an oath of the most profound
amazement. He dropped the glass, rubbed his eyes, chewed his beard and
stared again. A schooner was making across the bar, and presently she
stood clear of the islands at the harbor mouth and slipped toward an
anchorage well inside.
There was no mistaking her at this range. It was the _Amity_, his own
schooner which had been taken from him in the West Indies, from which
he and his mate had been cast adrift by the piratical seamen. Captain
Duncanson hurried into Mr. Derby’s private office as fast as his legs
could carry him. By some incredible twist of fate the captors of the
_Amity_ had sailed her straight to her captain.
Mr. Derby was a man of the greatest promptitude and one of his anchored
brigs was instantly manned with a heavy crew, two deck guns slung
aboard, and with Captain Duncanson striding the quarterdeck, the brig
stood down to take the _Amity_. It was Captain Duncanson who led the
boarders, and the mutineers were soon overpowered and fetched back to
Salem jail in irons. The grateful skipper and his mate signed a crew in
Salem, and took the _Amity_ to sea, a vessel restored to her own by so
marvelous an event that it would be laughed out of court as material
for fiction.
In November, 1785, the _Grand Turk_ was cleared, in command of Captain
Ebenezer West for the Isle of France, but her owner had it in his mind,
and so instructed his captain, to continue the voyage to Batavia and
China. In June of 1787, she returned to Salem with a cargo of teas,
silks, and nankeens; a notable voyage in seas when the American flag
was almost unknown. Her successful commerce with Canton lent a slightly
humorous flavor to the comment of the _Independent Chronicle_ of
London, dated July 29, 1785:
“The Americans have given up all thought of a China trade which can
never be carried on to advantage without some settlement in the East
Indies.”
Captain Ebenezer West who took the _Grand Turk_ to the Orient on this
voyage was a member of so admirable a family of American seamen and
shipmasters that the records of the three brothers as written down in
the official records of the Salem Marine Society deserves a place in
this chapter.
“Captain Nathaniel West was born in Salem, Jan. 31, 1756, and died
here December 19, 1851. His elder brother, Ebenezer, and his younger,
Edward, as well as himself, were possessed of great energy and
enterprise, and all three early selected the ocean for their field of
action. Ebenezer was for nearly four years during the Revolution a
prisoner of war, and was exchanged shortly before peace was proclaimed.
He subsequently had command of E. H. Derby’s famous ship, the _Grand
Turk_, and in her completed the second voyage by an American vessel to
Canton, returning to Salem in 1786.
“Capt. Edward West, the youngest, was in command of his brother
Nathaniel’s ship, _Hercules_, seized in Naples in 1809, and had the
good fortune to obtain her release in order to transport Lucien
Bonaparte and family to Malta, thus saving his ship from confiscation.
He died at Andover, June 22, 1851, six months before his brother
Nathaniel, at the age of ninety-one.
“In 1775, Nathaniel, at the age of nineteen, being in command of a
merchant vessel in the West India trade, was captured by a British
frigate, and was soon recognized by Capt. Gayton, her commander, as
the son of an old friend, and was compelled to serve as midshipman on
board a British seventy-four, under the command of Capt. Edwards. Of
their personal kindness he often spoke in after life. Being on shore
as officer of a press gang, he effected his escape in London, and made
his way to Lisbon, where he embarked on board the _Oliver Cromwell_,
a Salem privateer of sixteen guns, and returned to this port. On the
passage, having been closely pursued for three days, he narrowly
escaped being captured by a British frigate. Aware of his impending
fate, if taken, he encouraged and stimulated the crew to the use of the
sweeps, himself tugging at the oar, and by his energy and incessant
diligence was mainly instrumental in saving the ship.
He made several cruises in the _Oliver Cromwell_ and other armed
vessels, and took many prizes. He participated with the famous Captain
of the privateer _Black Prince_, carrying eighteen guns and one hundred
and fifty men. On one occasion, with Capt. Nathaniel Silsbee as his
Lieutenant, he put into Cork on a dark night and cut out and took away
a valuable prize.
