THE PRIVATEERS OF 1812
The War of 1812 was a sailors’ war, fought by the United States for
“Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights.” Americans of this century cannot
realize the bitterness of feeling against England which was at white
heat in all the Atlantic seacoastwise towns during a period of forty
years before the second war waged by the young republic against the
mother country. To the men of New England, in the words of Josiah
Quincy, the land was “only a shelter from the storm, a perch on which
they build their eyrie and hide their mate and their young, while they
skim the surface, or hunt in the deep.” In 1806 and 1807, according to
the files of the State Department, six thousand American seamen were
virtual captives in British war vessels. “The detection of an attempt
to notify an American Consul of the presence of Americans on board an
English ship was sure to be followed by a brutal flogging,” writes the
historian McMaster.
President Jefferson shrank from war and sought a retaliatory compromise
in the Embargo of 1808 which forbade the departure of an American
merchant vessel for any foreign port. This measure which paralyzed
American trade, was so fiercely opposed in New England that an
insurrection was feared, and the ports were filled with dismantled
ships, empty warehouses, deserted wharves and starving seamen. When war
came, it was welcomed by forty thousand native American merchant seamen
who, eager for revenge for the wrongs they had suffered, were ready to
crowd the ships of the navy and overflow into the fleets of privateers
that hurried from every deep-water port.
England’s high-handed claims to right of search and impressment and
the continual menace from French and Spanish marauders had developed a
much faster and more powerful class of merchant vessels than had been
armed for service in the Revolution. During the war Salem placed in
commission forty privateers of which more than half had been built in
her own yards. Of these the most famous and successful was the ship
_America_, whose audacious cruising ground was from the English Channel
to the Canary Islands. The art of building fast and beautiful ships
had been so far perfected a hundred years ago that Salem vessels were
crossing the Atlantic in twelve and thirteen days for record passages,
performances which were not surpassed by the famous clipper-packets of
half a century later. The _America_, as shown in the interesting data
collected by B. B. Crowninshield, although built in 1803, was faster
with the wind on her quarter, than such crack racing machines as the
_Vigilant_, _Defender_ and _Columbia_. This noble privateer made a
speed record of thirteen knots, with all her stores, guns, fittings,
boats and bulwarks aboard, which is only one knot behind the record of
the _Defender_, in short spurts, and when stripped in racing trim. The
_America_ frequently averaged better than ten knots for twelve hours on
end, which matches the best day’s run of the _Vigilant_ in her run to
Scotland in the summer of 1894. This privateer, which carried a crew
of one hundred and fifty men and twenty-two guns was no longer than a
modern cup defender.
This splendid fabric of the seas was the fastest Yankee ship afloat
during the War of 1812, and her speed and the admirable seamanship
displayed by her commanders enabled her to cruise in the English
Channel for weeks at a time, to run away from British frigates which
chased her home and back again, and to destroy at least two million
dollars worth of English shipping.
Michael Scott, in “Tom Cringle’s Log” described such a vessel as the
_America_ in the following passage dealing with the fate of a captured
Yankee privateer at the hands of British masters:
“When I had last seen her she was the most beautiful little craft, both
in hull and rigging, that ever delighted the eyes of a sailor; but the
dock-yard riggers and carpenters had fairly bedeviled her—at least so
far as appearances went. First they replaced the light rail on her
gunwale by heavy, solid bulwarks four feet high, surmounted by hammock
nettings at least another foot; so that the symmetrical little vessel,
that formerly floated on the foam light as a sea gull, now looked like
a clumsy, dish-shaped Dutch dogger. Her long slender wands of masts,
which used to swing about as if there were neither shrouds nor stays to
support them, were now as taut and stiff as church steeples, with four
heavy shrouds on a side, and stays, and backstays, and the devil knows
what all.”
The _America_ was built for the merchant service and her career before
the war was not lacking in picturesque flavor. She was the pride of
the great shipping family of Crowninshield, built by Retire Becket of
Salem, under the eye of Captain George Crowninshield, Jr. With a crew
of thirty-five men and ten guns she sailed on her first voyage, to the
Dutch East Indies, in the summer of 1804, commanded by Captain Benjamin
Crowninshield, Jr. Touching at the Isle of Bourbon in the Indian Ocean,
it was learned that a cargo of coffee might be obtained at Mocha in
the Red Sea. The _America_ shifted her course and proceeded to Mocha,
where she dropped anchor only seven years after the _Recovery_ had
first shown the stars and stripes in that port. Having taken on coffee,
goat skins, gum arabic, and sienna, the ship went to Aden carrying as
a passenger Mr. Pringle, the English consul. A few days later Captain
Crowninshield was informed that Mr. Pringle had taken passage for
England from Aden in the ship _Alert_, which had been captured by
Arabs, the captain and fifteen men murdered and the vessel carried off
to India.
Meanwhile a rumor had reached Salem that the _America_, instead of
obeying orders and going to Sumatra had veered away to Mocha after
coffee. The owners had implicitly enjoined Captain Crowninshield after
this imploring fashion:
“Now you’ve broken orders so often, see _for once_ if you can’t mind
them.”
