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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3099-h.zip b/3099-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3851c11 --- /dev/null +++ b/3099-h.zip diff --git a/3099-h/3099-h.htm b/3099-h/3099-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d5667de --- /dev/null +++ b/3099-h/3099-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4860 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Old Merchant Marine, by Ralph D. Paine + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Old Merchant Marine, by Ralph D. Paine + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Old Merchant Marine + A Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors, Volume 36 in + the Chronicles Of America Series + +Author: Ralph D. Paine + +Editor: Allen Johnson + +Release Date: February 12, 2009 [EBook #3099] +Last Updated: February 7, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD MERCHANT MARINE *** + + + + +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library of St. Gregory's +University, Alev Akman, Dianne Bean, Carrie Lorenz, and David Widger + + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE OLD MERCHANT MARINE, + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + A CHRONICLE OF AMERICAN SHIPS AND SAILORS + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Ralph D. Paine + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <h4> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THE OLD MERCHANT MARINE</b> </a> + </h4> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> + </td> + <td> + COLONIAL ADVENTURERS IN LITTLE SHIPS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE PRIVATEERS OF '76 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> + </td> + <td> + OUT CUTLASES AND BOARD + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE FAMOUS DAYS OF SALEM PORT + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> + </td> + <td> + YANKEE VIKINGS AND NEW TRADE ROUTES + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a> + </td> + <td> + "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE BRILLIANT ERA OF 1812 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE PACKET SHIPS OF THE "ROARING FORTIES" + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE STATELY CLIPPER AND HER GLORY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a> + </td> + <td> + BOUND COASTWISE + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + THE OLD MERCHANT MARINE + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. COLONIAL ADVENTURERS IN LITTLE SHIPS + </h2> + <p> + The story of American ships and sailors is an epic of blue water which + seems singularly remote, almost unreal, to the later generations. A people + with a native genius for seafaring won and held a brilliant supremacy + through two centuries and then forsook this heritage of theirs. The period + of achievement was no more extraordinary than was its swift declension. A + maritime race whose topsails flecked every ocean, whose captains + courageous from father to son had fought with pike and cannonade to defend + the freedom of the seas, turned inland to seek a different destiny and + took no more thought for the tall ships and rich cargoes which had earned + so much renown for its flag. + </p> + <p> + Vanished fleets and brave memories—a chronicle of America which had + written its closing chapters before the Civil War! There will be other + Yankee merchantmen in times to come, but never days like those when + skippers sailed on seas uncharted in quest of ports mysterious and + unknown. + </p> + <p> + The Pilgrim Fathers, driven to the northward of their intended destination + in Virginia, landed on the shore of Cape Cod not so much to clear the + forest and till the soil as to establish a fishing settlement. Like the + other Englishmen who long before 1620 had steered across to harvest the + cod on the Grand Bank, they expected to wrest a livelihood mostly from + salt water. The convincing argument in favor of Plymouth was that it + offered a good harbor for boats and was "a place of profitable fishing." + Both pious and amphibious were these pioneers whom the wilderness and the + red Indian confined to the water's edge, where they were soon building + ships to trade corn for beaver skins with the Kennebec colony. + </p> + <p> + Even more energetic in taking profit from the sea were the Puritans who + came to Massachusetts Bay in 1629, bringing carpenters and shipbuilders + with them to hew the pine and oak so close at hand into keelsons, frames, + and planking. Two years later, Governor John Winthrop launched his + thirty-ton sloop Blessing of the Bay, and sent her to open "friendly + commercial relations" with the Dutch of Manhattan. Brisk though the + traffic was in furs and wampum, these mariners of Boston and Salem were + not content to voyage coastwise. Offshore fishing made skilled, + adventurous seamen of them, and what they caught with hook and line, when + dried and salted, was readily exchanged for other merchandise in Bermuda, + Barbados, and Europe. + </p> + <p> + A vessel was a community venture, and the custom still survives in the + ancient ports of the Maine coast where the shapely wooden schooners are + fashioned. The blacksmith, the rigger, the calker, took their pay in + shares. They became part owners, as did likewise the merchant who supplied + stores and material; and when the ship was afloat, the master, the mates, + and even the seamen, were allowed cargo space for commodities which they + might buy and sell to their own advantage. Thus early they learned to + trade as shrewdly as they navigated, and every voyage directly concerned a + whole neighborhood. + </p> + <p> + This kind of enterprise was peculiar to New England because other + resources were lacking. To the westward the French were more interested in + exploring the rivers leading to the region of the Great Lakes and in + finding fabulous rewards in furs. The Dutch on the Hudson were similarly + engaged by means of the western trails to the country of the Iroquois, + while the planters of Virginia had discovered an easy opulence in the + tobacco crop, with slave labor to toil for them, and they were not + compelled to turn to the hardships and the hazards of the sea. The New + Englander, hampered by an unfriendly climate, hard put to it to grow + sufficient food, with land immensely difficult to clear, was between the + devil and the deep sea, and he sagaciously chose the latter. Elsewhere in + the colonies the forest was an enemy to be destroyed with infinite pains. + The New England pioneer regarded it with favor as the stuff with which to + make stout ships and step the straight masts in them. + </p> + <p> + And so it befell that the seventeenth century had not run its course + before New England was hardily afloat on every Atlantic trade route, + causing Sir Josiah Child, British merchant and economist, to lament in + 1668 that in his opinion nothing was "more prejudicial and in prospect + more dangerous to any mother kingdom than the increase of shipping in her + colonies, plantations, or provinces." + </p> + <p> + This absorbing business of building wooden vessels was scattered in almost + every bay and river of the indented coast from Nova Scotia to Buzzard's + Bay and the sheltered waters of Long Island Sound. It was not restricted, + as now, to well-equipped yards with crews of trained artisans. Hard by the + huddled hamlet of log houses was the row of keel-blocks sloping to the + tide. In winter weather too rough for fishing, when the little farms lay + idle, this Yankee Jack-of-all-trades plied his axe and adze to shape the + timbers, and it was a routine task to peg together a sloop, a ketch, or a + brig, mere cockleshells, in which to fare forth to London, or Cadiz, or + the Windward Islands—some of them not much larger and far less + seaworthy than the lifeboat which hangs at a liner's davits. Pinching + poverty forced him to dispense with the ornate, top-heavy cabins and + forecastles of the foreign merchantmen, while invention, bred of + necessity, molded finer lines and less clumsy models to weather the risks + of a stormy coast and channels beset with shoals and ledges. The + square-rig did well enough for deepwater voyages, but it was an awkward, + lubberly contrivance for working along shore, and the colonial Yankee + therefore evolved the schooner with her flat fore-and-aft sails which + enabled her to beat to windward and which required fewer men in the + handling. + </p> + <p> + Dimly but unmistakably these canny seafarers in their rude beginnings + foreshadowed the creation of a merchant marine which should one day + comprise the noblest, swiftest ships driven by the wind and the finest + sailors that ever trod a deck. Even then these early vessels were + conspicuously efficient, carrying smaller crews than the Dutch or English, + paring expenses to a closer margin, daring to go wherever commerce + beckoned in order to gain a dollar at peril of their skins. + </p> + <p> + By the end of the seventeenth century more than a thousand vessels were + registered as built in the New England colonies, and Salem already + displayed the peculiar talent for maritime adventure which was to make her + the most illustrious port of the New World. The first of her line of + shipping merchants was Philip English, who was sailing his own ketch + Speedwell in 1676 and so rapidly advanced his fortunes that in a few years + he was the richest man on the coast, with twenty-one vessels which traded + coastwise with Virginia and offshore with Bilbao, Barbados, St. + Christopher's, and France. Very devout were his bills of lading, flavored + in this manner: "Twenty hogsheads of salt, shipped by the Grace of God in + the good sloop called the Mayflower.... and by God's Grace bound to + Virginia or Merriland." + </p> + <p> + No less devout were the merchants who ordered their skippers to cross to + the coast of Guinea and fill the hold with negroes to be sold in the West + Indies before returning with sugar and molasses to Boston or Rhode Island. + The slave-trade flourished from the very birth of commerce in Puritan New + England and its golden gains and exotic voyages allured high-hearted lads + from farm and counter. In 1640 the ship Desire, built at Marblehead, + returned from the West Indies and "brought some cotton and tobacco and + negroes, etc. from thence." Earlier than this the Dutch of Manhattan had + employed black labor, and it was provided that the Incorporated West India + Company should "allot to each Patroon twelve black men and women out of + the Prizes in which Negroes should be found." + </p> + <p> + It was in the South, however, that this kind of labor was most needed and, + as the trade increased, Virginia and the Carolinas became the most + lucrative markets. Newport and Bristol drove a roaring traffic in "rum and + niggers," with a hundred sail to be found in the infamous Middle Passage. + The master of one of these Rhode Island slavers, writing home from Guinea + in 1736, portrayed the congestion of the trade in this wise: "For never + was there so much Rum on the Coast at one time before. Not ye like of ye + French ships was never seen before, for ye whole coast is full of them. + For my part I can give no guess when I shall get away, for I purchast but + 27 slaves since I have been here, for slaves is very scarce. We have had + nineteen Sail of us at one time in ye Road, so that ships that used to + carry pryme slaves off is now forced to take any that comes. Here is seven + sail of us Rum men that are ready to devour one another, for our case is + desprit." + </p> + <p> + Two hundred years of wickedness unspeakable and human torture beyond all + computation, justified by Christian men and sanctioned by governments, at + length rending the nation asunder in civil war and bequeathing a problem + still unsolved—all this followed in the wake of those first voyages + in search of labor which could be bought and sold as merchandise. It + belonged to the dark ages with piracy and witchcraft, better forgotten + than recalled, save for its potent influence in schooling brave seamen and + building faster ships for peace and war. + </p> + <p> + These colonial seamen, in truth, fought for survival amid dangers so + manifold as to make their hardihood astounding. It was not merely a matter + of small vessels with a few men and boys daring distant voyages and the + mischances of foundering or stranding, but of facing an incessant plague + of privateers, French and Spanish, Dutch and English, or a swarm of + freebooters under no flag at all. Coasts were unlighted, charts few and + unreliable, and the instruments of navigation almost as crude as in the + days of Columbus. Even the savage Indian, not content with lurking in + ambush, went afloat to wreak mischief, and the records of the First Church + of Salem contain this quaint entry under date of July 25, 1677: "The Lord + having given a Commission to the Indians to take no less than 13 of the + Fishing Ketches of Salem and Captivate the men... it struck a great + consternation into all the people here. The Pastor moved on the Lord's + Day, and the whole people readily consented, to keep the Lecture Day + following as a Fast Day, which was accordingly done.... The Lord was + pleased to send in some of the Ketches on the Fast Day which was looked on + as a gracious smile of Providence. Also there had been 19 wounded men sent + into Salem a little while before; also a Ketch sent out from Salem as a + man-of-war to recover the rest of the Ketches. The Lord give them Good + Success." + </p> + <p> + To encounter a pirate craft was an episode almost commonplace and often + more sordid than picturesque. Many of these sea rogues were thieves with + small stomach for cutlasses and slaughter. They were of the sort that + overtook Captain John Shattuck sailing home from Jamaica in 1718 when he + reported his capture by one Captain Charles Vain, "a Pyrat" of 12 guns and + 120 men who took him to Crooked Island, plundered him of various articles, + stripped the brig, abused the crew, and finally let him go. In the same + year the seamen of the Hopewell related that near Hispaniola they met with + pirates who robbed and ill-treated them and carried off their mate because + they had no navigator. + </p> + <p> + Ned Low, a gentleman rover of considerable notoriety, stooped to filch the + stores and gear from a fleet of fourteen poor fishermen of Cape Sable. He + had a sense of dramatic values, however, and frequently brandished his + pistols on deck, besides which, as set down by one of his prisoners, "he + had a young child in Boston for whom he entertained such tenderness that + on every lucid interval from drinking and revelling, I have seen him sit + down and weep plentifully." + </p> + <p> + A more satisfying figure was Thomas Pounds, who was taken by the sloop + Mary, sent after him from Boston in 1689. He was discovered in Vineyard + Sound, and the two vessels fought a gallant action, the pirate flying a + red flag and refusing to strike. Captain Samuel Pease of the Mary was + mortally wounded, while Pounds, this proper pirate, strode his + quarter-deck and waved his naked sword, crying, "Come on board, ye dogs, + and I will strike YOU presently." This invitation was promptly accepted by + the stout seamen from Boston, who thereupon swarmed over the bulwark and + drove all hands below, preserving Thomas Pounds to be hanged in public. + </p> + <p> + In 1703 John Quelch, a man of resource, hoisted what he called "Old Roger" + over the Charles—a brigantine which had been equipped as a privateer + to cruise against the French of Acadia. This curious flag of his was + described as displaying a skeleton with an hour-glass in one hand and "a + dart in the heart with three drops of blood proceeding from it in the + other." Quelch led a mutiny, tossed the skipper overboard, and sailed for + Brazil, capturing several merchantmen on the way and looting them of rum, + silks, sugar, gold dust, and munitions. Rashly he came sailing back to + Marblehead, primed with a plausible yarn, but his men talked too much when + drunk and all hands were jailed. Upon the gallows Quelch behaved + exceedingly well, "pulling off his hat and bowing to the spectators," + while the somber Puritan merchants in the crowd were, many of them, + quietly dealing in the merchandise fetched home by pirates who were lucky + enough to steer clear of the law. + </p> + <p> + This was a shady industry in which New York took the more active part, + sending out supplies to the horde of pirates who ravaged the waters of the + Far East and made their haven at Madagascar, and disposing of the booty + received in exchange. Governor Fletcher had dirtied his hands by + protecting this commerce and, as a result, Lord Bellomont was named to + succeed him. Said William III, "I send you, my Lord, to New York, because + an honest and intrepid man is wanted to put these abuses down, and because + I believe you to be such a man." + </p> + <p> + Such were the circumstances in which Captain William Kidd, respectable + master mariner in the merchant service, was employed by Lord Bellomont, + royal Governor of New York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, to command + an armed ship and harry the pirates of the West Indies and Madagascar. + Strangest of all the sea tales of colonial history is that of Captain Kidd + and his cruise in the Adventure-Galley. His name is reddened with crimes + never committed, his grisly phantom has stalked through the legends and + literature of piracy, and the Kidd tradition still has magic to set + treasure-seekers exploring almost every beach, cove, and headland from + Halifax to the Gulf of Mexico. Yet if truth were told, he never cut a + throat or made a victim walk the plank. He was tried and hanged for the + trivial offense of breaking the head of a mutinous gunner of his own crew + with a wooden bucket. It was even a matter of grave legal doubt whether he + had committed one single piratical act. His trial in London was a farce. + In the case of the captured ships he alleged that they were sailing under + French passes, and he protested that his privateering commission justified + him, and this contention was not disproven. The suspicion is not wanting + that he was condemned as a scapegoat because certain noblemen of England + had subscribed the capital to outfit his cruise, expecting to win rich + dividends in gold captured from the pirates he was sent to attack. Against + these men a political outcry was raised, and as a result Captain Kidd was + sacrificed. He was a seaman who had earned honorable distinction in + earlier years, and fate has played his memory a shabby trick. + </p> + <p> + It was otherwise with Blackbeard, most flamboyant of all colonial pirates, + who filled the stage with swaggering success, chewing wine-glasses in his + cabin, burning sulphur to make his ship seem more like hell, and + industriously scourging the whole Atlantic coast. Charleston lived in + terror of him until Lieutenant Maynard, in a small sloop, laid him + alongside in a hammer-and-tongs engagement and cut off the head of + Blackbeard to dangle from the bowsprit as a trophy. + </p> + <p> + Of this rudely adventurous era, it would be hard to find a seaman more + typical than the redoubtable Sir William Phips who became the first royal + Governor of the Massachusetts Colony in 1692. Born on a frontier farm of + the Maine coast while many of the Pilgrim fathers were living, "his + faithful mother," wrote Cotton Mather, "had no less than twenty-six + children, whereof twenty-one were sons; but equivalent to them all was + William, one of the youngest, whom, his father dying, was left young with + his mother, and with her he lived, keeping ye sheep in Ye Wilderness until + he was eighteen years old." Then he apprenticed himself to a neighboring + shipwright who was building sloops and pinnaces and, having learned the + trade, set out for Boston. As a ship-carpenter he plied his trade, spent + his wages in the taverns of the waterside and there picked up wondrous + yarns of the silver-laden galleons of Spain which had shivered their + timbers on the reefs of the Bahama Passage or gone down in the hurricanes + that beset those southerly seas. Meantime he had married a wealthy widow + whose property enabled him to go treasure-hunting on the Spanish main. + From his first voyage thither in a small vessel he escaped with his life + and barely enough treasure to pay the cost of the expedition. + </p> + <p> + In no wise daunted he laid his plans to search for a richly ladened + galleon which was said to have been wrecked half a century before off the + coast of Hispaniola. Since his own funds were not sufficient for this + exploit, he betook himself to England to enlist the aid of the Government. + With bulldog persistence he besieged the court of James II for a whole + year, this rough-and-ready New England shipmaster, until he was given a + royal frigate for his purpose. He failed to fish up more silver from the + sands but, nothing daunted, he persuaded other patrons to outfit him with + a small merchantman, the James and Mary, in which he sailed for the coast + of Hispaniola. This time he found his galleon and thirty-two tons of + silver. "Besides that incredible treasure of plate, thus fetched up from + seven or eight fathoms under water, there were vast riches of Gold, and + Pearls, and Jewels.... All that a Spanish frigot was to be enriched + withal." + </p> + <p> + Up the Thames sailed the lucky little merchantman in the year of 1687, + with three hundred thousand pounds sterling as her freightage of treasure. + Captain Phips made honest division with his backers and, because men of + his integrity were not over plentiful in England after the Restoration, + King James knighted him. He sailed home to Boston, "a man of strong and + sturdy frame," as Hawthorne fancied him, "whose face had been roughened by + northern tempests and blackened by the burning sun of the West Indies.... + He wears an immense periwig flowing down over his shoulders.... His red, + rough hands which have done many a good day's work with the hammer and + adze are half-covered by the delicate lace rues at the wrist." But he + carried with him the manners of the forecastle, a man hasty and unlettered + but superbly brave and honest. Even after he had become Governor he + thrashed the captain of the Nonesuch frigate of the royal navy, and used + his fists on the Collector of the Port after cursing him with tremendous + gusto. Such behavior in a Governor was too strenuous, and Sir William + Phips was summoned to England, where he died while waiting his restoration + to office and royal favor. Failing both, he dreamed of still another + treasure voyage, "for it was his purpose, upon his dismission from his + Government once more to have gone upon his old Fishing-Trade, upon a + mighty shelf of rock and banks of sand that lie where he had informed + himself." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. THE PRIVATEERS OF '76 + </h2> + <p> + The wars of England with France and Spain spread turmoil upon the high + seas during the greater part of the eighteenth century. Yet with an + immense tenacity of purpose, these briny forefathers increased their trade + and multiplied their ships in the face of every manner of adversity. The + surprising fact is that most of them were not driven ashore to earn their + bread. What Daniel Webster said of them at a later day was true from the + beginning: "It is not, sir, by protection and bounties, but by unwearied + exertion, by extreme economy, by that manly and resolute spirit which + relies on itself to protect itself. These causes alone enable American + ships still to keep the element and show the flag of their country in + distant seas." + </p> + <p> + What was likely to befall a shipmaster in the turbulent eighteenth century + may be inferred from the misfortunes of Captain Michael Driver of Salem. + In 1759 he was in command of the schooner Three Brothers, bound to the + West Indies on his lawful business. Jogging along with a cargo of fish and + lumber, he was taken by a privateer under British colors and sent into + Antigua as a prize. Unable to regain either his schooner or his two + thousand dollar cargo, he sadly took passage for home. Another owner gave + him employment and he set sail in the schooner Betsy for Guadaloupe. + During this voyage, poor man, he was captured and carried into port by a + French privateer. On the suggestion that he might ransom his vessel on + payment of four thousand livres, he departed for Boston in hope of finding + the money, leaving behind three of his sailors as hostages. + </p> + <p> + Cash in hand for the ransom, the long-suffering Captain Michael Driver + turned southward again, now in the schooner Mary, and he flew a flag of + truce to indicate his errand. This meant nothing to the ruffian who + commanded the English privateer Revenge. He violently seized the innocent + Mary and sent her into New Providence. Here Captain Driver made lawful + protest before the authorities, and was set at liberty with vessel and + cargo—an act of justice quite unusual in the Admiralty Court of the + Bahamas. + </p> + <p> + Unmolested, the harassed skipper managed to gain Cape Francois and rescue + his three seamen and his schooner in exchange for the ransom money. As he + was about to depart homeward bound, a French frigate snatched him and his + crew out of their vessel and threw them ashore at Santiago, where for two + months they existed as ragged beachcombers until by some judicial twist + the schooner was returned to them. They worked her home and presented + their long list of grievances to the colonial Government of Massachusetts, + which duly forwarded them—and that was the end of it. Three years + had been spent in this catalogue of misadventures, and Captain Driver, his + owners, and his men were helpless against such intolerable aggression. + They and their kind were a prey to every scurvy rascal who misused a + privateering commission to fill his own pockets. + </p> + <p> + Stoutly resolved to sail and trade as they pleased, these undaunted + Americans, nevertheless, increased their business on blue water until + shortly before the Revolution the New England fleet alone numbered six + hundred sail. Its captains felt at home in Surinam and the Canaries. They + trimmed their yards in the reaches of the Mediterranean and the North Sea + or bargained thriftily in the Levant. The whalers of Nantucket, in their + apple-bowed barks, explored and hunted in distant seas, and the smoke of + their try-pots darkened the waters of Baffin Bay, Guinea, and Brazil. It + was they who inspired Edmund Burke's familiar eulogy: "No sea but is vexed + by their fisheries. No climate that is not a witness to their toils. + Neither the perseverance of Holland nor the activity of France, nor the + dexterous and firm sagacity of England ever carried this most perilous + mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this + recent people—a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle + and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." + </p> + <p> + In 1762, seventy-eight whalers cleared from American ports, of which more + than half were from Nantucket. Eight years later there were one hundred + and twenty-five whalers out of Nantucket which took 14,331 barrels of oil + valued at $358,200. In size these vessels averaged no more than ninety + tons, a fishing smack of today, and yet they battered their way half + around the watery globe and comfortably supported six thousand people who + dwelt on a sandy island unfit for farming and having no other industries. + Every Nantucket lad sailed for his "lay" or share of the catch and aspired + to command eventually a whaler of his own. + </p> + <p> + Whaler, merchantman, and slaver were training a host of incomparable + seamen destined to harry the commerce of England under the new-born Stars + and Stripes, and now, in 1775, on the brink of actual war, Parliament + flung a final provocation and aroused the furious enmity of the fishermen + who thronged the Grand Bank. Lord North proposed to forbid the colonies to + export fish to those foreign markets in which every seacoast village was + vitally concerned, and he also contemplated driving the fishing fleets + from their haunts off Newfoundland. This was to rob six thousand sturdy + men of a livelihood afloat and to spread ruin among the busy ports, such + as Marblehead and Gloucester, from which sailed hundreds of pinks, snows, + and schooners. This measure became law notwithstanding the protests of + twenty-one peers of the realm who declared: "We dissent because the + attempt to coerce by famine the whole body of the inhabitants of great and + populous provinces is without example in the history of this, or perhaps, + of any civilized nation." + </p> + <p> + The sailormen bothered their heads very little about taxation without + representation but whetted their anger with grudges more robust. They had + been beggared and bullied and shot at from the Bay of Biscay to Barbados, + and no sooner was the Continental Congress ready to issue privateering + commissions and letters of marque than for them it was up anchor and away + to bag a Britisher. Scarcely had a shipmaster signaled his arrival with a + deep freight of logwood, molasses, or sugar than he received orders to + discharge with all speed and clear his decks for mounting heavier + batteries and slinging the hammocks of a hundred eager privateersmen who + had signed articles in the tavern rendezvous. The timbered warehouses were + filled with long-toms and nine-pounders, muskets, blunderbusses, pistols, + cutlases, boarding-pikes, hand grenades, tomahawks, grape, canister, and + doubleheaded shot. + </p> + <p> + In the narrow, gabled streets of Salem, Boston, New York, and Baltimore, + crowds trooped after the fifes and drums with a strapping recruiting + officer to enroll "all gentlemen seamen and able-bodied landsmen who had a + mind to distinguish themselves in the glorious cause of their country and + make their fortunes." Many a ship's company was mustered between noon and + sunset, including men who had served in armed merchantmen and who in times + of nominal peace had fought the marauders of Europe or whipped the + corsairs of Barbary in the Strait of Gibraltar. Never was a race of seamen + so admirably fitted for the daring trade of privateering as the crews of + these tall sloops, topsail schooners, and smart square-riggers, their + sides checkered with gun-ports, and ready to drive to sea like hawks. + </p> + <p> + In some instances the assurance of these hardy men was both absurd and + sublime. Ramshackle boats with twenty or thirty men aboard, mounting one + or two old guns, sallied out in the expectation of gold and glory, only to + be captured by the first British cruiser that chanced to sight them. A few + even sailed with no cannon at all, confident of taking them out of the + first prize overhauled by laying alongside—and so in some cases they + actually did. + </p> + <p> + The privateersmen of the Revolution played a larger part in winning the + war than has been commonly recognized. This fact, however, was clearly + perceived by Englishmen of that era, as "The London Spectator" candidly + admitted: "The books at Lloyds will recount it, and the rate of assurances + at that time will prove what their diminutive strength was able to effect + in the face of our navy, and that when nearly one hundred pennants were + flying on our coast. Were we able to prevent their going in and out, or + stop them from taking our trade and our storeships even in sight of our + garrisons? Besides, were they not in the English and Irish Channels, + picking up our homeward bound trade, sending their prizes into French and + Spanish ports to the great terror of our merchants and shipowners?" + </p> + <p> + The naval forces of the Thirteen Colonies were pitifully feeble in + comparison with the mighty fleets of the enemy whose flaming broadsides + upheld the ancient doctrine that "the Monarchs of Great Britain have a + peculiar and Sovereign authority upon the Ocean... from the Laws of God + and of Nature, besides an uninterrupted Fruition of it for so many Ages + past as that its Beginnings cannot be traced out." * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * "The Seaman's Vade-Mecum." London, 1744. +</pre> + <p> + In 1776 only thirty-one Continental cruisers of all classes were in + commission, and this number was swiftly diminished by capture and blockade + until in 1782 no more than seven ships flew the flag of the American Navy. + On the other hand, at the close of 1777, one hundred and seventy-four + private armed vessels had been commissioned, mounting two thousand guns + and carrying nine thousand men. During this brief period of the war they + took as prizes 733 British merchantmen and inflicted losses of more than + two million pounds sterling. Over ten thousand seamen were made prisoners + at a time when England sorely needed them for drafting into her navy. To + lose them was a far more serious matter than for General Washington to + capture as many Hessian mercenaries who could be replaced by purchase. + </p> + <p> + In some respects privateering as waged a century and more ago was a + sordid, unlovely business, the ruling motive being rather a greed of gain + than an ardent love of country. Shares in lucky ships were bought and sold + in the gambling spirit of a stock exchange. Fortunes were won and lost + regardless of the public service. It became almost impossible to recruit + men for the navy because they preferred the chance of booty in a + privateer. For instance, the State of Massachusetts bought a twenty-gun + ship, the Protector, as a contribution to the naval strength, and one of + her crew, Ebenezer Fox, wrote of the effort to enlist sufficient men: "The + recruiting business went on slowly, however, but at length upwards of + three hundred men were carried, dragged, and driven abroad; of all ages, + kinds, and descriptions; in all the various stages of intoxication from + that of sober tipsiness to beastly drunkenness; with the uproar and clamor + that may be more easily imagined than described. Such a motley group has + never been seen since Falstaff's ragged regiment paraded the streets of + Coventry." + </p> + <p> + There was nothing of glory to boast of in fetching into port some little + Nova Scotia coasting schooner with a cargo of deals and potatoes, whose + master was also the owner and who lost the savings of a lifetime because + he lacked the men and guns to defend his property against spoliation. The + war was no concern of his, and he was the victim of a system now obsolete + among civilized nations, a relic of a barbarous and piratical age whose + spirit has been revived and gloried in recently only by the Government of + the German Empire. The chief fault of the privateersman was that he sailed + and fought for his own gain, but he was never guilty of sinking ships with + passengers and crew aboard, and very often he played the gentleman in + gallant style. Nothing could have seemed to him more abhorrent and + incredible than a kind of warfare which should drown women and children + because they had embarked under an enemy's flag. + </p> + <p> + Extraordinary as were the successes of the Yankee privateers, it was a + game of give-and-take, a weapon which cut both ways, and the temptation is + to extol their audacious achievements while glossing over the heavy losses + which their own merchant marine suffered. The weakness of privateering was + that it was wholly offensive and could not, like a strong navy, protect + its own commerce from depredation. While the Americans were capturing over + seven hundred British vessels during the first two years of the war, as + many as nine hundred American ships were taken or sunk by the enemy, a + rate of destruction which fairly swept the Stars and Stripes from the + tracks of ocean commerce. As prizes these vessels were sold at Liverpool + and London for an average amount of two thousand pounds each and the loss + to the American owners was, of course, ever so much larger. + </p> + <p> + The fact remains, nevertheless—and it is a brilliant page of history + to recall—that in an inchoate nation without a navy, with blockading + squadrons sealing most of its ports, with ragged armies on land which + retreated oftener than they fought, private armed ships dealt the maritime + prestige of Great Britain a far deadlier blow than the Dutch, French, and + Spanish were able to inflict. In England, there resulted actual distress, + even lack of food, because these intrepid seamen could not be driven away + from her own coasts and continued to snatch their prizes from under the + guns of British forts and fleets. The plight of the West India Colonies + was even worse, as witness this letter from a merchant of Grenada: "We are + happy if we can get anything for money by reason of the quantity of + vessels taken by the Americans. 