American Merchant Ships and Sailors by Willis J. Abbot

W >> Willis J. Abbot >> American Merchant Ships and Sailors

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25

[Illustration: IF THEY RETREATED FARTHER HE WOULD BLOW UP THE SHIP]

In the end the "Prince de Neufchatel" was captured by a British squadron,
but only after a sudden squall had carried away several of her spars and
made her helpless.

As the war progressed it became the custom of British merchants to send
out their ships only in fleets, convoyed by one or two men-of-war, a
system that, of course, could be adopted only by nations very rich in
war-ships. The privateers' method of meeting this was to cruise in
couples, a pair of swift, light schooners, hunting the prize together.
When the convoy was encountered, both would attack, picking out each its
prey. The convoys were usually made up with a man-of-war at the head of
the column, and as this vessel would make sail after one of the
privateers, the other would rush in at some point out of range, and cut
out its prize. When the British began sending out two ships of war with
each convoy, the privateers cruised in threes, and the same tactics were
observed.

But the richest prizes won by the privateer were the single going ships,
called "running ships," that were prepared to defend themselves, and
scorned to wait for convoy. These were generally great packets trading to
the Indies, whose cargoes were too valuable to be delayed until some
man-of-war could be found for their protection. They were heavily armed,
often, indeed, equaling a frigate in their batteries and the size of their
crews. But, although to attack one of these meant a desperate fight, the
Yankee privateer always welcomed the chance, for besides a valuable cargo,
they were apt to carry a considerable sum in specie. The capture of one of
these vessels, too, was the cause of annoyance to the enemy
disproportionate to even their great value to their captors, for they not
only carried the Royal Mail, but were usually the agencies by which the
dispatches of the British general were forwarded. Mail and dispatches,
alike, were promptly thrown overboard by their captors.

In the diary of a privateersman of Revolutionary days is to be found the
story of the capture of an Indiaman which may well be reprinted as
typical.

[Illustration: "I THINK SHE IS A HEAVY SHIP."]

"As the fog cleared up, we perceived her to be a large ship under English
colors, to the windward, standing athwart our starboard bow. As she came
down upon us, she appeared as large as a seventy-four; and we were not
deceived respecting her size, for it afterwards proved that she was an old
East Indiaman, of 1100 tons burden, fitted out as a letter of marque for
the West India trade, mounted with thirty-two guns, and furnished with a
complement of one hundred and fifty men. She was called the 'Admiral
Duff,' commanded by Richard Strange, from St. Christopher and St.
Eustachia, laden with sugar and tobacco, and bound to London. I was
standing near our first lieutenant, Mr. Little, who was calmly examining
the enemy as she approached, with his spy-glass, when Captain Williams
stepped up and asked his opinion of her. The lieutenant applied the glass
to his eye again and took a deliberate look in silence, and replied: 'I
think she is a heavy ship, and that we shall have some hard fighting, but
of one thing I am certain, she is not a frigate; if she were, she would
not keep yawing and showing her broadsides as she does; she would show
nothing but her head and stern; we shall have the advantage of her, and
the quicker we get alongside the better.' Our captain ordered English
colors to be hoisted, and the ship to be cleared for action.

"The enemy approached 'till within musket-shot of us. The two ships were
so near to each other that we could distinguish the officers from the men;
and I particularly noticed the captain on the gangway, a noble-looking
man, having a large gold-laced cocked hat on his head, and a
speaking-trumpet in his hand. Lieutenant Little possessed a powerful
voice, and he was directed to hail the enemy; at the same time the
quartermaster was ordered to stand ready to haul down the English flag and
to hoist up the American. Our lieutenant took his station on the after
part of the starboard gangway, and elevating his trumpet, exclaimed:
'Hullo. Whence come you?'

"'From Jamaica, bound to London,' was the answer.

"'What is the ship's name?' inquired the lieutenant.

"'The "Admiral Duff",' was the reply.

"The English captain then thought it his turn to interrogate, and asked
the name of our ship. Lieutenant Little, in order to gain time, put the
trumpet to his ear, pretending not to hear the question. During the short
interval thus gained, Captain Williams called upon the gunner to
ascertain how many guns could be brought to bear upon the enemy. 'Five,'
was the answer. 'Then fire, and shift the colors,' were the orders. The
cannons poured forth their deadly contents, and, with the first flash, the
American flag took the place of the British ensign at our masthead.