When the ship was sighted off Salem harbor, the owners and some of
their friends hastily put off in a small boat, wholly in the dark as
to where their skipper had been and what he had fetched home, and not
at all easy in their minds. If he had secured coffee, then they stood
to win a small fortune, but if the cargo was pepper, which they had
ordered him to get, well, the bottom had dropped out of the pepper
market a short time before and the prospect was not so pleasing. It
was a sea lottery of the kind that lent excitement to the return of
most Salem ventures beyond the seas. As the owners neared the ship they
began to sniff the wind. They thought they could smell coffee, but the
old salt at the tiller suggested that the fragrant odor might be blown
from a fresh pot of the beverage in the galley, and hopes fell below
par. As soon as they were within fair hailing distance Captain Benjamin
Crowninshield, one of the owners, shouted through a speaking trumpet,
“What’s your cargo?”
“Pep-p-er-r,” came the doleful response from the skipper on the quarter
deck.
“You’re a liar, blast your eye, I smell coffee,” roared back the
agitated owner through his trumpet.
The Captain had had his little joke, and he was effusively forgiven,
for he had brought back a cargo that harvested a clean profit of one
hundred thousand dollars when sold in Holland.
As soon as war was declared the owners of the _America_ hastened the
task of fitting her out as a privateer. Her upper deck was removed,
and her sides filled in with stout oak timber between the planking and
ceiling. Longer yards and royal masts gave her an immense spread of
sail, and, square-rigged on her three masts she was a stately cloud of
canvas when under full sail. Her guns were eighteen long nine-pounders,
two six-pounders, two eighteen-pound carronades, and for small arms,
forty muskets, four blunderbusses, fifty-five pistols, seventy-three
cutlasses, ten top muskets, thirty-six tomahawks or boarding axes, and
thirty-nine boarding pikes.
Her crew of one hundred and fifty men comprised a commander, three
lieutenants, sailing master, three mates, surgeon, purser, captain of
marines, gunner, gunner’s mate, carpenter, carpenter’s mate, steward,
steward’s mate, seven prize masters, armorer, drummer, fifer, three
quartermasters, and one hundred and twenty-two seamen. This was the
organization of a man-of-war of her time, and discipline was maintained
as smartly as in the navy. Flogging was the penalty for offenses among
the seamen, as shown by the record of a court martial on one of her
cruises. A seaman had stolen a pair of shoes from a marine, for which
he was sentenced to a dozen lashes. A poet of the privateer’s gun deck
described this event at some length, including these pithy lines:
“The Boatsw’n pipes all hands to muster,
No time for whining, plea or bluster,
The Judge announces the just sentence
And many stripes produce repentance;
“For the low cur, who’d meanly cozen
A poor Marine, must take his ‘dozen.’”
On her first cruise the _America_ was commanded by Captain Joseph
Ropes, son of that Revolutionary privateersman, Captain David Ropes,
who was killed in a bloody action aboard the _Jack_, off Halifax.
Joseph Ropes was also a kinsman of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and of
Nathaniel Bowditch, the two sons of Salem whose fame is world-wide.
This captain of the _America_ had sailed in her as a merchantman to
the Mediterranean, and it is related that he made so favorable an
impression upon the Sultan of Turkey that the potentate wished to
negotiate through him a commercial treaty with the United States.
Tradition says that the only thing in the world Captain Ropes feared
was reproof from his mother. She hated the sea because the boy’s father
had lost his life upon it, and young Joseph ran away on his first
voyage to the West Indies when he was little past the spankable age. He
took care to send her as a peace offering a barrel of molasses before
he dared return home and face her sorrowing indignation. Captain Ropes
made only one cruise in the _America_, after which he retired from the
sea. He captured six prizes on the Atlantic, valued at $158,000, all of
them merchantmen which could make no resistance to the heavy battery of
the privateer.
Her second cruise was in command of Captain John Kehew, who had been
a first lieutenant under Captain Ropes. The _America_ was at sea four
months and took ten vessels without notable incident. The third,
fourth and fifth cruises of the privateer were entrusted to Captain
James Chever, Jr., who won a name for himself as one of the ablest and
most daring sailors of the war. He had been in the _America_ from her
first voyage to Mocha, when he was an infant of twelve years, acting
as cabin boy. He came of a sterling fighting and seafaring stock. His
father, Captain James Chever, was a lieutenant of the first _Grand
Turk_, privateer during the Revolution, which ship, among other notable
achievements, captured a large cargo of military supplies intended for
Cornwallis. These stores were delivered to Washington and were a great
assistance in the siege of Yorktown. The son rose to be a master of
merchant vessel before he was twenty, and when he was given command of
the _America_ privateer in 1813, he was twenty-two years old, with
one hundred and fifty men to take his orders and one of the finest and
fastest ships afloat to win him fame and fortune.
[Illustration: Captain James W. Chever, commander of the privateer
_America_]
[Illustration: The privateer _America_ under full sail]
From the log of his first cruise in the _America_ the following
extracts are chosen, as showing the daily life and business aboard a
Yankee privateer a century ago:
“Dec. 14 (1813) Latter part, strong breezes and clear weather. At 11 A.
M. saw a sail bearing E. by N. Called all hands and made sail in chase;
and sent up Top Gallant yards. At 3 P. M. coming up with our chase very
fast. He hoisted English colors and hauled up his courses. At half past
3 P. M. we hauled down our English colors; gave him a gun; and hoisted
American colors. Passed within pistol shot of him, to windward, firing
continually; exchanged three broadsides; in a few minutes afterward we
past round his bow and gave him a raking fire. Our guns under water.
