THE PRIVATEERS OF 1812
PROPERTY AFLOAT AS A PLEDGE OF PEACE--FOREIGN AGGRESSION HAD TAUGHT
THE AMERICANS HOW TO BUILD AND SAIL SWIFT CRUISERS--ODD NAMES--THE
FIRST PRIZES--COMMODORE JOSHUA BARNEY AND THE _ROSSIE_--A FAMOUS
CRUISE--SOME RICH PRIZES WERE CAPTURED, BUT ONLY A FEW OF THE
PRIVATEERS MADE MONEY--BEAT OFF A WAR-SHIP THAT THREW SIX TIMES HER
WEIGHT OF METAL--A BATTLE IN SIGHT OF LA GUIRA.
Among the people of every civilized nation the possession of property
by an individual is, as has often been noted, a pledge of good
citizenship. His selfish interest in his property, bluntly speaking,
tends to make him behave himself becomingly. And one does not have
to study the stories of history very long to see that the same rule
applies in a way to nations. The possession of property liable to be
lost through war is a pledge of peace on the part of the nation owning
it. And of all such property there is none that makes a stronger
pledge of peace than the over-sea ship with its cargo. In these last
days of the nineteenth century, writers a-plenty have been found who,
forgetting or failing to see this fact, have urged that the United
States should agree with other nations that in case of war the private
property afloat belonging to the enemy should be exempted from capture
and destruction. They have urged that the nations who send ships to sea
be exempted from this pledge of peace. Or, to put the matter in another
way, they have urged the American people to declare to the aggressive
nations of the earth:
“If you wish to go to war with us we will promise you, as an inducement
to you to do so, that we will not harm your private property afloat.”
One has only to state the proposition clearly to show its absurdity.
The doctrines of the Prince of Peace are never so beautiful as when
they are in accord with one’s business interests--we are never so
horrified by the wickedness of war as when we consider the destruction
it would bring upon our property! Can we, indeed, view with complacency
the proposition to sink a ship with five hundred unprepared souls by
means of a torpedo, and yet shrink from the thought of preserving peace
by the threat of capturing and destroying all of the property of an
enemy that is found afloat after war is declared?
It is interesting to an American to observe that of all peoples of
the earth the British are the most urgent in their desire that the
nations shall agree to do away with this pledge of peace--the English,
who are dependent upon over-sea commerce for their bread, who have
greater interests on the high seas than any other people, and who are
the most aggressive of all people in grasping the territories of the
earth. It is interesting to an American because this British wish is
a tradition growing out of the damage done by American privateers to
British commerce in the wars for American independence and recognition
as a nation. As was said of the privateers of the first war, a full
volume would be needed to adequately describe all of the doings of
these “militia of the sea,” but space must be given here to a number
of actions fought by the privateers, not only because they were most
brilliant, but because they illustrate the character of the American
sailor of those days.
[Illustration: Ship’s Papers of the _William Bayard_ in 1810, signed by
Napoleon.
_From the original at the Naval Institute, Annapolis._]
No nation was ever as well fitted for a militia contest afloat as was
the American in June, 1812. For years her merchants had been harassed
by the oppressive legislation of England and France. The American
ship that went to sea, no matter what her cargo or destination, was
in danger from the cruisers of both nations at once. Even though her
voyage was one that must meet the approval of the European courts in
Admiralty, the ship was liable to be seized and carried into port until
a judge could pass upon the charge brought by her captors that she was
violating some law; and so her voyage would be ruined by delay. But
freight rates were high. To deliver one cargo was to pay for the ship,
and more too, in profits. The American merchants were enterprising and
willing to take risks. And so vessels were built for the trade, brigs
and schooners that for that day were marvels of speed. Their enormous
spars spread a cloud of canvas so great that as one drove along before
a smart gale the long, lean, deep-keeled hull was all but wholly hidden
from view--the canvass looked like a fog-cloud drifting swiftly over
sea. Better still was their pace when beating to windward, for with
yards sharp up and sails down flat, only the crack ships of the enemy
could keep them in sight for a day, and few, indeed, could overhaul
them. With these over-sparred ships the Yankee sailors were entirely
familiar. They carried enormous crews, and the men were proud of their
ships and of their own ability to make or take in sail.