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 American privateers. God knows, if this + American war continues much longer, we shall all die of hunger." + </p> + <p> + On both sides, by far the greater number of captures was made during the + earlier period of the war which cleared the seas of the smaller, slower, + and unarmed vessels. As the war progressed and the profits flowed in, + swifter and larger ships were built for the special business of + privateering until the game resembled actual naval warfare. Whereas, at + first, craft of ten guns with forty or fifty men had been considered + adequate for the service, three or four years later ships were afloat with + a score of heavy cannon and a trained crew of a hundred and fifty or two + hundred men, ready to engage a sloop of war or to stand up to the enemy's + largest privateers. In those days single ship actions, now almost + forgotten in naval tactics, were fought with illustrious skill and + courage, and commanders won victories worthy of comparison with deeds + distinguished in the annals of the American Navy. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. OUT CUTLASES AND BOARD + </h2> + <p> + Salem was the foremost privateering port of the Revolution, and from this + pleasant harbor, long since deserted by ships and sailormen, there filled + away past Cape Ann one hundred and fifty-eight vessels of all sizes to + scan the horizon for British topsails. They accounted for four hundred + prizes, or half the whole number to the credit of American arms afloat. + This preeminence was due partly to freedom from a close blockade and + partly to a seafaring population which was born and bred to its trade and + knew no other. Besides the crews of Salem merchantmen, privateering + enlisted the idle fishermen of ports nearby and the mariners of Boston + whose commerce had been snuffed out by the British occupation. + Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston sent some splendid armed ships to + sea but not with the impetuous rush nor in anything like the numbers + enrolled by this gray old town whose fame was unique. + </p> + <p> + For the most part, the records of all these brave ships and the thousands + of men who sailed and sweated and fought in them are dim and scanty, no + more than routine entries in dusty log-books which read like this: "Filled + away in pursuit of a second sail in the N. W. At 4.30 she hoisted English + colors and commenced firing her stern guns. At 5.90 took in the steering + sails, at the same time she fired a broadside. We opened a fire from our + larboard battery and at 5.30 she struck her colors. Got out the boats and + boarded her. She proved to be the British brig Acorn from Liverpool to Rio + Janeiro, mounting fourteen cannon." * But now and then one finds in these + old sea-journals an entry more intimate and human, such as the complaint + of the master of the privateer Scorpion, cruising in 1778 and never a + prize in sight. "This Book I made to keep the Accounts of my Voyage but + God knows beste what that will be, for I am at this time very Impashent + but I hope soon there will be a Change to ease my Trubled Mind. On this + Day I was Chaced by Two Ships of War which I tuck to be Enemies, but + coming on thick Weather I have lost site of them and so conclude myself + escaped which is a small good Fortune in the midste of my + Discouragements." * * A burst of gusty laughter still echoes along the + crowded deck of the letter-of-marque schooner Success, whose master, + Captain Philip Thrash, inserted this diverting comment in his humdrum + record of the day's work: "At one half past 8 discovered a sail ahead. + Tacked ship. At 9 tacked ship again and past just to Leeward of the Sail + which appeared to be a damn'd Comical Boat, by G-d." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * From the manuscript collections of the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * * From the manuscript collections of the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. +</pre> + <p> + There are a few figures of the time and place which stand out, + full-length, in vivid colors against a background that satisfies the + desire of romance and thrillingly conveys the spirit of the time and the + place. Such a one was Captain Jonathan Haraden, Salem privateersman, who + captured one thousand British cannon afloat and is worthy to be ranked as + one of the ablest sea-fighters of his generation. He was a merchant + mariner, a master at the outbreak of the Revolution, who had followed the + sea since boyhood. But it was more to his taste to command the Salem ship + General Pickering of 180 tons which was fitted out under a letter of + marque in the spring of 1780. She carried fourteen six-pounders and + forty-five men and boys, nothing very formidable, when Captain Haraden + sailed for Bilbao with a cargo of sugar. During the voyage, before his + crew had been hammered into shape, he beat off a British privateer of + twenty guns and safely tacked into the Bay of Biscay. + </p> + <p> + There he sighted another hostile privateer, the Golden Eagle, larger than + his own ship. Instead of shifting his course to avoid her, Haraden clapped + on sail and steered alongside after nightfall, roaring through his + trumpet: "What ship is this? An American frigate, sir. Strike, or I'll + sink you with a broadside." + </p> + <p> + Dazed by this unexpected summons in the gloom, the master of the Golden + Eagle promptly surrendered, and a prize crew was thrown aboard with orders + to follow the Pickering into Bilbao. While just outside that Spanish + harbor, a strange sail was descried and again Jonathan Haraden cleared for + action. The vessel turned out to be the Achilles, one of the most powerful + privateers out of London, with forty guns and a hundred and fifty men, or + almost thrice the fighting strength of the little Pickering. She was, in + fact, more like a sloop of war. Before Captain Haraden could haul within + gunshot to protect his prize, it had been recaptured by the Achilles, + which then maneuvered to engage the Pickering. + </p> + <p> + Darkness intervened, but Jonathan Haraden had no idea of escaping under + cover of it. He was waiting for the morning breeze and a chance to fight + it out to a finish. He was a handsome man with an air of serene composure + and a touch of the theatrical such as Nelson displayed in his great + moments. Having prepared his ship for battle, he slept soundly until dawn + and then dressed with fastidious care to stroll on deck, where he beheld + the Achilles bearing down on him with her crew at quarters. + </p> + <p> + His own men were clustered behind their open ports, matches lighted, + tackles and breechings cast off, crowbars, handspikes, and sponge-staves + in place, gunners stripped to the waist, powder-boys ready for the word + like sprinters on the mark. Forty-five of them against a hundred and + fifty, and Captain Haraden, debonair, unruffled, walking to and fro with a + leisurely demeanor, remarking that although the Achilles appeared to be + superior in force, "he had no doubt they would beat her if they were firm + and steady and did not throw away their fire." + </p> + <p> + It was, indeed, a memorable sea-picture, the sturdy Pickering riding deep + with her burden of sugar and seeming smaller than she really was, the + Achilles towering like a frigate, and all Bilbao turned out to watch the + duel, shore and headlands crowded with spectators, the blue harbor-mouth + gay with an immense flotilla of fishing boats and pleasure craft. The + stake for which Haraden fought was to retake the Golden Eagle prize and to + gain his port. His seamanship was flawless. Vastly outnumbered if it + should come to boarding, he handled his vessel so as to avoid the Achilles + while he poured the broadsides into her. After two hours the London + privateer emerged from the smoke which had obscured the combat and put out + to sea in flight, hulled through and through, while a farewell flight of + crowbars, with which the guns of the Pickering had been crammed to the + muzzle, ripped through her sails and rigging. + </p> + <p> + Haraden hoisted canvas and drove in chase, but the Achilles had the heels + of him "with a mainsail as large as a ship of the line," and reluctantly + he wore ship and, with the Golden Eagle again in his possession, he sailed + to an anchorage in Bilbao harbor. The Spanish populace welcomed him with + tremendous enthusiasm. He was carried through the streets in a holiday + procession and was the hero of banquets and public receptions. + </p> + <p> + Such a man was bound to be the idol of his sailors and one of them quite + plausibly related that "so great was the confidence he inspired that if he + but looked at a sail through his glass and told the helmsman to steer for + her, the observation went round,'If she is an enemy, she is ours.'" + </p> + <p> + It was in this same General Pickering, no longer sugar-laden but in + cruising trim, that Jonathan Haraden accomplished a feat which Paul Jones + might have been proud to claim. There lifted above the sky-line three + armed merchantmen sailing in company from Halifax to New York, a brig of + fourteen guns, a ship of sixteen guns, a sloop of twelve guns. When they + flew signals and formed in line, the ship alone appeared to outmatch the + Pickering, but Haraden, in that lordly manner of his, assured his men that + "he had no doubt whatever that if they would do their duty he would + quickly capture the three vessels." Here was performance very much out of + the ordinary, naval strategy of an exceptionally high order, and yet it is + dismissed by the only witness who took the trouble to mention it in these + few, casual words: "This he did with great ease by going alongside of each + of them, one after the other." + </p> + <p> + One more story of this master sea-rover of the Revolution, sailor and + gentleman, who served his country so much more brilliantly than many a + landsman lauded in the written histories of the war. While in the + Pickering he attacked a heavily armed royal mail packet bound to England + from the West Indies, one of the largest merchant vessels of her day and + equipped to defend herself against privateers. A tough antagonist and a + hard nut to crack! They battered each other like two pugilists for four + hours and even then the decision was still in the balance. Then Haraden + sheered off to mend his damaged gear and splintered hull before closing in + again. + </p> + <p> + He then discovered that all his powder had been shot away excepting one + last charge. Instead of calling it a drawn battle, he rammed home this + last shot in the locker, and ran down to windward of the packet, so close + that he could shout across to the other quarter-deck: "I will give you + five minutes to haul down your colors. If they are not down at the end of + that time, I will fire into you and sink you, so help me God." + </p> + <p> + It was the bluff magnificent—courage cold-blooded and calculating. + The adversary was still unbeaten. Haraden stood with watch in hand and + sonorously counted off the minutes. It was the stronger will and not the + heavier metal that won the day. To be shattered by fresh broadsides at + pistol-range was too much for the nerves of the gallant English skipper + whose decks were already like a slaughterhouse. One by one, Haraden + shouted the minutes and his gunners blew their matches. At "four" the red + ensign came fluttering down and the mail packet was a prize of war. + </p> + <p> + Another merchant seaman of this muster-roll of patriots was Silas Talbot, + who took to salt water as a cabin boy at the age of twelve and was a + prosperous shipmaster at twenty-one with savings invested in a house of + his own in Providence. Enlisting under Washington, he was made a captain + of infantry and was soon promoted, but he was restless ashore and glad to + obtain an odd assignment. As Colonel Talbot he selected sixty infantry + volunteers, most of them seamen by trade, and led them aboard the small + sloop Argo in May, 1779, to punish the New York Tories who were equipping + privateers against their own countrymen and working great mischief in Long + Island Sound. So serious was the situation that General Gates found it + almost impossible to obtain food supplies for the northern department of + the Continental army. + </p> + <p> + Silas Talbot and his nautical infantrymen promptly fell in with the New + York privateer Lively, a fair match for him, and as promptly sent her into + port. He then ran offshore and picked up and carried into Boston two + English privateers headed for New York with large cargoes of merchandise + from the West Indies. But he was particularly anxious to square accounts + with a renegade Captain Hazard who made Newport his base and had captured + many American vessels with the stout brig King George, using her for "the + base purpose of plundering his old neighbors and friends." + </p> + <p> + On his second cruise in the Argo, young Silas Talbot encountered the + perfidious King George to the southward of Long Island and riddled her + with one broadside after another, first hailing Captain Hazard by name and + cursing him in double-shotted phrases for the traitorous swab that he was. + Then the seagoing infantry scrambled over the bulwarks and tumbled the + Tories down their own hatches without losing a man. A prize crew with the + humiliated King George made for New London, where there was much cheering + in the port, and "even the women, both young and old, expressed the + greatest joy." + </p> + <p> + With no very heavy fighting, Talbot had captured five vessels and was keen + to show what his crew could do against mettlesome foemen. He found them at + last well out to sea in a large ship which seemed eager to engage him. + Only a few hundred feet apart through a long afternoon, they briskly and + cheerily belabored each other with grape and solid shot. Talbot's + speaking-trumpet was shot out of his hand, the tails of his coat were + shorn off, and all the officers and men stationed with him on the + quarter-deck were killed or wounded. + </p> + <p> + His crew reported that the Argo was in a sinking condition, with the water + flooding the gun-deck, but he told them to lower a man or two in the bight + of a line and they pluckily plugged the holes from overside. There was a + lusty huzza when the Englishman's mainmast crashed to the deck and this + finished the affair. Silas Talbot found that he had trounced the privateer + Dragon, of twice his own tonnage and with the advantage in both guns and + men. + </p> + <p> + While his crew was patching the Argo and pumping the water from her hold, + the lookout yelled that another sail was making for them. Without + hesitation Talbot somehow got this absurdly impudent one-masted craft of + his under way and told those of his sixty men who survived to prepare for + a second tussle. Fortunately another Yankee privateer joined the chase and + together they subdued the armed brig Hannah. When the Argo safely convoyed + the two prizes into New Bedford, "all who beheld her were astonished that + a vessel of her diminutive size could suffer so much and yet get safely to + port." + </p> + <p> + Men fought and slew each other in those rude and distant days with a + certain courtesy, with a fine, punctilious regard for the etiquette of the + bloody game. There was the Scotch skipper of the Betsy, a privateer, whom + Silas Talbot hailed as follows, before they opened fire: + </p> + <p> + "You must now haul down those British colors, my friend." + </p> + <p> + "Notwithstanding I find you an enemy, as I suspected," was the dignified + reply, "yet, sir, I shall let them hang a little bit longer,—with + your permission,—so fire away, Flanagan." + </p> + <p> + During another of her cruises the Argo pursued an artfully disguised ship + of the line which could have blown her to kingdom come with a broadside of + thirty guns. The little Argo was actually becalmed within short range, but + her company got out the sweeps and rowed her some distance before darkness + and a favoring slant of wind carried them clear. In the summer of 1780, + Captain Silas Talbot, again a mariner by title, was given the private + cruiser General Washington with one hundred and twenty men, but he was + less fortunate with her than when afloat in the tiny Argo with his sixty + Continentals. Off Sandy Hook he ran into the British fleet under Admiral + Arbuthnot and, being outsailed in a gale of wind, he was forced to lower + his flag to the great seventy-four Culloden. After a year in English + prisons he was released and made his way home, serving no more in the war + but having the honor to command the immortal frigate Constitution in 1799 + as a captain in the American Navy. + </p> + <p> + In several notable instances the privateersmen tried conclusions with + ships that flew the royal ensign, and got the better of them. The hero of + an uncommonly brilliant action of this sort was Captain George Geddes of + Philadelphia, who was entrusted with the Congress, a noble privateer of + twenty-four guns and two hundred men. Several of the smaller British + cruisers had been sending parties ashore to plunder estates along the + southern shores, and one of them, the sloop of war Savage, had even raided + Washington's home at Mount Vernon. Later she shifted to the coast of + Georgia in quest of loot and was unlucky enough to fall athwart Captain + Geddes in the Congress. + </p> + <p> + The privateer was the more formidable ship and faster on the wind, forcing + Captain Sterling of the Savage to accept the challenge. Disabled aloft + very early in the fight, Captain Geddes was unable to choose his position, + for which reason they literally battled hand-to-hand, hulls grinding + against each other, the gunners scorched by the flashes of the cannon in + the ports of the opposing ship, with scarcely room to ply the rammers, and + the sailors throwing missiles from the decks, hand grenades, cold shot, + scraps of iron, belaying-pins. + </p> + <p> + As the vessels lay interlocked, the Savage was partly dismasted and + Captain Geddes, leaping upon the forecastle head, told the boarders to + follow him. Before they could swing their cutlases and dash over the + hammock-nettings, the British boatswain waved his cap and yelled that the + Savage had surrendered. Captain Sterling was dead, eight others were + killed, and twenty-four wounded. The American loss was about the same. + Captain Geddes, however, was unable to save his prize because a British + frigate swooped down and took them both into Charleston. + </p> + <p> + When peace came in 1783, it was independence dearly bought by land and + sea, and no small part of the price was the loss of a thousand merchant + ships which would see their home ports no more. Other misfortunes added to + the toll of destruction. The great fishing fleets which had been the chief + occupation of coastwise New England were almost obliterated and their + crews were scattered. Many of the men had changed their allegiance and + were sailing out of Halifax, and others were impressed into British + men-of-war or returned broken in health from long confinement in British + prisons. The ocean was empty of the stanch schooners which had raced home + with lee rails awash to cheer waiting wives and sweethearts. + </p> + <p> + The fate of Nantucket and its whalers was even more tragic. This colony on + its lonely island amid the shoals was helpless against raids by sea, and + its ships and storehouses were destroyed without mercy. Many vessels in + distant waters were captured before they were even aware that a state of + war existed. Of a fleet numbering a hundred and fifty sail, one hundred + and thirty-four were taken by the enemy and Nantucket whaling suffered + almost total extinction. These seamen, thus robbed of their livelihood, + fought nobly for their country's cause. Theirs was not the breed to sulk + or whine in port. Twelve hundred of them were killed or made prisoners + during the Revolution. They were to be found in the Army and Navy and + behind the guns of privateers. There were twenty-five Nantucket whalemen + in the crew of the Ranger when Paul Jones steered her across the Atlantic + on that famous cruise which inspired the old forecastle song that begins + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'Tis of the gallant Yankee ship + That flew the Stripes and Stars, + And the whistling wind from the west nor'west + Blew through her pitch pine spars. + With her starboard tacks aboard, my boys, + She hung upon the gale. + On an autumn night we raised the light + Off the Old Head of Kinsale. +</pre> + <p> + Pitiful as was the situation of Nantucket, with its only industry wiped + out and two hundred widows among the eight hundred families left on the + island, the aftermath of war seemed almost as ruinous along the whole + Atlantic coast. More ships could be built and there were thousands of + adventurous sailors to man them, but where were the markets for the + product of the farms and mills and plantations? The ports of Europe had + been so long closed to American shipping that little demand was left for + American goods. To the Government of England the people of the Republic + were no longer fellow-countrymen but foreigners. As such they were subject + to the Navigation Acts, and no cargoes could be sent to that kingdom + unless in British vessels. The flourishing trade with the West Indies was + made impossible for the same reason, a special Order in Council aiming at + one fell stroke to "put an end to the building and increase of American + vessels" and to finish the careers of three hundred West Indiamen already + afloat. In the islands themselves the results were appalling. Fifteen + thousand slaves died of starvation because the American traders were + compelled to cease bringing them dried fish and corn during seasons in + which their own crops were destroyed by hurricanes. + </p> + <p> + In 1776, one-third of the seagoing merchant marine of Great Britain had + been bought or built to order in America because lumber was cheaper and + wages were lower. This lucrative business was killed by a law which denied + Englishmen the privilege of purchasing ships built in American yards. So + narrow and bitter was this commercial enmity, so ardent this desire to + banish the Stars and Stripes from blue water, that Lord Sheffield in 1784 + advised Parliament that the pirates of Algiers and Tripoli really + benefited English commerce by preying on the shipping of weaker nations. + "It is not probable that the American States will have a very free trade + in the Mediterranean," said he. "It will not be to the interest of any of + the great maritime Powers to protect them from the Barbary States. If they + know their interests, they will not encourage the Americans to be + carriers. That the Barbary States are advantageous to maritime Powers is + certain." + </p> + <p> + Denied the normal ebb and flow of trade and commerce and with the imports + from England far exceeding the value of the merchandise exported thence, + the United States, already impoverished, was drained of its money, and a + currency of dollars, guineas, joes, and moidores grew scarcer day by day. + There was no help in a government which consisted of States united only in + name. Congress comprised a handful of respectable gentlemen who had little + power and less responsibility, quarreling among themselves for lack of + better employment. Retaliation against England by means of legislation was + utterly impossible. Each State looked after its commerce in its own + peculiar fashion and the devil might take the hindmost. Their rivalries + and jealousies were like those of petty kingdoms. If one State should + close her ports is to English ships, the others would welcome them in + order to divert the trade, with no feeling of national pride or federal + cooperation. + </p> + <p> + The Articles of Confederation had empowered Congress to make treaties of + commerce, but only such as did not restrain the legislative power of any + State from laying imposts and regulating exports and imports. If a foreign + power imposed heavy duties upon American shipping, it was for the + individual States and not for Congress to say whether the vessels of the + offending nation should be allowed free entrance to the ports of the + United States: It was folly to suppose, ran the common opinion, that if + South Carolina should bar her ports to Spain because rice and indigo were + excluded from the Spanish colonies, New Hampshire, which furnished masts + and lumber for the Spanish Navy, ought to do the same. The idea of turning + the whole matter over to Congress was considered preposterous by many + intelligent Americans. + </p> + <p> + In these thirteen States were nearly three and a quarter million people + hemmed in a long and narrow strip between the sea and an unexplored + wilderness in which the Indians were an ever present peril. The Southern + States, including Maryland, prosperous agricultural regions, contained + almost one-half the English-speaking population of America. As colonies, + they had found the Old World eager for their rice, tobacco, indigo, and + tar, and slavery was the means of labor so firmly established that + one-fifth of the inhabitants were black. By contrast, the Northern States + were still concerned with commerce as the very lifeblood of their + existence. New England had not dreamed of the millions of spindles which + should hum on the banks of her rivers and lure her young men and women + from the farms to the clamorous factory towns. The city of New York had + not yet outgrown its traffic in furs and its magnificent commercial + destiny was still unrevealed. It was a considerable seaport but not yet a + gateway. From Sandy Hook, however, to the stormy headlands of Maine, it + was a matter of life and death that ships should freely come and go with + cargoes to exchange. All other resources were trifling in comparison. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. THE FAMOUS DAYS OF SALEM PORT + </h2> + <p> + In such compelling circumstances as these, necessity became the mother of + achievement. There is nothing finer in American history than the dogged + fortitude and high-hearted endeavor with which the merchant seamen + returned to their work after the Revolution and sought and found new + markets for their wares. It was then that Salem played that conspicuous + part which was, for a generation, to overshadow the activities of all + other American seaports. Six thousand privateersmen had signed articles in + her taverns, as many as the total population of the town, and they filled + it with a spirit of enterprise and daring. Not for them the stupid + monotony of voyages coastwise if more hazardous ventures beckoned and + there were havens and islands unvexed by trade where bold men might win + profit and perhaps fight for life and cargo. + </p> + <p> + Now there dwelt in Salem one of the great men of his time, Elias Hasket + Derby, the first American millionaire, and very much more than this. He + was a shipping merchant with a vision and with the hard-headed sagacity to + make his dreams come true. His was a notable seafaring family, to begin + with. His father, Captain Richard Derby, born in 1712, had dispatched his + small vessels to the West Indies and Virginia and with the returns from + these voyages he had loaded assorted cargoes for Spain and Madeira and had + the proceeds remitted in bills of exchange to London or in wine, salt, + fruit, oil, lead, and handkerchiefs to America. Richard Derby's vessels + had eluded or banged away at the privateers during the French War from + 1756 to 1763, mounting from eight to twelve guns, "with four cannon below + decks for close quarters." Of such a temper was this old sea-dog who led + the militia and defiantly halted General Gage's regulars at the North + River bridge in Salem, two full months before the skirmish at Lexington. + Eight of the nineteen cannon which it was proposed to seize from the + patriots had been taken from the ships of Captain Richard Derby and stored + in his warehouse for the use of the Provincial Congress. + </p> + <p> + It was Richard's son, Captain John Derby, who carried to England in the + swift schooner Quero the first news of the affair at Lexington, ahead of + the King's messenger. A sensational arrival, if ever there was one! This + Salem shipmaster, cracking on sail like a proper son of his sire, making + the passage in twenty-nine days and handsomely beating the lubberly Royal + Express Packet Sukey which left Boston four days sooner, and startling the + British nation with the tidings which meant the loss of an American + empire! A singular coincidence was that this same Captain John Derby + should have been the first mariner to inform the United States that peace + had come, when he arrived from France in 1783 with the message that a + treaty had been signed. + </p> + <p> + Elias Hasket Derby was another son of Richard. When his manifold energies + were crippled by the war, he diverted his ability and abundant resources + into privateering. He was interested in at least eighty of the privateers + out of Salem, invariably subscribing for such shares as might not be taken + up by his fellow-townsmen. He soon perceived that many of these craft were + wretchedly unfit for the purpose and were easily captured or wrecked. It + was characteristic of his genius that he should establish shipyards of his + own, turn his attention to naval architecture, and begin to build a class + of vessels vastly superior in size, model, and speed to any previously + launched in the colonies. They were designed to meet the small cruiser of + the British Navy on even terms and were remarkably successful, both in + enriching their owner and in defying the enemy. + </p> + <p> + At the end of the war Elias Hasket Derby discovered that these fine ships + were too large and costly to ply up and down the coast. Instead of + bewailing his hard lot, he resolved to send them to the other side of the + globe. At a time when the British and the Dutch East India companies + insolently claimed a monopoly of the trade of the Orient, when American + merchant seamen had never ventured beyond the two Atlantics, this was a + conception which made of commerce a surpassing romance and heralded the + golden era of the nation's life upon the sea. + </p> + <p> + His Grand Turk of three hundred tons was promptly fitted out for a + pioneering voyage as far as the Cape of Good Hope. Salem knew her as "the + great ship" and yet her hull was not quite one hundred feet long. Safely + Captain Jonathan Ingersoll took her out over the long road, his navigating + equipment consisting of a few erroneous maps and charts, a sextant, and + Guthrie's Geographical Grammar. In Table Bay he sold his cargo of + provisions and then visited the coast of Guinea to dispose of his rum for + ivory and gold dust but brought not a single slave back, Mr. Derby having + declared that "he would rather sink the whole capital employed than + directly or indirectly be concerned in so infamous a trade"—an + unusual point of view for a shipping merchant of New England in 1784! + </p> + <p> + Derby ships were first to go to Mauritius, then called the Isle of France, + first at Calcutta, and among the earliest to swing at anchor off Canton. + When Elias Hasket Derby decided to invade this rich East India commerce, + he sent his eldest son, Elias Hasket, Jr., to England and the Continent + after a course at Harvard. The young man became a linguist and made a + thorough study of English and French methods of trade. Having laid this + foundation for the venture, the son was now sent to India, where he lived + for three years in the interests of his house, building up a trade almost + fabulously profitable. + </p> + <p> + How fortunes were won in those stirring days may be discerned from the + record of young Derby's ventures while in the Orient. In 1788 the proceeds + of one cargo enabled him to buy a ship and a brigantine in the Isle of + France. These two vessels he sent to Bombay to load with cotton. Two other + ships of his fleet, the Astrea and Light Horse, were filled at Calcutta + and Rangoon and ordered to Salem. It was found, when the profits of these + transactions were reckoned, that the little squadron had earned $100,000 + above all outlay. + </p> + <p> + To carry on such a business as this enlisted many men and industries. + While the larger ships were making their distant voyages, the brigs and + schooners were gathering cargoes for them, crossing to Gothenburg and St. + Petersburg for iron, duck, and hemp, to France, Spain, and Madeira for + wine and lead, to the French West Indies for molasses to be turned into + rum, to New York, Philadelphia, and Richmond for flour, provisions, and + tobacco. These shipments were assembled in the warehouses on Derby Wharf + and paid for the teas, coffees, pepper, muslin, silks, and ivory which the + ships from the Far East were fetching home. In fourteen years the Derby + ships made one hundred and twenty-five voyages to Europe and far eastern + ports and out of the thirty-five vessels engaged only one was lost at sea. + </p> + <p> + It was in 1785 when the Grand Turk, on a second voyage, brought back a + cargo of silks, teas, and nankeens from Batavia and China, that "The + Independent Chronicle" of London, unconsciously humorous, was moved to + affirm that "the Americans have given up all thought of a China trade + which can never be carried on to advantage without some settlement in the + East Indies." + </p> + <p> + As soon as these new sea-trails had been furrowed by the keels of Elias + Hasket Derby, other Salem merchants were quick to follow in a rivalry + which left no sea unexplored for virgin markets and which ransacked every + nook and corner of barbarism which had a shore. Vessels slipped their + cables and sailed away by night for some secret destination with whose + savage potentate trade relations had been established. It might be Captain + Jonathan Carnes who, while at the port of Bencoolen in 1793, heard that + pepper grew wild on the northern coast of Sumatra. He whispered the word + to the Salem owner, who sent him back in the schooner Rajah with only four + guns and ten men. Eighteen months later, Jonathan Carnes returned to Salem + with a cargo of pepper in bulk, the first direct importation, and cleared + seven hundred per cent on the voyage. When he made ready to go again, + keeping his business strictly to himself, other owners tracked him clear + to Bencoolen, but there he vanished in the Rajah, and his secret with him, + until he reappeared with another precious cargo of pepper. When, at + length, he shared this trade with other vessels, it meant that Salem + controlled the pepper market of Sumatra and for many years supplied a + large part of the world's demand. + </p> + <p> + And so it happened that in the spicy warehouses that overlooked Salem + Harbor there came to be stored hemp from Luzon, gum copal from Zanzibar, + palm oil from Africa, coffee from Arabia, tallow from Madagascar, whale + oil from the Antarctic, hides and wool from the Rio de la Plata, nutmeg + and cloves from Malaysia. Such merchandise had been bought or bartered for + by shipmasters who were much more than mere navigators. They had to be + shrewd merchants on their own accounts, for the success or failure of a + voyage was mostly in their hands. Carefully trained and highly intelligent + men, they attained command in the early twenties and were able to retire, + after