There being a great sea and our decks full of water, and perceiving him
to be a light transport of about six hundred tons, mounting 28 or 30
guns and full of men, we concluded if we took him we should not reap
any advantage as he could not be of much value; therefore, thought it
prudent to leave him. During the action received a number of shot,
one of which cut away part of the maintopsail yard. The topsail being
double reefed the shot went through both reefs; another shot went
through our fore topsail; another cut away one of our fore-shrouds.
John McIntire, a marine, while in the act of loading his musket, was
shot through the left breast and expired instantly. From 4 to 6 P. M.
employed sending down the main topsail and yard and getting up another.
At half past six sent up the main topsail; while bending it lost a
man out of the main topmast rigging by the name of Ebenezer Osgood.
It being very dark and a long sea, thought it imprudent to get the
boat out. At 8 set the maintopsail close reefed. Close reefed the fore
topsail and took in the mizzen topsail and mainsail; at 9 took in the
foresail; at 10 took in the fore topsail; at 11 took in the maintopsail
and mizzen staysail and lay to under the fore and main staysail. Strong
gales and cloudy weather. At ½ past 1 A. M. sent down the topgallant
yards. At 3 set the mizzen staysail. At 7 set the fore and mizzen
topsails. A gun bursted.”
“Dec. 25. Commences with light breezes and pleasant weather. At 2 P. M.
took in the staysails and jib. At 3 all hands to quarters; exercise the
guns. At 4 let two reefs out of the topsails. At half past four hands
aft while the carpenter repaired the copper on the cutwater.”
“Jan. 18th. At 1 P. M. coming up with our chase very fast found him to
be a schooner. At 4 P. M. gave him a gun, and he hove to and hoisted
English colors. Boarded him and found him to be the English schooner
_Martha_, Wm. Williams, master, from Waterford, bound for Cadiz.
Cargo dry goods, butter, bacon, Beef, etc. Put on board Wm. C. Hooper
as prize master, with six men and ordered her for America. Took Mr.
Wilson, mate, and three men. Left no one on board of her except the
captain. Sent on board schooner 150 pounds bread, 10 do. chocolate, 4
gallons rum, 110 gallons water. Received from her five firkins butter.
At 6 P. M. parted from her. At 10 hauled up the mainsail.”
In a way, this capturing small merchant vessels, the loss of which
spelled beggary for their masters, seemed a cruel and unnecessary part
of war between nations. It had its stern use however, in crippling
England’s commercial strength, and in employing her navy to protect her
trading fleets. The _America_ swooped among these deep-laden craft like
a hawk in a dove cote, snatching them from convoys, or picking them up
in the English Channel almost within sight of their own shores. Her
logs are filled with such entries as these:
“Jan. 23. He proved to be the British ship _Diana_, George W. Carlton,
master, from London bound for Madeira, cargo, deals. From 2 to 6 P.
M. boats employed in taking our articles from the ship as the captain
contemplated burning her. During the afternoon received on board all
the _Diana’s_ company consisting of 15 in number and one passenger,
likewise a quantity of duck, rigging, etc. At 3 P. M. after taking all
necessary things out of the _Diana_, set fire to her.”
“Jan. 26th. At 2 P. M. saw a sail bearing N.N.W.; called all hands
to make sail in chase. At 3 sent up Royal masts and yards; and set
all necessary sail. At 8 came up with the chase; it proved to be the
British brig _Sovereign_ from Cork bound for Liverpool, John Brown
commander. Took on board the prisoners and put on board Mr. Hall, prize
master with six men and ordered her to America. Her cargo consisted of
coals, crates, butter, etc.”
“Jan. 27th. A number of our men on board the _Sovereign_ fitting a new
foremast and doing other necessary work. At 4 P. M. saw a sail on the
lee bow. Made a signal for our boats and all hands to repair on board.
Instantly got in the boats and made all necessary sail in chase. At 5
nearing the chase very fast. At half past 9 lighted our side lanterns
and called all hands to quarters. At 10 within gunshot of him; Fired
and brought him to. Got out the gig and brought the captain on board
with his papers. She proved to be the British ship _Falcon_, Atkinson,
master, from Liverpool _via_ Lisbon, bound to the Canaries, with a very
valuable cargo of merchandise. At 11 took on board the prisoners. Put
on board Mr. Cleaves as prize master with 12 hands.”
“Jan. 28. At 8 A. M. saw a sail in the lee bow. A signal was made for
the boat and all hands to repair on board. Made sail in chase. At 4 P.
M. discovered him to be a brig. At half past 9 gave him a gun; he not
regarding it soon after gave him another and he rounded to. Got out the
boat and boarded him. The captain came on board with his papers. She
proved to be the British brig _Ann_ of London, Appleton, master, from
Oporto bound to Bayhei in ballast; not being of much value, permitted
him to pass, after putting all our prisoners on board of him, being
forty-six in number including the brig’s crew, and directed him to land
them in Teneriffe and there to report to the proper officer. At 4 P. M.
got all the prisoners on board and ordered him to make sail.”
