RANDOM ADVENTURES
The newspapers published during the War of 1812, granted even that theywere vastly prejudiced of course, contained so much of thrillinginterest, and so much that is now forgotten, that a complete file, forinstance, of "Niles's Register" is a mine of wealth to a student of thetimes. Every week a stirring chapter was added to the records of Yankeeships and Yankee sailors. Fabulous sums were paid in prize money,fortunes were made often in a single venture.
One of the luckiest cruises of the war, so far as rich returns areconcerned, was made by a little squadron of four vessels that sailedfrom Boston on October 8th under the command of Commodore Rogers. Itconsisted of the _President_, the _United States_, and the _Congress_frigates, and the _Argus_ sloop of war. Five days after sailing the_United States_ and the _Argus_ became separated from the others in agale of wind, and afterwards cruised on their own account. On the 15th,the _President_ captured the British packet _Swallow_, having on boardtwo hundred thousand dollars in specie--a rich haul, indeed. On the31st of the month, the _Congress_ captured a South Sea ship loaded withoil that was being convoyed by an English frigate, the _Galatea_; thelatter made off and left her consort to her fate. The _President_, onthe 25th of October, captured the fine English frigate _Macedonian_,and sent her safely into New London harbor. After taking one or twosmaller prizes, the _President_ and _Congress_ sailed into Boston thelast of December, having covered over eight thousand miles. The landingof the money taken from the _Swallow_ and the other prizes was madequite a function. It was loaded into several large drays, and escortedfrom the Navy Yard to the bank by the crews of the frigates and adetachment of marines, "drums beating and colors flying," as anold-time account has it. The gold dust and specie amounted to the valueof three hundred thousand dollars, besides the value of the vesselstaken.
But the little _Argus_, under the command of Captain Sinclair, hadsome adventures worth the telling, before she returned to port ladenwith the fruits of war. After parting company with the squadron, shelaid her course for the coast of Brazil, then one of the mostprofitable cruising grounds, although the waters swarmed with Britishwar vessels. From Cape St. Roque to Surinam she sailed and there madetwo prizes; thence she cruised through the West Indies and hovered inthe vicinity of the Bermudas; afterwards she went as far north asHalifax along the coast before she turned her head towards home.
The _Argus_ must have been a nimble vessel, for, according to herlogbook, she had escaped imminent capture a score of times, owing toher speed and capacity for sailing close on the wind. Once she hadfallen in with a British squadron of six sail, two of them being shipsof the line. For three days and nights they pursued her closely. One ofthe big fellows, proving to be a very fast sailer, outstripped theothers, and twice was almost within gunshot. On the fourth day the_Argus_ came up with a large English merchant ship about sunset. Thewind had shifted so as to give her the windward gage of the pursuingbattle-ship. In full sight of her, and of the others that were distantsome ten or twelve miles, the _Argus_ captured the merchantman; and,under cover of the dark, stormy night that shut down, she made herescape with her prize. After a cruise of ninety-six days, she put intothe harbor of New York. The actual value of the prizes she had capturedamounted to upwards of two hundred thousand dollars--more than enoughto pay for her original cost three times over.
