CHAPTER VIII

PRIVATEERS OF THE REVOLUTION

A TALE OF THE AMERICAN PATRIOTS WHO WENT AFLOAT OUTSIDE OF THE REGULAR NAVY--THEIR PART IN DRIVING THE BRITISH FROM BOSTON--REMARKABLE WORK OF THE _LEE_--TRUXTON AS A PRIVATEER--DARING CAPT. JOHN FOSTER WILLIAMS--WHEN CAPT. DANIEL WATERS, WITH THE _THORN_ OF SIXTEEN GUNS, WHIPPED TWO SHIPS THAT CARRIED THIRTY-FOUR GUNS BETWEEN THEM--GREAT WAS JOSHUA BARNEY--THE STORY OF THE MOST FAMOUS STATE CRUISERS OF THE REVOLUTION--WON AGAINST GREATER ODDS THAN WERE ENCOUNTERED BY ANY SUCCESSFUL SEA CAPTAIN OF THE WAR--BRITISH ACCOUNT OF THE WORK OF AMERICAN PRIVATEERS--THE HORRORS OF THE _JERSEY_ PRISON SHIP.

Great as was the influence of the burning of Falmouth (Portland), Maine, in driving the Continental Congress into providing a continental navy, the whole story of the results of that infamous act has not yet been told. The “indignation against the commissioned pirates and licensed robbers” was not felt in the halls of the Congress alone. “The General Court of Massachusetts passed an act encouraging the fitting out of armed vessels,” and one for “erecting a court to try and condemn all vessels that should be found infesting” the American coast. This act was passed on November 10th, and John Adams declared it one of the most important documents in our history.

Connecticut and Rhode Island immediately followed the example of Massachusetts, and on March 23, 1776, the Congress provided for private armed vessels under the continental flag.

Of the very early deeds of these privateers only meagre details are found recorded, but it appears that Washington, when he found the troops under his command, in the fall of 1775, were well-nigh absolutely destitute of powder, determined to supply them from the transports that were continually bringing munitions of war to the British forces in Boston and to the British ships in the harbor. Accordingly, he caused several small vessels to be armed and sent afloat in Massachusetts Bay and along shore to intercept the transports. He did this without waiting for authority from the Congress, and the vessels sailed as Massachusetts cruisers.

[Illustration: _From the copy at the Lenox Library._]

Of the number sent, it is said that all but one proved to be manned by incapable officers or mutinous crews, which is not quite true, but the one, the schooner _Lee_, of eight small guns, Capt. John Manly, redeemed any failure of the rest by the capture of the brigantine _Nancy_, already noted. “This was an ordnance ship,” says Dodsley’s “Annual Register,” of London, for 1776. She “contained, besides a large mortar upon a new construction, several pieces of fine brass cannon, a large quantity of small arms and ammunition, with all manner of tools, utensils, and machines necessary for camps and artillery, in the greatest abundance. The loss of this ship was much resented in England.” As a matter of fact, she carried 2,000 muskets, 8,000 fusees, 31 tons of musket bullets, 3,000 solid shot for twelve-pounders, and two six-pounder cannon, besides gunpowder, etc. The mortar was of thirteen-inch calibre, and afterward exploded. She was brought into Cape Ann Roads on November 29, 1775. On December 8th the _Lee_ took three more transports that were less valuable to the Americans, but the loss hurt the British rather more. For, insignificant as were the vessels captured when considered as a part of the whole fleet employed against the colonies, one need only glance at the state of affairs in Boston to understand why the loss of one ordnance ship was “resented in England,” and why the taking of three other transports was a still more serious matter. Boston was cut off from the back country. All supplies had to come from over the water. “Toward the end of the season Government went to a vast expense in sending out provisions and necessaries of all sorts,” says the British authority just quoted. “The want of fresh provisions had caused much sickness there. ... No less than 5,000 oxen, 14,000 of the largest and fattest sheep and a vast number of hogs were purchased and sent out alive.” They also sent out coal and even kindling wood, not to mention vegetables. But the winds were against them. The live stock died on board before they got away from the home coasts, “so that the channel was everywhere strowed with the carcasses of these animals.” The vegetables “fermented and perished.” On top of all these losses the capture of even such small vessels as schooners of a hundred tons was a serious loss, for the whole British force in Boston was hungry, while houses had to be torn down to supply fuel.