Capt. West subsequently embarked in commerce and pursued it with
continued success until he had amassed a large fortune. He was among
the pioneers in various branches of trade, the Northwest, China,
East India, etc.—and knew their origin and progress through their
various stages. In 1792, he built and despatched the schooner _Patty_,
commanded by his brother, Capt. Edward West, and she was the first
American vessel to visit Batavia. His ship _Prudent_ (in 1805) was
among the first of the very few American vessels that visited the Dutch
Spice Islands, Amboyna, etc. His ship _Minerva_ was the first Salem
vessel to circumnavigate the globe, having sailed from here in 1800
for the N. W. coast and China. His ship _Hercules_, under his brother
Edward’s command, on the conclusion of the war with Great Britain in
1815, was the first vessel to sail from the United States for the
East Indies, under the terms of the treaty. The _Hercules_, built for
Capt. West in 1805, was a few years since doing good service as a
whaler out of New Bedford, and is, we believe, still in existence.
[Illustration: Nathaniel West]
“His age so nearly approximated an hundred years that we may say he
flourished during four generations of his race, in the most active
and enterprising walks of life. In person, Capt. West was of fine
figure, and of a majestic mien and gait. He never forgot the dignity
which belonged to his years and station. He was a gentleman of the
old school in manners and dress, and adhered with scrupulous tenacity
to the costume of his early years. His physical powers were so little
impaired, even in his extreme old age, that he was frequently seen
driving along in his gig, or walking with vigorous and elastic step,
until a very short time before his death; and many of our readers can
recall his commanding and dignified appearance in our streets. He
united in himself personal frugality, economy, and untiring industry;
and his favorite maxim was, ‘without these none can be rich, and with
these few would be poor.’”
When Mr. Derby decided to push out for a share of the East India
commerce he sent his eldest son, Elias Hasket, Jr., to England and
the Continent as soon as he was graduated from Harvard College. There
the young man remained until he had become a linguist and had made a
thorough study of the English and French methods of trade with the Far
East. Having laid this thorough foundation for his bold venture, Elias
Hasket, Jr., was now sent to India where he lived three years in the
interests of his house, and firmly established an immensely profitable
trade which for half a century was to make the name of Salem far more
widely known in Bombay and Canton than that of New York or Boston. A
little later the Derby ship _Astrea_ was showing the American flag to
the natives of Siam.
How fortunes were won in those brave days may be learned from the
record of young Derby’s activities while in the Far East. In 1788 the
proceeds of one cargo enabled him to buy a ship and a brigantine in the
Isle of France (Mauritius) in the Indian Ocean. These two vessels he
sent to Bombay to load with cotton. Two other ships of his house, the
_Astrea_ and the _Light Horse_ he filled with cargoes at Calcutta and
Rangoon, and sent them home to Salem. Then he returned in still another
ship, the brig _Henry_.
When the profit of these several transactions were reckoned it was
found that more than $100,000 had been earned by this little fleet
above all outlay. Soon after his return young Derby sailed for Mocha,
an Arabian port in the Red Sea, to pick up a cargo of coffee. The
natives had never heard of America, and the strange vessel was a nine
days’ wonder.
In 1788 Mr. Derby decided to send a ship for a direct voyage to
Batavia, another novel commercial undertaking. While the purely
business side of these enterprises is not thrilling, it holds a certain
interest as showing the responsibilities of the shipmasters upon whose
judgment depended the results of the voyage. For this first American
voyage to Batavia, the instructions of the captain and supercargo from
the owner, Mr. Derby, read as follows:
“SALEM, February, 1789.
“CAPTAIN JAMES MAGEE, Jr.,
“MR. THOMAS PERKINS (supercargo)
“Gents: The ship _Astrea_ of which James Magee is master and Mr.
Thomas Perkins is supercargo, being ready for sea, I do advise and
order you to come to sail, and make the best of your way for Batavia,
and on your arrival there you will dispose of such part of your cargo
as you think may be the most for my interest.