Prize after prize was thus entered in the log, for the _America_
overhauled everything she sighted and made chase after, and managed
to keep in the track of the richest trade bound to and from England,
nor could British frigates find and drive her off her station. Other
entries for this third cruise include the following:
“Feb. 19th. Coming up with our chase very fast. At ½ past 3 took in
studding sails and Royals. At 4 fired a gun and brought him to and
boarded him. He proved to be the British brig _Sisters_ from Malaga,
cargo wine and fruit, prize to the American privateer, _Young Wasp_ of
Philadelphia. At 5 parted with him.”
“Feb. 20th. All hands to quarters and exercise the great guns,
Boarders, etc. Started two Hogsheads of salt water forward to trim ship
by the stern.”
“Feb. 24th. At 9 A. M. got out the launch to scrub the bottom. All
hands employed in setting up and tarring down the rigging. At 7 P. M.
put all prisoners in Irons for bad Conduct.”
“March 1. At 9 A. M. saw a sail bearing about S.W. Hauled up for him
and set the mainsail, jib and mizzen. At 10 perceived the sail to be
a ship of war, apparently a frigate; wore ship to the N.N.W. Set top
gallant sails, stay sails and top mast studding sails, and sent up the
Royal yards. At ½ past 11 fired a lee gun and hoisted our colors.
“March 2. Lost sight of the ship astern at 1 P. M.
“March 6. At ½ past 2 all hands to quarters for exercise. Got out the
boat and carried an empty water cask from the ship, about 60 yards to
fire at. Blew off one Broadside. All the shots went very near. At 4
went in swimming.”
On this cruise the _America_ took an even dozen prizes. Touching at
Portsmouth, N. H., to gather her crew, which had been dangerously
reduced by manning prizes, the privateer refitted and sailed on her
fourth cruise, Oct. 31st, 1814. This was her only unlucky voyage. She
ran into a submerged derelict at sea, and was so badly damaged that
Captain Chever returned to Salem for repairs before any capture had
been made. Departure was made from Salem for the fifth and last cruise
on Nov. 25, 1814. “On this cruise,” writes B. B. Crowninshield in an
interesting summary of the _America’s_ log, “the sea seemed to be full
of English men-of-war and much of the _America’s_ time was taken up in
dogging and running away from frigates, and the crew no doubt realized
that danger of capture to which they were continually exposed; at all
events the log on Jan. 8th and on each succeeding Sunday records that
‘all hands were called to prayers,’ although prayers were in no way
allowed to interfere with the management of the ship or the furtherance
of the purpose for which she was fitted out. They attended prayers at
intervals before, and had returned thanks for a Merciful Providence
Dec. 11.”
On Feb. 27, the _America_ fell in with the English packet, _Princess
Elizabeth_, of 188 tons, armed with six nine-pound carronades, two long
brass nine-pounders, and manned by thirty-two men. She proved to be
a rarely plucky foeman, and during the hot engagement that followed,
Captain Chever’s crew exhibited a skill in gunnery comparable with that
of the tars of the _Constitution_ and American frigates. Captain Chever
describes the action in these words:
“At half past 4 P. M. saw a sail on our weather bow, made all sail in
chase of her. At ½ past six P. M. lost sight of the above ship. At 9
P. M. wore ship to the S. and E., judging that after he lost sight of
us he would keep his former course to the Eastward. Hauled up our main
course. At 6 A. M. saw the above ship to the west. Wore ship and stood
after him. At 8 A. M. still in chase of the above ship, coming up with
him very fast. He hauled down his signals, fired a gun and hoisted
an English Ensign and Pennant. At the same time we fired a gun and
hoisted English colors. At 9 A. M. nearly on his lee quarter, hauled
down English and hoisted American colors. He immediately bore away
before the wind and gave us a broadside which we returned by giving
him another, when the action became general. At 12 minutes past nine,
seeing his colors hanging overboard, concluded that he had struck and
ceased firing, but in two minutes, seeing his fire, commenced firing
again. At 18 minutes past 9 he surrendered, we receiving no loss on
board the _America_ neither in men, rigging, sails, or hull.
“At ½ past nine boarded him; he proved to be H. B. M. Ship Packet
_Princess Elizabeth_, John Forresdale commander, mounting 8 carriage
guns and 32 men, from Rio Janeiro bound to Falmouth. Her loss was 2
killed and 13 wounded; among the latter was the Capt. by a grape shot
through the thigh. The Packet was very much cut to pieces. She had 8
shot holes between wind and water, 3 nine-pound shot in her mainmast,
just above deck, one in her mizzen mast, and one in her main topmast,
and one in her fore topmast, with his braces, bowlines and part of his
shrouds and stays cut away, and about 700 shot holes thro’ his sails
besides a large number through his bulwarks. On our approaching them
they thought us to be some cunning ship with 12 or 14 guns and the
rest Quakers. But they found their mistake so as to convince them that
Quakers were not silent at all times. Took out her guns, muskets,
pistols, cutlasses, powder and shot on board the _America_, and gave
her up to her original crew, to proceed on to Falmouth, after putting
on board 6 prisoners, and a quantity of bread, as they had on board
only 15 pounds for 25 men. Sent our Doctor on board to dress the
wounded.”
After taking thirteen prizes on this cruise the _America_ returned to
Salem and the last entry in her log reads:
“April 18. (1814.) At 4 P. M. came to with the best bower in seven
fathoms and handed all sails and fired a salute of forty guns. People
all discharged to go on shore. So ends the ship _America’s_ last
cruise.”