When war was declared, there were a number of these in each of the
American ports. There were pilot-boats, also, built to race with each
other, blow high or blow low. The merchants had seen that war would
come. They had placed orders for more guns with the foundry, and
for more ammunition with the makers. They had laid in muskets and
cutlasses and provisions and spare sails. There was little if any
need for altering the sides of the ships--for piercing the bulwarks
with ports--for that was the day of West India pirates, and all ships
carried some guns; but amidships in most of them additional stanchions
were placed to brace the deck, and there the Long Tom of song and story
was mounted--the long, thick-breeched gun that would stand a heavy
charge of powder and throw a round ball, weighing sometimes as high as
thirty-two pounds, a mile and more, with but moderate elevation of the
muzzle.
The small pilot-boats carried anything they could stand under, or
get--a long-nine, with a few swivels and a crew of fifty or sixty men
who carried muskets and knew how to use them would do. If the men were
all seamen as well as good shots, so much the better, but if not, no
matter. The landsman who could see through the sights of a musket was
by no means refused. He was welcomed and called a marine. The haymaker
accustomed to a pitchfork was just the man to handle a boarding-pike.
And so the crews were quickly filled, and then it was up anchor and
away to sea for revenge, lawful plunder, and glory. Let the reader make
no mistake about the objects in view when they went to sea. The old
sailors were going to repay the scars of the British cat and press-gang
manacles that many of them wore; they were going for lawful prizes,
and they were inspired by the thought that they were to fight for the
honor of “the gridiron flag.” The very bravest fights of the whole
war--fights in which the Americans unquestionably won through superior
pluck--were the fights made by the crews like that of the _General
Armstrong_ and other American privateers.
That the owners of these privateers had something in mind besides
the gaining of wealth will appear at a glance over the list of names
of these privateers, of which 250 were commissioned during the war.
There were three named _Revenge_, one _Retaliation_, one _Orders in
Council_, one _Right of Search_, one _Rattlesnake_, one _Poor Sailor_,
one _Patriot_, one _Teaser_, one _Thrasher_, one _United We Stand_,
one _Divided We Fall_, one _Scourge_, one _Liberty_, one _True-Blooded
Yankee_, one _Castigator_, and so on. And there were others with names
significant in still other directions--the _Black Joke_, the _Frolic_,
and the _Flirt_, for instance; or the _Saratoga_, the _Yorktown_, the
_John Paul Jones_, the _Macedonian_, and the _Guerrière_.
The Congress declared, on June 18, 1812, that war existed between the
United States and England. How soon thereafter the first privateer got
away to sea is not recorded, but they were not far behind the squadron
of Commodore Rodgers, which sailed the day the news of the declaration
of war reached New York. The very first vessel captured in the war
was a ship bound from Jamaica to London, that was taken south of the
capes of the Chesapeake by a revenue cutter, but the first privateer
to bring in a prize was the schooner _Fame_, of Salem, Captain Webb,
that arrived home on July 9th, bringing with her a ship of nearly 300
tons, laden with square timber, and a brig of 200 tons, laden with tar.
The ship was armed with two four-pounders, but the _Fame_ swept up
alongside and carried her by boarding without the loss of a man.
On the next day after the arrival of the _Fame_, the schooner _Dash_,
of Baltimore, Captain Carroway, captured the first British vessel of
war taken--the schooner _Whiting_, Lieutenant Macey--which was lying in
Hampton Roads, Chesapeake Bay. Macey had not heard of the war, and the
_Dash_ took him unawares, and so without resistance.
From that time on the work of the privateers was driven with
astonishing vigor. By July 16th there were sixty-five of these
volunteers on the high sea, and almost every day one or another was
returning with a prize. The report of a fight with a British man-of-war
was not, naturally, long in reaching port. The _Dolphin_, Captain
Endicott, and the _Polly_, Captain Handy, both of Salem, Massachusetts,
were cruising to the eastward in the region to which Washington had
sent his first cruisers in 1775. On July 14, 1812, these two fell in
with a ship and a brig, which they supposed to be merchantmen, and
made sail for the ship, because she was the larger. On arriving almost
within gunshot, however, they saw she was a sloop-of-war, the _Indian_,
of twenty-two guns. Thereat they fled, with the _Indian_, blossoming
studding-sails, in pursuit of the _Polly_, and firing long bow-chasers
in the vain hope of reaching her. Eventually the breeze failed so far
that the _Indian_ manned her launch and a number of smaller boats, with
a four-pounder in the launch. These quickly came within musket shot,
and with three cheers made a brave dash at the Yankee. To this the
_Polly_ replied with muskets and with several of her broadside guns
loaded with langrage--langrage being a polite name for scrap-iron. The
launch was compelled to strike her colors, while the other boats made
haste back to the _Indian_. However, the launch was not captured, for
the _Indian_ had been drifting slowly within range, and the _Polly_ had
to take to her sweeps to escape. The attacking party numbered forty.
