PRIVATEERS.
Character and daring of our Privateers -- Skill of American
seamen -- Acts of Congress relative to privateering -- Names
of ships -- Gallant action of the "Nonsuch" -- Success of
the Dolphin -- Cruise of the Comet -- Narrow escape of the
"Governor Tompkins" -- Desperate action of the Globe with
two brigs -- The Decatur takes a British sloop of war --
Action of the Neufchatel with the crew of the Endymion --
Desperate defence of Captain Reed against the crews of a
British squadron -- The Chasseur captures a British schooner
of war -- Character of the commanders of privateers --
Anecdote.
Notwithstanding the navy won such laurels during the war, the chief
damage done to British commerce was inflicted by our privateers. A
history of that period is therefore incomplete without a record of
their acts. Nothing ever brought out the daring seamanship, skill,
fertility of resource and stubborn bravery, so characteristic of our
sailors, as the management of those private armed vessels. Scarcely
was war declared before they began to shoot one after another from
out our ports, and disappeared in the distant horizon. Trade being
prostrated, merchants fitted up their idle ships with picked crews and
skillful commanders, and sent them forth to vex the enemy's commerce.
Our vessels at that time, as now, being swifter sailers than the
English, these bold rovers asked only an open sea and a gale of wind
to outstrip their pursuers, or overtake those in flight. Their sails
were seen skirting the horizon in every direction--now saucily looking
into the enemy's ports to see what was going on there, and again
sweeping boldly through the English channels. They seemed
ubiquitous--every pathway of commerce was familiar to them, and they
passed from sea to sea, appearing and disappearing with a suddenness
and celerity that baffled pursuit. Sometimes one of these light armed
vessels would slyly hover about a whole fleet of merchantmen, convoyed
by a stately frigate, under whose guns they clustered for protection,
until a favorable opportunity occurred, when she would suddenly dash
into their midst like a hawk into a brood of chickens, and seizing
one, man her and be off before the frigate could sufficiently recover
from its astonishment at such audacity to attempt pursuit. It
sometimes occurred that she would find herself alongside a frigate
which she had mistaken for a large merchantman, when a seamanship and
coolness would be exhibited in the effort to get clear, seldom
witnessed in the oldest naval commanders. If unable to escape she
would gallantly set her colors and fight a hopeless, yet one of the
most desperate battles that occur in maritime warfare. The way in
which these ships were handled, the daring manner they were carried
into action, and the desperation with which they were fought
astonished the English, who had never witnessed any thing like it on
the sea. Sweeping waters covered with British cruisers, with scarcely
a safe neutral port to enter in case of distress--shut out from their
own harbors by blockade, they were compelled to exercise the most
unceasing watchfulness, and keep in a state of constant preparation.
It was a gallant sight to witness one of these little cruisers,
apparently surrounded by an enemy's squadron, and yet dashing through
its midst, fly away before the wind, while the water around was driven
into foam by the shot that sped after her. Their conduct and success
throughout the war, revealed the vast resources at the command of our
navy. We have only to build ships, not educate sailors. Our commerce
pierces to every clime, and our fisheries extend beyond the Arctic
Circle; and, hardened by exposure and taught by experience and perils,
our sailors are thoroughly trained in all the duties of their calling.
Crews that the commanders of men-of-war might well be proud of, are
at this moment afloat in every part of the world. On mere call we
could man the navies of Europe with well instructed men. One great
difficulty with the French navy is, that during war she has no where
to go for recruits. Her sailors require a long training, while ours
have been trained from boyhood.
Privateering has been denounced as unworthy of civilized nations, but
if the object of maritime warfare be to destroy the enemy's commerce,
it is difficult to see why a private armed vessel should not be
commissioned to do it as well as a national one. If it be plundering
private property on the high seas, so is the capture of merchantmen by
men-of-war. The sailors in both are stimulated by the same motives,
viz., prize money. If maritime war was to be carried on between
national vessels alone, and commerce be left untouched, there would be
little use for a navy. Ports are blockaded to injure commerce and
weaken the resources of the enemy; so are fleets of merchantmen
captured, supplies cut off and nations distressed for the same
purpose. And if this is to be done, it seems hardly worth quarrelling
about who shall do it.