During her career as a privateer she had sent safely into port
twenty-seven British vessels, but her captures much exceeded this
number. Six of her prizes were retaken on their way to America and many
more were destroyed at sea. Her officers and crew divided more than one
half million dollars in prize money. More than this, with an American
navy so small that it could not hope to take the offensive against
England’s mighty sea power, the _America_ had played her part well in
crippling that maritime commerce which was the chief source of English
greatness. This beautiful ship never went to sea again. For reasons
unknown and inexplicable at the present time, she was allowed to lay
dismantled alongside Crowninshield’s wharf in Salem until 1831, when
she was sold at auction and broken up. The _Essex Register_ of June
16th of that year contains this melancholy obituary in its advertising
columns:
“Hull, etc. of Ship _America_
AT AUCTION
On Thursday next at 10 o’clock,
(Necessarily postponed from Thursday)
Will be sold by auction at the Crowninshield Wharf,
The Hull of the Privateer Ship _America_,
very heavily copper-fastened, and worthy attention
for breaking up.
Also—about 1000 pounds of Powder,
consisting principally of cannon and musket
cartridges.
A quantity of old Iron, Rigging, old Canvas, Blocks
Spars,—a complete set of Sweeps with a variety of
other articles.
The sale will commence with the materials, June 16.
GEORGE NICHOLS, Auct’r.”
Long after the war Captain Chever, master of a merchant vessel, became
acquainted in the harbor of Valparaiso with Sir James Thompson, captain
of the British frigate _Dublin_. This man-of-war had been fitted out
with the special object of capturing the _America_ in 1813. While
the two captains chatted together in cordial friendliness, Sir James
Thompson fell to telling stories of his service afloat in chase of the
famous Yankee privateer. “I was almost within gunshot of her once, just
as night was coming on,” said he, “but by daylight she had outsailed
the _Dublin_ so devilish fast that she was no more than a speck on the
horizon. And by the way, I wonder if you know who it was commanded
the _America_ on that cruise?” Captain Chever was glad to answer such
an absurdly easy question as this, and his former foeman enjoyed the
singular coincidence of this amicable meeting.
Even during the years of conflict the Yankee privateersman had more
sympathy for than hatred of the prisoners whose ships they took or
destroyed. Far more than the patriot landsman they could feel for these
hapless victims of warfare on the seas, for they had suffered similar
misfortunes at the hands of Englishmen, year after year. In an era of
nominal peace the British navy alone had confiscated more American
vessels than were captured from under the English flag by Yankee
privateers in the War of 1812. And if the merciless ravages of such
fleet sea hawks as the _America_ beggared many a British skipper whose
fate in no way touched the issue of the war, it should be remembered,
on the other hand, that in every American seaport there were broken
captains and ruined homes whose irremediable disasters had been wrought
by British authority.
In order to gain a more intimate realization of the spirit of those
times, it may be worth while to review a typical incident which befell
Captain Richard Cleveland of Salem. In 1806 he was in command of
the ship _Telemaco_ in which he had staked all his cash and credit,
together with the fortune of his friend and partner, Nathaniel Shaler.
Their investment in ship and cargo amounted to more than fifty thousand
dollars won after years of maritime risk and adventure in every sea of
the globe.[43] He sailed from Rio Janeiro for Havana, and said of the
prospects of this voyage in a letter to his wife:
“With what a series of misfortunes have I not been assailed for the
past three years, and with what confidence can I now expect to escape
the pirates in the West Indies? I expect to meet the British ships of
war, but do not fear them, as my business is regular, and such as will
bear the nicest scrutiny by those who act uprightly; but should I meet
with any of those privateers the consequence may be serious as they
respect the property of no one.”
In his published narrative Captain Cleveland made this additional
comment:
“But these were precarious times for neutrals, when the two great
belligerents (England and France) agreed in nothing else than
plundering them.... On the presumption, however, that such neutral
commerce as did not, even in a remote degree, prejudice the interests
of the belligerents would be unmolested, I felt that I had little else
than sea-risk to guard against, and was therefore free from anxiety on
the subject of insurance.”
Near the equator Captain Chever was overhauled by a British frigate,
and later by a sloop of war, the commanders of both of which vessels
satisfied themselves of the legality of his voyage and very civilly
permitted him to go on his way. Convinced that he was in no danger
from this quarter, Captain Cleveland expected a safe arrival in
Havana. Near Martinique he hove in sight of a British fleet, of which
Admiral Cochrane was in command on board the _Ramillies_ seventy-four.