“I think you had best sell a few casks of the most ordinary ginseng,
if you can get one dollar a pound for it. If the price of sugar be
low, you will then take into the ship as much of the best white kind
as will floor her, and fifty thousand weight of coffee, if it is as
low as we have heard—part of which you will be able to stow between
the beams and the quintlings, and fifteen thousand of saltpeter, if
very low; some nutmegs, and fifty thousand weight of pepper. This you
will stow in the fore peak, for fear of its injuring the teas. The
sugar will save the expense of any stone ballast and it will make a
floor for the teas, etc., at Canton.
“At Batavia you must if possible, get as much freight for Canton as
will pay half or more of your charges; that is, if it will not detain
you too long, as by this addition of freight it will exceedingly help
the voyage. You must endeavor to be the first ship with ginseng, for
be assured you will do better alone than you will if there are three
or four ships at Canton at the same time with you....
“Captain Magee and Mr. Perkins are to have five per cent. commission
for the sales of the present cargo and two and one-half per cent. on
the cargo home, and also five per cent. on the profit made on goods
that may be purchased at Batavia and sold at Canton, or in any other
similar case that may arise on the voyage. They are to have one-half
the passage money—the other half belongs to the ship. The privileges
of Captain Magee is five per cent. of what the ship carries on cargo,
exclusive of adventures. It is ordered that the ship’s books shall be
open to the inspection of the mates and doctor of the ship, so that
they may know the whole business, as in case of death or sickness it
may be of good service in the voyage. The Philadelphia beer is put up
so strong that it will not be approved of until it is made weaker; you
had best try some of it first.
“You will be careful not to break any acts of trade while you are
out on the voyage, to lay the ship and cargo liable to seizure, for
my insurance will not make it good. Be very careful of the expense
attending the voyage, and remember that a one dollar laid out while
absent is two dollars out of the voyage. Pay particular attention to
the quality of your goods, as your voyage very much depends on your
attention to this. You are not to pay any moneys to the crew while
absent from home unless in a case of real necessity, and then they
must allow an advance for the money. Annexed to these orders you have
a list of such a cargo for my own account as I at present think may do
best for me, but you will add or diminish any article as the price may
be.
“... Captain Magee and Mr. Perkins—Although I have been a little
particular in these orders, I do not mean them as positive; and you
have leave to break them in any part where you by calculation think
it for my interest, excepting your breaking Acts of Trade which I
absolutely forbid. Not having to add anything, I commit you to the
Almighty’s protection, and remain your friend and employer,
“ELIAS HASKET DERBY.”
The captain was expected to “break his orders in any part,” if he could
drive a better bargain than his employer had been able to foresee
at a distance of ten thousand miles from the market. Merchants as
well as navigators, the old-time shipmaster found compensation for
these arduous responsibilities in the “privileges” which allowed him
a liberal amount of cargo space on their own account, as well as a
commission on the sales of the freight out and back. His own share of
the profits of two or three voyages to the Far East might enable him
to buy and ship and freight a vessel for himself. Thereafter, if he
were shrewd and venturesome enough, he rose rapidly to independence and
after a dozen years of the quarterdeck was ready to step ashore as a
merchant with his own counting house and his fleet of stout ships.
In 1793, Captain Jonathan Carnes of Salem was looking for trade along
the Sumatra coast. Touching at the port of Bencoolen, he happened to
learn that wild pepper might be found along the northwest coast of
Sumatra. The Dutch East India Company was not as alert as this solitary
Yankee shipmaster, roaming along strange and hostile shores.
Captain Carnes kept his knowledge to himself, completed his voyage to
Salem, and there whispered to a merchant, Jonathan Peele, that as soon
as possible a secret pepper expedition should be fitted out. Mr. Peele
ordered a fast schooner built. She was called the _Rajah_, and carried
four guns and ten men. There was much gossiping speculation about her
destination, but Captain Carnes had nothing at all to say. In November,
1795, he cleared for Sumatra and not a soul in Salem except his owner
and himself knew whither he was bound. The cargo consisted of brandy,
gin, iron, tobacco and dried fish to be bartered for wild pepper.