Our fleet was so small at the commencement of the war, that the
balance of injury and loss would have been heavy against us, but for
our privateers. Our large vessels were soon blockaded in port, and the
contest on the seas was for some time almost wholly carried on by
privateers, and of the more than two thousand vessels captured during
its progress, the greater part was taken by them. A single privateer
would slip through a blockading squadron, stand out to sea, and in a
few weeks destroy vessels and seize property to the amount of
millions. At one time they cruised so daringly in the English waters,
that sixty dollars was paid in England to insure five hundred across
the Irish Channel. Some of them fought British national vessels and
captured them, while it scarcely ever happened that an American
privateer struck to an English vessel, when there was any
approximation to an equality of force. Of the twenty-three naval
engagements during the war, where either one or both were national
vessels, the Americans were victorious in seventeen. A similar success
marked the contests of private armed vessels.
In 1800, the act regulating privateers gave to them the entire prize
captured, but in March, 1812, another act was passed appropriating two
per cent. to collectors, to be used as a fund for the support of the
widows and orphans of those who fell in combat. This was afterwards
modified so as to allow the disabled the benefit of the fund. On the
19th of July the act Was amended, and two per cent. placed in the
hands of the Secretary of the Treasury, and privateersmen put on the
pension list with the navy. A few days after a bill passed the House,
allowing twenty-five dollars bounty for every prisoner taken. This was
increased the next session to one hundred dollars.
[Sidenote: Aug. 2.]
The success attending our privateersmen, and the injury they inflicted
on the enemy, gave them such a prominence in the country, that
Congress increased as far as possible the inducements to fit out
letters of marque, and in 1814 reduced the legal duties on goods
captured by privateers thirty-three and a third per cent., and
afterwards withdrew all claim of the government to prizes and their
cargoes.
Privateersmen had earned all these privileges for themselves by their
activity, adroitness, and bravery; they had become the terror of the
British commerce, and while England, proud of her naval strength, was
blockading our entire coast, they were sweeping down upon her
merchantmen in the chops of her own channels.
The names of many of these vessels were very characteristic of the
American sailor. "Catch me if you can," "True blooded Yankee," "Right
of Search," "Bunker Hill," "Viper," "Rattlesnake," "Scourge," "Spit
Fire," and "Teazer," exhibited not only the spirit that animated the
commanders, but were well calculated to irritate and enrage the
officers of English vessels of war, especially as their conduct
corresponded so well with the titles they bore.
In September, about three months after the war was declared, the
"Nonsuch" privateer, of Baltimore, carrying only twelve pound
carronades and eighty or ninety men, while cruising off Cape Vincent,
fell in with an English ship carrying sixteen 18 and 24 pound
carronades and two hundred men, and a schooner with six four pounders
and 60 men. Notwithstanding this overwhelming disparity of force, the
privateer determined to uphold the name she bore, and setting American
colors bore gallantly down on the ship. Ranging up within close musket
shot, she poured in her broadsides and volleys of musketry for three
hours and a half, and maintained the unequal contest till her guns
were all disabled and only musketry could be used. The vessels instead
of taking advantage of the crippled condition of the ship, to capture
her, were so amazed at her audacity and the desperate manner in which
she was fought, that they turned and fled. The Nonsuch lost
twenty-three killed and wounded in this engagement.
Not long after, in the same waters, the Dolphin, of Baltimore, with
only ten guns and sixty men, attacked at the same time a ship of
sixteen guns and forty men, and a brig of 10 guns and twenty-five men,
and captured them both.
In December of this year the privateer Comet, fourteen guns, started
on a cruise southward, and on the 14th of January gave chase to four
sail, which were afterwards ascertained to be three English
merchantmen, one carrying fourteen and the other two, ten guns,
convoyed by a Portuguese brig-of-war mounting twenty thirty-twos, and
having a crew of one hundred and sixty-five men. The privateer hailed
the Portuguese, when the latter sent a boat aboard with her commander.