"The compliment was returned in the form of a full broadside, and the
action commenced. I was stationed on the edge of the quarter-deck, to
sponge and load a six-pounder; this position gave me a fine opportunity to
see the whole action. Broadsides were exchanged with great rapidity for
nearly an hour; our fire, as we afterward ascertained, produced a terrible
slaughter among the enemy, while our loss was as yet trifling. I happened
to be looking for a moment toward the main deck, when a large shot came
through our ship's side and killed a midshipman. At this moment a shot
from one of our marines killed the man at the wheel of the enemy's ship,
and, his place not being immediately supplied, she was brought alongside
of us in such a manner as to bring her bowsprit directly across our
forecastle. Not knowing the cause of this movement, we supposed it to be
the intention of the enemy to board us. Our boarders were ordered to be
ready with their pikes to resist any such attempt, while our guns on the
main deck were sending death and destruction among the crew of the enemy.
Their principal object now seemed to be to get liberated from us, and by
cutting away some of their rigging, they were soon clear, and at the
distance of a pistol shot.

"The action was then renewed, with additional fury; broadside for
broadside continued with unabated vigor; at times, so near to each other
that the muzzles of our guns came almost in contact, then again at such a
distance as to allow of taking deliberate aim. The contest was
obstinately continued by the enemy, although we could perceive that great
havoc was made among them, and that it was with much difficulty that their
men were compelled to remain at their quarters. A charge of grape-shot
came in at one of our portholes, which dangerously wounded four or five of
our men, among whom was our third lieutenant, Mr. Little, brother to the
first.

"The action had now lasted about an hour and a half, and the fire from the
enemy began to slacken, when we suddenly discovered that all the sails on
her mainmast were enveloped in a blaze. Fire spread with amazing rapidity,
and, running down the after rigging, it soon communicated with her
magazine, when her whole stern was blown off, and her valuable cargo
emptied into the sea. Our enemy's ship was now a complete wreck, though
she still floated, and the survivors were endeavoring to save themselves
in the only boat that had escaped the general destruction. The humanity of
our captain urged him to make all possible exertions to save the miserable
wounded and burned wretches, who were struggling for their lives in the
water. The ship of the enemy was greatly our superior in size, and lay
much higher out of the water. Our boats had been exposed to his fire, as
they were placed on spars between the fore and mainmasts during the
action, and had suffered considerable damage. The carpenters were ordered
to repair them with the utmost expedition, and we got them out in season
to take up fifty-five men, the greater part of whom had been wounded by
our shot, or burned when the powder-magazine exploded. Their limbs were
mutilated by all manner of wounds, while some were burned to such a degree
that the skin was nearly flayed from their bodies. Our surgeon and his
assistants had just completed the task of dressing the wounds of our own
crew, and then they directed their attention to the wounded of the enemy.
Several of them suffered the amputation of their limbs, five of them died
of their wounds, and were committed to their watery graves. From the
survivors we learned that the British commander had frequently expressed a
desire to come in contact with a 'Yankee frigate' during his voyage, that
he might have a prize to carry to London. Poor fellow. He little thought
of losing his ship and his life in an engagement with a ship so much
inferior to his own--with an enemy upon whom he looked with so much
contempt."

But most notable of all the battles fought by privateersmen in the War of
1812, was the defense of the brig "General Armstrong," in the harbor of
Fayal, in September, 1814. This famous combat has passed into history, not
only because of the gallant fight made by the privateer, but because the
three British men-of-war to whom she gave battle, were on their way to
cooperate with Packenham at New Orleans, and the delay due to the injuries
they received, made them too late to aid in that expedition, and may have
thus contributed to General Jackson's success.

The "General Armstrong" had always been a lucky craft, and her exploits in
the capture of merchantmen, no less than the daring of her commander in
giving battle to ships-of-war which he encountered, had won her the
peculiar hate of the British navy. At the very beginning of her career,
when in command of Captain Guy R. Champlin, she fought a British frigate
for more than an hour, and inflicted such grave damage that the enemy was
happy enough to let her slip away when the wind freshened. On another
occasion she engaged a British armed ship of vastly superior strength, off
the Surinam River, and forced her to run ashore. Probably the most
valuable prize taken in the war fell to her guns--the ship "Queen," with a
cargo invoiced at L90,000. Indeed, such had been her audacity, and so many
her successes, that the British were eager for her capture or destruction,
above that of any other privateer.