a few years more afloat, to own ships and exchange the quarterdeck + for the counting-room, and the cabin for the solid mansion and lawn on + Derby Street. Every opportunity, indeed, was offered them to advance their + own fortunes. They sailed not for wages but for handsome commissions and + privileges—in the Derby ships, five per cent of a cargo outward + bound, two and a half per cent of the freightage home, five per cent + profit on goods bought and sold between foreign ports, and five per cent + of the cargo space for their own use. + </p> + <p> + Such was the system which persuaded the pick and flower of young American + manhood to choose the sea as the most advantageous career possible. There + was the Crowninshield family, for example, with five brothers all in + command of ships before they were old enough to vote and at one time all + five away from Salem, each in his own vessel and three of them in the East + India trade. "When little boys," to quote from the memoirs of Benjamin + Crowninshield, "they were all sent to a common school and about their + eleventh year began their first particular study which should develop them + as sailors and ship captains. These boys studied their navigation as + little chaps of twelve years old and were required to thoroughly master + the subject before being sent to sea.... As soon as the art of navigation + was mastered, the youngsters were sent to sea, sometimes as common sailors + but commonly as ship's clerks, in which position they were able to learn + everything about the management of a ship without actually being a common + sailor." + </p> + <p> + This was the practice in families of solid station and social rank, for to + be a shipmaster was to follow the profession of a gentleman. Yet the + bright lad who entered by way of the forecastle also played for high + stakes. Soon promoted to the berth of mate, he was granted cargo space for + his own adventures in merchandise and a share of the profits. In these + days the youth of twenty-one is likely to be a college undergraduate, + rated too callow and unfit to be intrusted with the smallest business + responsibilities and tolerantly regarded as unable to take care of + himself. It provokes both a smile and a glow of pride, therefore, to + recall those seasoned striplings and what they did. + </p> + <p> + No unusual instance was that of Nathaniel Silsbee, later United States + Senator from Massachusetts, who took command of the new ship Benjamin in + the year 1792, laden with a costly cargo from Salem for the Cape of Good + Hope and India, "with such instructions," says he, "as left the management + of the voyage very much to my own discretion. Neither myself nor the chief + mate, Mr. Charles Derby, had attained the age of twenty-one years when we + left home. I was not then twenty." This reminded him to speak of his own + family. Of the three Silsbee brothers, "each of us obtained the command of + vessels and the consignment of their cargoes before attaining the age of + twenty years, viz., myself at the age of eighteen and a half, my brother + William at nineteen and a half, and my brother Zachariah before he was + twenty years old. Each and all of us left off going to sea before reaching + the age of twenty-nine years." + </p> + <p> + How resourcefully these children of the sea could handle affairs was shown + in this voyage of the Benjamin. While in the Indian Ocean young Silsbee + fell in with a frigate which gave him news of the beginning of war between + England and France. He shifted his course for Mauritius and there sold the + cargo for a dazzling price in paper dollars, which he turned into Spanish + silver. An embargo detained him for six months, during which this currency + increased to three times the value of the paper money. He gave up the + voyage to Calcutta, sold the Spanish dollars and loaded with coffee and + spices for Salem. At the Cape of Good Hope, however, he discovered that he + could earn a pretty penny by sending his cargo home in other ships and + loading the Benjamin again for Mauritius. When, at length, he arrived in + Salem harbor, after nineteen months away, his enterprises had reaped a + hundred per cent for Elias Hasket Derby and his own share was the snug + little fortune of four thousand dollars. Part of this he, of course, + invested at sea, and at twenty-two he was part owner of the Betsy, East + Indiaman, and on the road to independence. + </p> + <p> + As second mate in the Benjamin had sailed Richard Cleveland, another + matured mariner of nineteen, who crowded into one life an Odyssey of + adventure noteworthy even in that era and who had the knack of writing + about it with rare skill and spirit. In 1797, when twenty-three years old, + he was master of the bark Enterprise bound from Salem to Mocha for coffee. + The voyage was abandoned at Havre and he sent the mate home with the ship, + deciding to remain abroad and gamble for himself with the chances of the + sea. In France he bought on credit a "cutter-sloop" of forty-three tons, + no larger than the yachts whose owners think it venturesome to take them + off soundings in summer cruises. In this little box of a craft he planned + to carry a cargo of merchandise to the Cape of Good Hope and thence to + Mauritius. + </p> + <p> + His crew included two men, a black cook, and a brace of boys who were + hastily shipped at Havre. "Fortunately they were all so much in debt as + not to want any time to spend their advance, but were ready at the + instant, and with this motley crew, (who, for aught I knew, were robbers + or pirates) I put to sea." The only sailor of the lot was a Nantucket lad + who was made mate and had to be taught the rudiments of navigation while + at sea. Of the others he had this to say, in his lighthearted manner: + </p> + <p> + "The first of my fore-mast hands is a great, surly, crabbed, raw-boned, + ignorant Prussian who is so timid aloft that the mate has frequently been + obliged to do his duty there. I believe him to be more of a soldier than a + sailor, though he has often assured me that he has been a boatswain's mate + of a Dutch Indiaman, which I do not believe as he hardly knows how to put + two ends of a rope together.... My cook... a good-natured negro and a + tolerable cook, so unused to a vessel that in the smoothest weather he + cannot walk fore and aft without holding onto something with both hands. + This fear proceeds from the fact that he is so tall and slim that if he + should get a cant it might be fatal to him. I did not think America could + furnish such a specimen of the negro race... nor did I ever see such a + simpleton. It is impossible to teach him anything and... he can hardly + tell the main-halliards from the mainstay. + </p> + <p> + "Next is an English boy of seventeen years old, who from having lately had + the small-pox is feeble and almost blind, a miserable object, but pity for + his misfortunes induces me to make his duty as easy as possible. Finally I + have a little ugly French boy, the very image of a baboon, who from having + served for some time on different privateers has all the tricks of a + veteran man-of-war's man, though only thirteen years old, and by having + been in an English prison, has learned enough of the language to be a + proficient in swearing." + </p> + <p> + With these human scrapings for a ship's company, the cutter Caroline was + three months on her solitary way as far as the Cape of Good Hope, where + the inhabitants "could not disguise their astonishment at the size of the + vessel, the boyish appearance of the master and mate, and the queer and + unique characters of the two men and boy who composed the crew." The + English officials thought it strange indeed, suspecting some scheme of + French spies or smuggled dispatches, but Richard Cleveland's petition to + the Governor, Lord McCartney, ingenuously patterned after certain letters + addressed to noblemen as found in an old magazine aboard his vessel, won + the day for him and he was permitted to sell the cutter and her cargo, + having changed his mind about proceeding farther. + </p> + <p> + Taking passage to Batavia, he looked about for another venture but found + nothing to his liking and wandered on to Canton, where he was attracted by + the prospect of a voyage to the northwest coast of America to buy furs + from the Indians. In a cutter no larger than the Caroline he risked all + his cash and credit, stocking her with $20,000 worth of assorted + merchandise for barter, and put out across the Pacific, "having on board + twenty-one persons, consisting, except two Americans, of English, Irish, + Swedes and French, but principally the first, who were runaways from the + men-of-war and Indiamen, and two from a Botany Bay ship who had made their + escape, for we were obliged to take such as we could get, served to + complete a list of as accomplished villains as ever disgraced any + country." + </p> + <p> + After a month of weary, drenching hardship off the China coast, this crew + of cutthroats mutinied. With a loyal handful, including the black cook, + Cleveland locked up the provisions, mounted two four-pounders on the + quarterdeck, rammed them full of grape-shot, and fetched up the flint-lock + muskets and pistols from the cabin. The mutineers were then informed that + if they poked their heads above the hatches he would blow them overboard. + Losing enthusiasm and weakened by hunger, they asked to be set ashore; so + the skipper marooned the lot. For two days the cutter lay offshore while a + truce was argued, the upshot being that four of the rascals gave in and + the others were left behind. + </p> + <p> + Fifty days more of it and, washed by icy seas, racked and storm-beaten, + the vessel made Norfolk Sound. So small was the crew, so imminent the + danger that the Indians might take her by boarding, that screens of hides + were rigged along the bulwarks to hide the deck from view. Stranded and + getting clear, warding off attacks, Captain Richard Cleveland stayed two + months on the wilderness coast of Oregon, trading one musket for eight + prime sea-otter skins until there was no more room below. Sixty thousand + dollars was the value of the venture when he sailed for China by way of + the Sandwich Islands, forty thousand of profit, and he was twenty-five + years old with the zest for roving undiminished. + </p> + <p> + He next appeared in Calcutta, buying a twenty-five-ton pilot boat under + the Danish flag for a fling at Mauritius and a speculation in prizes + brought in by French privateers. Finding none in port, he loaded seven + thousand bags of coffee in a ship for Copenhagen and conveyed as a + passenger a kindred spirit, young Nathaniel Shaler, whom he took into + partnership. At Hamburg these two bought a fast brig, the Lelia Byrd, to + try their fortune on the west coast of South America, and recruited a + third partner, a boyish Polish nobleman, Count de Rousillon, who had been + an aide to Kosciusko. Three seafaring musketeers, true gentlemen rovers, + all under thirty, sailing out to beard the viceroys of Spain! + </p> + <p> + From Valparaiso, where other American ships were detained and robbed, they + adroitly escaped and steered north to Mexico and California. At San Diego + they fought their way out of the harbor, silencing the Spanish fort with + their six guns. Then to Canton with furs, and Richard Cleveland went home + at thirty years of age after seven years' absence and voyaging twice + around the world, having wrested success from almost every imaginable + danger and obstacle, with $70,000 to make him a rich man in his own town. + He was neither more nor less than an American sailor of the kind that made + the old merchant marine magnificent. + </p> + <p> + It was true romance, also, when the first American shipmasters set foot in + mysterious Japan, a half century before Perry's squadron shattered the + immemorial isolation of the land of the Shoguns and the Samurai. Only the + Dutch had been permitted to hold any foreign intercourse whatever with + this hermit nation and for two centuries they had maintained their + singular commercial monopoly at a price measured in terms of the deepest + degradation of dignity and respect. The few Dutch merchants suffered to + reside in Japan were restricted to a small island in Nagasaki harbor, + leaving it only once in four years when the Resident, or chief agent, + journeyed to Yeddo to offer gifts and most humble obeisance to the Shogun, + "creeping forward on his hands and feet, and falling on his knees, bowed + his head to the ground, and retired again in absolute silence, crawling + exactly like a crab," said one of these pilgrims who added: "We may not + keep Sundays or fast days, or allow our spiritual hymns or prayers to be + heard; never mention the name of Christ. Besides these things, we have to + submit to other insulting imputations which are always painful to a noble + heart. The reason which impels the Dutch to bear all these sufferings so + patiently is simply the love of gain." + </p> + <p> + In return for these humiliations the Dutch East India Company was + permitted to send one or two ships a year from Batavia to Japan and to + export copper, silk, gold, camphor, porcelain, bronze, and rare woods. The + American ship Franklin arrived at Batavia in 1799 and Captain James + Devereux of Salem learned that a charter was offered for one of these + annual voyages. After a deal of Yankee dickering with the hard-headed + Dutchmen, a bargain was struck and the Franklin sailed for Nagasaki with + cloves, chintz, sugar, tin, black pepper, sapan wood, and elephants' + teeth. The instructions were elaborate and punctilious, salutes to be + fired right and left, nine guns for the Emperor's guard while passing in, + thirteen guns at the anchorage; all books on board to be sealed up in a + cask, Bibles in particular, and turned over to the Japanese officials, all + firearms sent ashore, ship dressed with colors whenever the "Commissaries + of the Chief" graciously came aboard, and a carpet on deck for them to sit + upon. + </p> + <p> + Two years later, the Margaret of Salem made the same sort of a voyage, and + in both instances the supercargoes, one of whom happened to be a younger + brother of Captain Richard Cleveland, wrote journals of the extraordinary + episode. For these mariners alone was the curtain lifted which concealed + the feudal Japan from the eyes of the civilized world. Alert and curious, + these Yankee traders explored the narrow streets of Nagasaki, visited + temples, were handsomely entertained by officers and merchants, and + exchanged their wares in the marketplace. They were as much at home, no + doubt, as when buying piculs of pepper from a rajah of Qualah Battoo, or + dining with an elderly mandarin of Cochin China. It was not too much to + say that "the profuse stores of knowledge brought by every ship's crew, + together with unheard of curiosities from every savage shore, gave the + community of Salem a rare alertness of intellect." + </p> + <p> + It was a Salem bark, the Lydia, that first displayed the American flag to + the natives of Guam in 1801. She was chartered by the Spanish government + of Manila to carry to the Marianne Islands, as those dots on the chart of + the Pacific were then called, the new Governor, his family, his suite, and + his luggage. First Mate William Haswell kept a diary in a most + conscientious fashion, and here and there one gleans an item with a humor + of its own. "Now having to pass through dangerous straits," he observes, + "we went to work to make boarding nettings and to get our arms in the best + order, but had we been attacked we should have been taken with ease. + Between Panay and Negros all the passengers were in the greatest confusion + for fear of being taken and put to death in the dark and not have time to + say their prayers." + </p> + <p> + The decks were in confusion most of the time, what with the Governor, his + lady, three children, two servant girls and twelve men servants, a friar + and his servant, a judge and two servants, not to mention some small hogs, + two sheep, an ox, and a goat to feed the passengers who were too dainty + for sea provender. The friar was an interesting character. A great pity + that the worthy mate of the Lydia should not have been more explicit! It + intrigues the reader of his manuscript diary to be told that "the Friar + was praying night and day but it would not bring a fair wind. His behavior + was so bad that we were forced to send him to Coventry, or in other words, + no one would speak to him." + </p> + <p> + The Spanish governors of Guam had in operation an economic system which + compelled the admiration of this thrifty Yankee mate. The natives wore + very few clothes, he concluded, because the Governor was the only + shopkeeper and he insisted on a profit of at least eight hundred per cent. + There was a native militia regiment of a thousand men who were paid ten + dollars a year. With this cash they bought Bengal goods, cottons, Chinese + pans, pots, knives, and hoes at the Governor's store, so that "all this + money never left the Governor's hands. It was fetched to him by the + galleons in passing, and when he was relieved he carried it with him to + Manila, often to the amount of eighty or ninety thousand dollars." A + glimpse of high finance without a flaw! + </p> + <p> + There is pathos, simple and moving, in the stories of shipwreck and + stranding on hostile or desert coasts. These disasters were far more + frequent then than now, because navigation was partly guesswork and ships + were very small. Among these tragedies was that of the Commerce, bound + from Boston to Bombay in 1793. The captain lost his bearings and thought + he was off Malabar when the ship piled up on the beach in the night. The + nearest port was Muscat and the crew took to the boats in the hope of + reaching it. Stormy weather drove them ashore where armed Arabs on camels + stripped them of clothes and stores and left them to die among the sand + dunes. + </p> + <p> + On foot they trudged day after day in the direction of Muscat, and how + they suffered and what they endured was told by one of the survivors, + young Daniel Saunders. Soon they began to drop out and die in their tracks + in the manner of "Benjamin Williams, William Leghorn, and Thomas Barnard + whose bodies were exposed naked to the scorching sun and finding their + strength and spirits quite exhausted they lay down expecting nothing but + death for relief." The next to be left behind was Mr. Robert Williams, + merchant and part owner, "and we therefore with reluctance abandoned him + to the mercy of God, suffering ourselves all the horrors that fill the + mind at the approach of death." Near the beach and a forlorn little oasis, + they stumbled across Charles Lapham, who had become separated from them. + He had been without water for five days "and after many efforts he got + upon his feet and endeavored to walk. Seeing him in so wretched a + condition I could not but sympathize enough with him in his torments to go + back with him" toward water two miles away, "which both my other + companions refused to do. Accordingly they walked forward while I went + back a considerable distance with Lapham until, his strength failing him, + he suddenly fell on the ground, nor was he able to rise again or even + speak to me. Finding it vain to stay with him, I covered him with sprays + and leaves which I tore from an adjacent tree, it being the last friendly + office I could do him." + </p> + <p> + Eight living skeletons left of eighteen strong seamen tottered into Muscat + and were cared for by the English consul. Daniel Saunders worked his + passage to England, was picked up by a press-gang, escaped, and so + returned to Salem. It was the fate of Juba Hill, the black cook from + Boston, to be detained among the Arabs as a slave. It is worth noting that + a black sea-cook figured in many of these tales of daring and disaster, + and among them was the heroic and amazing figure of one Peter Jackson who + belonged in the brig Ceres. While running down the river from Calcutta she + was thrown on her beam ends and Peter, perhaps dumping garbage over the + rail, took a header. Among the things tossed to him as he floated away was + a sail-boom on which he was swiftly carried out of sight by the turbid + current. All on board concluded that Peter Jackson had been eaten by + sharks or crocodiles and it was so reported when they arrived home. An + administrator was appointed for his goods and chattels and he was + officially deceased in the eyes of the law. A year or so later this + unconquerable sea-cook appeared in the streets of Salem, grinning a + welcome to former shipmates who fled from him in terror as a ghostly + visitation. He had floated twelve hours on his sail-boom, it seemed, + fighting off the sharks with his feet; and finally drifting ashore. "He + had hard work to do away with the impressions of being dead," runs the old + account, "but succeeded and was allowed the rights and privileges of the + living." + </p> + <p> + The community of interests in these voyages of long ago included not only + the ship's company but also the townspeople, even the boys and girls, who + entrusted their little private speculations or "adventures" to the + captain. It was a custom which flourished well into the nineteenth + century. These memoranda are sprinkled through the account books of the + East Indiamen out of Salem and Boston. It might be Miss Harriet Elkins who + requested the master of the Messenger "please to purchase at Calcutta two + net beads with draperies; if at Batavia or any spice market, nutmegs or + mace; or if at Canton, two Canton shawls of the enclosed colors at $5 per + shawl. Enclosed is $10." + </p> + <p> + Again, it might be Mr. John R. Tucker who ventured in the same ship one + hundred Spanish dollars to be invested in coffee and sugar, or Captain + Nathaniel West who risked in the Astrea fifteen boxes of spermaceti + candles and a pipe of Teneriffe wine. It is interesting to discover what + was done with Mr. Tucker's hundred Spanish dollars, as invested for him by + the skipper of the Messenger at Batavia and duly accounted for. Ten bags + of coffee were bought for $83.30, the extra expenses of duty, boat-hire, + and sacking bringing the total outlay to $90.19. The coffee was sold at + Antwerp on the way home for $183.75, and Mr. Tucker's handsome profit on + the adventure was therefore $93.56, or more than one hundred per cent. + </p> + <p> + It was all a grand adventure, in fact, and the word was aptly chosen to + fit this ocean trade. The merchant freighted his ship and sent her out to + vanish from his ken for months and months of waiting, with the greater + part of his savings, perhaps, in goods and specie beneath her hatches. No + cable messages kept him in touch with her nor were there frequent letters + from the master. Not until her signal was displayed by the fluttering + flags of the headland station at the harbor mouth could he know whether he + had gained or lost a fortune. The spirit of such merchants was admirably + typified in the last venture of Elias Hasket Derby in 1798, when + unofficial war existed between the United States and France. + </p> + <p> + American ships were everywhere seeking refuge from the privateers under + the tricolor, which fairly ran amuck in the routes of trade. For this + reason it meant a rich reward to land a cargo abroad. The ship Mount + Vernon, commanded by Captain Elias Hasket Derby, Jr., was laden with sugar + and coffee for Mediterranean ports, and was prepared for trouble, with + twenty guns mounted and fifty men to handle them. A smart ship and a + powerful one, she raced across to Cape Saint Vincent in sixteen days, + which was clipper speed. She ran into a French fleet of sixty sail, + exchanged broadsides with the nearest, and showed her stern to the others. + </p> + <p> + "We arrived at 12 o'clock [wrote Captain Derby from Gibraltar] popping at + Frenchmen all the forenoon. At 10 A.M. off Algeciras Point we were + seriously attacked by a large latineer who had on board more than one + hundred men. He came so near our broadside as to allow our six-pound grape + to do execution handsomely. We then bore away and gave him our stern guns + in a cool and deliberate manner, doing apparently great execution. Our + bars having cut his sails considerably, he was thrown into confusion, + struck both his ensign and his pennant. I was then puzzled to know what to + do with so many men; our ship was running large with all her steering + sails out, so that we could not immediately bring her to the wind, and we + were directly off Algeciras Point from whence I had reason to fear she + might receive assistance, and my port Gibraltar in full view. These were + circumstances that induced me to give up the gratification of bringing him + in. It was, however, a satisfaction to flog the rascal in full view of the + English fleet who were to leeward." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. YANKEE VIKINGS AND NEW TRADE ROUTES + </h2> + <p> + Soon after the Revolution the spirit of commercial exploration began to + stir in other ports than Salem. Out from New York sailed the ship Empress + of China in 1784 for the first direct voyage to Canton, to make the + acquaintance of a vast nation absolutely unknown to the people of the + United States, nor had one in a million of the industrious and highly + civilized Chinese ever so much as heard the name of the little community + of barbarians who dwelt on the western shore of the North Atlantic. The + oriental dignitaries in their silken robes graciously welcomed the foreign + ship with the strange flag and showed a lively interest in the map spread + upon the cabin table, offering every facility to promote this new market + for their silks and teas. After an absence of fifteen months the Empress + of China returned to her home port and her pilgrimage aroused so much + attention that the report of the supercargo, Samuel Shaw, was read in + Congress. + </p> + <p> + Surpassing this achievement was that of Captain Stewart Dean, who very + shortly afterward had his fling at the China trade in an eighty-ton sloop + built at Albany. He was a stout-hearted old privateersman of the + Revolution whom nothing could dismay, and in this tiny Experiment of his + he won merited fame as one of the American pioneers of blue water. Fifteen + men and boys sailed with him, drilled and disciplined as if the sloop were + a frigate, and when the Experiment hauled into the stream, of Battery + Park, New York, "martial music and the boatswain's whistle were heard on + board with all the pomp and circumstance of war." Typhoons and Malay + proas, Chinese pirates and unknown shoals, had no terrors for Stewart + Dean. He saw Canton for himself, found a cargo, and drove home again in a + four months' passage, which was better than many a clipper could do at a + much later day. Smallest and bravest of the first Yankee East Indiamen, + this taut sloop, with the boatswain's pipe trilling cheerily and all hands + ready with cutlases and pikes to repel boarders, was by no means the least + important vessel that ever passed in by Sandy Hook. + </p> + <p> + In the beginnings of this picturesque relation with the Far East, Boston + lagged behind Salem, but her merchants, too, awoke to the opportunity and + so successfully that for generations there were no more conspicuous names + and shipping-houses in the China trade than those of Russell, Perkins, and + Forbes. The first attempt was very ambitious and rather luckless. The + largest merchantman ever built at that time in the United States was + launched at Quincy in 1789 to rival the towering ships of the British East + India Company. This Massachusetts created a sensation. Her departure was a + national event. She embodied the dreams of Captain Randall and of the + Samuel Shaw who had gone as supercargo in the Empress of China. They + formed a partnership and were able to find the necessary capital. + </p> + <p> + This six-hundred-ton ship loomed huge in the ayes of the crowds which + visited her. She was in fact no larger than such four-masted coasting + schooners as claw around Hatteras with deck-loads of Georgia pine or fill + with coal for down East, and manage it comfortably with seven or eight men + for a crew. The Massachusetts, however, sailed in 411 the old-fashioned + state and dignity of a master, four mates, a purser, surgeon, carpenter, + gunner, four quartermasters, three midshipmen, a cooper, two cooks, a + steward, and fifty seamen. The second officer was Amasa Delano, a man even + more remarkable than the ship, who wandered far and wide and wrote a + fascinating book about his voyages, a classic of its kind, the memoirs of + an American merchant mariner of a breed long since extinct. + </p> + <p> + While the Massachusetts was fitting out at Boston, one small annoyance + ruffled the auspicious undertaking. Three different crews were signed + before a full complement could be persuaded to tarry in the forecastle. + The trouble was caused by a fortune-teller of Lynn, Moll Pitcher by name, + who predicted disaster for the ship. Now every honest sailor knows that + certain superstitions are gospel fact, such as the bad luck brought by a + cross-eyed Finn, a black cat, or going to sea on Friday, and these + eighteenth century shellbacks must not be too severely chided for + deserting while they had the chance. As it turned out, the voyage did have + a sorry ending and death overtook an astonishingly large number of the + ship's people. + </p> + <p> + Though she had been designed and built by master craftsmen of New England + who knew their trade surpassingly well, it was discovered when the ship + arrived at Canton that her timbers were already rotting. They were of + white oak which had been put into her green instead of properly seasoned. + This blunder wrecked the hopes of her owners. To cap it, the cargo of + masts and spars had also been stowed while wet and covered with mud and + ice, and the hatches had been battened. As a result the air became so foul + with decay that several hundred barrels of beef were spoiled. To repair + the ship was beyond the means of Captain Randall and Samuel Shaw, and + reluctantly they sold her to the Danish East India Company at a heavy + loss. Nothing could have been more unexpected than to find that, for once, + the experienced shipbuilders had been guilty of a miscalculation. + </p> + <p> + The crew scattered, and perhaps the prediction of the fortune-teller of + Lynn followed their roving courses, for when Captain Amasa Delano tried to + trace them a few years later, he jotted down such obituaries as these on + the list of names: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "John Harris. A slave in Algiers at last accounts. + Roger Dyer. Died and thrown overboard off Cape Horn. + William Williams. Lost overboard off Japan. + James Crowley. Murdered by the Chinese near Macao. + John Johnson. Died on board an English Indiaman. + Seth Stowell. Was drowned at Whampoa in 1790. + Jeremiah Chace. Died with the small-pox at Whampoa in 1791. + Humphrey Chadburn. Shot and died at Whampoa in 1791. + Samuel Tripe. Drowned off Java Head in 1790. + James Stackpole. Murdered by the Chinese. + Nicholas Nicholson. Died with the leprosy at Macao. + William Murphy. Killed by Chinese pirates. + Larry Conner. Killed at sea." +</pre> + <p> + There were more of these gruesome items—so many of them that it + appears as though no more than a handful of this stalwart crew survived + the Massachusetts by a dozen years. Incredible as it sounds, Captain + Delano's roster accounted for fifty of them as dead while he was still in + the prime of life, and most of them had been snuffed out by violence. As + for his own career, it was overcast by no such unlucky star, and he passed + unscathed through all the hazards and vicissitudes that could be + encountered in that rugged and heroic era of endeavor. Set adrift in + Canton when the Massachusetts was sold, he promptly turned his hand to + repairing a large Danish ship which had been wrecked by storm, and he + virtually rebuilt her to the great satisfaction of the owners. + </p> + <p> + Thence, with money in his pocket, young Delano went to Macao, where he + fell in with Commodore John McClure of the English Navy, who was in + command of an expedition setting out to explore a part of the South Seas, + including the Pelew Islands, New Guinea, New Holland, and the Spice + Islands. The Englishman liked this resourceful Yankee seaman and did him + the honor to say, recalls Delano, "that he considered I should be a very + useful man to him as a seaman, an officer, or a shipbuilder; and if it was + agreeable to me to go on board the Panther with him, I should receive the + some pay and emoluments with his lieutenants and astronomers." A signal + honor it was at a time when no love was lost between British and American + seafarers who had so recently fought each other afloat. + </p> + <p> + And so Amasa Delano embarked as a lieutenant of the Bombay Marine, to + explore tropic harbors and goons until then unmapped and to parley with + dusky kings. Commodore McClure, diplomatic and humane, had almost no + trouble with the untutored islanders, except on the coast of New Guinea, + where the Panther was attacked by a swarm of canoes and the surgeon was + killed. It was a spirited little affair, four-foot arrows pelting like + hail across the deck, a cannon hurling grapeshot from the taffrail, Amasa + Delano hit in the chest and pulling out the arrow to jump to his duty + again. + </p> + <p> + Only a few years earlier the mutineers of the Bounty had established + themselves on Pitcairn Island, and Delano was able to compile the first + complete narrative of this extraordinary colony, which governed itself in + the light of the primitive Christian virtues. There was profound wisdom in + the comment of Amasa Delano: "While the present natural, simple, and + affectionate character prevails among these descendants of the mutineers, + they will be delightful to our minds, they will be amiable and acceptable + in the sight of God, and they will be useful and happy among themselves. + Let it be our fervent prayer that neither canting and hypocritical + emissaries from schools of artificial theology on the one hand, nor + sensual and licentious crews and adventurers on the other, may ever enter + the charming village of Pitcairn to give disease to the minds or the + bodies of the unsuspecting inhabitants." + </p> + <p> + Two years of this intensely romantic existence, and Delano started + homeward. But there was a chance of profit at Mauritius, and there he + bought a tremendous East Indiaman of fourteen hundred tons as a joint + venture with a Captain Stewart and put a crew of a hundred and fifty men + on board. She had been brought in by a French privateer and Delano was + moved to remark, with an indignation which was much in advance of his + times: "Privateering is entirely at variance with the first principle of + honorable warfare.... This system of licensed robbery enables a wicked and + mercenary man to insult and injure even neutral friends on the ocean; and + when he meets an honest sailor who may have all his earnings on board his + ship but who carries an enemy's flag, he plunders him of every cent and + leaves him the poor consolation that it is done according to law.... When + the Malay subjects of Abba Thule cut down the cocoanut trees of an enemy, + in the spirit of private revenge, he asked them why they acted in + opposition to the principles on which they knew he always made and + conducted a war. They answered, and let the reason make us humble, 'The + English do so.'" + </p> + <p> + In his grand East Indiaman young Captain Delano traded on the coast of + India but soon came to grief. The enterprise had been too large for him to + swing with what cash and credit he could muster, and the ship was sold + from under him to pay her debts. Again on the beach, with one solitary + gold moidore in his purse, he found a friendly American skipper who + offered him a passage to Philadelphia, which he accepted with the pious + reflection that, although his mind was wounded and mortified by the + financial disaster, his motives had been perfectly pure and honest. He + never saw his native land