To add to the mortification of the enemy, some of the captures were made within sight of British frigates which, through the failure of the wind or the action of the tide, were unable to interfere. A British account of one of these audacious attacks that in the end was frustrated will illustrate the character of the Yankee privateer.

“On the 23d of November a small fleet of transports under convoy of the frigate _Tartar_ arrived off Boston, and with the exception of two safely entered the port. The ship _Hunter_ and a brig, owing to a shift in the wind, were obliged to anchor outside the harbor, which being observed by two American privateers that had been following the convoy, they in the most daring manner attacked and boarded them, setting them on fire. A signal was immediately made for the _Raven_ to weigh anchor and go in chase, but Lieutenant John Bourmaster, who had been appointed to protect Boston Lighthouse, then under repair, and who was in command of an armed transport, on observing the privateers fire upon the _Hunter_, set sail and reached the transports in time to save them from destruction.”

Among the little cruisers that saw the most service was the _Franklin_ schooner. Under Capt. John Selman she went with the _Lynch_ to the St. Lawrence River to intercept the two transports mentioned in the report of the doings of the Congress on October 5, 1775, wherein it was resolved that “a letter be sent to General Washington to inform him that Congress having received certain intelligence of the sailing of two north country built brigs, of no force, from England on the 11th of August last, loaded with arms, powder and other stores, for Quebec, without convoy, which it being of importance to intercept,” etc., the general was to send two cruisers after them.

[Illustration: _From the copy at the Lenox Library._]

Captain Selman failed to find the brigs, but “missing them, they took ten other vessels and Governor Wright of St. John’s. All these vessels were released as we had waged a ministerial war and not one against our most gracious sovereign.”

They changed their tactics after their most gracious sovereign was pleased to send Hessians to crush them.

The _Franklin_ was thereafter stationed in and near Massachusetts Bay, and early in the spring of 1776, under Capt. James Mugford, captured a transport having 1,500 barrels of powder in her hold, besides other war supplies.

It is recorded that Capt. Samuel Tucker, while in command of Massachusetts cruisers, captured no less than thirty vessels belonging to the enemy.

The most brilliant achievement of this mosquito fleet during 1776 was on June 17th. The Connecticut cruiser _Defence_, Captain Harding, heard a cannonading to the north of Plymouth, and cruising in that direction, met the schooner _Lee_, now under Capt. Daniel Waters, and three other privateers. They had had a running fight with two big transports that had gone into Nantasket Roads. So the Yankees determined to follow them there. At 11 o’clock at night Captain Harding ran in between the two transports and came to anchor. He was but a dozen yards from each of them. Having everything ready, he hailed and ordered both of them to strike.

“Aye, aye--I’ll strike,” said a voice from one of them, and then a broadside was fired from it into the _Defence_. The _Defence_ replied, but the enemy held out for an hour. When they surrendered it was found that the two contained 200 regular soldiers of the Seventy-first Regiment. Major Menzies, who had been in command, was the one to answer the hail by saying he would strike, and then firing. He was killed with seventeen others during the battle. The next morning another transport with 100 more men of the same regiment was captured.

But if this was counted daring work by the British authorities, there were other deeds to come which were unquestionably shocking to the British merchants, for, following the example set by the _Revenge_ and the _Surprise_ of the regular navy, the privateers went seeking prizes on the coasts and in the very harbors of Great Britain herself. In daring, these privateers quite equalled Connyngham and John Paul Jones. A British account of one of these descents says:

“An American privateer of twelve guns came into this road (Guernsey) yesterday morning, tacked about on firing of the guns from the Castle, and just off the Island took a large brig bound for this port which they have since carried into Cherbourg. She had the impudence to send her boat in the dusk of the evening to a little island off here called Jetto and unluckily carried off the lieutenant of Worthley’s Independent Company, here, with the adjutant, who were shooting rabbits for their diversion. The brig they took is valued at seven thousand pounds.”