For eighteen months no word returned from the _Rajah_, and her
mysterious quest. Captain Carnes might have been wrecked on coasts
whereof he had no charts, or he might have been slain by hostile
natives. But Jonathan Peele, having risked his stake, as Salem
merchants were wont to do, busied himself with other affairs and pinned
his faith to the proven sagacity and pluck of Jonathan Carnes. At last,
a string of signal flags fluttered from the harbor mouth. Jonathan
Peele reached for his spyglass, and saw a schooner’s topsails lifting
from seaward. The _Rajah_ had come home, and when she let go her anchor
in Salem harbor, Captain Jonathan Carnes brought word ashore that he
had secured a cargo of wild pepper in bulk which would return a profit
of at least seven hundred per cent. of the total cost of vessel and
voyage. In other words, this one “adventure” of the _Rajah_ realized
what amounted to a comfortable fortune in that generation.
There was great excitement among the other Salem merchants. They
forsook their desks to discuss this pepper bonanza, but Captain
Jonathan Carnes had nothing to say and Mr. Jonathan Peele was as dumb
as a Salem harbor clam. The _Rajah_ was at once refitted for a second
Sumatra voyage, and in their eagerness to fathom her dazzling secret,
several rival merchants hastily made vessels ready for sea with orders
to go to that coast as fast as canvas could carry them and endeavor to
find out where Captain Carnes found his wild pepper. They hurried to
Bencoolen, but were unsuccessful and had to proceed to India to fill
their holds with whatever cargoes came to hand. Meanwhile the _Rajah_
slipped away for a second pepper voyage, and returned with a hundred
and fifty thousand pounds of the precious condiment.
There was no hiding this mystery from Salem merchants for long,
however, and by the time the _Rajah_ had made three pepper voyages, the
rivals were at her heels, bartering with native chieftains and stowing
their holds with the wild pepper which long continued to be one of the
most profitable articles of the Salem commerce with the Orient. It was
a fine romance of trade, this story of Captain Carnes and the _Rajah_,
and characteristic of the men and methods of the time. For half a
century a large part of the pepper used in all countries was reshipped
from the port of Salem, a trade which flourished until 1850. During the
period between the first voyage of Captain Carnes and 1845, the Salem
custom house records bore the entries of almost two hundred vessels
from the port of Sumatra.
While Sumatra and China and India were being sought by Salem ships,
Elias Hasket Derby in 1796 sent his good ship _Astrea_ on a pioneer
voyage to Manila. She was the first American vessel to find that port,
and was loaded with a rich cargo of sugar, pepper and indigo, on which
twenty-four thousand dollars in duties were paid at the Salem Custom
House.
To carry on such a business as that controlled by Elias Hasket Derby,
enlisted the activities of many men and industries. While his larger
ships were making their distant voyages, his brigs and schooners were
gathering the future cargoes for the Orient; voyaging to Gothenburg
and St. Petersburg for iron, duck and hemp; to France, Spain and
Madeira for wine and lead; to the West Indies for rum, and to New York,
Philadelphia and Richmond for flour, provisions, iron, and tobacco.
These shipments were assembled in the warehouses of Derby wharf, and
paid for in the teas, coffee, pepper, muslin, silks and ivory which
the ships from the far East were bringing home. In fourteen years Mr.
Derby’s ships to the far Eastern ports and Europe made one hundred and
twenty-five voyages, and of the thirty-five vessels engaged in this
traffic only one was lost at sea.
In one of the most entertaining and instructive chapters of “Walden,”
Thoreau takes the trouble to explain the business of a successful
shipping merchant of Salem. The description of his activities may be
fairly applied to Elias Hasket Derby and his times.