The American shipmaster was summoned on board the flagship, his
papers carefully examined by the captain, and no cause found for his
detention. He was sent aboard his ship, and made sail on his course
with a happy heart. Scarcely was he under way when Admiral Cochrane
signalled him to heave to again, and without deigning to question
him or look at his papers ordered the ship seized and taken to the
Island of Tortola for condemnation proceedings. These formalities
were a farce, the _Telemaco_ was confiscated with her cargo and after
fruitless efforts to obtain a fair hearing, Captain Cleveland wrote:
“I am now on the point of embarking for home, after being completely
stripped of the fruits of many years hard toil.... To have practised
the self-denial incident to leaving my family for so long a time;
to have succeeded in reaching Rio Janeiro after being dismasted and
suffering all the toils and anxieties of a voyage of forty-three days
in that crippled condition; to have surmounted the numerous obstacles
and risks attendant on the peculiarity of the transactions in port; to
have accomplished the business of lading and despatching the vessels in
defiance of great obstacles, and to perceive the fortune almost within
my grasp which would secure me ease and independence for the remainder
of my life, and then, by the irresistible means of brute force, to
see the whole swept off, and myself and family thereby reduced in a
moment from affluence to poverty, must be admitted as a calamity of no
ordinary magnitude.... After the villainy I have seen practised, at
Tortola, by men whose power and riches not only give them a currency
among the most respectable, but make their society even courted, I
blush for the baseness of mankind and almost lament that I am one of
the same species.”
In the list of Salem privateers of 1812, one finds that few of them
were in the same class with the splendid and formidable _America_.
Indeed, some were as audaciously equipped, manned and sailed as the
little craft which put to sea in the Revolution. For example, among the
forty-odd private armed craft hailing from Salem during the latter war,
there were such absurd cock-sparrows as:
_The Active_ 20 tons 2 guns (4 lbs.) 25 men
_Black Vomit_ (boat) 5 ” muskets 16 ”
_Castigator_ (launch) 10 ” 16 lb. carronade 20 ”
_Fame_ 30 ” 26 lb. ” 30 ”
_Orion_ (boat) 5 ” muskets 20 ”
_Phœnix_ 20 ” 16 lb. ” 25 ”
_Terrible_ (boat) 5 ” muskets 16 ”
The schooner _Helen_ was a merchant vessel loaned by her owners to a
crew of volunteers for the special purpose of capturing the _Liverpool
Packet_, a venturesome English privateer which for several months had
made herself the terror of all vessels entering Massachusetts Bay. She
clung to her cruising ground off Cape Cod and evaded the privateers
sent in search of her. At last the seamen of Salem determined to clip
her wings, and the notion was most enthusiastically received. The
_Helen_ was fitted out and seventy volunteers put on board in the
remarkably brief time of four hours. Captains Upton and Tibbetts,
the leaders of the expedition, organized a parade through the Salem
streets, led by a flag bearer, a fifer and drummer, and had not
made the circuit of the town before the full crew was enlisted. Four
six-pounders were borrowed from the privateer _John_, and before
nightfall of the same day the _Helen_ was heading for sea. Some of her
crew leaped aboard as she was leaving the wharf and signed articles
while the schooner was working down the harbor. They failed to overhaul
the _Liverpool Packet_ which had sailed for Halifax to refit, but their
spirit was most praiseworthy. The English privateer was captured later
by another Yankee vessel.
The _Grand Turk_ was one of the finest privateers of the war, an East
India ship of 310 tons, fitted out with eighteen guns and one hundred
and fifty men. Her commanders were Holten J. Breed and Nathan Green who
made brilliantly successful cruises. After one cruise of one hundred
and three days she returned to Salem with only forty-four of her crew
on board, the remainder having been put into prizes of which she had
captured eight, one of them with a cargo invoiced at a hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. Her log describes several astonishing escapes
from British cruisers in which she showed a nimble pair of heels that
won her the name of being one of the fastest armed ships afloat. During
her last cruise, Captain Nathan Green made the following entries:
“Friday, March 10 (1815), at daylight the man at the masthead descried
a sail in the eastern quarter. Called all hands immediately and made
sail in chase. Soon after saw another sail on the weather bow. Still
in pursuit of the chase and approaching her fast. At 6:30 passed very
near the second sail, which was a Portuguese schooner standing W.S.W.
At 7:00 saw third sail three points on our lee bow, the chase a ship.
At 8:00 discovered the third to be a large ship by the wind to the
north and westward. At 10:00 being ¾ of a mile to windward discovered
the chase to be a frigate, endeavoring to decoy us. Tacked ship and
she immediately tacked and made all sail in pursuit of us. Soon
perceived we had the superiority of sailing, displayed the American
flag and fired a shot in defiance. At 11:00 the wind hauled suddenly
to the westward. The frigate received a favorable breeze which caused
her to lay across and nearing us fast. At 11:30, the frigate within
gunshot, got out our sweeps and made considerable progress, although
calm and a short head sea. Frigate commenced firing, got out her boats
and attempted to tack four different times but did not succeed. Hoisted
our colors and gave her a number of shot. A ship to leeward, a frigate
also. At noon swept our brig round with her head to the northward, and
having the wind more favorable, left the chaser considerably. The day
ends with extreme sultry weather and both ships in pursuit of us.
[Illustration: Capt. Holten J. Breed, commander of the privateer _Grand
Turk_]
[Illustration: The privateer _Grand Turk_]
“Saturday, March 11, at dark, frigates using every exertion to near us.
“Sunday, March 12, at 1:30 P. M. saw two sail two points on our lee
bow, soon discovered them to be the two frigates still in pursuit of us
and much favored by the breeze. At 5 P. M. light variable winds with us
and the enemy still holding the breeze. Took to our sweeps. At dark the
enemy’s ships bore S.S.W.