with so little pleasure as on this return to it, + he assures us, and the shore on which he would have leaped with delight + was covered with gloom and sadness. + </p> + <p> + Now what makes it so well worth while to sketch in brief outline the + careers of one and another of these bygone shipmasters is that they + accurately reflected the genius and the temper of their generation. There + was, in truth, no such word as failure in their lexicon. It is this + quality that appeals to us beyond all else. Thrown on their beam ends, + they were presently planning something else, eager to shake dice with + destiny and with courage unbroken. It was so with Amasa Delano, who + promptly went to work "with what spirits I could revive within me. After a + time they returned to their former elasticity." + </p> + <p> + He obtained a position as master builder in a shipyard, saved some money, + borrowed more, and with one of his brothers was soon blithely building a + vessel of two hundred tons for a voyage into the Pacific and to the + northwest coast after seals. They sailed along Patagonia and found much to + interest them, dodged in and out of the ports of Chili and Peru, and + incidentally recaptured a Spanish ship which was in the hands of the + slaves who formed her cargo. + </p> + <p> + This was all in the day's work and happened at the island of Santa Maria, + not far from Juan Fernandez, where Captain Delano's Perseverance found the + high-pooped Tryal in a desperate state. Spanish sailors who had survived + the massacre were leaping overboard or scrambling up to the mastheads + while the African savages capered on deck and flourished their weapons. + Captain Delano liked neither the Spaniard nor the slavetrade, but it was + his duty to help fellow seamen in distress; so he cleared for action and + ordered two boats away to attend to the matter. The chief mate, Rufus Low, + was in charge, and a gallant sailor he showed himself. They had to climb + the high sides of the Tryal and carry, in hand-to-hand conflict, the + barricades of water-casks and bales of matting which the slaves had built + across the deck. There was no hanging back, and even a mite of a + midshipman from Boston pranced into it with his dirk. The negroes were + well armed and fought ferociously. The mate was seriously wounded, four + seamen were stabbed, the Spanish first mate had two musket balls in him, + and a passenger was killed in the fray. + </p> + <p> + Having driven the slaves below and battened them down, the American party + returned next morning to put the irons on them. A horrid sight confronted + them. Thirsting for vengeance, the Spanish sailors had spread-eagled + several of the negroes to ringbolts in the deck and were shaving the + living flesh from them with razor-edged boarding lances. Captain Delano + thereupon disarmed these brutes and locked them up in their turn, taking + possession of the ship until he could restore order. The sequel was that + he received the august thanks of the Viceroy of Chili and a gold medal + from His Catholic Majesty. As was the custom, the guilty slaves, poor + wretches, were condemned to be dragged to the gibbet at the tails of + mules, to be hanged, their bodies burned, and their heads stuck upon poles + in the plaza. + </p> + <p> + It was while in this Chilean port of Talcahuano that Amasa Delano heard + the tale of the British whaler which had sailed just before his arrival. + He tells it so well that I am tempted to quote it as a generous tribute to + a sailor of a rival race. After all, they were sprung from a common stock + and blood was thicker than water. Besides, it is the sort of yarn that + ought to be dragged to the light of day from its musty burial between the + covers of Delano's rare and ancient "Voyages and Travels." + </p> + <p> + The whaler Betsy, it seems, went in and anchored under the guns of the + forts to seek provisions and make repairs. The captain went ashore to + interview the officials, leaving word that no Spaniards should be allowed + to come aboard because of the bad feeling against the English. Three or + four large boats filled with troops presently veered alongside and were + ordered to keep clear. This command was resented, and the troops opened + fire, followed by the forts. Now for the deed of a man with his two feet + under him. + </p> + <p> + "The chief officer of the Betsy whose name was Hudson, a man of + extraordinary bravery, cut his cable and his ship swung the wrong way, + with her head in shore, passing close to several Spanish ships which, with + every vessel in the harbor that could bring a gun to bear, together with + three hundred soldiers in boats and on ship's decks and the two batteries, + all kept up a constant fire on him. The wind was light, nearly a calm. The + shot flew so thick that it was difficult for him to make sail, some part + of the rigging being cut away every minute. + </p> + <p> + "He kept his men at the guns, and when the ship swung her broadside so as + to bear upon any of the Spanish ships, he kept up a fire at them. In this + situation the brave fellow continued to lie for three-quarters of an hour + before he got his topsails sheeted home. The action continued in this + manner for near an hour and a half. He succeeded in getting the ship to + sea, however, in defiance of all the force that could be brought against + him. The ship was very much cut to pieces in sails, rigging, and hull; and + a considerable number of men were killed and wounded on board. + </p> + <p> + "Hudson kept flying from one part of the deck to the other during the + whole time of action, encouraging and threatening the men as occasion + required. He kept a musket in his hand most part of the time, firing when + he could find the leisure. Some of the men came aft and begged him to give + up the ship, telling him they should all be killed—that the + carpenter had all one side of him shot away—that one man was cut in + halves with a double-headed shot as he was going aloft to loose the + foretopsail and the body had fallen on deck in two separate parts—that + such a man was killed at his duty on the forecastle, and one more had been + killed in the maintop—that Sam, Jim, Jack, and Tom were wounded and + that they would do nothing more towards getting the ship out of the + harbor. + </p> + <p> + "His reply to them was, 'then you shall be sure to die, for if they do not + kill you I will, so sure as you persist in any such cowardly resolution,' + saying at the same time, 'OUT SHE GOES, OR DOWN SHE GOES.'" + </p> + <p> + By this resolute and determined conduct he kept the men to their duty and + succeeded in accomplishing one of the most daring enterprises perhaps ever + attempted. + </p> + <p> + An immortal phrase, this simple dictum of first mate Hudson of the Betsy, + "Out she goes, or down she goes," and not unworthy of being mentioned in + the same breath with Farragut's "Damn the torpedoes." + </p> + <p> + Joined by his brother Samuel in the schooner Pilgrim, which was used as a + tender in the sealing trade, Amasa Delano frequented unfamiliar beaches + until he had taken his toll of skins and was ready to bear away for Canton + to sell them. There were many Yankee ships after seals in those early + days, enduring more peril and privation than the whalemen, roving over the + South Pacific among the rock-bound islands unknown to the merchant + navigator. The men sailed wholly on shares, a seaman receiving one per + cent of the catch and the captain ten per cent, and they slaughtered the + seal by the million, driving them from the most favored haunts within a + few years. For instance, American ships first visited Mas a Fuera in 1797, + and Captain Delano estimated that during the seven years following three + million skins were taken to China from this island alone. He found as many + as fourteen vessels there at one time, and he himself carried away one + hundred thousand skins. It was a gold mine for profit while it lasted. + </p> + <p> + There were three Delano brothers afloat in two vessels, and of their + wanderings Amasa set down this epitome: "Almost the whole of our + connections who were left behind had need of our assistance, and to look + forward it was no more than a reasonable calculation to make that our + absence would not be less than three years... together with the + extraordinary uncertainty of the issue of the voyage, as we had nothing + but our hands to depend upon to obtain a cargo which was only to be done + through storms, dangers, and breakers, and taken from barren rocks in + distant regions. But after a voyage of four years for one vessel and five + for the other, we were all permitted to return safe home to our friends + and not quite empty-handed. We had built both of the vessels we were in + and navigated them two and three times around the globe." Each one of the + brothers had been a master builder and rigger and a navigator of ships in + every part of the world. + </p> + <p> + By far the most important voyage undertaken by American merchantmen during + the decade of brilliant achievement following the Revolution was that of + Captain Robert Gray in the Columbia, which was the first ship to visit and + explore the northwest coast and to lead the way for such adventurers as + Richard Cleveland and Amasa Delano. On his second voyage in 1792, Captain + Gray discovered the great river he christened Columbia and so gave to the + United States its valid title to that vast territory which Lewis and Clark + were to find after toiling over the mountains thirteen years later. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" + </h2> + <p> + When the first Congress under the new Federal Constitution assembled in + 1789, a spirit of pride was manifested in the swift recovery and the + encouraging growth of the merchant marine, together with a concerted + determination to promote and protect it by means of national legislation. + The most imperative need was a series of retaliatory measures to meet the + burdensome navigation laws of England, to give American ships a fair field + and no favors. The Atlantic trade was therefore stimulated by allowing a + reduction of ten per cent of the customs duties on goods imported in + vessels built and owned by American citizens. The East India trade, which + already employed forty New England ships, was fostered in like manner. + Teas brought direct under the American flag paid an average duty of twelve + cents a pound while teas in foreign bottoms were taxed twenty-seven cents. + It was sturdy protection, for on a cargo of one hundred thousand pounds of + assorted teas from India or China, a British ship would pay $27,800 into + the custom house and a Salem square-rigger only $10,980. + </p> + <p> + The result was that the valuable direct trade with the Far East was + absolutely secured to the American flag. Not content with this, Congress + decreed a system of tonnage duties which permitted the native owner to pay + six cents per ton on his vessel while the foreigner laid down fifty cents + as an entry fee for every ton his ship measured, or thirty cents if he + owned an American-built vessel. In 1794, Congress became even more + energetic in defense of its mariners and increased the tariff rates on + merchandise in foreign vessels. A nation at last united, jealous of its + rights, resentful of indignities long suffered, and intelligently alive to + its shipping as the chief bulwark of prosperity, struck back with peaceful + weapons and gained a victory of incalculable advantage. Its Congress, no + longer feeble and divided, laid the foundations for American greatness + upon the high seas which was to endure for more than a half century. Wars, + embargoes, and confiscations might interrupt but they could not seriously + harm it. + </p> + <p> + In the three years after 1789 the merchant shipping registered for the + foreign trade increased from 123,893 tons to 411,438 tons, presaging a + growth without parallel in the history of the commercial world. Foreign + ships were almost entirely driven out of American ports, and ninety-one + per cent of imports and eighty-six per cent of exports were conveyed in + vessels built and manned by Americans. Before Congress intervened, English + merchantmen had controlled three-fourths of our commerce overseas. When + Thomas Jefferson, as Secretary of State, fought down Southern opposition + to a retaliatory shipping policy, he uttered a warning which his + countrymen were to find still true and apt in the twentieth century: "If + we have no seamen, our ships will be useless, consequently our ship + timber, iron, and hemp; our shipbuilding will be at an end; ship + carpenters will go over to other nations; our young men have no call to + the sea; our products, carried in foreign bottoms, will be saddled with + war-freight and insurance in time of war—and the history of the last + hundred years shows that the nation which is our carrier has three years + of war for every four years of peace." + </p> + <p> + The steady growth of an American merchant marine was interrupted only once + in the following decade. In the year 1793 war broke out between England + and France. A decree of the National Convention of the French Republic + granted neutral vessels the same rights as those which flew the tricolor. + This privilege reopened a rushing trade with the West Indies, and hundreds + of ships hastened from American ports to Martinique, Guadeloupe, and St. + Lucia. + </p> + <p> + Like a thunderbolt came the tidings that England refused to look upon this + trade with the French colonies as neutral and that her cruisers had been + told to seize all vessels engaged in it and to search them for + English-born seamen. This ruling was enforced with such barbarous severity + that it seemed as if the War for Independence had been fought in vain. + Without warning, unable to save themselves, great fleets of Yankee + merchantmen were literally swept from the waters of the West Indies. At + St. Eustatius one hundred and thirty of them were condemned. The judges at + Bermuda condemned eleven more. Crews and passengers were flung ashore + without food or clothing, were abused, insulted, or perhaps impressed in + British privateers. The ships were lost to their owners. There was no + appeal and no redress. At Martinique an English fleet and army captured + St. Pierre in February, 1794. Files of marines boarded every American ship + in the harbor, tore down the colors, and flung two hundred and fifty + seamen into the foul holds of a prison hulk. There they were kept, + half-dead with thirst and hunger while their vessels, uncared for, had + stranded or sunk at their moorings. Scores of outrages as abominable as + this were on record in the office of the Secretary of State. Shipmasters + were afraid to sail to the southward and, for lack of these markets for + dried cod, the fishing schooners of Marblehead were idle. + </p> + <p> + For a time a second war with England seemed imminent. An alarmed Congress + passed laws to create a navy and to fortify the most important American + harbors. President Washington recommended an embargo of thirty days, which + Congress promptly voted and then extended for thirty more. It was a + popular measure and strictly enforced by the mariners themselves. The + mates and captains of the brigs and snows in the Delaware River met and + resolved not to go to sea for another ten days, swearing to lie idle + sooner than feed the British robbers in the West Indies. It was in the + midst of these demonstrations that Washington seized the one hope of peace + and recommended a special mission to England. + </p> + <p> + The treaty negotiated by John Jay in 1794 was received with an outburst of + popular indignation. Jay was damned as a traitor, while the sailors of + Portsmouth burned him in effigy. By way of an answer to the terms of the + obnoxious treaty, a seafaring mob in Boston raided and burned the British + privateer Speedwell, which had put into that port as a merchantman with + her guns and munitions hidden beneath a cargo of West India produce. + </p> + <p> + The most that can be said of the commercial provisions of the treaty is + that they opened direct trade with the East Indies but at the price of + complete freedom of trade for British shipping in American ports. It must + be said, too, that although the treaty failed to clear away the gravest + cause of hostility—the right of search and impressment—yet it + served to postpone the actual dash, and during the years in which it was + in force American shipping splendidly prospered, freed of most irksome + handicaps. + </p> + <p> + The quarrel with France had been brewing at the same time and for similar + reasons. Neutral trade with England was under the ban, and the Yankee + shipmaster was in danger of losing his vessel if he sailed to or from a + port under the British flag. It was out of the frying-pan into the fire, + and French privateers welcomed the excuse to go marauding in the Atlantic + and the Caribbean. What it meant to fight off these greedy cutthroats is + told in a newspaper account of the engagement of Captain Richard + Wheatland, who was homeward bound to Salem in the ship Perseverance in + 1799. He was in the Old Straits of Bahama when a fast schooner came up + astern, showing Spanish colors and carrying a tremendous press of canvas. + Unable to run away from her, Captain Wheatland reported to his owners: + </p> + <p> + "We took in steering sails, wore ship, hauled up our courses, piped all + hands to quarters and prepared for action. The schooner immediately took + in sail, hoisted an English Union flag and passed under our lee at a + considerable distance. We wore ship, she did the same, and we passed each + other within half a musket. A fellow hailed us in broken English and + ordered the boat hoisted out and the captain to come aboard, which he + refused. He again ordered our boat out and enforced his orders with a + menace that in case of refusal he would sink us, using at the same time + the vilest and most infamous language it is possible to conceive of. ... + We hauled the ship to wind and as he passed poured a whole broadside into + him with great success. Sailing faster than we, he ranged considerably + ahead, tacked and again passed, giving us a broadside and furious + discharge of musketry, which he kept up incessantly until the latter part + of the engagement. His musket balls reached us in every direction but his + large shot either fell short or went considerably over us while our guns + loaded with round shot and square bars of iron were plied so briskly and + directed with such good judgment that before he got out of range we had + cut his mainsail and foretopsail all to rags and cleared his decks so + effectively that when he bore away from us there were scarcely ten men to + be seen. He then struck his English flag and hoisted the flag of The + Terrible Republic and made off with all the sail he could carry, much + disappointed, no doubt, at not being able to give us a fraternal embrace. + We feel confidence that we have rid the world of some infamous pests of + society." + </p> + <p> + By this time, the United States was engaged in active hostilities with + France, although war had not been declared. The news of the indignities + which American commissions had suffered at the hands of the French + Directory had stirred the people to war pitch. Strong measures for + national defense were taken, which stopped little short of war. The + country rallied to the slogan, "Millions for defense but not one cent for + tribute," and the merchants of the seaports hastened to subscribe funds to + build frigates to be loaned to the Government. Salem launched the famous + Essex, ready for sea six months after the keel was laid, at a cost of + $75,000. Her two foremost merchants, Elias Hasket Derby and William Gray, + led the list with ten thousand dollars each. The call sent out by the + master builder, Enos Briggs, rings with thrilling effect: + </p> + <p> + "To Sons of Freedom! All true lovers of Liberty of your Country! Step + forth and give your assistance in building the frigate to oppose French + insolence and piracy. Let every man in possession of a white oak tree be + ambitious to be foremost in hurrying down the timber to Salem where the + noble structure is to be fabricated to maintain your rights upon the seas + and make the name of America respected among the nations of the world. + Your largest and longest trees are wanted, and the arms of them for knees + and rising timber. Four trees are wanted for the keel which altogether + will measure 146 feet in length, and hew sixteen inches square." + </p> + <p> + This handsome frigate privately built by patriots of the republic + illuminates the coastwise spirit and conditions of her time. She was a + Salem ship from keel to truck. Captain Jonathan Haraden, the finest + privateersman of the Revolution, made the rigging for the mainmast at his + ropewalk in Brown Street. Joseph Vincent fitted out the foremast and + Thomas Briggs the mizzenmast in their lofts at the foot of the Common. + When the huge hemp cables were ready for the frigate, the workmen carried + them to the shipyard on their shoulders, the parade led by fife and drum. + Her sails were cut from duck woven in Daniel Rust's factory in Broad + Street and her iron work was forged by Salem shipsmiths. It was not + surprising that Captain Richard Derby was chosen to command the Essex, but + he was abroad in a ship of his own and she sailed under Captain Edward + Preble of the Navy. + </p> + <p> + The war cloud passed and the merchant argosies overflowed the wharves and + havens of New England, which had ceased to monopolize the business on blue + water. New York had become a seaport with long ranks of high-steeved + bowsprits soaring above pleasant Battery Park and a forest of spars + extending up the East River. In 1790 more than two thousand ships, brigs, + schooners, and smaller craft had entered and cleared, and the merchants + met in the coffee-houses to discuss charters, bills-of-lading, and + adventures. Sailors commanded thrice the wages of laborers ashore. + Shipyards were increasing and the builders could build as large and swift + East Indiamen as those of which Boston and Salem boasted. + </p> + <p> + Philadelphia had her Stephen Girard, whose wealth was earned in ships, a + man most remarkable and eccentric, whose career was one of the great + maritime romances. Though his father was a prosperous merchant of Bordeaux + engaged in the West India trade, he was shifting for himself as a + cabin-boy on his father's ships when only fourteen years old. With no + schooling, barely able to read and write, this urchin sailed between + Bordeaux and the French West Indies for nine years, until he gained the + rank of first mate. At the age of twenty-six he entered the port of + Philadelphia in command of a sloop which had narrowly escaped capture by + British frigates. There he took up his domicile and laid the foundation of + his fortune in small trading ventures to New Orleans and Santo Domingo. + </p> + <p> + In 1791 he began to build a fleet of beautiful ships for the China and + India trade, their names, Montesquieu, Helvetius, Voltaire, and Rousseau, + revealing his ideas of religion and liberty. So successfully did he + combine banking and shipping that in 1813 he was believed to be the + wealthiest merchant in the United States. In that year one of his ships + from China was captured off the Capes of the Delaware by a British + privateer. Her cargo of teas, nankeens, and silks was worth half a million + dollars to him but he succeeded in ransoming it on the spot by counting + out one hundred and eighty thousand Spanish milled dollars. No + privateersman could resist such strategy as this. + </p> + <p> + Alone in his old age, without a friend or relative to close his eyes in + death, Stephen Girard, once a penniless, ignorant French cabin-boy, + bequeathed his millions to philanthropy, and the Girard College for orphan + boys, in Philadelphia, is his monument. + </p> + <p> + The Treaty of Amiens brought a little respite to Europe and a peaceful + interlude for American shipmasters, but France and England came to grips + again in 1803. For two years thereafter the United States was almost the + only important neutral nation not involved in the welter of conflict on + land and sea, and trade everywhere sought the protection of the Stars and + Stripes. England had swept her own rivals, men-of-war and merchantmen, + from the face of the waters. France and Holland ceased to carry cargoes + beneath their own ensigns. Spain was afraid to send her galleons to Mexico + and Peru. All the Continental ports were begging for American ships to + transport their merchandise. It was a maritime harvest unique and + unexpected. + </p> + <p> + Yankee skippers were dominating the sugar trade of Cuba and were rolling + across the Atlantic with the coffee, hides, and indigo of Venezuela and + Brazil. Their fleets crowded the roadsteads of Manila and Batavia and + packed the warehouses of Antwerp, Lisbon, and Hamburg. It was a situation + which England could not tolerate without attempting to thwart an immense + traffic which she construed as giving aid and comfort to her enemies. + Under cover of the so-called Rule of 1756 British admiralty courts began + to condemn American vessels carrying products from enemies' colonies to + Europe, even when the voyage was broken by first entering an American + port. It was on record in September, 1805, that fifty American ships had + been condemned in England and as many more in the British West Indies. + </p> + <p> + This was a trifling disaster, however, compared with the huge calamity + which befell when Napoleon entered Berlin as a conqueror and proclaimed + his paper blockade of the British Isles. There was no French navy to + enforce it, but American vessels dared not sail for England lest they be + snapped up by French privateers. The British Government savagely + retaliated with further prohibitions, and Napoleon countered in like + manner until no sea was safe for a neutral ship and the United States was + powerless to assert its rights. Thomas Jefferson as President used as a + weapon the Embargo of 1807, which was, at first, a popular measure, and + which he justified in these pregnant sentences: "The whole world is thus + laid under interdict by these two nations, and our own vessels, their + cargoes, and crews, are to be taken by the one or the other for whatever + place they may be destined out of our limits. If, therefore, on leaving + our harbors we are certainly to lose them, is it not better as to vessels, + cargoes, and seamen, to keep them at home?" + </p> + <p> + A people proud, independent, and pugnacious, could not long submit to a + measure of defense which was, in the final sense, an abject surrender to + brute force. New England, which bore the brunt of the embargo, was first + to rebel against it. Sailors marched through the streets clamoring for + bread or loaded their vessels and fought their way to sea. In New York the + streets of the waterside were deserted, ships dismantled, countinghouses + unoccupied, and warehouses empty. In one year foreign commerce decreased + in value from $108,000,000 to $22,000,000. + </p> + <p> + After fifteen months Congress repealed the law, substituting a + Non-Intercourse Act which suspended trade with Great Britain and France + until their offending orders were repealed. All such measures were doomed + to be futile. Words and documents, threats and arguments could not + intimidate adversaries who paid heed to nothing else than broadsides from + line-of-battle ships or the charge of battalions. With other countries + trade could now be opened. Hopefully the hundreds of American ships long + pent-up in harbor winged it deep-laden for the Baltic, the North Sea, and + the Mediterranean. But few of them ever returned. Like a brigand, Napoleon + lured them into a trap and closed it, advising the Prussian Government, + which was under his heel: "Let the American ships enter your ports. Seize + them afterward. You shall deliver the cargoes to me and I will take them + in part payment of the Prussian war debt." + </p> + <p> + Similar orders were executed wherever his mailed fist reached, the pretext + being reprisal for the Non-Intercourse Act. More than two hundred American + vessels were lost to their owners, a ten-million-dollar robbery for which + France paid an indemnity of five millions after twenty years. It was the + grand climax of the exploitation which American commerce had been + compelled to endure through two centuries of tumult and bloodshed afloat. + There lingers today in many a coastwise town an inherited dislike for + France. It is a legacy of that far-off catastrophe which beggared many a + household and filled the streets with haggard, broken shipmasters. + </p> + <p> + It was said of this virile merchant marine that it throve under pillage + and challenged confiscation. Statistics confirm this brave paradox. In + 1810, while Napoleon was doing his worst, the deep-sea tonnage amounted to + 981,019; and it is a singular fact that in proportion to population this + was to stand as the high tide of American foreign shipping until + thirty-seven years later. It ebbed during the War of 1812 but rose again + with peace and a real and lasting freedom of the seas. + </p> + <p> + This second war with England was fought in behalf of merchant seamen and + they played a nobly active part in it. The ruthless impressment of seamen + was the most conspicuous provocation, but it was only one of many. Two + years before hostilities were openly declared, British frigates were + virtually blockading the port of New York, halting and searching ships as + they pleased, making prizes of those with French destinations, stealing + sailors to fill their crews, waging war in everything but name, and + enjoying the sport of it. A midshipman of one of them merrily related: + "Every morning at daybreak we set about arresting the progress of all the + vessels we saw, firing off guns to the right and left to make every ship + that was running in heave to or wait until we had leisure to send a boat + on board to see, in our lingo, what she was made of. I have frequently + known a dozen and sometimes a couple of dozen ships lying a league or two + off the port, losing their fair wind, their tide, and worse than all, + their market for many hours, sometimes the whole day, before our search + was completed." + </p> + <p> + The right of a belligerent to search neutral vessels for contraband of war + or evidence of a forbidden destination was not the issue at stake. This + was a usage sanctioned by such international law as then existed. It was + the alleged right to search for English seamen in neutral vessels that + Great Britain exercised, not only on the high seas but even in territorial + waters, which the American Government refused to recognize. In vain the + Government had endeavored to protect its sailors from impressment by means + of certificates of birth and citizenship. These documents were jeered at + by the English naval lieutenant and his boarding gang, who kidnapped from + the forecastle such stalwart tars as pleased their fancy. The victim who + sought to inform an American consul of his plight was lashed to the + rigging and flogged by a boatswain's mate. The files of the State + Department, in 1807, had contained the names of six thousand American + sailors who were as much slaves and prisoners aboard British men-of-war as + if they had been made captives by the Dey of Algiers. One of these + incidents, occurring on the ship Betsy, Captain Nathaniel Silsbee, while + at Madras in 1795, will serve to show how this brutal business was done. + </p> + <p> + "I received a note early one morning from my chief mate that one of my + sailors, Edward Hulen, a fellow townsman whom I had known from boyhood, + had been impressed and taken on board of a British frigate then being in + port.... I immediately went on board my ship and having there learned all + the facts in the case, proceeded to the frigate, where I found Hulen and + in his presence was informed by the first lieutenant of the frigate that + he had taken Hulen from my ship under a peremptory order from his + commander to visit every American ship in port and take from each of them + one or more of their seamen.... I then called upon Captain Cook, who + commanded the frigate, and sought first by all the persuasive means that I + was capable of using and ultimately by threats to appeal to the Government + of the place to obtain Hulen's release, but in vain.... It remained for me + only to recommend Hulen to that protection of the lieutenant which a good + seaman deserves, and to submit to the high-handed insult thus offered to + the flag of my country which I had no means either of preventing or + resisting." + </p> + <p> + After several years' detention in the British Navy, Hulen returned to + Salem and lived to serve on board privateers in the second war with + England. + </p> + <p> + Several years' detention! This was what it meant to be a pressed man, + perhaps with wife and children at home who had no news of him nor any + wages to support them. At the time of the Nore Mutiny in 1797, there were + ships in the British fleet whose men had not been paid off for eight, ten, + twelve, and in one instance fifteen years. These wooden walls of England + were floating hells, and a seaman was far better off in jail. He was + flogged if he sulked and again if he smiled flogged until the blood ran + for a hundred offenses as trivial as these. His food was unspeakably bad + and often years passed before he was allowed to set foot ashore. Decent + men refused to volunteer and the ships were filled with the human scum and + refuse caught in the nets of the press-gangs of Liverpool, London, and + Bristol. + </p> + <p> + It is largely forgotten or unknown that this system of recruiting was as + intolerable in England as it was in the United States and as fiercely + resented. Oppressive and unjust, it was nevertheless endured as the + bulwark of England's defense against her foes. It ground under its heel + the very people it protected and made them serfs in order to keep them + free. No man of the common people who lived near the coast of England was + safe from the ruffianly press-gangs nor any merchant ship that entered her + ports. It was the most cruel form of conscription ever devised. Mob + violence opposed it again and again, and British East Indiamen fought the + King's tenders sooner than be stripped of their crews and left helpless. + Feeling in America against impressment was never more highly inflamed, + even on the brink of the War of 1812, than it had long been in England + itself, although the latter country was unable to rise and throw it off. + Here are the words, not of an angry American patriot but of a modern + English historian writing of his own nation: * "To the people the impress + was an axe laid at the foot of the tree. There was here no question, as + with trade, of the mere loss of hands who could be replaced. Attacking the + family in the person of its natural supporter and protector, the octopus + system of which the gangs were the tentacles, struck at the very + foundations of domestic life and brought to thousands of households a + poverty as bitter and a grief as poignant as death. ... The mutiny at the + Nore brought the people face to face with the appalling risks attendant on + wholesale pressing while the war with America, incurred for the sole + purpose of upholding the right to press, taught them the lengths to which + their rulers were still prepared to go in order to enslave them." * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * The Press Gang Afloat and Ashore, by J. R. Hutchinson. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. THE BRILLIANT ERA OF 1812 + </h2> + <p> + American privateering in 1812 was even bolder and more successful than + during the Revolution. It was the work of a race of merchant seamen who + had found themselves, who were in the forefront of the world's trade and + commerce, and who were equipped to challenge the enemy's pretensions to + supremacy afloat. Once more there was a mere shadow of a navy to protect + them, but they had learned to trust their own resources. They would send + to sea fewer of the small craft, slow and poorly armed, and likely to meet + disaster. They were capable of manning what was, in fact, a private navy + comprised of fast and formidable cruisers. The intervening generation had + advanced the art of building and handling ships beyond all rivalry, and + England grudgingly acknowledged their ability. The year of 1812 was indeed + but a little distance from the resplendent modern era of the Atlantic + packet and the Cape Horn clipper. + </p> + <p> + Already these Yankee deep-water ships could be recognized afar by their + lofty spars and snowy clouds of cotton duck beneath which the slender hull + was a thin black line. Far up to the gleaming royals they carried sail in + winds so strong that the lumbering English East Indiamen were hove to or + snugged down to reefed topsails. It was not recklessness but better + seamanship. The deeds of the Yankee privateers of 1812 prove this + assertion to the hilt. Their total booty amounted to thirteen hundred + prizes taken over all the Seven Seas, with a loss to England of forty + million dollars in ships and cargoes. There were, all told, more than five + hundred of them in commission, but New England no longer monopolized this + dashing trade. Instead of Salem it was Baltimore that furnished the + largest fleet—fifty-eight vessels, many of them the fast ships and + schooners which were to make the port famous as the home of the Baltimore + clipper model. All down the coast, out of Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, + Savannah, and New Orleans, sallied the privateers to show that theirs was, + in truth, a seafaring nation ardently united in a common cause. + </p> + <p> + Again and more vehemently the people of England raised their voices in + protest and lament, for these saucy sea-raiders fairly romped to and fro + in the Channel, careless of pursuit, conducting a blockade of their own + until London was paying the famine price of fifty-eight dollars a barrel + for flour, and it was publicly declared mortifying and distressing that "a + horde of American cruisers should be allowed, unresisted and unmolested, + to take, burn, or sink our own vessels in our own inlets and almost in + sight of our own harbors." It was Captain Thomas Boyle in the Chasseur of + Baltimore who impudently sent ashore his proclamation of a blockade of the + United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which he requested should be + posted in Lloyd's Coffee House. + </p> + <p> + A wonderfully fine figure of a fighting seaman was this Captain Boyle, + with an Irish sense of humor which led him to haunt the enemy's coast and + to make sport of the frigates which tried to catch him. His Chasseur was + considered one of the ablest privateers of the war and the most beautiful + vessel ever seen in Baltimore. A fleet and graceful schooner with a + magical turn for speed, she mounted sixteen long twelve-pounders and + carried a hundred officers, seamen, and marines, and was never outsailed + in fair winds or foul. "Out of sheer wantonness," said an admirer, "she + sometimes affected to chase the enemy's men-of-war of far superior force." + Once when surrounded by two frigates and two naval brigs, she slipped + through and was gone like a phantom. During his first cruise in the + Chasseur, Captain Boyle captured eighteen valuable merchantmen. It was + such defiant rovers as he that provoked the "Morning Chronicle" of London + to splutter "that the whole coast of Ireland from Wexford round by Cape + Clear to Carrickfergus, should have been for above a month under the + unresisted domination of a few petty fly-by-nights from the blockaded + ports of the United States is a grievance equally intolerable and + disgraceful." + </p> + <p> + This was when the schooner Syren had captured His Majesty's cutter + Landrail while crossing the Irish Sea with dispatches; when the Governor + Tompkins burned fourteen English vessels in the English Channel in quick + succession; when the Harpy of Baltimore cruised for three months off the + Irish and English coasts and in the Bay of Biscay, and returned to Boston + filled with spoils, including a half million dollars of money; when the + Prince de Neuchatel hovered at her leisure in the Irish Channel and made + coasting trade impossible; and when the Young Wasp of Philadelphia cruised + for six months in those same waters. + </p> + <p> + Two of the privateers mentioned were first-class fighting ships whose + engagements were as notable, in their way, as those of the American + frigates which made the war as illustrious by sea as it was ignominious by + land. While off Havana in 1815, Captain Boyle met the schooner St. + Lawrence of the British Navy, a fair match in men and guns. The Chasseur + could easily have run away but stood up to it and shot the enemy to pieces + in fifteen minutes. Brave and courteous were these two commanders, and + Lieutenant Gordon of the St. Lawrence gave his captor a letter which read, + in part: "In the event of Captain Boyle's becoming a prisoner of war to + any British cruiser I consider it a tribute justly due to his humane and + generous treatment of myself, the surviving officers, and crew of His + Majesty's late schooner St. Lawrence, to state that his obliging attention + and watchful solicitude to preserve our effects and render us comfortable + during the short time we were in his possession were such as justly + entitle him to the indulgence and respect of every British subject." + </p> + <p> + The Prince de Neuchatel had the honor of beating off the attack of a + forty-gun British frigate—an exploit second only to that of the + General Armstrong in the harbor of Fayal. This privateer with a foreign + name hailed from New York and was so fortunate as to capture for her + owners three million dollars' worth of British merchandise. With Captain + J. Ordronaux on the quarterdeck, she was near Nantucket Shoals at noon on + October 11, 1814, when a strange sail was discovered. As this vessel + promptly gave chase, Captain Ordronaux guessed-and as events proved + correctly—that she must be a British frigate. She turned out to be + the Endymion. The privateer had in tow a prize which she was anxious to + get into port, but she was forced to cast off the hawser late in the + afternoon and make every effort to escape. + </p> + <p> + The breeze died with the sun and the vessels were close inshore. Becalmed, + the privateer and the frigate anchored a quarter of a mile apart. Captain + Ordronaux might have put his crew on the beach in boats and abandoned his + ship. This was the reasonable course, for, as he had sent in several prize + crews, he was short-handed and could muster no more than thirty-seven men + and boys. The Endymion, on the other hand, had a complement of three + hundred and fifty sailors and marines, and in size and fighting power she + was in the class of the American frigates President and Constitution. + Quite unreasonably, however, the master of the privateer decided to await + events. + </p> + <p> + The unexpected occurred shortly after dusk when several boats loaded to + the gunwales with a boarding party crept away from the frigate. Five of + them, with one hundred and twenty men, made a concerted attack at + different points, alongside and under the bow and stern. Captain Ordronaux + had told his crew that he would blow up the ship with all hands before + striking his colors, and they believed him implicitly. This was the hero + who was described as "a Jew by persuasion, a Frenchman by birth, an + American for convenience, and so diminutive in stature as to make him + appear ridiculous, in the eyes of others, even for him to enforce + authority among a hardy, weatherbeaten crew should they do aught against + his will." He was big enough, nevertheless, for this night's bloody work, + and there was no doubt about his authority. While the British tried to + climb over the bulwarks, his thirty-seven men and boys fought like raging + devils, with knives, pistols, cutlases, with their bare fists and their + teeth. A few of the enemy gained the deck, but the privateersmen turned + and killed them. Others leaped aboard and were gradually driving the + Americans back, when the skipper ran to the hatch above the powder + magazine, waving a lighted match and swearing to drop it in if his crew + retreated one step further. Either way the issue seemed desperate. But + again they took their skipper's word for it and rallied for a bloody + struggle which soon swept the decks. + </p> + <p> + No more than twenty minutes had passed and the battle was won. The enemy + was begging for quarter. One boat had been sunk, three had drifted away + filled with dead and wounded, and the fifth was captured with thirty-six + men in it of whom only eight were unhurt. The American loss was seven + killed and twenty-four wounded, or thirty-one of her crew of thirty-seven. + Yet they had not given up the ship. The frigate Endymion concluded that + once was enough, and next morning the Prince de Neuchatel bore away for + Boston with a freshening breeze. + </p> + <p> + Those were merchant seamen also who held the General Armstrong against a + British squadron through that moonlit night in Fayal Roads, inflicting + heavier losses than were suffered in any naval action of the war. It is a + story Homeric, almost incredible in its details and so often repeated that + it can be only touched upon in this brief chronicle. The leader was a + kindly featured man who wore a tall hat, side-whiskers, and a tail coat. + His portrait might easily have served for that of a New England deacon of + the old school. No trace of the swashbuckler in this Captain Samuel Reid, + who had been a thrifty, respected merchant skipper until offered the + command of a privateer. + </p> + <p> + Touching at the Azores for water and provisions in September, 1814, he was + trapped in port by the great seventy-four-gun ship of the line + Plantagenet, the thirty-eight-gun frigate Rota, and the warbrig Carnation. + Though he was in neutral water, they paid no heed to this but determined + to destroy a Yankee schooner which had played havoc with their shipping. + Four hundred men in twelve boats, with a howitzer in the bow of each boat, + were sent against the General Armstrong in one flotilla. But not a man of + the four hundred gained her deck. Said an eyewitness: "The Americans + fought with great firmness but more like bloodthirsty savages than + anything else. They rushed into the boats sword in hand and put every soul + to death as far as came within their power. Some of the boats were left + without a single man to row them, others with three or four. The most that + any one returned with was about ten. Several boats floated ashore full of + dead bodies.... For three days after the battle we were employed in + burying the dead that washed on shore in the surf." + </p> + <p> + This tragedy cost the British squadron one hundred and twenty men in + killed and one hundred and thirty in wounded, while Captain Reid lost only + two dead and had seven wounded. He was compelled to retreat ashore next + day when the ships stood in to sink his schooner with their big guns, but + the honors of war belonged to him and well-earned were the popular + tributes when he saw home again, nor was there a word too much in the + florid toast: "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." + </p> + <p> + It is not to glorify war nor to rekindle an ancient feud that such + episodes as these are recalled to mind. These men, and others like them, + did their duty as it came to them, and they were sailors of whom the whole + Anglo-Saxon race might be proud. In the crisis they were Americans, not + privateersmen in quest of plunder, and they would gladly die sooner than + haul down the Stars and Stripes. The England against which they fought was + not the England of today. Their honest grievances, inflicted by a + Government too intent upon crushing Napoleon to be fair to neutrals, have + long ago been obliterated. This War of 1812 cleared the vision of the + Mother Country and forever taught her Government that the people of the + Republic were, in truth, free and independent. + </p> + <p> + This lesson was driven home not only by the guns of the Constitution and + the United States, but also by the hundreds of privateers and the forty + thousand able seamen who were eager to sail in them. They found no great + place in naval history, but England knew their prowess and respected it. + Every schoolboy is familiar with the duels of the Wasp and the Frolic, of + the Enterprise and the Boxer; but how many people know what happened when + the privateer Decatur met and whipped the Dominica of the British Navy to + the southward of Bermuda? + </p> + <p> + Captain Diron was the man who did it as he was cruising out of Charleston, + South Carolina, in the summer of 1813. Sighting an armed schooner slightly + heavier than his own vessel, he made for her and was unperturbed when the + royal ensign streamed from her gaff. Clearing for action, he closed the + hatches so that none of his men could hide below. The two schooners fought + in the veiling smoke until the American could ram her bowsprit over the + other's stern and pour her whole crew aboard. In the confined space of the + deck, almost two hundred men and lads were slashing and stabbing and + shooting amid yells and huzzas. Lieutenant Barrette, the English + commander, only twenty-five years old, was mortally hurt and every other + officer, excepting the surgeon and one midshipman, was killed or wounded. + Two-thirds of the crew were down but still they refused to surrender, and + Captain Diron had to pull down the colors with his own hands. Better + discipline and marksmanship had won the day for him and his losses were + comparatively small. + </p> + <p> + Men of his description were apt to think first of glory and let the + profits go hang, for there was no cargo to be looted in a King's ship. + Other privateersmen, however, were not so valiant or quarrelsome, and + there was many a one tied up in London River or the Mersey which had been + captured without very savage resistance. Yet on the whole it is fair to + say that the private armed ships outfought and outsailed the enemy as + impressively as did the few frigates of the American Navy. + </p> + <p> + There was a class of them which exemplified the rapid development of the + merchant marine in a conspicuous manner—large commerce destroyers + too swift to be caught, too powerful to fear the smaller cruisers. They + were extremely profitable business ventures, entrusted to the command of + the most audacious and skillful masters that could be engaged. Of this + type was the ship America of Salem, owned by the Crowninshields, which + made twenty-six prizes and brought safely into port property which + realized more than a million dollars. Of this the owners and shareholders + received six hundred thousand dollars as dividends. She was a stately + vessel, built for the East India trade, and was generally conceded to be + the fastest privateer afloat. For this service the upper deck was removed + and the sides were filled in with stout oak timber as an armored + protection, and longer yards and royal masts gave her a huge area of sail. + Her crew of one hundred and fifty men had the exacting organization of a + man-of-war, including, it is interesting to note, three lieutenants, three + mates, a sailingmaster, surgeon, purser, captain of marines, gunners, + seven prize masters, armorer, drummer, and a fifer. Discipline was severe, + and flogging was the penalty for breaking the regulations. + </p> + <p> + During her four cruises, the America swooped among the plodding + merchantmen like a falcon on a dovecote, the sight of her frightening most + of her prey into submission, with a brush now and then to exercise the + crews of the twenty-two guns, and perhaps a man or two hit. Long after the + war, Captain James Chever, again a peaceful merchant mariner, met at + Valparaiso, Sir James Thompson, commander of the British frigate Dublin, + which had been fitted out in 1813 for the special purpose of chasing the + America. In the course of a cordial chat between the two captains the + Briton remarked: + </p> + <p> + "I was once almost within gun-shot of that infernal Yankee skimming-dish, + just as night came on. By daylight she had outsailed the Dublin so + devilish fast that she was no more than a speck on the horizon. By the + way, I wonder if you happen to know the name of the beggar that was master + of her." + </p> + <p> + "I'm the beggar," chuckled Captain Chever, and they drank each other's + health on the strength of it. + </p> + <p> + Although the Treaty of Ghent omitted mention of the impressment of + sailors, which had been the burning issue of the war, there were no more + offenses of this kind. American seafarers were safe against kidnapping on + their own decks, and they had won this security by virtue of their own + double-shotted guns. At the same time England lifted the curse of the + press-gang from her own people, who refused longer to endure it. + </p> + <p> + There seemed no reason why the two nations, having finally fought their + differences to a finish, should not share the high seas in peaceful + rivalry; but the irritating problems of protection and reciprocity + survived to plague and hamper commerce. It was difficult for England to + overcome the habit of guarding her trade against foreign invasion. + Agreeing with the United States to waive all discriminating duties between + the ports of the two countries—this was as much as she was at that + time willing to yield. She still insisted upon regulating the trade of her + West Indies and Canada. American East Indiamen were to be limited to + direct voyages and could not bring cargoes to Europe. Though this + discrimination angered Congress, to which it appeared as lopsided + reciprocity, the old duties were nevertheless repealed; and then, presto! + the British colonial policy of exclusion was enforced and eighty thousand + tons of American shipping became idle because the West India market was + closed. + </p> + <p> + There followed several years of unhappy wrangling, a revival of the old + smuggling spirit, the risk of seizure and confiscations, and shipping + merchants with long faces talking ruin. The theory of free trade versus + protection was as debatable and opinions were as conflicting then as now. + Some were for retaliation, others for conciliation; and meanwhile American + shipmasters went about their business, with no room for theories in their + honest heads, and secured more and more of the world's trade. Curiously + enough, the cries of calamity in the United States were echoed across the + water, where the "London Times" lugubriously exclaimed: "The shipping + interest, the cradle of our navy, is half ruined. Our commercial monopoly + exists no longer; and thousands of our manufacturers are starving or + seeking redemption in distant lands. We have closed the Western Indies + against America from feelings of commercial rivalry. Its active seamen + have already engrossed an important branch of our carrying trade to the + Eastern Indies. Her starred flag is now conspicuous on every sea and will + soon defy our thunder." + </p> + <p> + It was not until 1849 that Great Britain threw overboard her long + catalogue of protective navigation laws which had been piling up since the + time of Cromwell, and declared for free trade afloat. Meanwhile the United + States had drifted in the same direction, barring foreign flags from its + coastwise shipping but offering full exemption from all discriminating + duties and tonnage duties to every maritime nation which should respond in + like manner. This latter legislation was enacted in 1828 and definitely + abandoned the doctrine of protection in so far as it applied to American + ships and sailors. For a generation thereafter, during which ocean rivalry + was a battle royal of industry, enterprise, and skill, the United States + was paramount and her merchant marine attained its greatest successes. + </p> + <p> + There is one school of modern economists who hold that the seeds of decay + and downfall were planted by this adoption of free trade in 1828, while + another faction of gentlemen quite as estimable and authoritative will + quote facts and figures by the ream to prove that governmental policies + had nothing whatever to do with the case. These adversaries have written + and are still writing many volumes in which they almost invariably lose + their tempers. Partisan politics befog the tariff issue afloat as well as + ashore, and one's course is not easy to chart. It is indisputable, + however, that so long as Yankee ships were better, faster, and more + economically managed, they won a commanding share of the world's trade. + When they ceased to enjoy these qualities of superiority, they lost the + trade and suffered for lack of protection to overcome the handicap. + </p> + <p> + The War of 1812 was the dividing line between two eras of salt water + history. On the farther side lay the turbulent centuries of hazard and + bloodshed and piracy, of little ships and indomitable seamen who pursued + their voyages in the reek of gunpowder and of legalized pillage by the + stronger, and of merchant adventurers who explored new markets wherever + there was water enough to float their keels. They belonged to the rude and + lusty youth of a world which lived by the sword and which gloried in + action. Even into the early years of the nineteenth century these mariners + still sailed—Elizabethan in deed and spirit. + </p> + <p> + On the hither side of 1812 were seas unvexed by the privateer and the + freebooter. The lateen-rigged corsairs had been banished from their lairs + in the harbors of Algiers, and ships needed to show no broadsides of + cannon in the Atlantic trade. For a time they carried the old armament + among the lawless islands of the Orient and off Spanish-American coasts + where the vocation of piracy made its last stand, but the great trade + routes of the globe were peaceful highways for the white-winged fleets of + all nations. The American seamen who had fought for the right to use the + open sea were now to display their prowess in another way and in a romance + of achievement that was no less large and thrilling. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. THE PACKET SHIPS OF THE "ROARING FORTIES" + </h2> + <p> + It was on the stormy Atlantic, called by sailormen the Western Ocean, that + the packet ships won the first great contest for supremacy and knew no + rivals until the coming of the age of steam made them obsolete. Their era + antedated that of the clipper and was wholly distinct. The Atlantic packet + was the earliest liner: she made regular sailings and carried freight and + passengers instead of trading on her owners' account as was the ancient + custom. Not for her the tranquillity of tropic seas and the breath of the + Pacific trades, but an almost incessant battle with swinging surges and + boisterous winds, for she was driven harder in all weathers and seasons + than any other ships that sailed. In such battering service as this the + lines of the clipper were too extremely fine, her spars too tall and + slender. The packet was by no means slow and if the list of her record + passages was superb, it was because they were accomplished by masters who + would sooner let a sail blow away than take it in and who raced each other + every inch of the way. + </p> + <p> + They were small ships of three hundred to five hundred tons when the + famous Black Ball Line was started in 1816. From the first they were the + ablest vessels that could be built, full-bodied and stoutly rigged. They + were the only regular means of communication between the United States and + Europe and were entrusted with the mails, specie, government dispatches, + and the lives of eminent personages. Blow high, blow low, one of the Black + Ball packets sailed from New York for Liverpool on the first and sixteenth + of every month. Other lines were soon competing—the Red Star and the + Swallow Tail out of New York, and fine ships from Boston and Philadelphia. + With the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 the commercial greatness of + New York was assured, and her Atlantic packets increased in size and + numbers, averaging a thousand tons each in the zenith of their glory. + </p> + <p> + England, frankly confessing herself beaten and unable to compete with such + ships as these, changed her attitude from hostility to open admiration. + She surrendered the Atlantic packet trade to American enterprise, and + British merchantmen sought their gains in other waters. The Navigation + Laws still protected their commerce in the Far East and they were content + to jog at a more sedate gait than these weltering packets whose skippers + were striving for passages of a fortnight, with the forecastle doors + nailed fast and the crew compelled to stay on deck from Sandy Hook to + Fastnet Rock. + </p> + <p> + No blustering, rum-drinking tarpaulin was the captain who sailed the + Independence, the Ocean Queen, or the Dreadnought but a man very careful + of his manners and his dress, who had been selected from the most highly + educated merchant service in the world. He was attentive to the comfort of + his passengers and was presumed to have no other duties on deck than to + give the proper orders to his first officer and work out his daily + reckoning. It was an exacting, nerve-racking ordeal, however, demanding a + sleepless vigilance, courage, and cool judgment of the first order. The + compensations were large. As a rule, he owned a share of the ship and + received a percentage of the freights and passage money. His rank when + ashore was more exalted than can be conveyed in mere words. Any normal New + York boy would sooner have been captain of a Black Ball packet than + President of the United States, and he knew by heart the roaring chantey + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + It is of a flash packet, + A packet of fame. + She is bound to New York + And the Dreadnought's her name. + She is bound to the west'ard + Where the stormy winds blow. + Bound away to the west'ard, + Good Lord, let her go. +</pre> + <p> + There were never more than fifty of these ships afloat, a trifling + fraction of the American deep-water tonnage of that day, but the laurels + they won were immortal. Not only did the English mariner doff his hat to + them, but a Parliamentary committee reported in 1837 that "the American + ships frequenting the ports of England are stated by several witnesses to + be superior to those of a similar class among the ships of Great Britain, + the commanders and officers being generally considered to be more + competent as seamen and navigators and more uniformly persons of education + than the commanders and officers of British ships of a similar size and + class trading from England to America." + </p> + <p> + It was no longer a rivalry with the flags of other nations but an + unceasing series of contests among the packets of the several lines, and + their records aroused far more popular excitement than when the great + steamers of this century were chipping off the minutes, at an enormous + coal consumption, toward a five-day passage. Theirs were tests of real + seamanship, and there were few disasters. The packet captain scorned a + towboat to haul him into the stream if the wind served fair to set all + plain sail as his ship lay at her wharf. Driving her stern foremost, he + braced his yards and swung her head to sea, clothing the masts with + soaring canvas amid the farewell cheers of the crowds which lined the + waterfront. + </p> + <p> + A typical match race was sailed between the Black Ball liner Columbus, + Captain De Peyster, and the Sheridan, Captain Russell, of the splendid + Dramatic fleet, in 1837. The stake was $10,000 a side, put up by the + owners and their friends. The crews were picked men who were promised a + bonus of fifty dollars each for winning. The ships sailed side by side in + February, facing the wild winter passage, and the Columbus reached + Liverpool in the remarkable time of sixteen days, two days ahead of the + Sheridan. + </p> + <p> + The crack packets were never able to reel off more than twelve or fourteen + knots under the most favorable conditions, but they were kept going night + and day, and some of them maintained their schedules almost with the + regularity of the early steamers. The Montezuma, the Patrick Henry, and + the Southampton crossed from New York to Liverpool in fifteen days, and + for years the Independence held the record of fourteen days and six hours. + It remained for the Dreadnought, Captain Samuel Samuels, in 1859, to set + the mark for packet ships to Liverpool at thirteen days and eight hours. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the era of the matchless clipper had arrived and it was one of + these ships which achieved the fastest Atlantic passage ever made by a + vessel under sail. The James Baines was built for English owners to be + used in the Australian trade. She was a full clipper of 2515 tons, twice + the size of the ablest packets, and was praised as "the most perfect + sailing ship that ever entered the river Mersey." Bound out from Boston to + Liverpool, she anchored after twelve days and six hours at sea. + </p> + <p> + There was no lucky chance in this extraordinary voyage, for this clipper + was the work of the greatest American builder, Donald McKay, who at the + same time designed the Lightning for the same owners. This clipper, sent + across the Atlantic on her maiden trip, left in her foaming wake a + twenty-four hour run which no steamer had even approached and which was + not equaled by the fastest express steamers until twenty-five years later + when the greyhound Arizona ran eighteen knots in one hour on her trial + trip. This is a rather startling statement when one reflects that the + Arizona of the Guion line seems to a generation still living a modern + steamer and record-holder. It is even more impressive when coupled with + the fact that, of the innumerable passenger steamers traversing the seas + today, only a few are capable of a speed of more than eighteen knots. + </p> + <p> + This clipper Lightning did her 436 sea miles in one day, or eighteen and a + half knots, better than twenty land miles an hour, and this is how the + surpassing feat was entered in her log, or official journal: "March 1. + Wind south. Strong gales; bore away for the North Channel, carrying away + the foretopsail and lost jib; hove the log several times and found the + ship going through the water at the rate of 18 to 18 1/2 knots; lee rail + under water and rigging slack. Distance run in twenty-four hours, 436 + miles." The passage was remarkably fast, thirteen days and nineteen and a + half hours from Boston Light, but the spectacular feature was this day's + work. It is a fitting memorial of the Yankee clipper, and, save only a + cathedral, the loveliest, noblest fabric ever wrought by man's handiwork. + </p> + <p> + The clipper, however, was a stranger in the Atlantic and her chosen + courses were elsewhere. The records made by the James Baines and the + Lightning were no discredit to the stanch, unconquerable packet ships + which, year in and year out, held their own with the steamer lines until + just before the Civil War. It was the boast of Captain Samuels that on her + first voyage in 1853 the Dreadnought reached Sandy Hook as the Cunarder + Canada, which had left Liverpool a day ahead of her, was passing in by + Boston Light. Twice she carried the latest news to Europe, and many + seasoned travelers preferred her to the mail steamers. + </p> + <p> + The masters and officers who handled these ships with such magnificent + success were true-blue American seamen, inspired by the finest traditions, + successors of the privateersmen of 1812. The forecastles, however, were + filled with English, Irish, and Scandinavians. American lads shunned these + ships and, in fact, the ambitious youngster of the coastwise towns began + to cease following the sea almost a century ago. It is sometimes forgotten + that the period during which the best American manhood sought a maritime + career lay between the Revolution and the War of 1812. Thereafter the + story became more and more one of American ships and less of American + sailors, excepting on the quarter-deck. + </p> + <p> + In later years the Yankee crews were to be found in the ports where the + old customs survived, the long trading voyage, the community of interest + in cabin and forecastle, all friends and neighbors together, with + opportunities for profit and advancement. Such an instance was that of the + Salem ship George, built at Salem in 1814 and owned by the great merchant, + Joseph Peabody. For twenty-two years she sailed in the East India trade, + making twenty-one round voyages, with an astonishing regularity which + would be creditable for a modern cargo tramp. Her sailors were native-born, + seldom more than twenty-one years old, and most of them were studying + navigation. Forty-five of them became shipmasters, twenty of them chief + mates, and six second mates. This reliable George was, in short, a + nautical training-school of the best kind and any young seaman with the + right stuff in him was sure of advancement. + </p> + <p> + Seven thousand sailors signed articles in the counting-room of Joseph + Peabody and went to sea in his eighty ships which flew the house-flag in + Calcutta, Canton, Sumatra, and the ports of Europe until 1844. These were + mostly New England boys who followed in the footsteps of their fathers + because deep-water voyages were still "adventures" and a career was + possible under a system which was both congenial and paternal. Brutal + treatment was the rare exception. Flogging still survived in the merchant + service and was defended by captains otherwise humane, but a skipper, no + matter how short-tempered, would be unlikely to abuse a youth whose + parents might live on the same street with him and attend the same church. + </p> + <p> + The Atlantic packets brought a different order of things, which was to be + continued through the clipper era. Yankee sailors showed no love for the + cold and storms of the Western Ocean in these foaming packets which were + remorselessly driven for speed. The masters therefore took what they could + get. All the work of rigging, sail-making, scraping, painting, and keeping + a ship in perfect repair was done in port instead of at sea, as was the + habit in the China and California clippers, and the lore and training of + the real deep-water sailor became superfluous. The crew of a packet made + sail or took it in with the two-fisted mates to show them how. + </p> + <p> + From these conditions was evolved the "Liverpool packet rat," hairy and + wild and drunken, the prey of crimps and dive-keepers ashore, brave and + toughened to every hardship afloat, climbing aloft in his red shirt, + dungaree breeches, and sea-boots, with a snow-squall whistling, the + rigging sheathed with ice, and the old ship burying her bows in the + thundering combers. It was the doctrine of his officers that he could not + be ruled by anything short of violence, and the man to tame and hammer him + was the "bucko" second mate, the test of whose fitness was that he could + whip his weight in wild cats. When he became unable to maintain discipline + with fists and belaying-pins, he was deposed for a better man. + </p> + <p> + Your seasoned packet rat sought the ship with a hard name by choice. His + chief ambition was to kick in the ribs or pound senseless some invincible + bucko mate. There was provocation enough on both sides. Officers had to + take their ships to sea and strain every nerve to make a safe and rapid + passage with crews which were drunk and useless when herded aboard, half + of them greenhorns, perhaps, who could neither reef nor steer. Brutality + was the one argument able to enforce instant obedience among men who + respected nothing else. As a class the packet sailors became more and more + degraded because their life was intolerable to decent men. It followed + therefore that the quarterdeck employed increasing severity, and, as the + officer's authority in this respect