In September, 1814, the "General Armstrong," now under command of Captain
Samuel G. Reid, was at anchor in the harbor at Fayal, a port of Portugal,
when her commander saw a British war-brig come nosing her way into the
harbor. Soon after another vessel appeared, and then a third, larger than
the first two, and all flying the British ensign. Captain Reid immediately
began to fear for his safety. It was true that he was in a neutral port,
and under the law of nations exempt from attack, but the British had never
manifested that extreme respect for neutrality that they exacted of
President Washington when France tried to fit out privateers in our ports.
More than once they had attacked and destroyed our vessels in neutral
ports, and, indeed, it seemed that the British test of neutrality was
whether the nation whose flag was thus affronted, was able or likely to
resent it. Portugal was not such a nation.

All this was clear to Captain Reid, and when he saw a rapid signaling
begun between the three vessels of the enemy, he felt confident that he
was to be attacked. He had already discovered that the strangers were the
74-gun ship of the line "Plantagenet," the 38-gun frigate "Rota," and the
18-gun war-brig "Carnation," comprising a force against which he could not
hope to win a victory. The night came on clear, with a bright moon, and as
the American captain saw boats from the two smaller vessels rallying about
the larger one, he got out his sweeps and began moving his vessel inshore,
so as to get under the guns of the decrepit fort, with which Portugal
guarded her harbor. At this, four boats crowded with men, put out from the
side of the British ship, and made for the privateer, seeing which, Reid
dropped anchor and put springs on his cables, so as to keep his broadside
to bear on the enemy as they approached. Then he shouted to the British,
warning them to keep off, or he would fire. They paid no attention to the
warning, but pressed on, when he opened a brisk fire upon them. For a time
there was a lively interchange of shots, but the superior marksmanship of
the Americans soon drove the enemy out of range with heavy casualties. The
British retreated to their ships with a hatred for the Yankee privateer
even more bitter than that which had impelled them to the lawless attack,
and a fiercer determination for her destruction.

It is proper to note, that after the battle was fought, and the British
commander had calmly considered the possible consequences of his violation
of the neutrality laws, he attempted to make it appear that the Americans
themselves were the aggressors. His plea, as made in a formal report to
the admiralty, was that he had sent four boats to discover the character
of the American vessel; that they, upon hailing her, had been fired upon
and suffered severe loss, and that accordingly he felt that the affront to
the British flag could only be expiated by the destruction of the vessel.
The explanation was not even plausible, for the British commander,
elsewhere in his report, acknowledged that he was perfectly informed as to
the identity of the vessel, and even had this not been the case, it is not
customary to send four boats heavily laden with armed men, merely to
discover the character of a ship in a friendly port.

The withdrawal of the British boats gave Captain Reid time to complete
the removal of his vessel to a point underneath the guns of the Portuguese
battery. This gave him a position better fitted for defense, although his
hope that the Portuguese would defend the neutrality of their port, was
destined to disappointment, for not a shot was fired from the battery.

[Illustration: "STRIVING TO REACH HER DECKS AT EVERY POINT"]