“Monday, March 13, at 2 P. M. the enemy having been out of sight 4½
hours, concluded to get down the foretopmast and replace it with a
new one. All hands busily employed. At 4 descried a second sail ahead
standing for us. At 5:30 got the new foretopmast and top gallant mast
in place, rigging secured, yards aloft and made sail in pursuit of the
latter. At 7 came up and boarded her; she proved to be a Portuguese
brig bound from Bahia to Le Grande with a cargo of salt. Finding
ourselves discovered by the British cruisers, and being greatly
encumbered with prisoners, concluded to release them and accordingly
paroled five British prisoners and discharged ten Spaniards and put
them on board the brig after giving a necessary supply of provisions.
“Saturday, March 18, at 2 P. M., came up and spoke a Portuguese brig
from Africa bound to Rio Janeiro with a cargo of slaves. Filled away in
pursuit of a second sail in the N.W. At 4:30 she hoisted English colors
and commenced firing her stern guns. At 5:20 took in the steering
sails, at the same time she fired a broadside. We opened a fire from
our larboard battery, and at 5:30 she struck her colors. Got out the
boats and boarded her. She proved to be the British brig _Acorn_ from
Liverpool for Rio Janeiro, mounting fourteen cannon and having a cargo
of dry goods. At 5:30 we received the first boat load of goods aboard.
Employed all night in discharging her.
“Sunday, March 19, at daylight saw two frigates and a brig on the lee
beam in chase of us. Took a very full boatload of goods on board,
manned out the prize with Joseph Phippen and eleven men and ordered
her for the United States. As the prize was in a good plight for
sailing, I have great reason to think she escaped. One of the frigates
pursued us for three-quarters of an hour, but finding that she had her
old antagonist gave up the pursuit. Having on board one hundred and
sixty-odd bales, boxes, cases and trunks of goods, which I conceive is
very valuable, and the brig’s copper and rigging being very much out of
repair, and the water scant, concluded to return home with all possible
dispatch. As another inducement I have information of a treaty of peace
being signed at Ghent between the United States and Great Britain, and
only remains to be ratified by the former.
“Wednesday, March 29, at 4 A. M. saw a sail to windward very near us,
and tacked in pursuit of her. At 8:30 came up with and boarded her. She
proved to be a Portuguese ship from Africa bound to Maranham with 474
slaves on board. Paroled and put on board eleven British prisoners.
“Saturday, April 15, boarded the American schooner _Commit_ of and
from Alexandria for Barbadoes with a cargo of flour. They gave us the
joyful tidings of peace between America and England, which produced the
greatest rejoicing throughout the ship’s company.
“Saturday, April 29, 1815, at 7:30 A. M. saw Thatchers Island bearing
N.W. At 8 saw Bakers Island bearing west. At 9:30 came to anchor in
Salem harbor, cleared decks, and saluted the town. This ends the cruise
of 118 days.”
Captain Nathan Green was a modest man, and his log, if taken alone,
would indicate that his escapes from British frigates were most
matter of fact incidents. The fact is, however, that these events of
his cruise were made notable by rarely brilliant feats of seamanship
and calculated daring. The scene of action began off the coast of
Pernambuco, in which port Captain Green had learned that eight English
merchant vessels were making ready to sail. He took prize after prize
in these waters, until the English assembled several cruisers for the
express purpose of capturing the bold privateer. The frigates which
chased him were part of this squadron, and he not only eluded their
combined attempts, but continued to make captures almost in sight of
the enemy. His log shows that the pursuit, in which both the _Grand
Turk_ and the frigate were towed by their boats, and sweeps manned
for a night and a day was as thrilling and arduous a struggle as that
famous escape of the _Constitution_ from a powerful British squadron in
the same war. The two ships were within firing distance of each other
for hours on end, and after a second frigate joined in the hunt, the
_Grand Turk_ managed to keep her distance only by the most prodigious
pluck and skill.
The records of the Salem Marine Society contain the following compact
account of the most spectacular engagement of an illustrious fighting
privateersman of Salem:
“Capt. Benjamin Upton commanded the private armed brig _Montgomery_,
one hundred and sixty-five tons, armed with eighteen guns. While on a
cruise off Surinam, December 5, 1812, at 3 P. M., made a sail standing
northward, which proved to be a large English packet brig with troops.
She hauled up her courses and stood toward the _Montgomery_, which was
prepared to receive her at 7 P. M. After exchanging shots and wearing,
the _Montgomery_ ordered her to send a boat on board, which she refused
to do. Then commenced a terrible conflict. The _Montgomery_ delivered
her broadside, which was returned, and continued till 8 o’clock, when
her antagonist laid the _Montgomery_ aboard on the starboard waist, his
port anchor catching in after gun port, his spritsail yard and jib-boom
sweeping over the waist guns. In this situation the _Montgomery_ kept
up a fire of musketry and such guns as could be brought to bear, which
was returned with musketry by regular platoons of soldiers. In this
way the fight continued for fifty minutes. The _Montgomery_ finally
filled her foretopsail and parted from the enemy, breaking his anchor,
making a hole in the _Montgomery’s_ deck, breaking five stanchions and
staving ten feet of bulwark, with standing rigging much cut up. She
hauled off for repairs, having four men killed and twelve wounded,
among whom were Capt. Upton and Lieut. John Edwards of this society. It
was thought prudent to get north into cooler weather, on account of the
wounded. The enemy stood to the northward after a parting shot. On the
_Montgomery’s_ deck were found three boarding pikes, one musket and two
pots of combustible matter, intended to set fire to the _Montgomery_,
and which succeeded, but was finally extinguished. This was one of the
hardest contests of the war. The _Montgomery_ was afterwards commanded
by Capt. Jos. Strout, and captured by H. M. ship of the line, La Hoge,
and taken to Halifax. When Capt. Strout with his son, who was with
him, were going alongside of the ship in the launch, another son, a
prisoner on board, hailed the father and asked where mother was, which
would have comprised the whole family.”