was unchecked and unlimited, it was + easy to mistake the harshest tyranny for wholesome discipline. + </p> + <p> + Reenforcing the bucko mate was the tradition that the sailor was a dog, a + different human species from the landsman, without laws and usages to + protect him. This was a tradition which, for centuries, had been fostered + in the naval service, and it survived among merchant sailors as an unhappy + anachronism even into the twentieth century, when an American Congress was + reluctant to bestow upon a seaman the decencies of existence enjoyed by + the poorest laborer ashore. + </p> + <p> + It is in the nature of a paradox that the brilliant success of the packet + ships in dominating the North Atlantic trade should have been a factor in + the decline of the nation's maritime prestige and resources. Through a + period of forty years the pride and confidence in these ships, their + builders, and the men who sailed them, was intense and universal. They + were a superlative product of the American genius, which still displayed + the energies of a maritime race. On other oceans the situation was no less + gratifying. American ships were the best and cheapest in the world. The + business held the confidence of investors and commanded an abundance of + capital. It was assumed, as late as 1840, that the wooden sailing ship + would continue to be the supreme type of deep-water vessel because the + United States possessed the greatest stores of timber, the most skillful + builders and mechanics, and the ablest merchant navigators. No industry + was ever more efficiently organized and conducted. American ships were + most in demand and commanded the highest freights. The tonnage in foreign + trade increased to a maximum of 904,476 in 1845. There was no doubt in the + minds of the shrewdest merchants and owners and builders of the time that + Great Britain would soon cease to be the mistress of the seas and must + content herself with second place. + </p> + <p> + It was not considered ominous when, in 1838, the Admiralty had requested + proposals for a steam service to America. This demand was prompted by the + voyages of the Sirius and Great Western, wooden-hulled sidewheelers which + thrashed along at ten knots' speed and crossed the Atlantic in fourteen to + seventeen days. This was a much faster rate than the average time of the + Yankee packets, but America was unperturbed and showed no interest in + steam. In 1839 the British Government awarded an Atlantic mail contract, + with an annual subsidy of $425,000 to Samuel Cunard and his associates, + and thereby created the most famous of the Atlantic steamship companies. + </p> + <p> + Four of these liners began running in 1840—an event which foretold + the doom of the packet fleets, though the warning was almost unheeded in + New York and Boston. Four years later Enoch Train was establishing a new + packet line to Liverpool with the largest, finest ships built up to that + time, the Washington Irving, Anglo-American, Ocean Monarch, Anglo-Saxon, + and Daniel Webster. Other prominent shipping houses were expanding their + service and were launching noble packets until 1853. Meanwhile the Cunard + steamers were increasing in size and speed, and the service was no longer + an experiment. + </p> + <p> + American capital now began to awaken from its dreams, and Edward K. + Collins, managing owner of the Dramatic line of packets, determined to + challenge the Cunarders at their own game. Aided by the Government to the + extent of $385,000 a year as subsidy, he put afloat the four magnificent + steamers, Atlantic, Pacific, Baltic, and Arctic, which were a day faster + than the Cunarders in crossing, and reduced the voyage to nine and ten + days. The Collins line, so auspiciously begun in 1850, and promising to + give the United States the supremacy in steam which it had won under sail, + was singularly unfortunate and short-lived. The Arctic and the Pacific + were lost at sea, and Congress withdrew its financial support after five + years. Deprived of this aid, Mr. Collins was unable to keep the enterprise + afloat in competition with the subsidized Cunard fleet. In this manner and + with little further effort by American interests to compete for the prize, + the dominion of the Atlantic passed into British hands. + </p> + <p> + The packet ships had held on too long. It had been a stirring episode for + the passengers to cheer in mid-ocean when the lofty pyramids of canvas + swept grandly by some wallowing steamer and left her far astern, but in + the fifties this gallant picture became less frequent, and a sooty banner + of smoke on the horizon proclaimed the new era and the obliteration of all + the rushing life and beauty of the tall ship under sail. Slow to realize + and acknowledge defeat, persisting after the steamers were capturing the + cabin passenger and express freight traffic, the American ship-owners + could not visualize this profound transformation. Their majestic clippers + still surpassed all rivals in the East India and China trade and were + racing around the Horn, making new records for speed and winning fresh + nautical triumphs for the Stars and Stripes. + </p> + <p> + This reluctance to change the industrial and commercial habits of + generations of American shipowners was one of several causes for the + decadence which was hastened by the Civil War. For once the astute + American was caught napping by his British cousin, who was swayed by no + sentimental values and showed greater adaptability in adopting the iron + steamer with the screw propeller as the inevitable successor of the wooden + ship with arching topsails. + </p> + <p> + The golden age of the American merchant marine was that of the + square-rigged ship, intricate, capricious, and feminine in her beauty, + with forty nimble seamen in the forecastle, not that of the metal trough + with an engine in the middle and mechanics sweating in her depths. When + the Atlantic packet was compelled to abdicate, it was the beginning of the + end. After all, her master was the fickle wind, for a slashing outward + passage might be followed by weeks of beating home to the westward. + Steadily forging ahead to the beat of her paddles or the thrash of her + screw, the steamer even of that day was far more dependable than the + sailing vessel. The Lightning clipper might run a hundred miles farther in + twenty-four hours than ever a steamer had done, but she could not maintain + this meteoric burst of speed. Upon the heaving surface of the Western + Ocean there was enacted over again the fable of the hare and the tortoise. + </p> + <p> + Most of the famous chanteys were born in the packet service and shouted as + working choruses by the tars of this Western Ocean before the chanteyman + perched upon a capstan and led the refrain in the clipper trade. You will + find their origin unmistakable in such lines as these: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + As I was a-walking down Rotherhite Street, + 'Way, ho, blow the man down; + A pretty young creature I chanced for to meet, + Give me some time to blow the man down. + Soon we'll be in London City, + Blow, boys, blow, + And see the gals all dressed so pretty, + Blow, my bully boys, blow. +</pre> + <p> + Haunting melodies, folk-song as truly as that of the plantation negro, + they vanished from the sea with a breed of men who, for all their faults, + possessed the valor of the Viking and the fortitude of the Spartan. + Outcasts ashore—which meant to them only the dance halls of Cherry + Street and the grog-shops of Ratcliffe Road—they had virtues that + were as great as their failings. Across the intervening years, with a + pathos indefinable, come the lovely strains of + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Shenandoah, I'll ne'er forget you, + Away, ye rolling river, + Till the day I die I'll love you ever, + Ah, ha, we're bound away. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. THE STATELY CLIPPER AND HER GLORY + </h2> + <p> + The American clipper ship was the result of an evolution which can be + traced back to the swift privateers which were built during the War of + 1812. In this type of vessel the shipyards of Chesapeake Bay excelled and + their handiwork was known as the "Baltimore clipper," the name suggested + by the old English verb which Dryden uses to describe the flight of the + falcon that "clips it down the wind." The essential difference between the + clipper ship and other kinds of merchant craft was that speed and not + capacity became the chief consideration. This was a radical departure for + large vessels, which in all maritime history had been designed with an eye + to the number of tons they were able to carry. More finely molded lines + had hitherto been found only in the much smaller French lugger, the + Mediterranean galley, the American schooner. + </p> + <p> + To borrow the lines of these fleet and graceful models and apply them to + the design of a deepwater ship was a bold conception. It was first + attempted by Isaac McKim, a Baltimore merchant, who ordered his builders + in 1832 to reproduce as closely as possible the superior sailing qualities + of the renowned clipper brigs and schooners of their own port. The result + was the Ann McKim, of nearly five hundred tons, the first Yankee clipper + ship, and distinguished as such by her long, easy water-lines, low + free-board, and raking stem. She was built and finished without regard to + cost, copper-sheathed, the decks gleaming with brasswork and mahogany + fittings. But though she was a very fast and handsome ship and the pride + of her owner, the Ann McKim could stow so little cargo that shipping men + regarded her as unprofitable and swore by their full-bodied vessels a few + years longer. + </p> + <p> + That the Ann McKim, however, influenced the ideas of the most progressive + builders is very probable, for she was later owned by the New York firm of + Howland and Aspinwall, who placed an order for the first extremely sharp + clipper ship of the era. This vessel, the Rainbow, was designed by John W. + Griffeths, a marine architect, who was a pioneer in that he studied + shipbuilding as a science instead of working by rule-of-thumb. The + Rainbow, which created a sensation while on the stocks because of her + concave or hollowed lines forward, which defied all tradition and + practice, was launched in 1845. She was a more radical innovation than the + Ann McKim but a successful one, for on her second voyage to China the + Rainbow went out against the northeast monsoon in ninety-two days and came + home in eighty-eight, a record which few ships were able to better. Her + commander, Captain John Land, declared her to be the fastest ship in the + world and there were none to dispute him. + </p> + <p> + Even the Rainbow however, was eclipsed when not long afterward Howland and + Aspinwall, now converted to the clipper, ordered the Sea Witch to be built + for Captain Bob Waterman. Among all the splendid skippers of the time he + was the most dashing figure. About his briny memory cluster a hundred + yarns, some of them true, others legendary. It has been argued that the + speed of the clippers was due more to the men who commanded them than to + their hulls and rigging, and to support the theory the career of Captain + Bob Waterman is quoted. He was first known to fame in the old Natchez, + which was not a clipper at all and was even rated as slow while carrying + cotton from New Orleans to New York. But Captain Bob took this full-pooped + old packet ship around the Horn and employed her in the China tea trade. + The voyages which he made in her were all fast, and he crowned them with + the amazing run of seventy-eight days from Canton to New York, just one + day behind the swiftest clipper passage ever sailed and which he himself + performed in the Sea Witch. Incredulous mariners simply could not explain + this feat of the Natchez and suggested that Bob Waterman must have brought + the old hooker home by some new route of his own discovery. + </p> + <p> + Captain Bob had won a reputation for discipline as the mate of a Black + Ball liner, a rough school, and he was not a mild man. Ashore his + personality was said to have been a most attractive one, but there is no + doubt that afloat he worked the very souls out of his sailors. The rumors + that he frightfully abused them were not current, however, until he took + the Sea Witch and showed the world the fastest ship under canvas. Low in + the water, with black hull and gilded figurehead, she seemed too small to + support her prodigious cloud of sail. For her there were to be no + leisurely voyages with Captain Bob Waterman on the quarter-deck. Home from + Canton she sped in seventy-seven days and then in seventy-nine—records + which were never surpassed. + </p> + <p> + With what consummate skill and daring this master mariner drove his ship + and how the race of hardy sailors to which he belonged compared with those + of other nations may be descried in the log of another of them, Captain + Philip Dumaresq, homeward bound from China in 1849 in the clipper Great + Britain. Three weeks out from Java Head she had overtaken and passed seven + ships heading the same way, and then she began to rush by them in one gale + after another. Her log records her exploits in such entries as these: + "Passed a ship under double reefs, we with our royals and studdingsails + set.... Passed a ship laying-to under a close-reefed maintopsail.... Split + all three topsails and had to heave to.... Seven vessels in sight and we + outsail all of them.... Under double-reefed topsails passed several + vessels hove-to." Much the same record might be read in the log of the + medium clipper Florence—and it is the same story of carrying sail + superbly on a ship which had been built to stand up under it: "Passed two + barks under reefed courses and close-reefed topsails standing the same + way, we with royals and topgallant studding-sails," or "Passed a ship + under topsails, we with our royals set." For eleven weeks "the topsail + halliards were started only once, to take in a single reef for a few + hours." It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that, seventeen days out + from Shanghai, the Florence exchanged signals with the English ship John + Hagerman, which had sailed thirteen days before her. + </p> + <p> + Two notable events in the history of the nineteenth century occurred + within the same year, 1849, to open new fields of trade to the Yankee + clipper. One of these was the repeal of the British Navigation Laws which + had given English ships a monopoly of the trade between London and the + British East Indies, and the other was the discovery of gold in + California. After centuries of pomp and power, the great East India + Company had been deprived of its last exclusive rights afloat in 1833. Its + ponderous, frigate-built merchantmen ceased to dominate the British + commerce with China and India and were sold or broken up. All British + ships were now free to engage in this trade, but the spirit and customs of + the old regime still strongly survived. Flying the house-flags of private + owners, the East Indiamen and China tea ships were still built and manned + like frigates, slow, comfortable, snugging down for the night under + reduced sail. There was no competition to arouse them until the last + barrier of the Navigation Laws was let down and they had to meet the + Yankee clipper with the tea trade as the huge stake. + </p> + <p> + Then at last it was farewell to the gallant old Indianian and her ornate, + dignified prestige. With a sigh the London Times confessed: "We must run a + race with our gigantic and unshackled rival. We must set our + long-practised skill, our steady industry, and our dogged determination + against his youth, ingenuity, and ardor. Let our shipbuilders and + employers take warning in time. There will always be an abundant supply of + vessels good enough and fast enough for short voyages. But we want fast + vessels for the long voyages which otherwise will fall into American + hands." + </p> + <p> + Before English merchants could prepare themselves for these new + conditions, the American clipper Oriental was loading in 1850 at Hong Kong + with tea for the London market. Because of her reputation for speed, she + received freightage of six pounds sterling per ton while British ships + rode at anchor with empty holds or were glad to sail at three pounds ten + per ton. Captain Theodore Palmer delivered his sixteen hundred tons of tea + in the West India Docks, London, after a crack passage of ninety-one days + which had never been equaled. His clipper earned $48,000, or two-thirds of + what it had cost to build her. Her arrival in London created a profound + impression. The port had seen nothing like her for power and speed; her + skysail yards soared far above the other shipping; the cut of her snowy + canvas was faultless; all clumsy, needless tophamper had been done away + with; and she appeared to be the last word in design and construction, as + lean and fine and spirited as a race-horse in training. + </p> + <p> + This new competition dismayed British shipping until it could rally and + fight with similar weapons The technical journal, Naval Science, + acknowledged that the tea trade of the London markets had passed almost + out of the hands of the English ship-owner, and that British vessels, + well-manned and well-found, were known to lie for weeks in the harbor of + Foo-chow, waiting for a cargo and seeing American clippers come in, load, + and sail immediately with full cargoes at a higher freight than they could + command. Even the Government viewed the loss of trade with concern and + sent admiralty draftsmen to copy the lines of the Oriental and Challenge + while they were in drydock. + </p> + <p> + British clippers were soon afloat, somewhat different in model from the + Yankee ships, but very fast and able, and racing them in the tea trade + until the Civil War. With them it was often nip and tuck, as in the + contest between the English Lord of the Isles and the American clipper + bark Maury in 1856. The prize was a premium of one pound per ton for the + first ship to reach London with tea of the new crop. The Lord of the Isles + finished loading and sailed four days ahead of the Maury, and after + thirteen thousand miles of ocean they passed Gravesend within ten minutes + of each other. The British skipper, having the smartest tug and getting + his ship first into dock, won the honors. In a similar race between the + American Sea Serpent and the English Crest of the Wave, both ships arrived + off the Isle of Wight on the same day. It was a notable fact that the Lord + of the Isles was the first tea clipper built of iron at a date when the + use of this stubborn material was not yet thought of by the men who + constructed the splendid wooden ships of America. + </p> + <p> + For the peculiar requirements of the tea trade, English maritime talent + was quick to perfect a clipper type which, smaller than the great Yankee + skysail-yarder, was nevertheless most admirable for its beauty and + performance. On both sides of the Atlantic partizans hotly championed + their respective fleets. In 1852 the American Navigation Club, organized + by Boston merchants and owners, challenged the shipbuilders of Great + Britain to race from a port in England to a port in China and return, for + a stake of $50,000 a side, ships to be not under eight hundred nor over + twelve hundred tons American register. The challenge was aimed at the + Stornaway and the Chrysolite, the two clippers that were known to be the + fastest ships under the British flag. Though this sporting defiance caused + lively discussion, nothing came of it, and it was with a spirit even + keener that Sampson and Tappan of Boston offered to match their + Nightingale for the same amount against any clipper afloat, British or + American. + </p> + <p> + In spite of the fact that Yankee enterprise had set the pace in the tea + trade, within a few years after 1850 England had so successfully mastered + the art of building these smaller clippers that the honors were fairly + divided. The American owners were diverting their energies to the more + lucrative trade in larger ships sailing around the Horn to San Francisco, + a long road which, as a coastwise voyage, was forbidden to foreign vessels + under the navigation laws. After the Civil War the fastest tea clippers + flew the British flag and into the seventies they survived the competition + of steam, racing among themselves for the premiums awarded to the quickest + dispatch. No more of these beautiful vessels were launched after 1869, and + one by one they vanished into other trades, overtaken by the same fate + which had befallen the Atlantic packet and conquered by the cargo steamers + which filed through the Suez Canal. + </p> + <p> + Until 1848 San Francisco had been a drowsy little Mexican trading-post, a + huddle of adobe huts and sheds where American ships collected hides—vividly + described in Two Years Before the Mast—or a whaler called for wood + and water. During the year preceding the frenzied migration of the modern + Argonauts, only two merchant ships, one bark and one brig, sailed in + through the Golden Gate. In the twelve months following, 775 vessels + cleared from Atlantic ports for San Francisco, besides the rush from other + countries, and nearly fifty thousand passengers scrambled ashore to dig + for gold. Crews deserted their ships, leaving them unable to go to sea + again for lack of men, and in consequence a hundred of them were used as + storehouses, hotels, and hospitals, or else rotted at their moorings. + Sailors by hundreds jumped from the forecastle without waiting to stow the + sails or receive their wages. Though offered as much as two hundred + dollars a month to sign again, they jeered at the notion. Of this great + fleet at San Francisco in 1849, it was a lucky ship that ever left the + harbor again. + </p> + <p> + It seemed as if the whole world were bound to California and almost + overnight there was created the wildest, most extravagant demand for + transportation known to history. A clipper costing $70,000 could pay for + herself in one voyage, with freights at sixty dollars a ton. This gold + stampede might last but a little while. To take instant advantage of it + was the thing. The fastest ships, and as many of them as could be built, + would skim the cream of it. This explains the brief and illustrious era of + the California clipper, one hundred and sixty of which were launched from + 1850 to 1854. The shipyards of New York and Boston were crowded with them, + and they graced the keel blocks of the historic old ports of New England—Medford, + Mystic, Newburyport, Portsmouth, Portland, Rockland, and Bath—wherever + the timber and the shipwrights could be assembled. + </p> + <p> + Until that time there had been few ships afloat as large as a thousand + tons. These were of a new type, rapidly increased to fifteen hundred, two + thousand tons, and over. They presented new and difficult problems in + spars and rigging able to withstand the strain of immense areas of canvas + which climbed two hundred feet to the skysail pole and which, with lower + studdingsails set, spread one hundred and sixty feet from boom-end to + boom-end. There had to be the strength to battle with the furious tempests + of Cape Horn and at the same time the driving power to sweep before the + sweet and steadfast tradewinds. Such a queenly clipper was the Flying + Cloud, the achievement of that master builder, Donald McKay, which sailed + from New York to San Francisco in eighty-nine days, with Captain Josiah + Creesy in command. This record was never lowered and was equaled only + twice—by the Flying Cloud herself and by the Andrew Jackson nine + years later. It was during this memorable voyage that the Flying Cloud + sailed 1256 miles in four days while steering to the northward under + topgallantsails after rounding Cape Horn. This was a rate of speed which, + if sustained, would have carried her from New York to Queenstown in eight + days and seventeen hours. This speedy passage was made in 1851, and only + two years earlier the record for the same voyage of fifteen thousand miles + had been one hundred and twenty days, by the clipper Memnon. + </p> + <p> + Donald McKay now resolved to build a ship larger and faster than the + Flying Cloud, and his genius neared perfection in the Sovereign of the + Seas, of 2421 tons register, which exceeded in size all merchant vessels + afloat. This Titan of the clipper fleet was commanded by Donald's brother, + Captain Lauchlan McKay, with a crew of one hundred and five men and boys. + During her only voyage to San Francisco she was partly dismasted, but + Lauchlan McKay rigged her anew at sea in fourteen days and still made port + in one hundred and three days, a record for the season of the year. + </p> + <p> + It was while running home from Honolulu in 1853 that the Sovereign of the + Seas realized the hopes of her builder. In eleven days she sailed 3562 + miles, with four days logged for a total of 1478 knots. Making allowance + for the longitudes and difference in time, this was an average daily run + of 378 sea miles or 435 land miles. Using the same comparison, the + distance from Sandy Hook to Queenstown would have been covered in seven + days and nine hours. Figures are arid reading, perhaps, but these are wet + by the spray and swept by the salt winds of romance. During one of these + four days the Sovereign of the Seas reeled off 424 nautical miles, during + which her average speed was seventeen and two-thirds knots and at times + reached nineteen and twenty. The only sailing ship which ever exceeded + this day's work was the Lightning, built later by the same Donald McKay, + which ran 436 knots in the Atlantic passage already referred to. The + Sovereign of the Seas could also boast of a sensational feat upon the + Western Ocean, for between New York and Liverpool she outsailed the Cunard + liner Canada by 325 miles in five days. + </p> + <p> + It is curiously interesting to notice that the California clipper era is + almost generally ignored by the foremost English writers of maritime + history. For one thing, it was a trade in which their own ships were not + directly concerned, and partizan bias is apt to color the views of the + best of us when national prestige is involved. American historians + themselves have dispensed with many unpleasant facts when engaged with the + War of 1812. With regard to the speed of clipper ships, however, involving + a rivalry far more thrilling and important than all the races ever sailed + for the America's cup, the evidence is available in concrete form. + </p> + <p> + Lindsay's "History of Merchant Shipping" is the most elaborate English + work of the kind. Heavily ballasted with facts and rather dull reading for + the most part, it kindles with enthusiasm when eulogizing the Thermopylae + and the Sir Launcelot, composite clippers of wood and iron, afloat in + 1870, which it declares to be "the fastest sailing ships that ever + traversed the ocean." This fairly presents the issue which a true-blooded + Yankee has no right to evade. The greatest distance sailed by the Sir + Launcelot in twenty-four hours between China and London was 354 knots, + compared with the 424 miles of the Sovereign of the Seas and the 436 miles + of the Lightning. Her best sustained run was one of seven days for an + average of a trifle more than 300 miles a day. Against this is to be + recorded the performance of the Sovereign of the Seas, 3562 miles in + eleven days, at the rate of 324 miles every twenty-four hours, and her + wonderful four-day run of 1478 miles, an average of 378 miles. + </p> + <p> + The Thermopylae achieved her reputation in a passage of sixty-three days + from London to Melbourne—a record which was never beaten. Her + fastest day's sailing was 330 miles, or not quite sixteen knots an hour. + In six days she traversed 1748 miles, an average of 291 miles a day. In + this Australian trade the American clippers made little effort to compete. + Those engaged in it were mostly built for English owners and sailed by + British skippers, who could not reasonably be expected to get the most out + of these loftily sparred Yankee ships, which were much larger than their + own vessels of the same type. The Lightning showed what she could do from + Melbourne to Liverpool by making the passage in sixty-three' days, with + 3722 miles in ten consecutive days and one day's sprint of 412 miles. + </p> + <p> + In the China tea trade the Thermopylae drove home from Foo-chow in + ninety-one days, which was equaled by the Sir Launcelot. The American + Witch of the Wave had a ninety-day voyage to her credit, and the Comet ran + from Liverpool to Shanghai in eighty-four days. Luck was a larger factor + on this route than in the California or Australian trade because of the + fitful uncertainty of the monsoons, and as a test of speed it was rather + unsatisfactory. In a very fair-minded and expert summary, Captain Arthur + H. Clark, * in his youth an officer on Yankee clippers, has discussed this + question of rival speed and power under sail—a question which still + absorbs those who love the sea. His conclusion is that in ordinary weather + at sea, when great power to carry sail was not required, the British tea + clippers were extremely fast vessels, chiefly on account of their narrow + beam. Under these conditions they were perhaps as fast as the American + clippers of the same class, such as the Sea Witch, White Squall, Northern + Light, and Sword-Fish. But if speed is to be reckoned by the maximum + performance of a ship under the most favorable conditions, then the + British tea clippers were certainly no match for the larger American ships + such as the Flying Cloud, Sovereign of the Seas, Hurricane, Trade Wind, + Typhoon, Flying Fish, Challenge, and Red Jacket. The greater breadth of + the American ships in proportion to their length meant power to carry + canvas and increased buoyancy which enabled them, with their sharper ends, + to be driven in strong gales and heavy seas at much greater speed than the + British clippers. The latter were seldom of more than one thousand tons' + register and combined in a superlative degree the good qualities of + merchant ships. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * "The Clipper Ship Era." N.Y., 1910. +</pre> + <p> + It was the California trade, brief and crowded and fevered, which saw the + roaring days of the Yankee clipper and which was familiar with racing + surpassing in thrill and intensity that of the packet ships of the Western + Ocean. In 1851, for instance, the Raven, Sea Witch, and Typhoon sailed for + San Francisco within the same week. They crossed the Equator a day apart + and stood away to the southward for three thousand miles of the southeast + trades and the piping westerly winds which prevailed farther south. At + fifty degrees south latitude the Raven and the Sea Witch were abeam of + each other with the Typhoon only two days astern. + </p> + <p> + Now they stripped for the tussle to windward around Cape Horn, sending + down studdingsail booms and skysail yards, making all secure with extra + lashings, plunging into the incessant head seas of the desolate ocean, + fighting it out tack for tack, reefing topsails and shaking them out + again, the vigilant commanders going below only to change their clothes, + the exhausted seamen stubbornly, heroically handling with frozen, bleeding + fingers the icy sheets and canvas. A fortnight of this inferno and the Sea + Witch and the Raven gained the Pacific, still within sight of each other, + and the Typhoon only one day behind. Then they swept northward, blown by + the booming tradewinds, spreading studdingsails, skysails, and above them, + like mere handkerchiefs, the water-sails and ring-tails. Again the three + clippers crossed the Equator. Close-hauled on the starboard tack, their + bowsprits were pointed for the last stage of the journey to the Golden + Gate. The Typhoon now overhauled her rivals and was the first to signal + her arrival, but the victory was earned by the Raven, which had set her + departure from Boston Light while the others had sailed from New York. The + Typhoon and the Raven were only a day apart, with the Sea Witch five days + behind the leader. + </p> + <p> + Clipper ship crews included men of many nations. In the average forecastle + there would be two or three Americans, a majority of English and + Norwegians, and perhaps a few Portuguese and Italians. The hardiest + seamen, and the most unmanageable, were the Liverpool packet rats who were + lured from their accustomed haunts to join the clippers by the magical + call of the gold-diggings. There were not enough deep-water sailors to man + half the ships that were built in these few years, and the crimps and + boarding-house runners decoyed or flung aboard on sailing day as many men + as were demanded, and any drunken, broken landlubber was good enough to be + shipped as an able seaman. They were things of rags and tatters—their + only luggage a bottle of whiskey. + </p> + <p> + The mates were thankful if they could muster enough real sailors to work + the ship to sea and then began the stern process of whipping the wastrels + and incompetents into shape for the perils and emergencies of the long + voyage. That these great clippers were brought safely to port is a shining + tribute to the masterful skill of their officers. While many of them were + humane and just, with all their severity, the stories of savage abuse + which are told of some are shocking in the extreme. The defense was that + it was either mutiny or club the men under. Better treatment might have + persuaded better men to sail. Certain it is that life in the forecastle of + a clipper was even more intolerable to the self-respecting American youth + than it had previously been aboard the Atlantic packet. + </p> + <p> + When Captain Bob Waterman arrived at San Francisco in the Challenge + clipper in 1851, a mob tried very earnestly to find and hang him and his + officers because of the harrowing stories told by his sailors. That he had + shot several of them from the yards with his pistol to make the others + move faster was one count in the indictment. For his part, Captain + Waterman asserted that a more desperate crew of ruffians had never sailed + out of New York and that only two of them were Americans. They were + mutinous from the start, half of them blacklegs of the vilest type who + swore to get the upper hand of him. His mates, boatswain, and carpenter + had broken open their chests and boxes and had removed a collection of + slung-shots, knuckle-dusters, bowie-knives, and pistols. Off Rio Janeiro + they had tried to kill the chief mate, and Captain Waterman had been + compelled to jump in and stretch two of them dead with an iron + belaying-pin. Off Cape Horn three sailors fell from aloft and were lost. + This accounted for the casualties. + </p> + <p> + The truth of such episodes as these was difficult to fathom. Captain + Waterman demanded a legal investigation, but nothing came of his request + and he was commended by his owners for his skill and courage in bringing + the ship to port without losing a spar or a sail. It was a skipper of this + old school who blandly maintained the doctrine that if you wanted the men + to love you, you must starve them and knock them down. The fact is proven + by scores of cases that the discipline of the American clipper was both + famously efficient and notoriously cruel. It was not until long after + American sailors had ceased to exist that adequate legislation was enacted + to provide that they should be treated as human beings afloat and ashore. + Other days and other customs! It is perhaps unkind to judge these vanished + master-mariners too harshly, for we cannot comprehend the crises which + continually beset them in their command. + </p> + <p> + No more extreme clipper ships were built after 1854. The California frenzy + had subsided and speed in carrying merchandise was no longer so essential; + besides, the passenger traffic was seeking the Isthmian route. What were + called medium clippers enjoyed a profitable trade for many years later, + and one of them, the Andrew