In the conversation that followed, Captain Boyle, of the privateer,
declared he should take those merchantmen if he could. The Portuguese
commander replied, he must prevent him, though he should be sorry to
have any thing disagreeable happen. The American reciprocated his good
wishes, but told him he was afraid something unpleasant might occur if
he undertook to interfere with his proceedings.
It was dark when the Portuguese captain withdrew, and the Comet
immediately crowded sail for the merchantmen, followed closely by the
brig of war. Coming up with them, Captain Boyle began to pour in his
broadsides. The vessels keeping heavy head way, firing as their guns
bore, he was compelled to fight under a cloud of canvass. Now shooting
ahead, he would tack, and come down on the enemy in a blaze of fire.
But with every broadside, the Portuguese poured in his own. Captain
Boyle, intent on capturing the English vessels, paid no attention to
the latter, except occasionally to give him a passing salute. At
length he compelled every vessel to strike, and succeeded in taking
possession of and manning one. But the moon having gone down, and dark
clouds, indicating squalls, rising over the heavens, the vessels got
separated, except the privateer and man-of-war, which kept exchanging
occasional broadsides till two in the morning. By daylight all
succeeded in getting off, though dreadfully cut up, with the exception
of the one manned the night before, which was safely brought into port
through the squadron blockading the Chesapeake. This bold marauder
afterwards engaged a ship of eight hundred tons burthen and carrying
twenty-two guns, and maintained the contest for eight hours before he
could be beaten off.
The Governor Tompkins was another daring and successful cruiser,
inflicting heavy damages on the English commerce. Her log book would
read like a romance. [Sidenote: Jan. 1, 1813.] One morning as the sun
rose over the sea, Captain Shaler saw in the distance three vessels
and immediately gave chase. The wind was light and he approached
slowly, examining the strangers narrowly. One of them appeared to be a
large transport, so heavy that he was questioning the propriety of
attacking her, especially as the other two were evidently determined
to stand by her. Boats were rapidly passing to and fro, filled with
men, and though the large vessel lay to, quietly waiting the approach
of the privateer, she had studding-sail booms out as if prepared for a
running fight. Her conduct looked suspicious, and while the captain of
the Tompkins was deliberating whether to engage or haul off, a sudden
squall struck his vessel carrying her directly under the guns of the
stranger, which to his amazement he discovered to be a frigate. He had
English colors flying, but instead of endeavoring with them to deceive
the enemy till he could claw off, he hauled them down, and setting
three American ensigns, poured a broadside into the man-of-war. The
latter returned it with stunning effect, his balls crashing through
the timbers, blowing up cartridges, tube boxes, etc., and strewing the
quarter-deck with ruin. The Tompkins not daring to tack in the squall,
kept on before the wind, passing the frigate and receiving its fire as
she flew on. The frigate pursued, and sailing nearly as fast as the
privateer, for a time made the water foam about him. But the latter by
throwing over shot, lumber, etc., gradually drew ahead, and the wind
dying away, Captain Boyle, with the aid of sweeps, got at dark beyond
reach of the shot.
About the same time the Globe had a desperate engagement off Madeira
with two brigs, one of eighteen and the other of sixteen guns,
compelling one to strike, though she afterwards made her escape.
In August of this year, a gallant action was fought between the
privateer Decatur, Capt. Diron, and a war schooner of the British
navy. The Decatur had six twelve-pound carronades and one
eighteen-pounder, and mustered 103 men. The schooner was thoroughly
appointed, carrying _twelve twelve-pound carronades_, two long sixes,
a brass four, a _thirty-two pound carronade_ and eighty-eight men.
She, therefore, had but fifteen men less than her antagonist, while
she threw more than twice the weight of metal. But, notwithstanding
this overwhelming superiority of force, and though a packet
accompanied the schooner whose conduct in the engagement could not be
foretold, Captain Diron hoisted American colors to the peak, and
closed at once and fiercely with the enemy. He knew from the outset
that in a broadside to broadside engagement the Dominica, from her
great superiority in metal, would soon sink him, and he determined to
board her. The latter detected his purpose and bore away, pouring in
her broadsides. Both commanders exhibited great skill in manoeuvering
their ships; one to board, the other to foil the attempt. The schooner
succeeded in firing three broadsides before the privateer could close.