[Illustration: Battle between the Schooner _Atlas_ and two British
Ships, August 5, 1812.
_From a lithograph in Coggeshall’s “Privateers.”_]
Meantime the stanch privateer _Madison_, Captain Elwell, of Gloucester,
had happened along where the brig was lying-to, waiting for the return
of the _Indian_, and the brig was captured. She proved to be the
transport _Number 50_, a vessel of 290 tons, loaded with army supplies,
including 100 barrels of powder, 880 uniforms for the 104th British
Regiment, bales of fine cloth for officers’ wear, camp equipage, etc.,
in all valued at $50,000.
Within a few days the _Madison_, although armed with but one long
gun, captured a ship armed with twelve guns, and sent her into port,
and later still, the brig _Eliza_, of six guns. The _Teaser_, of
New York, Captain Dobson, had the luck to fall in with the American
ship _Margaret_, that had been captured by the British, She was sent
to Portland, where she and her cargo of “salt, earthenware, and
ironmongery” were valued at $50,000. In short, the privateers were
making light work of the coasters that flocked between the ports of the
British possessions at the north.
But the most interesting cruise of all that were made in the early
days of the war was that of Commodore Joshua Barney in the Baltimore
clipper-schooner _Rossie_, of fourteen guns and 120 men. The reader
will remember Barney. He was made a lieutenant in the American navy
on July 2, 1776, although then but seventeen years old. He was in
the _Andrea Doria_ when she whipped the _Racehorse_, and he commanded
the Pennsylvania cruiser _Hyder Ali_ when she met the _General Monk_,
of vastly superior force, and whipped her so badly that the British
historians never recover sufficiently from the shock the story gives
them to explain their conflicting statements about the battle.
When war was declared in June, 1812, Barney began fitting out the
schooner _Rossie_ at Baltimore; on July 12th he sailed away, and from
the time he cleared the capes of the Chesapeake he had such lively
times as must have reminded him forcibly of revolutionary days. On
July 22d he captured the American brig _Nymph_, that was violating the
non-importation act. The next day he successfully dodged a British
frigate that fired twenty-five shots at him. On July 30th he escaped
another British frigate by superior sailing. On July 31st he captured
the British ship _Princess Royal_, and burned her. Next day the ship
_Kitty_ became his prize, and was found worth sending in. The day after
this, August 2d, he captured four different vessels--the schooner
_Squid_, the brigs _Fame_, _Devonshire_, and _Two Brothers_. On the
last of these he placed sixty of his prisoners, and sent her as a
cartel to St. John, New Brunswick, but while still sailing along in
company with the _Two Brothers_, on August 3d, he fell in with and
captured the brigs _Henry_ and _William_ and the schooners _Racehorse_
and _Halifax_, and so added forty more prisoners to those on the _Two
Brothers_. The brig _Henry_ and the two schooners were sunk as not
worth sending to port, while the _William_ was sent to port. He had
taken eight vessels in two days.
With the cartel _Two Brothers_, that he sent to St. John, he despatched
a letter to Admiral Sawyer, commanding the Halifax Station, in which he
asked the admiral “to treat the prisoners well, and assured him very
coolly that he should soon send him another ship-load of captives for
exchange.”
Six days later (August 9th) he had a brush with the British ship
_Jenny_, of twelve guns, but she soon surrendered to his superior
force. Then he captured two more American ships that were violating
the non-importation law, and after forty-five days from the day he
left Baltimore he anchored at Newport, Rhode Island. He had captured
fourteen vessels, aggregating 2,914 tons in measurement, and one
hundred and sixty-six prisoners, the whole value of prizes and cargoes
being $1,289,000. Five only of the prizes were sent to port.
After resting in port until September 7th the Commodore sailed again.