It is unfortunate that the log-books and diaries kept on most of these cruisers have disappeared, for many a stirring tale of adventure has thus been lost. Nevertheless, authentic details of some of the deeds done are by no means wanting. For instance, there was one Thomas Truxton of whom the British heard to their sorrow in after years. He was in command of the privateer _Independence_, of New York, in 1777. Going to the Azores, he captured a number of small prizes, and then had the luck to fall in with the convoy from the Windward Islands. There were frigates to protect the fleet, but Truxton cut out three big ships, of which one was armed and manned better than the _Independence_, save only for the difference in captains.

Returning to port, he fitted out the _Mars_ with twenty odd guns and made a cruise in the English Channel. Here his prizes were numerous, and it is said that those he sent into Quiberon Bay “in a great measure laid the foundation of Lord Stormonth’s remonstrance to the French Court, against the admission into her ports of our armed vessels and cruisers”--a remonstrance that was not heeded, and so the French became involved in war with England to the great advantage of the colonies.

Later still, while _en route_ to France in the _St. James_ of twenty guns, he beat off a ship of thirty-two guns that had been sent out expressly to capture him. A good story is told of this fight. A ball had passed through her side and lodged in her mainmast. “A fine forecastle man named Jack Sutton, perceiving the ball the moment it struck the mast, seized it, ran with it to a gunner, and said: ‘Here, gunner, take this shot, write post paid upon it, and send it back to the rascals.’”

Capt. John Foster Williams was another daring privateer. In 1778, in the _Hazard_, that mounted fourteen four-pounders and two three-pounders, he captured the brig _Active_, that mounted eighteen six-pounders, six smaller guns, and ten one-pounder swivels. The fight lasted forty minutes, and the _Active_ lost thirty-three in killed and wounded to the _Hazard’s_ eight.

In May, 1779, he was placed in the twenty-gun ship _Protector_, belonging to Massachusetts, and in June he fought the British privateer _Admiral Duff_, an equal ship, yardarm to yardarm, for an hour, when the enemy took fire and blew up. Only fifty-five of her crew were picked up. Returning from this cruise, he fell in with the thirty-two-gun frigate _Thames_, and after a running fire compelled her to haul off.

And then there was Capt. Alexander Murray. In the _Revenge_, of eighteen guns, in 1780, he beat off two ships of the British navy, of which one mounted eighteen and the other sixteen guns. This was at the capes of the Chesapeake. Afterwards he took a cargo of tobacco from Richmond, Virginia, in a ship that had only five six-pounders for armament. At sea he fell in with a privateer of fourteen guns and 100 men. Murray, having so few guns, shifted them across the deck as occasion required, and blazed away. His ship, owing to the superior number of guns of the enemy, was eventually so cut up aloft that only the mainmast and bowsprit remained standing; nevertheless, Captain Murray beat off the enemy in spite of four desperate attempts to carry him by boarding.

[Illustration: Alexander Murray.

_From an engraving by Edwin of the painting by Wood._]

Greater still was the renown of Capt. Daniel Waters. Captain Waters was sent to sea by General Washington in the _Lee_, as already mentioned in this chapter. In 1778, while in command of the privateer _Thorn_, of sixteen guns, he amply justified the confidence the general had manifested in him by his fight with two English sloops-of-war. One was the _Governor Tryon_, of sixteen guns, Captain Stebbins, and the other the _Sir William Erskine_, of eighteen guns, Captain Hamilton. After two hours of such desperate fighting as was shown but rarely, the _Tryon_ struck and the _Erskine_ hauled off. But Captain Waters would not let the _Erskine_ escape. He set more sail, overhauled her, and compelled her to strike. As night came on the _Tryon_ managed to escape, but Captain Waters manned the _Erskine_ and sent her in. He had but sixty men left in the _Thorn_. Nevertheless, when he fell in with the _Sparlin_, of eighteen guns and ninety-seven men, next day, he gave battle and captured her also.