“To oversee all the details yourself in person; to be at once pilot
and captain, and owner and underwriter; to buy and sell and keep the
accounts; to read every letter received, and write or read every
letter sent; to superintend the discharge of imports night and day;
to be upon many ports of the coast almost at the same time—often the
richest freights will be discharged upon a Jersey shore; to be your own
telegraph, unweariedly sweeping the horizon, speaking all vessels bound
coastwise; to keep up a steady dispatch of commodities for the supply
of such a distant and exorbitant market; to keep yourself informed of
the state of the markets, prospects of war and peace everywhere, and
anticipate the tendencies of trade and civilization. Taking advantage
of the results of all exploring expeditions using new passages and all
improvements in navigation; charts to be studied, the position of reefs
and new lights and buoys to be corrected, for by the error of some
calculator the vessel often splits upon a rock that should have reached
a friendly pier; universal science to be kept pace with, studying the
lives of all great discoverers and navigators, great adventurers and
merchants, from Hanno and the Phœnicians down to our day; in fine,
account of stock must be taken from time to time, to know how you
stand. It is such a labor to task the faculties of a man—such problems
of profit and loss, of interest, of tare and tret, and gauging of all
kinds in it, as demand a universal knowledge.”
There is to-day nothing at all comparable with the community of
interests which bound all Salem in a kinship with the sea and its
affairs. Every ship for China or India carried a list of “adventures,”
small speculations entrusted to the captain or supercargo, contributed
by boys and girls, sweethearts, brothers, mothers and wives. In the log
of Mr. Derby’s ship, the _Astrea_, for a voyage to Batavia and Canton
are the following “memoranda” of “adventures,” which were to be sold by
the captain and the profits brought home to the investors:
“Captain Nathaniel West. 15 boxes spermacetti candles. 1 pipe
Teneriffe wine.”
“James Jeffry. 1 cask ginseng.”
“George Dodge. 10 Dollars. 1 pipe Madeira wine.”
In searching among the old logs for these “adventures,” the author
found “on board Ship _Messenger_ of Salem, 1816”:
“Memorandum of Miss Harriet Elkin’s Adventure.
“Please to purchase if at Calcutta two net bead with draperies; if at
Batavia or any spice market, nutmegs, and mace, or if at Canton,
Two Canton Crape shawls of the enclosed colors at $5 per shawl.
Enclosed is $10. Signed.
“HENRIETTA ELKINS.”
[Illustration: William Gray]
[Illustration: Elias Hasket Derby]
“Memorandum of Mr. John R. Tucker’s Adventure.
“Mr. C. STANLEY, Sir:
“I hand you a bag containing 100 Spanish dollars for my adventure on
board the ship _Messenger_ which please invest in coffee and sugar, if
you have room after the cargo is on board. If not, invest the amount
in nutmegs, or spice as you think best. Please do for me as you do for
your own, and oblige your obt.
“JOHN R. TUCKER.
“To EDWARD STANLEY, master.”
Captain Stanley kept an itemized record of his transactions with Mr. J.
Tucker’s one hundred Spanish dollars, and it may be interesting to note
how such an “adventure” was handled to reap profits for the waiting
speculator in faraway Salem. The captain first bought in Batavia ten
bags of coffee for $83.30, which with boat hire, duty and sacking made
the total outlay $90.19. This coffee he sold in Antwerp on his way
home for $183.75. Arriving at Salem he paid over to Mr. Tucker the sum
of $193.57, or almost one hundred per cent. profit on the amount of
the “adventure.” This is enough to show why this kind of speculative
investment was so popular in the Salem of a century ago.
The same ship carried also “Mrs. Mary Townsend’s adventure,” to wit:
“Please to purchase lay out five dollars which I send by you, Vizt:
“One Tureen 14 by 10 Inches, China. One Nett bead and you will oblige.”