On the 9th a British squadron of three ships vainly tried to overhaul
him, and on the 12th a British frigate chased him for six hours, and
then gave it up. On the 16th the _Rossie_ fell in with the British
ship _Princess Amelia_, an armed trader, and for an hour there was a
steady combat. The _Rossie_ was badly cut up in sails and rigging,
but her hull and spars escaped. She had seven men hurt--one severely.
The _Princess_ was badly cut alow and aloft, and had her captain, her
sailing-master, and a seaman killed, and seven wounded before she
surrendered.
On this same day the _Rossie_ fell in with three ships, and a
man-of-war brig that was too strong for her--at least the Commodore
hauled off after getting an eighteen-pound shot through the _Rossie’s_
quarter. But he hung about the fleet for three days trying to separate
them, though without success. Later, while cruising with the privateer
_Globe_, Captain Murphy, of Baltimore, the British schooner _Jubilee_
was taken, and the American ship _Merrimack_ was taken by Barney alone
for violating the non-importation law. He returned to Baltimore on
November 10th, having taken and destroyed shipping and cargoes to the
value of $1,500,000, with two hundred and seventeen prisoners.
[Illustration: The _Rossie_ and the _Princess Amelia_.
_From a lithograph in Coggeshall’s “Privateers.”_]
The _Globe_, while cruising alone before meeting the _Rossie_, had a
stirring time with the British letter-of-marque _Boyd_. It was on July
31st, and there was a gale blowing when the _Globe_ began the chase.
It was three hours before she got within range. Then she opened the
combat with her Long Tom amidships--a gun that could throw accurately
a nine-pound, round, cast-iron ball to a distance of, perhaps, half a
mile--a long nine, in short. The _Boyd_ replied with two long nines,
but fired wildly, and the _Globe_ was able to range up where her short
guns could bear. There were four of these on a side. The enemy carried
two more guns than the _Globe_, and worked them vigorously until the
_Globe_ ranged up where muskets were used. Then the _Boyd_ struck.
The kind of marksmanship exhibited is shown by the fact that no one
was hurt on either vessel. The _Boyd_ was sent in. On August 14th the
_Globe_ captured a schooner of four guns, loaded with mahogany, and
a few days thereafter brought to Hampton Roads “a large British ship
carrying twenty-two guns, richly laden, which she captured not far from
the Bermudas.”
Reports that give the values of some of the “richly laden” ships are
by no means lacking. The privateer _Paul Jones_, Captain Hazard, of
New York, before August 1st had captured fourteen British vessels in
the West Indies, and early in August took the _Hassan_, bound from
Gibraltar to Havana, “with wines and dry-goods, valued at $200,000.”
The _Hassan_ carried fourteen guns, but only twenty men. She held
out for half an hour. About the same time Captain Thomas Boyle, of
the Baltimore clipper _Comet_, captured the _Hopewell_, from Surinam
for London. She was valued at $150,000. To this prize Captain Boyle
added “the first-class British ship _Henry_, four hundred tons
burden, coppered to the bends, mounting four twelve-pounders, and six
six-pounders, bound from St. Croix for London,” with seven hundred
hogsheads of sugar, and thirteen pipes of old Madeira wine; this
vessel and cargo produced a clear profit to the captors of more than
$100,000. A little later, the _Saratoga_, of New York, Captain Riker,
captured the _Quebec_, from Jamaica, and she was valued at $300,000.
She was armed with sixteen guns, and carried a crew of fifty-two. And
then there was the ship _Richmond_, of fourteen guns, and twenty-five
men before the mast, “eight hundred tons burden, deeply laden with
West India produce, worth $200,000,” that was taken by the privateer
_Thomas_, and sent into Portsmouth.
While the privateers were out for the property they could capture,
their deeds were by no means untempered with generosity. The _Benjamin
Franklin_, Captain Ingersoll, of New York, took the _Industry_, valued
at $2,000, and brought her in. But on learning that she was the sole
property of a widow, the owner of the privateer delivered her over to
her captain.
It should not be inferred from these facts that all the privateers
prospered, or even that they generally did so. Privateering was quite
as much of a lottery as speculation in gold mines. In the first place,
a privateer cost a good deal of money, for that day. The _Governor
Tompkins_ cost $20,000. Under Captain Joseph Shumer she carried a
crew of one hundred and forty-three men with fourteen guns. Shumer
captured twenty vessels. She was then sold at auction for $14,500, and
under a new captain tried cruising but never made another capture.