If any further proof be wanted of the fact that it is the heart of the commander and not the number of his men or the weight of his metal that wins in a sea-fight, it will be found in the tale of the American privateer _Hyder Ali_ and the British ship _General Monk_. Capt. Joshua Barney commanded the _Hyder Ali_, and he had had a lot of good training before he became the hero of the story now to be told. He had had (through accident) command of a ship when but seventeen years old, and acquitted himself with honor. He had sailed in the _Hornet_ in the first American naval squadron. He had seen exciting service in the _Wasp_ under Captain Alexander. He had captured a British privateer while commanding the little sloop _Sachem_. He was in the _Andrea Doria_ when she fought the _Racehorse_. He had been captured while bringing in a prize, and had survived the frightful ill-treatment the prisoners on the prison ship _Jersey_ received. He escaped thence, and while in command of a cargo ship, had beaten off the _Rosebud_, Captain Duncan, a ship of sixteen guns, by firing a crowbar at her, and so cutting away all her headgear and disabling her foremast.

[Illustration: _From an engraving by Gross after a miniature by Isabey._]

And so the 8th of April, 1782, arrived. On that day he took command of the _Hyder Ali_, of the Pennsylvania State service, and started to convoy a fleet of merchantmen from Philadelphia out to sea. The _Hyder Ali_ carried sixteen six-pounders and 110 men. At the capes the fleet found the British frigate _Quebec_, the brig _Fair American_, of sixteen guns, and the brig _General Monk_, Captain Rogers, carrying “only (_sic_) sixteen carronades, twelve-pounders, and two long six-pounders” (so says Allen). The _Quebec_ could not get around the shoals, and had no part in the affray. The _Fair American_ went hunting the convoy, and the _General Monk_ came after the _Hyder Ali_.

As the Englishman approached, Captain Barney saw his immense superiority in men and metal, but determined to make a fight. Calling his officers and men around him, he said:

“If I direct you to prepare for boarding you are to understand me as meaning that you are to remain at your guns, and be ready to fire the moment the word is given. If on the contrary I order you to give him a broadside, you are to consider me as calling for boarders, and to hold yourselves ready to board as soon as we gain a proper position.”

A little later the Englishman ranged up within a dozen yards or less, and in a loud voice demanded that the _Hyder Ali_ strike her colors.

“Hard a port your helm--do you want him to run aboard us?” bawled Captain Barney to the man at the wheel of the _Hyder Ali_.

“The ready witted seaman understood his cue and clapped his helm hard a starboard. The enemy’s jib boom caught in the fore rigging of the _Hyder Ali_ and there remained entangled during the short but glorious

## action that ensued. The _Hyder Ali_ thus gained a raking position of

which she availed herself to its utmost benefit. More than twenty broadsides were fired in twenty-six minutes and scarcely a shot missed its effect; entering in at the starboard bow and making their way out through the port quarter. In less than half an hour from the firing of the first broadside the British flag waved its proud folds no longer in the breeze.”

[Illustration: Fight of the _Hyder Ali_ with the _General Monk_, 1782.

_From a painting by Crépin at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._]

This quotation is from a “Biographical Memoir” of Barney, made from his private papers by Mary Barney. Having captured the _Monk_, Barney stood up the Delaware, drove the _Fair American_ ashore, and easily escaped the frigate. A comparative statement of the forces of the combatants is worth giving. The British ship carried a crew of 136 men; the American, 110. The British ship was armed with sixteen twelve-pounders and two long sixes--she could throw 102 pounds of metal at a broadside; the American carried sixteen six-pounders--she could throw forty-eight pounds of metal at a broadside. The British had more than twice the metal and they had a much greater number of men--men, too, who had long been fighting together, while the American crew had not been on board a month.