Almost every household of Salem had its own menfolk or near kinfolk on
the sea, not in the offshore fisheries, nor in the coastwise trade
where the perils of their calling might be somewhat atoned for by the
frequent visits of these loved ones. The best and bravest men of Salem
were in the deep-water, square-rigged vessels which vanished toward
the Orient and to the South Seas to be gone, not months but years on a
voyage.
After open hostilities had fairly begun between France and the United
States, in 1798, our ports began to send out privateersmen and the
merchants’ fleets sought refuge. Elias Hasket Derby, with a revival
of his bold Revolutionary spirit, decided to risk a cargo of sugar
and coffee to meet the urgent demands of the Mediterranean ports. For
this particular mission he built the ship _Mount Vernon_, a notable
combination of commercial and naval fitness. She was the last venture
of this great merchant, and with characteristic enterprise he took the
chances of evading the French and the Algerine pirates with a cargo
whose profits would be enormous if the _Mount Vernon_ could make the
passage in safety. This fine ship was only one hundred feet long, but
she carried fifty men and twenty guns. She was built for speed as
well as fighting ability, and she made Cape Vincent on her outward
passage in sixteen days from Salem. Her voyage was a brilliant success,
although her owner died before she came home. The _Mount Vernon_ on
this one voyage paid to the Derby estate a profit of one hundred
thousand dollars on a total investment for ship and cargoes of $43,000.
The letter book of the _Mount Vernon_ for this notable voyage in the
history of the American merchant marine tells how she fought her way
across the Atlantic. Captain Elias Hasket Derby, junior, was in charge
of the vessel, and he wrote his father as follows:
“GIBRALTER, 1st, August, 1799.
“E. H. DERBY, Esq., Salem:
“Honored Sir: I think you must be surprised to find me here so early.
I arrived at this port in seventeen and one-half days from the time
my brother left the ship (off Salem). In eight days and seven hours
were up with Carvo, and made Cape St. Vincent in sixteen days. The
first of our passage was quite agreeable; the latter light winds,
calm, and Frenchmen constantly in sight for the last four days. The
first Frenchman we saw was off Tercira, a lugger to the southward.
Being uncertain of his force, we stood by him to leeward on our course
and soon left him.
“July 28th in the afternoon we found ourselves approaching a fleet of
upwards of fifty sail, steering nearly N. E. We run directly for their
centre; at 4 o’clock found ourselves in their half-moon; concluding
it impossible that it could be any other than the English fleet,
continued our course for their centre, to avoid any apprehension of a
want of confidence in them. They soon dispatched an 18-gun ship from
their centre, and two frigates, one from their van and another from
the rear to beat towards us, being to windward.
“On approaching the centre ship under easy sail, I fortunately
bethought myself that it would be but common prudence to steer so far
to windward of him as to be a gunshot’s distance from him; to observe
his force, and manoevering. When we were abreast of him he fired a gun
to leeward and hoisted English colors. We immediately bore away and
meant to pass under his quarter, between him and the fleet, showing
our American colors. This movement disconcerted him and it appeared to
me he conceived we were either an American sloop of war or an English
one in distress, attempting to cut him off from the fleet. While we
were in the act of wearing on his beam, he hoisted _French_ colors and
gave us his broadside.
“We immediately brought our ship to the wind and stood on about a
mile, wore towards the centre of the fleet, hove about and crossed
on him on the other tack about half grape shot distance and received
his broadside. Several of his shot fell on board of us, and cut our
sails—two round shot striking us, without much damage. All hands were
active in clearing ship for action, for our surprise had been complete.
“In about ten minutes we commenced firing our stern chasers and
in a quarter of an hour gave him our broadside in such a style as
apparently sickened him, for he immediately luffed in the wind,
gave us his broadside, went in stays in great confusion, wore ship
afterwards in a large circle, and renewed the chase at a mile and a
half distance—a manoever calculated to keep up appearances with the
fleet and to escape our shot. We received seven or eight broadsides
from him, and I was mortified at not having it in my power to return
him an equal number without exposing myself to the rest of the fleet,
for I am persuaded I should have had the pleasure of sending him home
had he been separate from them.