The port of New York boasted of one hundred and twenty privateers
during this war. The _Scourge_, of nine guns and one hundred and ten
men, took twenty-seven prizes. The _Saratoga_, of sixteen guns and
one hundred and forty men, took twenty-two prizes. The _Prince de
Neufchâtel_, Captain J. Ordronaux, with seventeen guns and one hundred
and twenty-seven men, took eighteen prizes. The _Divided We Fall_, with
but three guns and fifty men, took sixteen prizes, while her sister
ship, _United We Stand_, got but one. Of the whole one hundred and
twenty, only forty-one got any prizes at all, and of the forty-one,
seven got but one prize each, and eleven but two. When court fees and
duties on the goods captured had been paid there was so little left
for the privateers and their crews that the ships capturing only two
prizes really made nothing for the owners. Only about one privateer in
five, sailing out of the port of New York, paid a cent of profit to
the owners. Many were lost altogether--were captured by the enemy, and
these were lost because the militia crews, like shore militia, became
panic-stricken at an inopportune time.
After recalling the fact that the London _Times_ said in March,
1813, that the Yankee privateers had captured five hundred British
ships in seven months, the story of the doings of these mosquitoes
during 1812 may very well conclude with the accounts of two battles
off the South American coast in the month of December of that year.
The first was that between the American brig _Montgomery_, Captain
Upton, of Boston, and the British war-brig _Surinam_, mounting guns
common to such brigs--eighteen short thirty-twos and two long nines--a
better armament, in fact, than the _Peacock_ had when defeated by the
_Hornet_, for the _Peacock_ had twenty-fours instead of thirty-twos.
On December 6th the _Montgomery_ got alongside of the _Surinam_ by
mistake, and, although armed with but ten six-pounders and two short
eighteens, she remained there for half an hour, when the _Surinam_
was glad to let her go. The _Surinam_ threw 297 pounds of metal at
a broadside, or eighteen pounds more than the _Hornet_ threw in
fighting the _Peacock_. The _Montgomery_ threw 48 pounds of metal at a
broadside--allowing that the American shot were of full weight.
[Illustration: Battle between the Schooner _Saratoga_ and the Brig
_Rachel_.
_From a lithograph in Coggeshall’s “Privateers.”_]
The facts above given are taken from Coggeshall’s “History of the
American Privateers,” written in 1856. The author, who was himself a
vigorous captain in the privateer service, ends his account of this
fight by quoting a stanza of what was a favorite song with the British
tars before that war:
Britannia needs no bulwarks,
No towers along the steep;
Her march is o’er the mountain waves,
Her home is on the deep.
The last privateer’s encounter of the year 1812 to be described
occurred on December 10th. The schooner _Saratoga_, Captain Charles
W. Wooster, after a voyage of twenty-four days, in which nothing was
seen, reached La Guayra, Venezuela, on December 9th. When she entered
port the Spanish commandante threatened to open the batteries on her
and she was obliged to leave. However, on beating up to windward she
met a British schooner with $20,000 worth of dry-goods on board, which
compensated for her ill-treatment ashore, and during the rest of the
day she lay-to in plain sight of the town. The next morning there was
a heavy fog on the water, but when at 9 o’clock this cleared off, the
_Saratoga_ was seen still in the offing, but preparing for battle with
a brig. The entire population of the town mounted to the house-tops
to watch the contest, and shortly before noon had the satisfaction
of seeing the _Saratoga_ open fire with her starboard bow gun. The
brig replied with vigor, and in a very short time both vessels were
buried out of sight in a thunderous cloud of smoke that was constantly
illuminated by flashes of flame--a cloud like that in which the
_Constitution_ and _Java_ fought.
For a few minutes this cloud swelled up in cumulous folds, and then the
flames and thunder ceased and the cloud drifted away down the breeze
leaving the two vessels in plain sight and the “gridiron flag” still
flying from the trucks of the _Saratoga_.
This was on the 10th. For three days the people waited and wondered,
and then a ship’s long boat came ashore. She brought the second mate
and twenty-five seamen of the brig--the _Rachel_, from Greenock,
mounting twelve long nines, manned by a crew of sixty, and carrying a
cargo invoiced at £15,000--$75,000 in gold.