By the end of the year 1813 the prizes captured by Salem privateers
had been sold for a total amount of more than six hundred thousand
dollars. Many of the finest old mansions of the Salem of to-day, great
square-sided homes of noble and generous aspect, were built in the
decade following the War of 1812, from prize money won by owners of
privateers. While ship owners risked and equipped their vessels for
profit in this stirring business of privateering, the spirit of the
town is to be sought more in such incidents as that of Doctor Bentley’s
ride to Marblehead on a gun carriage. The famous Salem parson was in
the middle of a sermon when Captain George Crowninshield appeared at a
window at the old East Church, and engaged in an agitated but subdued
conversation with Deacon James Brown, whose pew was nearest him. Doctor
Bentley’s sermon halted and he asked:
“Mr. Brown, is there any news?”
“The _Constitution_ has put into Marblehead with two British cruisers
after her, and is in danger of capture,” was the startling reply.
“This is a time for action,” shouted Doctor Bentley. “Let us go to do
what we can to save the _Constitution_, and may God be with us, Amen.”
At the head of his congregation the parson rushed down the aisle and
hurried toward Marblehead. The alarm had spread through the town, and
Captain Joseph Ropes had assembled the Sea Fencibles, a volunteer coast
guard two hundred strong. Doctor Bentley was their chaplain, and his
militant flock hoisted him on board the gun which they were dragging
with them, and thus he rode in state to Marblehead. Meantime, however,
Captain Joseph Perkins, keeper of the Baker Island Light, had put off
to the _Constitution_ in a small boat, and offering his services as
pilot, brought the frigate inside the harbor where she was safe from
pursuit by the _Endymion_ and the _Tenedos_.
The ill-fated duel between the _Chesapeake_ and the _Shannon_ was
fought off Boston harbor, and was witnessed by thousands of people from
Marblehead and Salem who crowded to the nearest headlands. They saw the
Chesapeake strike to the British frigate after a most desperate combat
in which Captain Lawrence was mortally hurt. The captured American ship
was taken to Halifax by the _Shannon_. Soon the news reached Salem
that the commander whose last words, “Don’t give up the Ship,” were
to win him immortality in defeat, was dead in a British port, and the
bronzed sea-dogs of the Salem Marine Society resolved to fetch his
body home in a manner befitting his end. Capt. George Crowninshield
obtained permission from the Government to sail with a flag of truce
for Halifax, and he equipped the brig _Henry_ for this sad and solemn
mission. Her crew was picked from among the shipmasters of Salem, some
of them privateering captains, every man of them a proven deep-water
commander, and thus manned the brig sailed for Halifax. It was such a
crew as never before or since took a vessel out of an American port.
They brought back to Salem the body of Capt. James Lawrence and Lieut.
Augustus Ludlow of the _Chesapeake_, and the brave old seaport saw
their funeral column pass through its quiet and crowded streets. The
pall-bearers bore names, some of which thrill American hearts to-day;
Hull, Stuart, Bainbridge, Blakely, Creighton and Parker, all captains
of the Navy. A Salem newspaper thus describes the ceremonies:
“The day was unclouded, as if no incident should be wanting to crown
the mind with melancholy and woe—the wind blew from the same direction
and the sea presented the same unruffled surface as was exhibited
to our anxious view when on the memorable first day of July, we saw
the immortal Lawrence proudly conducting his ship to action.... The
brig _Henry_, containing the precious relics, clad in sable, lay at
anchor in the harbor. At half-past twelve o’clock they were placed in
barges, and, preceded by a long procession of boats filled with seamen
uniformed in blue jackets and trousers, with a blue ribbon on their
hats bearing the motto of “Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights,” were rowed
by minute-strokes to the end of India Wharf, where the bearers were
ready to receive the honored dead. From the time the boats left the
brig until the bodies were landed, the United States brig _Rattlesnake_
and the brig _Henry_ alternately fired minute guns.
“The immense concourse of citizens which covered the wharves, stores
and house tops to view the boats, the profound silence which pervaded
the atmosphere, broken only by the reverberations of the minute-guns,
rendered this part of the solemnities peculiarly grand and impressive.
“Conspicuous in the procession and in the church were a large number
of naval and military officers, also the Salem Marine and East
India Marine Societies, wearing badges, with the Masonic and other
organizations.
“On arriving at the Meeting house, the coffins were placed in the
center of the church by the seamen who rowed them ashore, and who stood
during the ceremony leaning upon them in an attitude of mourning. The
church was decorated with cypress and evergreen, and the names of
Lawrence and Ludlow appeared in gilded letters in front of the pulpit.
The remains of Lawrence rested in the Salem burying ground until 1849
when they were removed to New York, where in the churchyard of Old
Trinity, his monument bears the line that can never die:
“DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP.”
FOOTNOTES:
[43] See Chapter XVIII.