“At midnight we had distanced them, the chasing rocket signals being
almost out of sight, and soon left them. We then kept ourselves in
constant preparation till my arrival here; and indeed it had been
very requisite, for we have been in constant brushes ever since. The
day after we left the (French) fleet we were chased till night by two
frigates whom we lost sight of when it was dark. The next morning off
Cape St. Vincent in the latitude of Cadiz, were chased by a French
lateen-rigged vessel apparently of 10 or 12 guns, one of them an
18-pounder. We brought to, for his metal was too heavy for ours, and
his position was to windward, where he lay just in a situation to cast
his shot over us, and it was not in my power to put him off. We of
course bore away, and saluted him with our long nines. He continued in
chase till dark and when we were nearly by Cadiz, at sunset, he made
a signal to his consort, a large lugger whom we had just discovered
ahead. Having a strong breeze I was determined to pass my stern over
him if he did not make way for me. He thought prudent so to do.
[Illustration: The ship _Mount Vernon_, owned by Elias Hasket Derby,
in her fight with a French fleet]
“At midnight we made the lights in Cadiz city but found no English
fleet. After laying to till daybreak, concluded that the French must
have gained the ascendency in Cadiz and thought prudent to proceed to
this place where we arrived at 12 o’clock, _popping at Frenchmen all
the forenoon_. At 10 A. M. off Algeciras Point were seriously attacked
by a large latineer who had on board more than 100 men. He came so
near our broadside as to allow our six-pound grape to do execution
handsomely. We then bore away and gave him our stern guns in a cool
and deliberate manner, doing apparently great execution. Our bars
having cut his sails considerably he was thrown into confusion, struck
both his ensign and his pennant. I was then puzzled to know what to
do with so many men; our ship was running large with all her steering
sails out, so that we could not immediately bring her to the wind and
we were directly off Algeciras Point from whence I had reason to fear
she might receive assistance, and my port (Gibralter) in full view.
“These were circumstances that induced me to give up the gratification
of bringing him in. It was, however, a satisfaction to flog the rascal
in full view of the English fleet who were to leeward. The risk of
sending here is great, indeed, for any ship short of our force in men
and guns—but particularly heavy guns.
“It is absolutely necessary that two Government ships should
occasionally range the straits and latitude of Cadiz, from the
longitude of Cape St. Vincent. I have, now while writing to you, two
of our countrymen in full view who are prizes to these villains.
Lord St. Vincent, in a 50-gun ship bound for England, is just at
this moment in the act of retaking one of them. The other goes into
Algeciras without molestation.
“You need have but little apprehension for my safety, as my crew are
remarkably well trained and are perfectly well disposed to defend
themselves; and I think after having cleared ourselves from the
French in such a handsome manner, you may well conclude that we can
effect almost anything. If I should go to Constantinople, it will be
with a passport from Admiral Nelson for whom I may carry a letter to
Naples.
“Your affectionate son,
“ELIAS HASKET DERBY.”
That the experience of Captain Elias Hasket Derby, Jr., in the _Mount
Vernon_ was not an unusual one is indicated by the following letter
written by Captain Richard Wheatland and published in a Salem newspaper
of 1799 under these stirring headlines:
“_A sea Fight gallantly and vigorously maintained by the Ship
Perseverance, Captain Richard Wheatland of this port against one of
the vessels of the Terrible Republic. The French Rascals, contrary
to the Laws of War and Honor, fought under false colours, whilst the
Eagle, true to his charge, spreads his wings on the American flag._”
“SHIP PERSEVERANCE,
“Old Straits of Bahama, Jan. 1, 1799.