Captain Diron, who had previously got up all the ammunition, etc.
which he wanted from below, and fastened down the hatches, the moment
he saw from his course that the schooner could not avoid a collision,
ordered the drums to beat the charge. Loud cheers followed, and the
next moment the two vessels came together with a crash, the jib-boom
of the Decatur piercing the main-sail of the enemy. In an instant they
were lashed together. The fire from the artillery and musketry at this
time was terrible. In the midst of it the crew of the Decatur sprang
with shouts on the enemy's decks, when it became a hand-to-hand fight
with pistols and cutlasses. The crew of the latter fought desperately,
but at length, every officer being killed or wounded, with the
exception of one midshipman and the surgeon, and only twenty-eight out
of the eighty-eight left standing, the colors were hauled down. The
combat, which lasted an hour, was one of the most bloody, in
proportion to the number engaged, that occurred during the war.
[Sidenote: 1814.]
The privateer Neufchatel was another lucky ship. Once getting becalmed
off Gray Head, within sight of the Endymion, she was attacked by the
boats and launches of the latter containing over a hundred men. The
Neufchatel carried 17 guns, but had at the time of the attack only
thirty-three men and officers included. Although it was dark the
captain observed the approach of the boats, five in number, and opened
his fire upon them. They, however, steadily advanced till they reached
the ship, when they attempted to board on bows, sides, and stern
simultaneously.
The action lasted twenty minutes, when one boat having sunk, another
being emptied of its crew, and the others drifting away, apparently
without men, the firing ceased. At its close the privateer found on
her deck more prisoners than she had men in the combat. But few of the
assailants ever reached the frigate again.
[Sidenote: Nov. 24.]
In November of this year the Kemp privateer sailed out of Wilmington
and two days after was attacked by a fleet of six small vessels,
carrying in all forty-six guns and a hundred and thirty-four men.
Enveloped in the fire of six vessels this gallant privateer maintained
the unequal combat for half an hour, and finally succeeded in
scattering them, when she fell on them in detail and carried three by
boarding. She then ranged alongside the largest brig and poured in her
broadsides and volleys of musketry. In fifteen minutes the latter
struck. In an hour and a half the whole were taken, but while the
prizes were being secured two hoisted sail and got away. The other
four were secured and brought into port, the result of a six days'
cruise.
[Sidenote: 1814.]
But the most desperate engagement probably during the war took place
this year, between the privateer brig, General Armstrong, and the
crews of an English squadron in the port of Fayal. This brig,
carrying only seven guns and ninety men, entered that port to obtain
water, and her commander, Captain Reid, seeing no sail on the horizon,
dropped his anchor. A few hours after, the British brig Carnation came
in and anchored near her. Soon after the Plantaganet, 74, and the Rota
frigate arrived. Captain Reid, knowing how little regard English
officers paid to the laws of neutrality, became very solicitous about
the safety of his ship, and applied to the authorities of the place to
know what course he should pursue. They told him he need entertain no
fear, as the English officers knew the rights of a neutral port too
well to molest him. Captain Reid, however, suspected it would be
otherwise, and kept a close watch on the movements of the enemy. About
nine o'clock in the evening, it being broad moonlight on the bay and
not a breath of air breaking its glittering surface, he saw four boats
rowing rapidly and silently towards him. When they came within hail he
called out to know their purpose. The latter making no reply and
keeping steadily on, he bade them stand off. They paid no heed to his
repeated orders, and were about to board when he gave the command to
fire. After a short but fierce contest the assailants were driven off
and returned to their vessels. The news soon spread, and the
inhabitants with the governor gathered on the shore to see the battle.