But to leave the deeds of the regular navy and take up those of a fewof the private armed vessels: less is known of their doings, of course;they should be given a separate volume to themselves in writing thehistory of our wars with England--and the volume is yet unwritten, butsome day it may be. Bravely they fought, often against odds, and morethan once they contributed to the defence of our coast in cooperationwith the regular navy and the land forces. Take operations of theEnglish blockading squadron under Admiral Warren that was sent toclose up the waters of the Chesapeake. Many were the times that theprivateers eluded his watch-dogs and sailed in and out through hisfleet, and more than once did he have a chance to test their metal. Theschooner _Lottery_, of Baltimore, mounting six guns and having a crewnumbering but thirty-five, in February, 1813, was attacked by ninelarge British boats containing over two hundred and forty armed men.For an hour and a half the privateer stood them off, and before she wasfinally captured, she had killed more of the enemy than her own crewnumbered! The privateer _Dolphin_, also hailing from Baltimore, wastaken after the same heroic defence, and Admiral Warren must have foundsuch work to be rather uncomfortable experience. The United Statesschooner _Asp_, three guns and twenty-one men, was pursued up a shallowcreek by a detachment of boats from the English fleet; and, afterbeating off her pursuers for some time, she was taken by superiornumbers and upon her capture was set on fire. But the Americans, whohad retreated to shore, returned and succeeded in extinguishing theflames and saving their vessel. A remarkable thing in connection withthe presence of the English fleet in the Chesapeake was the attempt toblow up the flagship _Plantagenet_ with a torpedo. The news thatAmericans were working upon such a line of invention had filled theEnglish with dread and horror, they declared that any one capturedwhile engaged in such a work would be hanged at once without a trial,for they denounced such methods of warfare as "crimes againsthumanity." But this did not deter an adventurous projector by the nameof Mix from trying to rid the bay of its unwelcome visitors. For a longtime he had been at work perfecting a "new explosive engine of greatdestructive powers," and on the 18th of July, at midnight, he droppeddown with the tide alone in a small rowboat, and, when within fortyfathoms of the _Plantagenet_, he put his torpedo into the water withthe intention of having it drift with the tide athwart the flagship'sbows. But an alert sentry on one of the guard boats discovered him andhailed; Mix drew his infernal machine into his boat and escaped. Everynight for a week the inventor tried his luck, but was spied before hecould complete his preparations, and was forced to draw off. But oncehe so frightened the English officers that they made sail and shiftedtheir anchorage, and upon another occasion the flagship let go apell-mell broadside, and threw up rockets and blue lights to ascertainthe whereabouts of the lone adventurer.
On the night of the 24th Mix came very near to accomplishing hispurpose, and a contemporary printed account gives such a vividdescription of it that it is well worth quoting: "When within onehundred yards the machine was dropped into the water, and at the samemoment the sentinel cried, 'All's well,' the tide swept it towards thevessel, but it exploded a few seconds too soon. A column of water fullfifty feet in circumference was thrown up thirty or forty feet. Itsappearance was a vivid red tinged with purple at the sides. The summitof the column burst with a tremendous explosion, and fell on the deckof the _Plantagenet_ in torrents, while she rolled into the yawningchasm below and nearly upset." Then the account shortly remarks, "She,however, received but little injury." But this early attempt at wagingsubmarine warfare made the British exceedingly weary of anchoring inour ports, which was to our advantage.
But to leave this digression and return to the privateers again:justice has not been done them, as we have said. But to take the namesof a few and tell of their experiences is perhaps a good idea. Wellknown were they to the public eighty odd years ago. For instance, theschooner _Atlas_, of nineteen guns, that sailed from Philadelphia soonafter war was declared with England--she was famous! Her captain's namewas David Moffat, and he was a fearless commander and a "right goodseaman." The _Chronicle_ and the _Naval Temple_, published in 1816,give each a short account of one of his encounters with the enemy; toquote from the latter:--
"On the third of August at eight A.M., the _Atlas_ discovered two sail,for which she bore away. At eleven o'clock the action was commencedwith a broadside and musketry. She continued engaged with both shipstill noon, when the smaller one struck her colors. The _Atlas_ thendirected the whole of her fire against the large ship, when the smallone, although her colors were down, renewed her fire on the _Atlas_,which had to recommence firing on her; in a few minutes every man wasdriven from her decks. Twenty minute
s past twelve the large shipstruck. Possession was immediately taken of both of them. One proved tobe the ship _Pursuit_, Captain Chivers, of four hundred and fifty tons,sixteen guns, and thirty-five men. The other was the ship _Planter_,Captain Frith, of two hundred and eighty tons, twelve guns, and fifteenmen." They proved to be richly laden, and with both of them in her wakethe _Atlas_ started for home; she had lost but two men killed and fivewounded. The _Pursuit_ arrived safe in port on the same day as theprivateer, but the _Planter_ was recaptured off the cape of theDelaware.