Toward midnight the attack was resumed, and by this time the firing within
the harbor had awakened the people of the town, who crowded down to the
shore to see the battle. The British, in explanation of the reverse which
they suffered, declared that all the Americans in Fayal armed themselves,
and from the shore supplemented the fire from the "General Armstrong."
Captain Reid, however, makes no reference to this assistance. In all, some
four hundred men joined in the second attack. Twelve boats were in line,
most of them with a howitzer mounted in the bow. The Americans used their
artillery on these craft as they approached, and inflicted great damage
before the enemy were in a position to board. The British vessels, though
within easy gun-fire, dared not use their heavy cannon, lest they should
injure their own men, and furthermore, for fear that the shot would fall
into the town. The midnight struggle was a desperate one, the enemy fairly
surrounding the "General Armstrong," and striving to reach her decks at
every point. But though greatly outnumbered, the defenders were able to
maintain their position, and not a boarder succeeded in reaching the
decks. The struggle continued for nearly three-quarters of an hour, after
which the British again drew off. Two boats filled with dead and dying
men, were captured by the Americans, the unhurt survivors leaping
overboard and swimming ashore. The British report showed, that in these
two attacks there were about one hundred and forty of the enemy killed,
and one hundred and thirty wounded. The Americans had lost only two killed
and seven wounded, but the ship was left in no condition for future
defense. Many of the guns were dismounted, and the Long Tom, which had
been the mainstay of the defense, was capsized. Captain Reid and his
officers worked with the utmost energy through the night, trying to fit
the vessel for a renewal of the combat in the morning, but at three
o'clock he was called ashore by a note from the American consul. Here he
was informed that the Portuguese Governor had made a personal appeal to
the British commander for a cessation of the attack, but that it had been
refused, with the statement that the vessel would be destroyed by
cannon-fire from the British ships in the morning. Against an attack of
this sort it was, of course, futile for the "General Armstrong" to
attempt to offer defense, and accordingly Captain Reid landed his men with
their personal effects, and soon after the British began fire in the
morning, scuttled the ship and abandoned her. He led his men into the
interior, seized on an abandoned convent, and fortifying it, prepared to
resist capture. No attempt, however, was made to pursue him, the British
commander contenting himself with the destruction of the privateer. For
nearly a week the British ships were delayed in the harbor, burying their
dead and making repairs. When they reached New Orleans, the army which
they had been sent to reenforce, had met Jackson on the plains of
Chalmette, and had been defeated. The price paid for the "General
Armstrong" was, perhaps, the heaviest of the war. The British commander
seemed to appreciate this fact, for every effort was made to keep the news
of the battle from becoming known in England, and when complete
concealment was no longer possible, an official report was given out that
minimized the British loss, magnified the number of the Americans, and
totally mis-stated the facts bearing on the violation of the neutrality of
the Portuguese port. Captain Reid, however, was made a hero by his
countrymen. A Portuguese ship took him and his crew to Amelia Island,
whence they made their way to New York. Poughkeepsie voted him a sword.
Richmond citizens gave him a complimentary dinner, at which were drunk
such toasts as: "The private cruisers of the United States--whose
intrepidity has pierced the enemy's channels and bearded the lion in his
den"; "Neutral Ports--whenever the tyrants of the ocean dare to invade
these sanctuaries, may they meet with an 'Essex' and an 'Armstrong'"; and
"Captain Reid--his valor has shed a blaze of renown upon the character of
our seamen, and won for himself a laurel of eternal bloom." The
newspapers of the times rang with eulogies of Reid, and anecdotes of his
seafaring experiences. But after all, as McMaster finely says in his
history: "The finest compliment of all was the effort made in England to
keep the details of the battle from the public, and the false report of
the British commander."

In finally estimating the effect upon the American fortunes in the War of
1812, of the privateers and their work, many factors must be taken into
consideration. At first sight it would seem that a system which gave the
services of five hundred ships and their crews to the task of annoying the
British, and inflicting damage upon their commerce without cost to the
American Government, must be wholly advantageous. We have already seen the
losses inflicted upon British commerce by our privateers reflected in the
rapidly increasing cost of marine insurance. While the statistics in the
possession of the Government are not complete, they show that twenty-five
hundred vessels at least were captured during the War of 1812 by these
privately-owned cruisers, and there can be no shadow of a doubt that the
loss inflicted upon British merchants, and the constant state of
apprehension for the safety of their vessels in which they were kept, very
materially aided in extending among them a willingness to see peace made
on almost any terms.

But this is the other side of the story: The prime purpose of the
privateer was to make money for its owners, its officers, and its crew.
The whole design and spirit of the calling was mercenary. It inflicted
damage on the enemy, but only incidentally to earning dividends for its
participants. If Government cruisers had captured twenty-five hundred
British vessels, those vessels would have been lost to the enemy forever.
But the privateer, seeking gains, tried to send them into port, however
dangerous such a voyage might be, and accordingly, rather more than a
third of them were recaptured by the enemy. We may note here in passing,
that one reason why the so-called Confederate privateers during our own
Civil War, did an amount of damage so disproportionate to their numbers,
was that they were not, in fact, privateers at all. They were commissioned
by the Confederate Government to inflict the greatest possible amount of
injury upon northern commerce, and accordingly, when Semmes or Maffitt
captured a United States vessel, he burned it on the spot. There was no
question of profit involved in the service of the "Alabama," the
"Florida," or the "Shenandoah," and they have been called privateers in
our histories, mainly because Northern writers have been loath to concede,
to what they called a rebel government, the right to equip and commission
regular men-of-war.