The comparison of losses is equally significant. The _Monk_ lost twenty men killed and thirty-three wounded--fifty-three out of 136. The _Hyder Ali_ lost four killed and eleven wounded. The first lieutenant, purser, surgeon, boatswain, and chief gunner were among the _Monk’s_ killed, and her captain was severely wounded.

It is said that the _General Monk_ had captured sixty American vessels in two years.

[Illustration: A Relic of Two Revolutionary Captains: Bill of Lading for John Barry Signed by Joshua Barney.

_From the original at the Lenox Library._]

Did space permit, many other brave deeds of the privateers might be given. Of especial interest, though of small moment in their immediate effect upon the war, was the work done in whaleboats along the coast and especially upon Long Island Sound. The adventures of these brave--they were often even reckless--men lived in the tales told at the firesides long after the Revolution, and stirred the hearts that in another war were to emulate the deeds of this one, and with a success that astounded the natural enemy of the struggling young nation.

But if all the tales may not be repeated here, something may be told of what these Yankee privateers accomplished. In the following quotation from Dodsley’s “Annual Register” for 1778 is found a statement made in Parliament regarding this work up to the end of 1777. It says:

“The number of vessels belonging to Great Britain and Ireland, taken by ships of war and privateers belonging to the said colonies, amount to 733.--That of that number, it appears that 47 have been released, and 127 retaken; but that the loss on the latter, for salvage, interest on the value of the cargo, and loss of a market, must have been very considerable.--That the loss of the remaining 559 vessels, which have been carried into port, appears, from the examination of merchants, to amount at least to 2,600,000 l.--That of 200 ships anually employed in the African trade, before the commencement of the present civil war, whose value, upon an average, was about 9,000 l. each, there are not now forty ships, employed in that trade, whereby there is a diminution in this branch of comerce of 160 ships, which at 9,000 l. each, amount to a loss of 1,440,000 l. per annum.--That the price of insurance to the West Indies and North America, is increased from two, and two and a half, to five per cent with convoy; but without convoy, and unarmed, the said insurance has been made at fifteen per cent. But generally ships in such circumstances cannot be insured at all.--That the price of a seaman’s wages is raised from one pound ten shillings, to three pounds five shillings per month.--That it appears to this committee, that the present diminution of the African trade, the interruption of the American trade to the West Indies, and the captures made of the West-India ships, have greatly distressed the British colonies in the West Indies. That the numbers of American privateers, of which authentic accounts have been received, amount to 173; and that they carried 2,556 guns, and at least 13,840 seamen, reckoning 80 men in each ship.--And that, of the above privateers, 34 have been taken, which carried 3,217 men, which is more than 94 men to each vessel.”

[Illustration: “The Howes Asleep in Philadelphia.”--A Caricature Drawn forth by the Doings of Revolutionary Privateers.

(The cow represents British commerce; while the American cuts off her horns, a Hollander milks her, the Frenchman and Spaniard help themselves to the milk, the British merchant wrings his hands in despair, and the British Lion sleeps through it all. In the background are the two Howes asleep, and the _Eagle_ high and dry, the rest of the fleet being nowhere visible.) ]

To this may be added a statement from the London “Remembrancer” (vol. v), which says that “the number of English vessels employed in the West India trade, captured by American cruisers, amounted on the 1st February, 1777, to two hundred and fifty sail: value of their cargoes, about ten millions of dollars. In the course of one week fourteen English vessels were carried into Martinique. So overstocked was the market of this island, by these privateers, that English silk stockings, which had usually sold for two or three dollars, were disposed of for _one_ dollar. Sailors went from door to door, offering their prize goods for sale; nor could they dispose of Irish linens for more than _two dollars per piece_. Other goods sold in proportion. _Of a fleet of sixty vessels, from Ireland, for the West Indies, thirty-five were captured by American privateers!_”