The privateer _Decatur_ under command of Captain Divon, after a longand severe fight, captured a schooner of the English service thatmounted fifteen guns--over twice as many as the _Decatur_ carried. The_Saratoga_ of New York, Captain Aderton, took the _Morgania_, a Britishpacket of eighteen guns, off Surinam, and in the action both vesselswere nearly dismantled. The _Comet_, of Baltimore, had a running fightwith three English merchant-men and a Portuguese sloop of war; she beatoff the latter, who officiously interfered, and compelled all three ofthe Englishmen to strike their colors. The _Young Eagle_ took twoBritish ships at once--one quite as large and as powerful as she was.The _Montgomery_, Captain Upton of Boston, mounting twelve guns, foughtyard arm to yard arm with a fine sloop of war belonging to the Englishnavy, mounting twenty guns. The _Surinam_, for that was her name, gaveup the fight, and, much crippled, put in at Barbadoes. They were raregood fighters--these privateers.
But perhaps one of the strangest adventures was that of the _YoungTeazer_--what a saucy, impudent name for a vessel; but, according toaccount, it suited her to a nicety. Captain Dobson of New York was partowner and commander, and while cruising off Halifax he was chased by alarge armed ship, the _Sir John Sherbroke_. As she kept gainingsteadily, Dobson headed his own vessel straight for Halifax harbor; hepassed the lighthouse, and as he did so hoisted up English colors overthe American in order to lead his pursuer to suppose he was an Englishprize. As if in disgust at having wasted so much time, the _Sir JohnSherbroke_ hove about and put to sea, and as soon as she was at asafe distance, Dobson hauled down his misleading colors and didlikewise, successfully escaping.
The journals of the time are crowded with adventures such as these, andthe few here referred to have been selected merely at random. But theygive an idea of the adventurous spirit and daring enterprise of theYankee tars and captains.
On Many Seas.
_THE LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF A YANKEE SAILOR._
BY
FREDERICK BENTON WILLIAMS,
EDITED BY HIS FRIEND,
WILLIAM STONE BOOTH.
12mo. Cloth. $1.50.
COMMENTS OF THE PRESS.
"Every line of this hits the mark, and to any one who knows theforecastle and its types the picture appeals with the urgency of oldfamiliar things. All through his four hundred and more pages he isequally unaffected and forcible, equally picturesque. To go through onechapter is to pass with lively anticipation to the next. His book isdestined to be remembered."--_New York Tribune._
"The book reads like a romance, but is at the same time realistichistory, before which the fancy ships and the fancy sailors of thenovelist are pale and faded."--_Baltimore Sun._
"The charm of the book is its simplicity and truth. The author, as Ihappen to know, can spin thrilling yarns by the hour, and this book ofhis is simply one long yarn of his life. A seaman every inch of him, hewrites as only a sailor can. No landsman, no amateur yachtsman, couldwrite a book like this. The entire book bears the stamp of truth, andin this age of literary shams that is a crowning merit."--_New YorkHerald._
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THE WORKS OF
Captain Marryat.
With an Introduction to each volume by DAVID HANNAY, and 40Illustrations by an Eminent Artist.
Printed on Antique Paper, uniformly bound in Cloth. 12mo. $1.50 each.
JAPHET IN SEARCH OF A FATHER. Illustrated by Henry M. Brock. JACOB FAITHFUL. Illustrated by Henry M. Brock. PETER SIMPLE. Illustrated by J. Ayton Symington. MIDSHIPMAN EASY. Illustrated by Fred Pegram. THE KING'S OWN. Illustrated by F. H. Townsend. THE PHANTOM SHIP. Illustrated by H. R. Millar. POOR JACK. Illustrated by Fred Pegram. SNARLEYYOW. Illustrated by H. R. Millar. MASTERMAN READY. Illustrated by Fred Pegram. FRANK MILDMAY. Illustrated by H. R. Millar. THE PIRATE AND THE THREE CUTTERS. Illustrated by E. J. Sullivan. NEWTON FORSTER. Illustrated by E. J. Sullivan.
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