But to return to the American privateers of 1812. While, as I have pointed
out, there were many instances of enormous gains being made, it is
probable that the business as a whole, like all gambling businesses as a
whole, was not profitable. Some ships made lucky voyages, but there is on
record in the Navy Department a list of three hundred vessels that took
not one single prize in the whole year of 1813. The records of Congress
show that, as a whole, the business was not remunerative, because there
were constant appeals from people interested. In response to this
importunity, Congress at one time paid a bounty of twenty-five dollars a
head for all prisoners taken. At other times it reduced the import duties
on cargoes captured and landed by privateers. Indeed, it is estimated by a
careful student, that the losses to the Government in the way of direct
expenditures and remission of revenues through the privateering system,
amounted to a sum sufficient to have kept twenty sloops of war on the sea
throughout the period of hostilities, and there is little doubt that such
vessels could have actually accomplished more in the direction of
harassing the enemy than the privateers. A very grave objection to the
privateering system, however, was the fact that the promise of profit to
sailors engaged in it was so great, that all adventurous men flocked into
the service, so that it became almost impossible to maintain our army or
to man our ships. I have already quoted George Washington's objections to
the practise during the Revolution. During the War of 1812, some of our
best frigates were compelled to sail half manned, while it is even
declared that the loss of the "Chesapeake" to the "Shannon" was largely
due to the fact that her crew were discontented and preparing, as their
time of service was nearly up, to quit the Government service for
privateering. In a history of Marblehead, one of the famous old seafaring
towns of Massachusetts, it is declared that of nine hundred men of that
town who took part in the war, fifty-seven served in the army, one hundred
and twenty entered the navy, while seven hundred and twenty-six shipped on
the privateers. These figures afford a fair indication of the way in which
the regular branches of the service suffered by the competition of the
system of legalized piracy.

**Transcriber's Notes:
Page 180: Punctuation in diary normalized.
Page 184: change Washingon to Washington
Page 185: changed dicover to discover
Page 186: changed Portugese to Portuguese

CHAPTER VI.

THE ARCTIC TRAGEDY--AMERICAN SAILORS IN THE FROZEN DEEP--THE SEARCH
FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN--REASONS FOR SEEKING THE NORTH POLE--TESTIMONY OF
SCIENTISTS AND EXPLORERS--PERTINACITY OF POLAR VOYAGERS--DR. KANE AND DR.
HAYES--CHARLES F. HALL, JOURNALIST AND EXPLORER--MIRACULOUS ESCAPE OF His
PARTY--THE ILL-FATED "JEANNETTE" EXPEDITION--SUFFERING AND DEATH OF DE
LONG AND HIS COMPANIONS--A PITIFUL DIARY--THE GREELY EXPEDITION--ITS
CAREFUL PLAN AND COMPLETE DISASTER--RESCUE OF THE GREELY SURVIVORS--PEARY,
WELLMAN, AND BALDWIN.

A chapter in the story of the American sailor, which, though begun full an
hundred years ago, is not yet complete, is that which tells the narrative
of the search for the North Pole. It is a story of calm daring, of
indomitable pertinacity, of patient endurance of the most cruel suffering,
of heroic invitation to and acceptance of death. The story will be
completed only when the goal is won. Even as these words are being
written, American sailors are beleaguered in the frozen North, and others
are preparing to follow them thither, so that the narrative here set forth
must be accepted as only a partial story of a quest still being
prosecuted.

In the private office of the President of the United States at Washington,
stands a massive oaken desk. It has been a passive factor in the making of
history, for at it have eight presidents sat, and papers involving almost
the life of the nation, have received the executive signature upon its
smooth surface. The very timbers of which it is built were concerned in
the making of history of another sort, for they were part of the frame of
the stout British ship "Resolute," which, after a long search in the Polar
regions for the hapless Sir John Franklin--of whom more hereafter--was
deserted by her crew in the Arctic pack, drifted twelve hundred miles in
the ice, and was then discovered and brought back home as good as new by
Captain Buddington of the stanch American whaler, "George and Henry." The
sympathies of all civilized peoples, and particularly of English-speaking
races, were at that time strongly stirred by the fate of Franklin and his
brave companions, and so Congress appropriated $40,000 for the purchase of
the vessel from the salvors, and her repair. Refitted throughout, she was
sent to England and presented to the Queen in 1856. Years later, when
broken up, the desk was made from her timbers and presented by order of
Victoria to the President of the United States, who at that time was
Rutherford B. Hayes. It stands now in the executive mansion, an enduring
memorial of one of the romances of a long quest full of romance--the
search for the North Pole.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25