“Dec. 31st. Key Romain in sight, bearing south, distance four or five
leagues. A schooner has been in chase of us since eight o’clock,
and has every appearance of being a privateer. At one o’clock P. M.
finding the schooner come up with us very fast, took in steering
sails, fore and aft and royals; at half-past one about ship and stood
for her; she immediately tacked and made sail from us. We fired a
gun to leeward and hoisted the American ensign to our mizzen peak;
she hoisted a Spanish jack at main-top masthead and continued to run
from us. Finding she outsailed us greatly, and wishing to get through
the Narrows in the Old Straits, at two o’clock P. M. we again about
ship and kept on our course. The schooner immediately wore, fired a
gun to leeward, and kept after us under a great press of sail.
At half-past two she again fired a gun to leeward, but perceiving
ourselves in the Narrows above mentioned, we kept on to get through
them if possible before she came up with us, which we effected.
[Illustration: Elias Hasket Derby mansion (1799-1816)]
[Illustration: Prince House. Home of Richard Derby. Built about 1750]
“At three o’clock finding ourselves fairly clear of Sugar Key and Key
Laboas, we took in steering sails, wore ship, hauled up our courses,
piped all hands to quarters and prepared for action. The schooner
immediately took in sail, hoisted an English Union flag, and passed
under our lee at a considerable distance. We wore ship, she did the
same and we passed each other within half a musket. A fellow hailed us
in broken English and ordered the boat hoisted out and the captain to
come on board with his papers, which he refused. He again ordered our
boat out and enforced his orders with a menace that in case of refusal
he would sink us, using at the same time the vilest and most infamous
language it is possible to conceive of.
“By this time he had fallen considerably astern of us; he wore and
came up on our starboard quarter, giving us a broadside as he passed
our stern, but fired so excessively wild that he did us very little
injury, while our stern-chasers gave him a noble dose of round shot
and lagrange. We hauled the ship to wind and as he passed poured a
whole broadside into him with great success. Sailing faster than we
he ranged considerably ahead, tacked and again passed, giving us a
broadside and a furious discharge of musketry which they kept up
incessantly until the latter part of the engagement.
“His musket balls reached us in every direction, but his large shot
either fell short or went considerably over us while our guns loaded
with round shot and square bars of iron, six inches long, were plied
so briskly and directed with such good judgment that before he got
out of range we had cut his mainsail and foretopsail all to rags and
cleared his decks so effectively that when he bore away from us there
were scarcely ten men to be seen. He then struck his English flag and
hoisted the flag of the Terrible Republic and made off with all the
sail he could carry, much disappointed, no doubt, at not being able to
give us a fraternal embrace.
“The wind being light and knowing he would outsail us, added to a
solicitude to complete our voyage, prevented our pursuing him; indeed
we had sufficient to gratify our revenge for his temerity, for there
was scarcely a single fire from our guns but what spread entirely
over his hull. The action which lasted an hour and twenty minutes,
we conceive ended well, for exclusive of preserving the property
entrusted to our care, we feel confidence that we have rid the world
of some infamous pests of society. We were within musket shot the
whole time of the engagement, and were so fortunate as to receive
but very trifling injury. Not a person on board met the slightest
harm. Our sails were a little torn and one of the quarterdeck guns
dismounted.
“The privateer was a schooner of 80 or 90 tons, copper bottom, and
fought five or six guns on a side. We are now within forty-eight hours
sail of Havana, where we expect to arrive in safety; indeed we have
no fear of any privateer’s preventing us unless greatly superior in
force. The four quarterdeck guns will require new carriages, and one
of them was entirely dismounted.
“We remain with esteem,
“Gentlemen,
“Your Humble Servant,
“RICHARD WHEATLAND.”
FOOTNOTES:
[24] The edition of 1800 of this popular compendium of knowledge bore
on the title page: “A New Geographical, Historical and Commercial
Grammar and Present State of the Several Kingdoms of the World.
Illustrated with a Correct Set of Maps, Engraved from the Most Recent
Observations and Draughts of Geographical Travellers. The Eighteenth
Edition Corrected and Considerably enlarged. London. 1800.”
The work contained “Longitude, Latitude, Bearings and Distances of
Principal Places from London” as one of its qualifications for use
among mariners.