Still another British account of the distress occasioned by the privateers, written from Grenada, says:

“We are happy if we can get anything for money by reason of the quantity of vessels that are taken by American privateers. A fleet of vessels came from Ireland a few days ago. From sixty vessels that departed from Ireland not above twenty-five arrived in this and neighboring islands, the others, it is thought, being all taken by the American privateers. God knows if this American war continues much longer we shall all die with hunger. There was a Guineaman that came from Africa with 450 negroes, some thousand weight of gold dust and a great many elephant teeth; the whole cargo being computed to be worth twenty thousand pounds sterling, taken by an American privateer, a brig mounting fourteen cannon, a few days ago.”

[Illustration: The British Prison Ship _Jersey_.

_From an old wood-cut._]

A brief reference to the prison ship in which the privateers were confined when captured by the enemy on the American coast will serve very well to close this chapter. The reference may be brief, because it is so notorious in the annals of civilized warfare as to be known to every schoolboy. The special jail of the privateers was the dismantled man-o’-war hulk _Jersey_. As consorts she had four other hulks, but the _Jersey_ was the receiving ship. If the unfortunates captured and taken to England were, by the deliberate and publicly debated act of Parliament, fed with an allowance of bread that was half a pound less per day than was allowed to the hated Frenchmen, one would naturally expect still worse treatment for those who were kept by jailers unrestrained by the sentiments of the humane portion of their countrymen.

The _Jersey_ was at first anchored near the city of New York. She leaked constantly, and her hold, where the prisoners were confined, was damp and rotten. They had no means for cleaning themselves or the hold. The careless were herded with those who would have been careful. The damnable conditions there bred the ship-fever and other diseases. Instead of disinfecting the hulk the authorities moved it over to Wallabout Bay, where the Brooklyn Navy Yard is now located. This was done to keep the contagion from spreading to the city. Then a regiment of renegade Americans was quartered in most comfortable fashion within sight of this prison ship, and the terrors of the ship were then deliberately increased. The food of the prisoners consisted of the bread and meat that had been ordered for the British forces, but was condemned as unfit for human beings. And the quantity was very scant at that.

[Illustration: A Permit to Visit One of the Prison Ships.

_From the original at the Lenox Library._]

The sick were placed in bunks where the snow could sift down through hatchways and in through open seams on to the one blanket allowed for covering. To the ravages of disease were added the horrors of frozen limbs, and living men saw their own feet drop off because of this treatment.

At night the prisoners were driven to their bunks with curses and the cry of “Down, rebels, down!” In the morning they were turned out with other imprecations and the words “Rebels, turn out your dead!”

And there were dead a-plenty to turn out every day in the year. The British jailers would point to the well-kept renegades and offer to send any prisoner who would join them to enjoy the same comforts, but the love of home and of liberty was so strong in the hearts of these men that they chose death instead of such a release from prison--more than ten thousand Americans chose death by lingering torture on the British prison ships in New York rather than dishonor.

David Sproats was the chief keeper of the prison ships. He boasted that he had killed more “rebels” than all the king’s armies had done. To aggravate his offences, he offered to exchange the sick and dying privateersmen in his charge for an equal number of British regulars who could pass inspection as fit for service, and because Washington refused to thus aid in recruiting the waning forces of the enemy the horrors of the prison ships were increased. And because of this refusal the English writers say to this day that if any American died on the prison ship it was his own fault, or the fault of the American authorities who refused to make an exchange!

[Illustration: MAP OF THE WALE BOGT AND ITS VICINTY.

AT THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR]

[Illustration: A Relic of the Prison Ships: Entrance to the Vault of the _Martyrs_.

_From an old wood-cut._]

If those Englishmen who wonder why it is that American schoolboys, when playing games of “war,” invariably speak of the “enemy” as “the British”--if those wondering English wish to learn why this is so, let them read with candid minds the true story of the American struggle for life and liberty.

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