About midnight fourteen launches, filled with four hundred men, were
seen to put off and steer straight for the privateer. Captain Reid,
who, in the mean time, had cut his cable and moored close in shore,
knew he could not save his vessel; but indignant at this violation of
the laws of neutrality he determined the enemy should pay dear for the
conquest, and the moment the boats came within range opened a
tremendous fire upon them. They staggered under it, but returning it
with spirit continued to press on. But as they got nearer, the carnage
became awful. Every gun on board that privateer seemed aimed with the
precision of a rifle, and the discharges were so rapid and incessant
that it was with the utmost efforts the boats could be pushed on at
all. The dead cumbered the living, and the oars were continually
dropping from the hands of the slain, crippling and confusing all the
movements. At length, however, they succeeded in reaching the brig,
and cheered on by their officers, shouting "no quarter," began to
ascend the sides of the ship. In a moment its black hull was a sheet
of flame rolling on the foe.
Shrieks and cries, mingled with oaths and execrations, and sharp
volleys of musketry rang out on the night air, turning that moonlight
bay into a scene of indescribable terror. The bright waters were
loaded with black forms, as they floated or struggled around the
boats. The Americans fought with the ferocity of tigers and the
desperation of mad men. Leaping into the boats they literally
massacred all within. Several drifted ashore full of dead bodies--not
a soul being left alive of all the crew--others were sunk. Some were
left with one or two to row them. Overwhelmed, crushed and
discomfitted, the remainder abandoned the attempt and pulled slowly
back to the ships, marking their course by the groans and cries of the
wounded that floated back over the bay. Only three officers, out of
the whole, escaped, while scarce a hundred and fifty of the four
hundred returned unwounded to their vessels. A hundred and twenty were
killed outright. The loss could scarcely have been greater had the
enemy fought a squadron equal to their own.
Our Consul, after this, dropped a note to the Governor, who
immediately sent a remonstrance to Van Lloyd, commander of the
Plantagenet, saying that the American vessel was under the guns of the
castle and entitled to Portuguese protection. To this Van Lloyd
replied, that he was resolved on the destruction of the vessel, and if
the fort undertook to protect her, he would not leave a house standing
on shore.
The next day the Carnation hauled in alongside and opened her
broadsides on the privateer. Reid, still grimly clinging to his
vessel, returned the fire, and in a short time so cut up his
antagonist that he hauled off to repair. That little brig, half a
wreck, lying under the walls of the castle fighting that hopeless
gallant battle, vindicating her rights against such fearful odds, with
none who dare help her, presented a sublime spectacle.
At length his guns being dismounted, Captain Reid ordered his men to
cut away the masts of the ship, blow a hole through her bottom, and
taking out their arms and clothing, go ashore. Soon after the British
advanced and set her on fire. Van Lloyd then made a demand on the
Governor for Captain Reid and his crew, threatening in case of refusal
to send an armed force and take them. Fearing that the Governor would
not be able to prevent their arrest, this gallant band retired to an
old convent, knocked away the drawbridge, determined to defend
themselves to the last. The English commander had no desire to place
his crews again under the deadly aim of those daring men, and
abandoned the project.
The American loss in this engagement was only two killed and seven
wounded. Thus dearly did England pay for this violation of the laws of
a neutral port. That brig, cruising successfully to the close of the
war, could not have inflicted so heavy damage on the enemy as she
caused in her capture.
The gallant bearing and patriotic feeling that marked these little
cruisers are worthy of record, while the hair-breadth escapes--the
tricks employed to entice merchantmen within their reach--the wit and
humor exhibited in hailing and answering the hails of vessels--the
saucy and irritating acts committed on purpose to provoke--the
good-natured jokes they cracked on those they had first outwitted,
then conquered, would make a most characteristic and amusing chapter
in American history.
Captain Boyle, of the Chasseur, took great delight in provoking
frigates to chase him, and when they abandoned the pursuit as
hopeless, he would affect to chase in turn, teazing and insulting his
formidable adversaries, who tried in vain to cut some spar out of the
winged thing in order to lessen her fleetness. Cruising along the
English coast, this vessel had some very narrow escapes. While here
the captain overhauled a cartel, and sent by it a proclamation with
orders to have it stuck up in Lloyd's coffee house, declaring the
whole British Empire in a state of blockade, and that he considered
the force under him sufficient to maintain it.
This was probably one of the finest private armed vessels afloat
during the war. Buoyant as a sea-gull, she sat so lightly and
gracefully on the water, that it seemed as if she might, at will, rise
and fly. Fleet as the wind, she was handled with such ease that the
enemy gazed on her movements with admiration.
[Sidenote: Feb. 26, 1815.]
Her last exploit was the capture of his majesty's schooner St.
Lawrence, carrying fifteen guns. The latter was on her way to New
Orleans, with some soldiers, marines, and gentlemen of the navy as
passengers. The Chasseur had only six twelve-pounders and eight short
nine pound carronades, having been compelled a short time before, when
hard pressed by an English frigate, to throw over nearly all her
twelve pound carronades. Captain Boyle had no suspicion of the true
character of the vessel when he gave chase, for her ports had been
closed on purpose to deceive him. He therefore stood boldly on till he
got within pistol-shot, when the schooner suddenly opened ten ports on
a side and poured in a destructive fire. At the same time the men who
had been concealed under the bulwarks leaped up and delivered a volley
of musketry. Captain Boyle, discovering what a trap he had been
beguiled into, determined at once to stay in it, and ranging alongside
within ten yards, opened a tremendous fire with his batteries and
musketry. The vessels were so near each other that the voices of
officers and men could be distinctly heard, even amid the crashing
cannonade. That little privateer exhibited a skill and practice in
gunnery unsurpassed by any frigate, and superior to any vessel in the
English navy. The enemy was completely stunned by the rapidity and
destructive effect of her fire, and in eleven minutes was a perfect
wreck. Captain Boyle then gave the command to board, when the flag was
struck. In this short space of time the Chasseur had strewed the deck
of that schooner with nearly half of her crew, killed and wounded.
Our privateers had greatly the advantage of the English, not only in
artillery but in musketry--our men firing with much surer aim than
theirs.
It would be impossible to give the names and details of all the
vessels and their engagements; but, independent of the vast number of
merchantmen captured by them, they took eight national vessels of the
enemy, in single combat. They seemed to vie with each other in daring
and the venturous exploits they would undertake. One of these vessels
would shoot out of port within sight of a blockading squadron, start
alone on a cruise, and scouring thirty or forty thousand miles of the
ocean, return with a fleet of prizes. The commanders were almost,
invariably humane men, treating their prisoners with vastly more
kindness than British admirals and commodores did those Americans who
fell in their hands. Many acts of kindness and generosity were
performed, and a nobleness of spirit exhibited towards a fallen foe,
which has ever been, and it is to be hoped ever will be, a
distinguished trait in the American character. On one occasion a
privateer captured in the channel a Welch vessel from Cardigan,
freighted with corn. As the captain went on board he saw a small box
with a hole in the top, in the cabin, marked "Missionary box." "What
is this?" said he, touching it with a stick. "Oh," replied the
Cambrian, "the truth is, my poor fellows here have been accustomed
every Monday morning to drop a penny each into that box, for the
purpose of sending out missionaries to preach the gospel to the
heathen; but it's all over now." "Indeed," said the captain, and
reflecting a moment, he added, "Captain, I'll not hurt a hair of your
head nor touch your vessel," and immediately returned to his own ship,
leaving him unmolested.
Such conduct appears the more striking when contrasted with that of
British officers. The murder of Mr. Sigourney, of the Alp, whose
brains were beaten out; though when his vessel was taken possession of
not a soul but himself was found on board--the confinement of Capt.
Upton and his officers of the privateer Hunter, for three months in a
filthy prison, and their after transfer to a prison ship--the cruelty
shown to Capt. Nichols, who, after enjoying his parole for two months,
was without the least reason thrown into a prison-ship and kept for
more than a month in a room four feet by seven, and many other cases
of extreme cruelty, were well known, for the facts had been sworn to
and placed on record as state papers. Rumor aggravated all these a
hundred fold, yet the English government can offset them with no
retaliatory acts substantiated before courts of inquiry.