Jackson, was never outsailed for the record + from New York to San Francisco. This splendid type of ship was to be found + on every sea, for the United States was still a commanding factor in the + maritime activities of South America, India, China, Europe, and Australia. + In 1851 its merchant tonnage rivaled that of England and was everywhere + competing with it. + </p> + <p> + The effects of the financial panic of 1857 and the aftermath of business + depression were particularly disastrous to American ships. Freights were + so low as to yield no profit, and the finest clippers went begging for + charters. The yards ceased to launch new tonnage. British builders had + made such rapid progress in design and construction that the days of + Yankee preference in the China trade had passed. The Stars and Stripes + floated over ships waiting idle in Manila Bay, at Shanghai, Hong-Kong, and + Calcutta. The tide of commerce had slackened abroad as well as at home and + the surplus of deep-water tonnage was world-wide. + </p> + <p> + In earlier generations afloat, the American spirit had displayed amazing + recuperative powers. The havoc of the Revolution had been unable to check + it, and its vigor and aggressive enterprise had never been more notable + than after the blows dealt by the Embargo, the French Spoliations, and the + War of 1812. The conditions of trade and the temper of the people were now + so changed that this mighty industry, aforetime so robust and resilient, + was unable to recover from such shocks as the panic of 1857 and the Civil + War. Yet it had previously survived and triumphed over calamities far more + severe. The destruction wrought by Confederate cruisers was trifling + compared with the work of the British and French privateers when the + nation was very small and weak. + </p> + <p> + The American spirit had ceased to concern itself with the sea as the vital + and dominant element. The footsteps of the young men no longer turned + toward the wharf and the waterside and the tiers of tall ships outward + bound. They were aspiring to conquer an inland empire of prairie and + mountain and desert, impelled by the same pioneering and adventurous ardor + which had burned in their seafaring sires. Steam had vanquished sail—an + epochal event in a thousand years of maritime history—but the nation + did not care enough to accept this situation as a new challenge or to + continue the ancient struggle for supremacy upon the sea. England did + care, because it was life or death to the little, sea-girt island, but as + soon as the United States ceased to be a strip of Atlantic seaboard and + the panorama, of a continent was unrolled to settlement, it was + foreordained that the maritime habit of thought and action should lose its + virility in America. All great seafaring races, English, Norwegian, + Portuguese, and Dutch, have taken to salt water because there was lack of + space, food, or work ashore, and their strong young men craved + opportunities. Like the Pilgrim Fathers and their fishing shallops they + had nowhere else to go. + </p> + <p> + When the Flying Cloud and the clippers of her kind—taut, serene, + immaculate—were sailing through the lonely spaces of the South + Atlantic and the Pacific, they sighted now and then the stumpy, slatternly + rig and greasy hull of a New Bedford whaler, perhaps rolling to the weight + of a huge carcass alongside. With a poor opinion of the seamanship of + these wandering barks, the clipper crews rolled out, among their favorite + chanteys: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Oh, poor Reuben Ranzo, + Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo, + Oh, Ranzo was no sailor, + So they shipped him aboard a whaler, + Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo. +</pre> + <p> + This was crass, intolerant prejudice. The whaling ship was careless of + appearances, it is true, and had the air of an ocean vagabond; but there + were other duties more important than holystoning decks, scraping spars, + and trimming the yards to a hair. On a voyage of two or three years, + moreover, there was always plenty of time tomorrow. Brave and resourceful + seamen were these New England adventurers and deep-sea hunters who made + nautical history after their own fashion. They flourished coeval with the + merchant marine in its prime, and they passed from the sea at about the + same time and for similar reasons. Modernity dispensed with their + services, and young men found elsewhere more profitable and easier + employment. + </p> + <p> + The great days of Nantucket as a whaling port were passed before the + Revolution wiped out her ships and killed or scattered her sailors. It was + later discovered that larger ships were more economical, and Nantucket + harbor bar was too shoal to admit their passage. For this reason New + Bedford became the scene of the foremost activity, and Nantucket + thereafter played a minor part, although her barks went cruising on to the + end of the chapter and her old whaling families were true to strain. As + explorers the whalemen rambled into every nook and corner of the Pacific + before merchant vessels had found their way thither. They discovered + uncharted islands and cheerfully fought savages or suffered direful + shipwreck. The chase led them into Arctic regions where their stout barks + were nipped like eggshells among the grinding floes, or else far to the + southward where they broiled in tropic calms. The New Bedford lad was as + keen to go a-whaling as was his counterpart in Boston or New York to be + the dandy mate of a California clipper, and true was the song: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I asked a maiden by my side, + Who sighed and looked to me forlorn, + "Where is your heart?" She quick replied, + "Round Cape Horn." +</pre> + <p> + Yankee whaling reached its high tide in 1857 when the New Bedford fleet + alone numbered 329 sail and those owned in other ports of Buzzard's Bay + swelled the total to 426 vessels, besides thirty more hailing from New + London and Sag Harbor. In this year the value of the catch was more than + ten million dollars. The old custom of sailing on shares or "lays" instead + of wages was never changed. It was win or lose for all hands—now a + handsome fortune or again an empty hold and pockets likewise. There was + Captain W.T. Walker of New Bedford who, in 1847, bought for a song a ship + so old that she was about to be broken up for junk and no insurance broker + would look at her. In this rotten relic he shipped a crew and went sailing + in the Pacific. Miraculously keeping afloat, this Envoy of his was filled + to the hatches with oil and bones, twice running, before she returned to + her home port; and she earned $138,450 on a total investment of eight + thousand dollars. + </p> + <p> + The ship Sarah of Nantucket, after a three years' cruise, brought back + 3497 barrels of sperm oil which sold for $89,000, and the William Hamilton + of New Bedford set another high mark by stowing 4181 barrels of a value of + $109,269. The Pioneer of New London, Captain Ebenezer Morgan, was away + only a year and stocked a cargo of oil and whalebone which sold for + $150,060. Most of the profits of prosperous voyages were taken as the + owners' share, and the incomes of the captain and crew were so niggardly + as to make one wonder why they persisted in a calling so perilous, + arduous, and poorly paid. During the best years of whaling, when the ships + were averaging $16,000 for a voyage, the master received an eighteenth, or + about nine hundred dollars a year. The highly skilled hands, such as the + boat-steerers and harpooners, had a lay of only one seventy-fifth, or + perhaps a little more than two hundred dollars cash as the reward of a + voyage which netted the owner at least fifty per cent on his investment. + Occasionally they fared better than this and sometimes worse. The answer + to the riddle is that they liked the life and had always the gambling + spirit which hopes for a lucky turn of the cards. + </p> + <p> + The countless episodes of fragile boats smashed to kindling by fighting + whales, of the attack renewed with harpoon and lance, of ships actually + rammed and sunk, would fill a volume by themselves and have been + stirringly narrated in many a one. Zanzibar and Kamchatka, Tasmania and + the Seychelles knew the lean, sun-dried Yankee whaleman and his motto of a + "dead whale or a stove boat." The Civil War did not drive him from the + seas. The curious fact is that his products commanded higher prices in + 1907 than fifty years before, but the number of his ships rapidly + decreased. Whales were becoming scarce, and New England capital preferred + other forms of investment. The leisurely old sailing craft was succeeded + by the steam whaler, and the explosive bomb slew, instead of the harpoon + and lance hurled by the sinewy right arm of a New Bedford man or Cape + Verde islander. + </p> + <p> + Roving whaler and armed East Indiaman, plunging packet ship and stately + clipper, they served their appointed days and passed on their several + courses to become mere memories, as shadowy and unsubstantial as the gleam + of their own topsails when seen at twilight. The souls of their sailors + have fled to Fiddler's Green, where all dead mariners go. They were of the + old merchant marine which contributed something fine and imperishable to + the story of the United States. Down the wind, vibrant and deep-throated, + comes their own refrain for a requiem: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + We're outward bound this very day, + Good-bye, fare you well, + Good-bye, fare you well. + We're outward bound this very day, + Hurrah, my boys, we're outward bound. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. BOUND COASTWISE + </h2> + <p> + One thinks of the old merchant marine in terms of the clipper ship and + distant ports. The coasting trade has been overlooked in song and story; + yet, since the year 1859, its fleets have always been larger and more + important than the American deep-water commerce nor have decay and + misfortune overtaken them. It is a traffic which flourished from the + beginning, ingeniously adapting itself to new conditions, unchecked by + war, and surviving with splendid vigor, under steam and sail, in this + modern era. + </p> + <p> + The seafaring pioneers won their way from port to port of the tempestuous + Atlantic coast in tiny ketches, sloops, and shallops when the voyage of + five hundred miles from New England to Virginia was a prolonged and + hazardous adventure. Fog and shoals and lee shores beset these coastwise + sailors, and shipwrecks were pitifully frequent. In no Hall of Fame will + you find the name of Captain Andrew Robinson of Gloucester, but he was + nevertheless an illustrious benefactor and deserves a place among the most + useful Americans. His invention was the Yankee schooner of fore-and-aft + rig, and he gave to this type of vessel its name. * Seaworthy, fast, and + easily handled, adapted for use in the early eighteenth century when + inland transportation was almost impossible, the schooner carried on trade + between the colonies and was an important factor in the growth of the + fisheries. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * It is said that as the odd two-master slid gracefully into the water, +a spectator exclaimed: "See how she scoons!" "Aye," answered Captain +Robinson, "a SCHOONER let her be!" This launching took place in 1718 or +1714. +</pre> + <p> + Before the Revolution the first New England schooners were beating up to + the Grand Bank of Newfoundland after cod and halibut. They were of no more + than fifty tons' burden, too small for their task but manned by fishermen + of surpassing hardihood. Marblehead was then the foremost fishing port + with two hundred brigs and schooners on the offshore banks. But to + Gloucester belongs the glory of sending the first schooner to the Grand + Bank. * From these two rock-bound harbors went thousands of trained seamen + to man the privateers and the ships of the Continental navy, slinging + their hammocks on the gun-decks beside the whalemen of Nantucket. These + fishermen and coastwise sailors fought on the land as well and followed + the drums of Washington's armies until the final scene at Yorktown. + Gloucester and Marblehead were filled with widows and orphans, and half + their men-folk were dead or missing. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Marvin's "American Merchant Marine," p. 287. +</pre> + <p> + The fishing-trade soon prospered again, and the men of the old ports + tenaciously clung to the sea even when the great migration flowed westward + to people the wilderness and found a new American empire. They were + fishermen from father to son, bound together in an intimate community of + interests, a race of pure native or English stock, deserving this tribute + which was paid to them in Congress: "Every person on board our fishing + vessels has an interest in common with his associates; their reward + depends upon their industry and enterprise. Much caution is observed in + the selection of the crews of our fishing vessels; it often happens that + every individual is connected by blood and the strongest ties of + friendship; our fishermen are remarkable for their sobriety and good + conduct, and they rank with the most skillful navigators." + </p> + <p> + Fishing and the coastwise merchant trade were closely linked. Schooners + loaded dried cod as well as lumber for southern ports and carried back + naval stores and other southern products. Well-to-do fishermen owned + trading vessels and sent out their ventures, the sailors shifting from one + forecastle to the other. With a taste for an easier life than the stormy, + freezing Banks, the young Gloucesterman would sign on for a voyage to + Pernambuco or Havana and so be fired with ambition to become a mate or + master and take to deep water after a while. In this way was maintained a + school of seamanship which furnished the most intelligent and efficient + officers of the merchant marine. For generations they were mostly + recruited from the old fishing and shipping ports of New England until the + term "Yankee shipmaster" had a meaning peculiarly its own. + </p> + <p> + Seafaring has undergone so many revolutionary changes and old days and + ways are so nearly obliterated that it is singular to find the sailing + vessel still employed in great numbers, even though the gasolene motor is + being installed to kick her along in spells of calm weather. The + Gloucester fishing schooner, perfect of her type, stanch, fleet, and + powerful, still drives homeward from the Banks under a tall press of + canvas, and her crew still divide the earnings, share and share, as did + their forefathers a hundred and fifty years ago. But the old New England + strain of blood no longer predominates, and Portuguese, Scandinavians, and + Nova Scotia "Bluenoses" bunk with the lads of Gloucester stock. Yet they + are alike for courage, hardihood, and mastery of the sea, and the + traditions of the calling are undimmed. + </p> + <p> + There was a time before the Civil War when Congress jealously protected + the fisheries by means of a bounty system and legislation aimed against + our Canadian neighbors. The fishing fleets were regarded as a source of + national wealth and the nursery of prime seamen for the navy and merchant + marine. In 1858 the bounty system was abandoned, however, and the + fishermen were left to shift for themselves, earning small profits at + peril of their lives and preferring to follow the sea because they knew no + other profession. In spite of this loss of assistance from the Government, + the tonnage engaged in deep-sea fisheries was never so great as in the + second year of the Civil War. Four years later the industry had shrunk + one-half; and it has never recovered its early importance * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * In 1882, the tonnage amounted to 193,459; in 1866, to 89,336. +</pre> + <p> + The coastwise merchant trade, on the other hand, has been jealously + guarded against competition and otherwise fostered ever since 1789, when + the first discriminatory tonnage tax was enforced. The Embargo Act of 1808 + prohibited domestic commerce to foreign flags, and this edict was renewed + in the American Navigation Act of 1817. It remained a firmly established + doctrine of maritime policy until the Great War compelled its suspension + as an emergency measure. The theories of protection and free trade have + been bitterly debated for generations, but in this instance the practice + was eminently successful and the results were vastly impressive. Deepwater + shipping dwindled and died, but the increase in coastwise sailing was + consistent. It rose to five million tons early in this century and makes + the United States still one of the foremost maritime powers in respect to + saltwater activity. + </p> + <p> + To speak of this deep-water shipping as trade coastwise is misleading, in + a way. The words convey an impression of dodging from port to port for + short distances, whereas many of the voyages are longer than those of the + foreign routes in European waters. It is farther by sea from Boston to + Philadelphia than from Plymouth, England, to Bordeaux. A schooner making + the run from Portland to Savannah lays more knots over her stern than a + tramp bound out from England to Lisbon. It is a shorter voyage from + Cardiff to Algiers than an American skipper pricks off on his chart when + he takes his steamer from New York to New Orleans or Galveston. This + coastwise trade may lack the romance of the old school of the + square-rigged ship in the Roaring Forties, but it has always been the more + perilous and exacting. Its seamen suffer hardships unknown elsewhere, for + they have to endure winters of intense cold and heavy gales and they are + always in risk of stranding or being driven ashore. + </p> + <p> + The story of these hardy men is interwoven, for the most part, with the + development of the schooner in size and power. This graceful craft, so + peculiar to its own coast and people, was built for utility and possessed + a simple beauty of its own when under full sail. The schooners were at + first very small because it was believed that large fore-and-aft sails + could not be handled with safety. They were difficult to reef or lower in + a blow until it was discovered that three masts instead of two made the + task much easier. For many years the three-masted schooner was the most + popular kind of American merchant vessel. They clustered in every Atlantic + port and were built in the yards of New England, New York, New Jersey, and + Virginia,—built by the mile, as the saying was, and sawed off in + lengths to suit the owners' pleasure. They carried the coal, ice, lumber + of the whole seaboard and were so economical of man-power that they earned + dividends where steamers or square-rigged ships would not have paid for + themselves. + </p> + <p> + As soon as a small steam-engine was employed to hoist the sails, it became + possible to launch much larger schooners and to operate them at a + marvelously low cost. Rapidly the four-master gained favor, and then came + the five- and six-masted vessels, gigantic ships of their kind. Instead of + the hundred-ton schooner of a century ago, Hampton Roads and Boston Harbor + saw these great cargo carriers which could stow under hatches four and + five thousand tons of coal, and whose masts soared a hundred and fifty + feet above the deck. Square-rigged ships of the same capacity would have + required crews of a hundred men, but these schooners were comfortably + handled by a company of fifteen all told, only ten of whom were in the + forecastle. There was no need of sweating and hauling at braces and + halliards. The steam-winch undertook all this toil. The tremendous sails, + stretching a hundred feet from boom to gaff could not have been managed + otherwise. Even for trimming sheets or setting topsails, it was necessary + merely to take a turn or two around the drum of the winch engine and turn + the steam valve. The big schooner was the last word in cheap, efficient + transportation by water. In her own sphere of activity she was as notable + an achievement as the Western Ocean packet or the Cape Horn clipper. + </p> + <p> + The masters who sailed these extraordinary vessels also changed and had to + learn a new kind of seamanship. They must be very competent men, for the + tests of their skill and readiness were really greater than those demanded + of the deepwater skipper. They drove these great schooners alongshore + winter and summer; across Nantucket Shoals and around Cape Cod, and their + salvation depended on shortening sail ahead of the gale. Let the wind once + blow and the sea get up, and it was almost impossible to strip the canvas + off an unwieldy six-master. The captain's chief fear was of being blown + offshore, of having his vessel run away with him! Unlike the deep-water + man, he preferred running in toward the beach and letting go his anchors. + There he would ride out the storm and hoist sail when the weather + moderated. + </p> + <p> + These were American shipmasters of the old breed, raised in schooners as a + rule, and adapting themselves to modern conditions. They sailed for + nominal wages and primage, or five per cent of the gross freight paid the + vessel. Before the Great War in Europe, freights were low and the schooner + skippers earned scanty incomes. Then came a world shortage of tonnage and + immediately coastwise freights soared skyward. The big schooners of the + Palmer fleet began to reap fabulous dividends and their masters shared in + the unexpected opulence. Besides their primage they owned shares in their + vessels, a thirty-second or so, and presently their settlement at the end + of a voyage coastwise amounted to an income of a thousand dollars a month. + They earned this money, and the managing owners cheerfully paid them, for + there had been lean years and uncomplaining service and the sailor had + proved himself worthy of his hire. So tempting was the foreign war trade, + that a fleet of them was sent across the Atlantic until the American + Government barred them from the war zone as too easy a prey for submarine + attack. They therefore returned to the old coastwise route or loaded for + South American ports—singularly interesting ships because they were + the last bold venture of the old American maritime spirit, a challenge to + the Age of Steam. + </p> + <p> + No more of these huge, towering schooners have been built in the last + dozen years. Steam colliers and barges have won the fight because time is + now more valuable than cheapness of transportation. The schooner might + bowl down to Norfolk from Boston or Portland in four days and be threshing + about for two weeks in head winds on the return voyage. + </p> + <p> + The small schooner appeared to be doomed somewhat earlier. She had ceased + to be profitable in competition with the larger, more modern + fore-and-after, but these battered, veteran craft died hard. They harked + back to a simpler age, to the era of the stage-coach and the + spinning-wheel, to the little shipyards that were to be found on every bay + and inlet of New England. They were still owned and sailed by men who + ashore were friends and neighbors. Even now you may find during your + summer wanderings some stumpy, weatherworn two-master running on for + shelter overnight, which has plied up and down the coast for fifty or + sixty years, now leaking like a basket and too frail for winter voyages. + It was in a craft very much like this that your rude ancestors went + privateering against the British. Indeed, the little schooner Polly, which + fought briskly in the War of 1812, is still afloat and loading cargoes in + New England ports. + </p> + <p> + These little coasters, surviving long after the stately merchant marine + had vanished from blue water, have enjoyed a slant of favoring fortune in + recent years. They, too, have been in demand, and once again there is + money to spare for paint and cordage and calking. They have been granted a + new lease of life and may be found moored at the wharfs, beached on the + marine railways, or anchored in the stream, eagerly awaiting their turn to + refit. It is a matter of vital concern that the freight on spruce boards + from Bangor to New York has increased to five dollars a thousand feet. + Many of these craft belong to grandfatherly skippers who dared not venture + past Cape Cod in December, lest the venerable Matilda Emerson or the + valetudinarian Joshua R. Coggswell should open up and founder in a blow. + During the winter storms these skippers used to hug the kitchen stove in + bleak farmhouses until spring came and they could put to sea again. The + rigor of circumstances, however, forced others to seek for trade the whole + year through. In a recent winter fifty-seven schooners were lost on the + New England coast, most of which were unfit for anything but summer + breezes. As by a miracle, others have been able to renew their youth, to + replace spongy planking and rotten stems, and to deck themselves out in + white canvas and fresh paint! + </p> + <p> + The captains of these craft foregather in the ship-chandler's shops, where + the floor is strewn with sawdust, the armchairs are capacious, and the + environment harmonizes with the tales that are told. It is an informal + club of coastwise skippers and the old energy begins to show itself once + more. They move with a brisker gait than when times were so hard and they + went begging for charters at any terms. A sinewy patriarch stumps to a + window, flourishes his arm at an ancient two-master, and booms out: + </p> + <p> + "That vessel of mine is as sound as a nut, I tell ye. She ain't as big as + some, but I'd like nothin' better than to fill her full of suthin' for the + west coast of Africy, same as the Horace M. Bickford that cleared t'other + day, stocked for SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS." + </p> + <p> + "Huh, you'd get lost out o' sight of land, John," is the cruel retort, + "and that old shoe-box of yours 'ud be scared to death without a harbor to + run into every time the sun clouded over. Expect to navigate to Africy + with an alarm-clock and a soundin'-lead, I presume." + </p> + <p> + "Mebbe I'd better let well enough alone," replies the old man. "Africy + don't seem as neighborly as Phippsburg and Machiasport. I'll chance it as + far as Philadelphy next voyage and I guess the old woman can buy a new + dress." + </p> + <p> + The activity and the reawakening of the old shipyards, their slips all + filled with the frames of wooden vessels for the foreign trade, is like a + revival of the old merchant marine, a reincarnation of ghostly memories. + In mellowed dignity the square white houses beneath the New England elms + recall to mind the mariners who dwelt therein. It seems as if their + shipyards also belonged to the past; but the summer visitor finds a fresh + attraction in watching the new schooners rise from the stocks, and the gay + pageant of launching them, every mast ablaze with bunting, draws crowds to + the water-front. And as a business venture, with somewhat of the tang of + old-fashioned romance, the casual stranger is now and then tempted to + purchase a sixty-fourth "piece" of a splendid Yankee four-master and keep + in touch with its roving fortunes. The shipping reports of the daily + newspaper prove more fascinating than the ticker tape, and the tidings of + a successful voyage thrill one with a sense of personal gratification. For + the sea has not lost its magic and its mystery, and those who go down to + it in ships must still battle against elemental odds—still carry on + the noble and enduring traditions of the Old Merchant Marine. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + </h2> + <p> + As a rule, American historians like McMaster, Adams, and Rhodes give too + little space to the maritime achievements of the nation. The gap has been + partially filled by the following special works: + </p> + <p> + Winthrop L. Marvin, "The American Merchant Marine: Its History and Romance + from 1620 to 1902" (1902). This is the most nearly complete volume of its + kind by an author who knows the subject and handles it with accuracy. + </p> + <p> + John R. Spears, "The Story of the American Merchant Marine" (1910), "The + American Slave Trade" (1901), "The Story of the New England Whalers" + (1908). Mr. Spears has sought original sources for much of his material + and his books are worth reading, particularly his history of the + slave-trade. + </p> + <p> + Ralph D. Paine, "The Ships and Sailors of Old Salem: The Record of a + Brilliant Era of American Achievement" (1912). A history of the most + famous seaport of the Atlantic coast, drawn from log-books and other + manuscript collections. "The Book of Buried Treasure: Being a True History + of the Gold, Jewels, and Plate of Pirates, Galleons, etc." (1911). Several + chapters have to do with certain picturesque pirates and seamen of the + colonies. + </p> + <p> + Edgar S. Maclay, "A History of American Privateers" (1899). The only book + of its kind, and indispensable to those who wish to learn the story of + Yankee ships and sailors. + </p> + <p> + J. R. Hutchinson, "The Press Gang Afloat and Ashore" (1914). This recent + volume, written from an English point of view, illuminates the system of + conscription which caused the War of 1812. + </p> + <p> + Nothing can take the place, however, of the narratives of those master + mariners who made the old merchant marine famous: + </p> + <p> + Richard Henry Dana, Jr., "Two Years Before the Mast" (1840). The latest + edition, handsomely illustrated, (1915). The classic narrative of American + forecastle life in the sailing-ship era. + </p> + <p> + Captain Richard Cleveland, "Narrative of Voyages and Commercial + Enterprises" (1842). This is one of the fascinating autobiographies of the + old school of shipmasters who had the gift of writing. + </p> + <p> + Captain Amasa Delano, "Narrative of Voyages and Travels" (1817). Another + of the rare human documents of blue water. It describes the most + adventurous period of activity, a century ago. + </p> + <p> + Captain Arthur H. Clark, "The Clipper Ship Era" (1910). A thrilling, + spray-swept, true story. Far and away the best account of the clipper, by + a man who was an officer of one in his youth. + </p> + <p> + Robert Bennet Forbes, "Notes on Ships of the Past" (1888). Random facts + and memories of a famous Boston ship-owner. It is valuable for its records + of noteworthy passages. + </p> + <p> + Captain John D. Whidden, "Ocean Life in the Old Sailing Ship Days" (1908). + The entertaining reminiscences of a veteran shipmaster. + </p> + <p> + Captain A. W. Nelson, "Yankee Swanson: Chapters from a Life at Sea" + (1913). Another of the true romances, recommended for a lively sense of + humor and a faithful portrayal of life aboard a windjammer. + </p> + <p> + There are many other personal narratives, some of them privately printed + and very old, which may be found in the libraries. Typical of them is "A + Journal of the Travels and Sufferings of Daniel Saunders" (1794), in which + a young sailor relates his adventures after shipwreck on the coast of + Arabia. + </p> + <p> + Among general works the following are valuable: + </p> + <p> + J. Grey Jewell, "Among Our Sailors" (1874). A plea for more humane + treatment of American seamen, with many instances on shocking brutalities + as reported to the author, who was a United States Consul. + </p> + <p> + E. Keble Chatterton, "Sailing Ships: The Story of their Development" + (1909). An elaborate history of the development of the sailing vessel from + the earliest times to the modern steel clipper. + </p> + <p> + W. S. Lindsay, "History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce," 4 + vols. (1874-76). An English work, notably fair to the American marine, and + considered authoritative. + </p> + <p> + Douglas Owen, "Ocean Trade and Shipping" (1914). An English economist + explains the machinery of maritime trade and commerce. + </p> + <p> + William Wood, "All Afloat." In "The Chronicles of Canada Series." Glasgow, + Brook and Co., Toronto, 1914. + </p> + <p> + J. B. McMaster, "The Life and Times of Stephen Girard, Mariner and + Merchant," 2 vols. (1918). + </p> + <p> + The relation of governmental policy to the merchant marine is discussed by + various writers: + </p> + <p> + David A. Wells, "Our Merchant Marine: How It Rose, Increased, Became + Great, Declined, and Decayed" (1882). A political treatise in defense of a + protective policy. + </p> + <p> + William A. Bates, "American Marine: The Shipping Question in History and + Politics" (1892); "American Navigation: The Political History of Its Rise + and Ruin" (1902). These works are statistical and highly technical, partly + compiled from governmental reports, and are also frankly controversial. + </p> + <p> + Henry Hall, "American Navigation, With Some Account of the Causes of Its + Former Prosperity and Present Decline" (1878). + </p> + <p> + Charles S. Hill, "History of American Shipping: Its Prestige, Decline, and + Prospect" (1883). + </p> + <p> + J. D. J. Kelley, "The Question of Ships: The Navy and the Merchant Marine" + (1884). + </p> + <p> + Arthur J. Maginnis, "The Atlantic Ferry: Its Ships, Men, and Working" + (1900). + </p> + <p> + A vast amount of information is to be found in the Congressional Report of + the Merchant Marine Commission, published in three volumes (1905). + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Old Merchant Marine, by Ralph D. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Old Merchant Marine + A Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors, Volume 36 in + the Chronicles Of America Series + +Author: Ralph D. Paine + +Editor: Allen Johnson + +Posting Date: February 12, 2009 [EBook #3099] +Release Date: February, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD MERCHANT MARINE *** + + + + +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library of St. Gregory's +University, Alev Akman, Dianne Bean, and Carrie Lorenz + + + + + + +THE OLD MERCHANT MARINE, + +A CHRONICLE OF AMERICAN SHIPS AND SAILORS + +By Ralph D. Paine + + +CONTENTS + + I. COLONIAL ADVENTURERS IN LITTLE SHIPS + II. THE PRIVATEERS OF '76 + III. OUT CUTLASES AND BOARD! + IV. THE FAMOUS DAYS OF SALEM PORT + V. YANKEE VIKINGS AND NEW TRADE ROUTES + VI. "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS!" + VII. THE BRILLIANT ERA OF 1812 + VIII. THE PACKET SHIPS OF THE "ROARING FORTIES" + IX. THE STATELY CLIPPER AND HER GLORY + X. BOUND COASTWISE + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + + + + +THE OLD MERCHANT MARINE + + + +CHAPTER I. COLONIAL ADVENTURERS IN LITTLE SHIPS + +The story of American ships and sailors is an epic of blue water which +seems singularly remote, almost unreal, to the later generations. A +people with a native genius for seafaring won and held a brilliant +supremacy through two centuries and then forsook this heritage of +theirs. The period of achievement was no more extraordinary than was its +swift declension. A maritime race whose topsails flecked every ocean, +whose captains courageous from father to son had fought with pike and +cannonade to defend the freedom of the seas, turned inland to seek a +different destiny and took no more thought for the tall ships and rich +cargoes which had earned so much renown for its flag. + +Vanished fleets and brave memories--a chronicle of America which had +written its closing chapters before the Civil War! There will be other +Yankee merchantmen in times to come, but never days like those when +skippers sailed on seas uncharted in quest of ports mysterious and +unknown. + +The Pilgrim Fathers, driven to the northward of their intended +destination in Virginia, landed on the shore of Cape Cod not so much to +clear the forest and till the soil as to establish a fishing settlement. +Like the other Englishmen who long before 1620 had steered across to +harvest the cod on the Grand Bank, they expected to wrest a livelihood +mostly from salt water. The convincing argument in favor of Plymouth was +that it offered a good harbor for boats and was "a place of profitable +fishing." Both pious and amphibious were these pioneers whom the +wilderness and the red Indian confined to the water's edge, where +they were soon building ships to trade corn for beaver skins with the +Kennebec colony. + +Even more energetic in taking profit from the sea were the Puritans who +came to Massachusetts Bay in 1629, bringing carpenters and shipbuilders +with them to hew the pine and oak so close at hand into keelsons, +frames, and planking. Two years later, Governor John Winthrop launched +his thirty-ton sloop Blessing of the Bay, and sent her to open "friendly +commercial relations" with the Dutch of Manhattan. Brisk though the +traffic was in furs and wampum, these mariners of Boston and Salem +were not content to voyage coastwise. Offshore fishing made skilled, +adventurous seamen of them, and what they caught with hook and line, +when dried and salted, was readily exchanged for other merchandise in +Bermuda, Barbados, and Europe. + +A vessel was a community venture, and the custom still survives in the +ancient ports of the Maine coast where the shapely wooden schooners are +fashioned. The blacksmith, the rigger, the calker, took their pay +in shares. They became part owners, as did likewise the merchant who +supplied stores and material; and when the ship was afloat, the master, +the mates, and even the seamen, were allowed cargo space for commodities +which they might buy and sell to their own advantage. Thus early +they learned to trade as shrewdly as they navigated, and every voyage +directly concerned a whole neighborhood. + +This kind of enterprise was peculiar to New England because other +resources were lacking. To the westward the French were more interested +in exploring the rivers leading to the region of the Great Lakes and in +finding fabulous rewards in furs. The Dutch on the Hudson were similarly +engaged by means of the western trails to the country of the Iroquois, +while the planters of Virginia had discovered an easy opulence in the +tobacco crop, with slave labor to toil for them, and they were not +compelled to turn to the hardships and the hazards of the sea. The New +Englander, hampered by an unfriendly climate, hard put to it to grow +sufficient food, with land immensely difficult to clear, was between the +devil and the deep sea, and he sagaciously chose the latter. Elsewhere +in the colonies the forest was an enemy to be destroyed with infinite +pains. The New England pioneer regarded it with favor as the stuff with +which to make stout ships and step the straight masts in them. + +And so it befell that the seventeenth century had not run its course +before New England was hardily afloat on every Atlantic trade route, +causing Sir Josiah Child, British merchant and economist, to lament in +1668 that in his opinion nothing was "more prejudicial and in prospect +more dangerous to any mother kingdom than the increase of shipping in +her colonies, plantations, or provinces." + +This absorbing business of building wooden vessels was scattered in +almost every bay and river of the indented coast from Nova Scotia to +Buzzard's Bay and the sheltered waters of Long Island Sound. It was +not restricted, as now, to well-equipped yards with crews of trained +artisans. Hard by the huddled hamlet of log houses was the row of +keel-blocks sloping to the tide. In winter weather too rough for +fishing, when the little farms lay idle, this Yankee Jack-of-all-trades +plied his axe and adze to shape the timbers, and it was a routine task +to peg together a sloop, a ketch, or a brig, mere cockleshells, in which +to fare forth to London, or Cadiz, or the Windward Islands--some of them +not much larger and far less seaworthy than the lifeboat which hangs +at a liner's davits. Pinching poverty forced him to dispense with the +ornate, top-heavy cabins and forecastles of the foreign merchantmen, +while invention, bred of necessity, molded finer lines and less clumsy +models to weather the risks of a stormy coast and channels beset with +shoals and ledges. The square-rig did well enough for deepwater voyages, +but it was an awkward, lubberly contrivance for working along shore, +and the colonial Yankee therefore evolved the schooner with her flat +fore-and-aft sails which enabled her to beat to windward and which +required fewer men in the handling. + +Dimly but unmistakably these canny seafarers in their rude beginnings +foreshadowed the creation of a merchant marine which should one day +comprise the noblest, swiftest ships driven by the wind and the finest +sailors that ever trod a deck. Even then these early vessels were +conspicuously efficient, carrying smaller crews than the Dutch or +English, paring expenses to a closer margin, daring to go wherever +commerce beckoned in order to gain a dollar at peril of their skins. + +By the end of the seventeenth century more than a thousand vessels +were registered as built in the New England colonies, and Salem already +displayed the peculiar talent for maritime adventure which was to make +her the most illustrious port of the New World. The first of her line +of shipping merchants was Philip English, who was sailing his own ketch +Speedwell in 1676 and so rapidly advanced his fortunes that in a few +years he was the richest man on the coast, with twenty-one vessels which +traded coastwise with Virginia and offshore with Bilbao, Barbados, +St. Christopher's, and France. Very devout were his bills of lading, +flavored in this manner: "Twenty hogsheads of salt, shipped by the Grace +of God in the good sloop called the Mayflower.... and by God's Grace +bound to Virginia or Merriland." + +No less devout were the merchants who ordered their skippers to cross +to the coast of Guinea and fill the hold with negroes to be sold in the +West Indies before returning with sugar and molasses to Boston or Rhode +Island. The slave-trade flourished from the very birth of commerce in +Puritan New England and its golden gains and exotic voyages allured +high-hearted lads from farm and counter. In 1640 the ship Desire, built +at Marblehead, returned from the West Indies and "brought some cotton +and tobacco and negroes, etc. from thence." Earlier than this the Dutch +of Manhattan had employed black labor, and it was provided that the +Incorporated West India Company should "allot to each Patroon twelve +black men and women out of the Prizes in which Negroes should be found." + +It was in the South, however, that this kind of labor was most needed +and, as the trade increased, Virginia and the Carolinas became the most +lucrative markets. Newport and Bristol drove a roaring traffic in "rum +and niggers," with a hundred sail to be found in the infamous Middle +Passage. The master of one of these Rhode Island slavers, writing home +from Guinea in 1736, portrayed the congestion of the trade in this wise: +"For never was there so much Rum on the Coast at one time before. Not +ye like of ye French ships was never seen before, for ye whole coast is +full of them. For my part I can give no guess when I shall get away, +for I purchast but 27 slaves since I have been here, for slaves is very +scarce. We have had nineteen Sail of us at one time in ye Road, so that +ships that used to carry pryme slaves off is now forced to take any that +comes. Here is seven sail of us Rum men that are ready to devour one +another, for our case is desprit." + +Two hundred years of wickedness unspeakable and human torture beyond all +computation, justified by Christian men and sanctioned by governments, +at length rending the nation asunder in civil war and bequeathing a +problem still unsolved--all this followed in the wake of those +first voyages in search of labor which could be bought and sold as +merchandise. It belonged to the dark ages with piracy and witchcraft, +better forgotten than recalled, save for its potent influence in +schooling brave seamen and building faster ships for peace and war. + +These colonial seamen, in truth, fought for survival amid dangers so +manifold as to make their hardihood astounding. It was not merely a +matter of small vessels with a few men and boys daring distant voyages +and the mischances of foundering or stranding, but of facing an +incessant plague of privateers, French and Spanish, Dutch and English, +or a swarm of freebooters under no flag at all. Coasts were unlighted, +charts few and unreliable, and the instruments of navigation almost as +crude as in the days of Columbus. Even the savage Indian, not content +with lurking in ambush, went afloat to wreak mischief, and the records +of the First Church of Salem contain this quaint entry under date of +July 25, 1677: "The Lord having given a Commission to the Indians to +take no less than 13 of the Fishing Ketches of Salem and Captivate the +men... it struck a great consternation into all the people here. The +Pastor moved on the Lord's Day, and the whole people readily consented, +to keep the Lecture Day following as a Fast Day, which was accordingly +done.... The Lord was pleased to send in some of the Ketches on the Fast +Day which was looked on as a gracious smile of Providence. Also there +had been 19 wounded men sent into Salem a little while before; also a +Ketch sent out from Salem as a man-of-war to recover the rest of the +Ketches. The Lord give them Good Success." + +To encounter a pirate craft was an episode almost commonplace and often +more sordid than picturesque. Many of these sea rogues were thieves with +small stomach for cutlasses and slaughter. They were of the sort that +overtook Captain John Shattuck sailing home from Jamaica in 1718 when he +reported his capture by one Captain Charles Vain, "a Pyrat" of 12 guns +and 120 men who took him to Crooked Island, plundered him of various +articles, stripped the brig, abused the crew, and finally let him go. +In the same year the seamen of the Hopewell related that near Hispaniola +they met with pirates who robbed and ill-treated them and carried off +their mate because they had no navigator. + +Ned Low, a gentleman rover of considerable notoriety, stooped to filch +the stores and gear from a fleet of fourteen poor fishermen of Cape +Sable. He had a sense of dramatic values, however, and frequently +brandished his pistols on deck, besides which, as set down by one of his +prisoners, "he had a young child in Boston for whom he entertained such +tenderness that on every lucid interval from drinking and revelling, I +have seen him sit down and weep plentifully." + +A more satisfying figure was Thomas Pounds, who was taken by the sloop +Mary, sent after him from Boston in 1689. He was discovered in Vineyard +Sound, and the two vessels fought a gallant action, the pirate flying +a red flag and refusing to strike. Captain Samuel Pease of the Mary +was mortally wounded, while Pounds, this proper pirate, strode his +quarter-deck and waved his naked sword, crying, "Come on board, ye dogs, +and I will strike YOU presently." This invitation was promptly accepted +by the stout seamen from Boston, who thereupon swarmed over the bulwark +and drove all hands below, preserving Thomas Pounds to be hanged in +public. + +In 1703 John Quelch, a man of resource, hoisted what he called "Old +Roger" over the Charles--a brigantine which had been equipped as a +privateer to cruise against the French of Acadia. This curious flag of +his was described as displaying a skeleton with an hour-glass in one +hand and "a dart in the heart with three drops of blood proceeding from +it in the other." Quelch led a mutiny, tossed the skipper overboard, and +sailed for Brazil, capturing several merchantmen on the way and looting +them of rum, silks, sugar, gold dust, and munitions. Rashly he came +sailing back to Marblehead, primed with a plausible yarn, but his men +talked too much when drunk and all hands were jailed. Upon the gallows +Quelch behaved exceedingly well, "pulling off his hat and bowing to the +spectators," while the somber Puritan merchants in the crowd were, many +of them, quietly dealing in the merchandise fetched home by pirates who +were lucky enough to steer clear of the law. + +This was a shady industry in which New York took the more active part, +sending out supplies to the horde of pirates who ravaged the waters of +the Far East and made their haven at Madagascar, and disposing of the +booty received in exchange. Governor Fletcher had dirtied his hands by +protecting this commerce and, as a result, Lord Bellomont was named +to succeed him. Said William III, "I send you, my Lord, to New York, +because an honest and intrepid man is wanted to put these abuses down, +and because I believe you to be such a man." + +Such were the circumstances in which Captain William Kidd, respectable +master mariner in the merchant service, was employed by Lord Bellomont, +royal Governor of New York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, to command +an armed ship and harry the pirates of the West Indies and Madagascar. +Strangest of all the sea tales of colonial history is that of Captain +Kidd and his cruise in the Adventure-Galley. His name is reddened with +crimes never committed, his grisly phantom has stalked through the +legends and literature of piracy, and the Kidd tradition still has magic +to set treasure-seekers exploring almost every beach, cove, and headland +from Halifax to the Gulf of Mexico. Yet if truth were told, he never cut +a throat or made a victim walk the plank. He was tried and hanged for +the trivial offense of breaking the head of a mutinous gunner of his +own crew with a wooden bucket. It was even a matter of grave legal doubt +whether he had committed one single piratical act. His trial in London +was a farce. In the case of the captured ships he alleged that they +were sailing under French passes, and he protested that his privateering +commission justified him, and this contention was not disproven. The +suspicion is not wanting that he was condemned as a scapegoat because +certain noblemen of England had subscribed the capital to outfit his +cruise, expecting to win rich dividends in gold captured from the +pirates he was sent to attack. Against these men a political outcry was +raised, and as a result Captain Kidd was sacrificed. He was a seaman who +had earned honorable distinction in earlier years, and fate has played +his memory a shabby trick. + +It was otherwise with Blackbeard, most flamboyant of all colonial +pirates, who filled the stage with swaggering success, chewing +wine-glasses in his cabin, burning sulphur to make his ship seem +more like hell, and industriously scourging the whole Atlantic coast. +Charleston lived in terror of him until Lieutenant Maynard, in a small +sloop, laid him alongside in a hammer-and-tongs engagement and cut off +the head of Blackbeard to dangle from the bowsprit as a trophy. + +Of this rudely adventurous era, it would be hard to find a seaman more +typical than the redoubtable Sir William Phips who became the first +royal Governor of the Massachusetts Colony in 1692. Born on a frontier +farm of the Maine coast while many of the Pilgrim fathers were living, +"his faithful mother," wrote Cotton Mather, "had no less than twenty-six +children, whereof twenty-one were sons; but equivalent to them all was +William, one of the youngest, whom, his father dying, was left +young with his mother, and with her he lived, keeping ye sheep in Ye +Wilderness until he was eighteen years old." Then he apprenticed himself +to a neighboring shipwright who was building sloops and pinnaces and, +having learned the trade, set out for Boston. As a ship-carpenter he +plied his trade, spent his wages in the taverns of the waterside and +there picked up wondrous yarns of the silver-laden galleons of Spain +which had shivered their timbers on the reefs of the Bahama Passage or +gone down in the hurricanes that beset those southerly seas. Meantime +he had married a wealthy widow whose property enabled him to go +treasure-hunting on the Spanish main. From his first voyage thither in a +small vessel he escaped with his life and barely enough treasure to pay +the cost of the expedition. + +In no wise daunted he laid his plans to search for a richly ladened +galleon which was said to have been wrecked half a century before off +the coast of Hispaniola. Since his own funds were not sufficient for +this exploit, he betook himself to England to enlist the aid of the +Government. With bulldog persistence he besieged the court of James II +for a whole year, this rough-and-ready New England shipmaster, until +he was given a royal frigate for his purpose. He failed to fish up more +silver from the sands but, nothing daunted, he persuaded other patrons +to outfit him with a small merchantman, the James and Mary, in which he +sailed for the coast of Hispaniola. This time he found his galleon and +thirty-two tons of silver. "Besides that incredible treasure of plate, +thus fetched up from seven or eight fathoms under water, there were vast +riches of Gold, and Pearls, and Jewels.... All that a Spanish frigot was +to be enriched withal." + +Up the Thames sailed the lucky little merchantman in the year of +1687, with three hundred thousand pounds sterling as her freightage +of treasure. Captain Phips made honest division with his backers and, +because men of his integrity were not over plentiful in England after +the Restoration, King James knighted him. He sailed home to Boston, "a +man of strong and sturdy frame," as Hawthorne fancied him, "whose face +had been roughened by northern tempests and blackened by the burning sun +of the West Indies.... He wears an immense periwig flowing down over +his shoulders.... His red, rough hands which have done many a good day's +work with the hammer and adze are half-covered by the delicate lace rues +at the wrist." But he carried with him the manners of the forecastle, +a man hasty and unlettered but superbly brave and honest. Even after he +had become Governor he thrashed the captain of the Nonesuch frigate of +the royal navy, and used his fists on the Collector of the Port after +cursing him with tremendous gusto. Such behavior in a Governor was too +strenuous, and Sir William Phips was summoned to England, where he died +while waiting his restoration to office and royal favor. Failing both, +he dreamed of still another treasure voyage, "for it was his purpose, +upon his dismission from his Government once more to have gone upon his +old Fishing-Trade, upon a mighty shelf of rock and banks of sand that +lie where he had informed himself." + + + +CHAPTER II. THE PRIVATEERS OF '76 + +The wars of England with France and Spain spread turmoil upon the high +seas during the greater part of the eighteenth century. Yet with an +immense tenacity of purpose, these briny forefathers increased their +trade and multiplied their ships in the face of every manner of +adversity. The surprising fact is that most of them were not driven +ashore to earn their bread. What Daniel Webster said of them at a later +day was true from the beginning: "It is not, sir, by protection and +bounties, but by unwearied exertion, by extreme economy, by that manly +and resolute spirit which relies on itself to protect itself. These +causes alone enable American ships still to keep the element and show +the flag of their country in distant seas." + +What was likely to befall a shipmaster in the turbulent eighteenth +century may be inferred from the misfortunes of Captain Michael Driver +of Salem. In 1759 he was in command of the schooner Three Brothers, +bound to the West Indies on his lawful business. Jogging along with +a cargo of fish and lumber, he was taken by a privateer under British +colors and sent into Antigua as a prize. Unable to regain either his +schooner or his two thousand dollar cargo, he sadly took passage for +home. Another owner gave him employment and he set sail in the schooner +Betsy for Guadaloupe. During this voyage, poor man, he was captured and +carried into port by a French privateer. On the suggestion that he might +ransom his vessel on payment of four thousand livres, he departed for +Boston in hope of finding the money, leaving behind three of his sailors +as hostages. + +Cash in hand for the ransom, the long-suffering Captain Michael Driver +turned southward again, now in the schooner Mary, and he flew a flag +of truce to indicate his errand. This meant nothing to the ruffian +who commanded the English privateer Revenge. He violently seized the +innocent Mary and sent her into New Providence. Here Captain Driver +made lawful protest before the authorities, and was set at liberty with +vessel and cargo--an act of justice quite unusual in the Admiralty Court +of the Bahamas. + +Unmolested, the harassed skipper managed to gain Cape Francois and +rescue his three seamen and his schooner in exchange for the ransom +money. As he was about to depart homeward bound, a French frigate +snatched him and his crew out of their vessel and threw them ashore at +Santiago, where for two months they existed as ragged beachcombers until +by some judicial twist the schooner was returned to them. They worked +her home and presented their long list of grievances to the colonial +Government of Massachusetts, which duly forwarded them--and that was +the end of it. Three years had been spent in this catalogue of +misadventures, and Captain Driver, his owners, and his men were helpless +against such intolerable aggression. They and their kind were a prey to +every scurvy rascal who misused a privateering commission to fill his +own pockets. + +Stoutly resolved to sail and trade as they pleased, these undaunted +Americans, nevertheless, increased their business on blue water until +shortly before the Revolution the New England fleet alone numbered six +hundred sail. Its captains felt at home in Surinam and the Canaries. +They trimmed their yards in the reaches of the Mediterranean and +the North Sea or bargained thriftily in the Levant. The whalers of +Nantucket, in their apple-bowed barks, explored and hunted in distant +seas, and the smoke of their try-pots darkened the waters of Baffin Bay, +Guinea, and Brazil. It was they who inspired Edmund Burke's familiar +eulogy: "No sea but is vexed by their fisheries. No climate that is not +a witness to their toils. Neither the perseverance of Holland nor the +activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of England ever +carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which +it has been pushed by this recent people--a people who are still, as it +were, but in the gristle and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." + +In 1762, seventy-eight whalers cleared from American ports, of which +more than half were from Nantucket. Eight years later there were one +hundred and twenty-five whalers out of Nantucket which took 14,331 +barrels of oil valued at $358,200. In size these vessels averaged no +more than ninety tons, a fishing smack of today, and yet they battered +their way half around the watery globe and comfortably supported six +thousand people who dwelt on a sandy island unfit for farming and having +no other industries. Every Nantucket lad sailed for his "lay" or share +of the catch and aspired to command eventually a whaler of his own. + +Whaler, merchantman, and slaver were training a host of incomparable +seamen destined to harry the commerce of England under the new-born +Stars and Stripes, and now, in 1775, on the brink of actual war, +Parliament flung a final provocation and aroused the furious enmity of +the fishermen who thronged the Grand Bank. Lord North proposed to forbid +the colonies to export fish to those foreign markets in which every +seacoast village was vitally concerned, and he also contemplated driving +the fishing fleets from their haunts off Newfoundland. This was to rob +six thousand sturdy men of a livelihood afloat and to spread ruin among +the busy ports, such as Marblehead and Gloucester, from which sailed +hundreds of pinks, snows, and schooners. This measure became law +notwithstanding the protests of twenty-one peers of the realm who +declared: "We dissent because the attempt to coerce by famine the whole +body of the inhabitants of great and populous provinces is without +example in the history of this, or perhaps, of any civilized nation." + +The sailormen bothered their heads very little about taxation without +representation but whetted their anger with grudges more robust. They +had been beggared and bullied and shot at from the Bay of Biscay to +Barbados, and no sooner was the Continental Congress ready to issue +privateering commissions and letters of marque than for them it was up +anchor and away to bag a Britisher. Scarcely had a shipmaster signaled +his arrival with a deep freight of logwood, molasses, or sugar than +he received orders to discharge with all speed and clear his decks for +mounting heavier batteries and slinging the hammocks of a hundred eager +privateersmen who had signed articles in the tavern rendezvous. The +timbered warehouses were filled with long-toms and nine-pounders, +muskets, blunderbusses, pistols, cutlases, boarding-pikes, hand +grenades, tomahawks, grape, canister, and doubleheaded shot. + +In the narrow, gabled streets of Salem, Boston, New York, and Baltimore, +crowds trooped after the fifes and drums with a strapping recruiting +officer to enroll "all gentlemen seamen and able-bodied landsmen who had +a mind to distinguish themselves in the glorious cause of their country +and make their fortunes." Many a ship's company was mustered between +noon and sunset, including men who had served in armed merchantmen and +who in times of nominal peace had fought the marauders of Europe or +whipped the corsairs of Barbary in the Strait of Gibraltar. Never was a +race of seamen so admirably fitted for the daring trade of privateering +as the crews of these tall sloops, topsail schooners, and smart +square-riggers, their sides checkered with gun-ports, and ready to drive +to sea like hawks. + +In some instances the assurance of these hardy men was both absurd and +sublime. Ramshackle boats with twenty or thirty men aboard, mounting one +or two old guns, sallied out in the expectation of gold and glory, only +to be captured by the first British cruiser that chanced to sight them. +A few even sailed with no cannon at all, confident of taking them out +of the first prize overhauled by laying alongside--and so in some cases +they actually did. + +The privateersmen of the Revolution played a larger part in winning the +war than has been commonly recognized. This fact, however, was clearly +perceived by Englishmen of that era, as "The London Spectator" candidly +admitted: "The books at Lloyds will recount it, and the rate of +assurances at that time will prove what their diminutive strength was +able to effect in the face of our navy, and that when nearly one hundred +pennants were flying on our coast. Were we able to prevent their going +in and out, or stop them from taking our trade and our storeships even +in sight of our garrisons? Besides, were they not in the English and +Irish Channels, picking up our homeward bound trade, sending their +prizes into French and Spanish ports to the great terror of our +merchants and shipowners?" + +The naval forces of the Thirteen Colonies were pitifully feeble in +comparison with the mighty fleets of the enemy whose flaming broadsides +upheld the ancient doctrine that "the Monarchs of Great Britain have a +peculiar and Sovereign authority upon the Ocean... from the Laws of God +and of Nature, besides an uninterrupted Fruition of it for so many Ages +past as that its Beginnings cannot be traced out." * + + + * "The Seaman's Vade-Mecum." London, 1744. + + +In 1776 only thirty-one Continental cruisers of all classes were in +commission, and this number was swiftly diminished by capture and +blockade until in 1782 no more than seven ships flew the flag of the +American Navy. On the other hand, at the close of 1777, one hundred and +seventy-four private armed vessels had been commissioned, mounting two +thousand guns and carrying nine thousand men. During this brief period +of the war they took as prizes 733 British merchantmen and inflicted +losses of more than two million pounds sterling. Over ten thousand +seamen were made prisoners at a time when England sorely needed them for +drafting into her navy. To lose them was a far more serious matter than +for General Washington to capture as many Hessian mercenaries who could +be replaced by purchase. + +In some respects privateering as waged a century and more ago was a +sordid, unlovely business, the ruling motive being rather a greed of +gain than an ardent love of country. Shares in lucky ships were bought +and sold in the gambling spirit of a stock exchange. Fortunes were won +and lost regardless of the public service. It became almost impossible +to recruit men for the navy because they preferred the chance of booty +in a privateer. For instance, the State of Massachusetts bought a +twenty-gun ship, the Protector, as a contribution to the naval strength, +and one of her crew, Ebenezer Fox, wrote of the effort to enlist +sufficient men: "The recruiting business went on slowly, however, but +at length upwards of three hundred men were carried, dragged, and driven +abroad; of all ages, kinds, and descriptions; in all the various stages +of intoxication from that of sober tipsiness to beastly drunkenness; +with the uproar and clamor that may be more easily imagined than +described. Such a motley group has never been seen since Falstaff's +ragged regiment paraded the streets of Coventry." + +There was nothing of glory to boast of in fetching into port some little +Nova Scotia coasting schooner with a cargo of deals and potatoes, whose +master was also the owner and who lost the savings of a lifetime because +he lacked the men and guns to defend his property against spoliation. +The war was no concern of his, and he was the victim of a system now +obsolete among civilized nations, a relic of a barbarous and piratical +age whose spirit has been revived and gloried in recently only by the +Government of the German Empire. The chief fault of the privateersman +was that he sailed and fought for his own gain, but he was never guilty +of sinking ships with passengers and crew aboard, and very often he +played the gentleman in gallant style. Nothing could have seemed to him +more abhorrent and incredible than a kind of warfare which should drown +women and children because they had embarked under an enemy's flag. + +Extraordinary as were the successes of the Yankee privateers, it was a +game of give-and-take, a weapon which cut both ways, and the temptation +is to extol their audacious achievements while glossing over the +heavy losses which their own merchant marine suffered. The weakness +of privateering was that it was wholly offensive and could not, like +a strong navy, protect its own commerce from depredation. While the +Americans were capturing over seven hundred British vessels during the +first two years of the war, as many as nine hundred American ships were +taken or sunk by the enemy, a rate of destruction which fairly swept +the Stars and Stripes from the tracks of ocean commerce. As prizes these +vessels were sold at Liverpool and London for an average amount of two +thousand pounds each and the loss to the American owners was, of course, +ever so much larger. + +The fact remains, nevertheless--and it is a brilliant page of history +to recall--that in an inchoate nation without a navy, with blockading +squadrons sealing most of its ports, with ragged armies on land which +retreated oftener than they fought, private armed ships dealt the +maritime prestige of Great Britain a far deadlier blow than the Dutch, +French, and Spanish were able to inflict. In England, there resulted +actual distress, even lack of food, because these intrepid seamen could +not be driven away from her own coasts and continued to snatch their +prizes from under the guns of British forts and fleets. The plight of +the West India Colonies was even worse, as witness this letter from a +merchant of Grenada: "We are happy if we can get anything for money by +reason of the quantity of vessels taken by the Americans. 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 +American privateers. God knows, if this American war continues much +longer, we shall all die of hunger." + +On both sides, by far the greater number of captures was made during the +earlier period of the war which cleared the seas of the smaller, slower, +and unarmed vessels. As the war progressed and the profits flowed +in, swifter and larger ships were built for the special business of +privateering until the game resembled actual naval warfare. Whereas, +at first, craft of ten guns with forty or fifty men had been considered +adequate for the service, three or four years later ships were afloat +with a score of heavy cannon and a trained crew of a hundred and fifty +or two hundred men, ready to engage a sloop of war or to stand up to +the enemy's largest privateers. In those days single ship actions, now +almost forgotten in naval tactics, were fought with illustrious skill +and courage, and commanders won victories worthy of comparison with +deeds distinguished in the annals of the American Navy. + + + +CHAPTER III. OUT CUTLASES AND BOARD + +Salem was the foremost privateering port of the Revolution, and from +this pleasant harbor, long since deserted by ships and sailormen, there +filled away past Cape Ann one hundred and fifty-eight vessels of all +sizes to scan the horizon for British topsails. They accounted for four +hundred prizes, or half the whole number to the credit of American arms +afloat. This preeminence was due partly to freedom from a close blockade +and partly to a seafaring population which was born and bred to its +trade and knew no other. Besides the crews of Salem merchantmen, +privateering enlisted the idle fishermen of ports nearby and the +mariners of Boston whose commerce had been snuffed out by the British +occupation. Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston sent some splendid +armed ships to sea but not with the impetuous rush nor in anything like +the numbers enrolled by this gray old town whose fame was unique. + +For the most part, the records of all these brave ships and the +thousands of men who sailed and sweated and fought in them are dim and +scanty, no more than routine entries in dusty log-books which read like +this: "Filled away in pursuit of a second sail in the N. W. At 4.30 she +hoisted English colors and commenced firing her stern guns. At 5.90 took +in the steering sails, at the same time she fired a broadside. We opened +a fire from our larboard battery and at 5.30 she struck her colors. Got +out the boats and boarded her. She proved to be the British brig Acorn +from Liverpool to Rio Janeiro, mounting fourteen cannon." * But now and +then one finds in these old sea-journals an entry more intimate and +human, such as the complaint of the master of the privateer Scorpion, +cruising in 1778 and never a prize in sight. "This Book I made to keep +the Accounts of my Voyage but God knows beste what that will be, for I +am at this time very Impashent but I hope soon there will be a Change to +ease my Trubled Mind. On this Day I was Chaced by Two Ships of War which +I tuck to be Enemies, but coming on thick Weather I have lost site of +them and so conclude myself escaped which is a small good Fortune in the +midste of my Discouragements." * * A burst of gusty laughter still echoes +along the crowded deck of the letter-of-marque schooner Success, whose +master, Captain Philip Thrash, inserted this diverting comment in his +humdrum record of the day's work: "At one half past 8 discovered a sail +ahead. Tacked ship. At 9 tacked ship again and past just to Leeward of +the Sail which appeared to be a damn'd Comical Boat, by G-d." + + + * From the manuscript collections of the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. + + + * * From the manuscript collections of the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. + + +There are a few figures of the time and place which stand out, +full-length, in vivid colors against a background that satisfies the +desire of romance and thrillingly conveys the spirit of the time and the +place. Such a one was Captain Jonathan Haraden, Salem privateersman, who +captured one thousand British cannon afloat and is worthy to be ranked +as one of the ablest sea-fighters of his generation. He was a merchant +mariner, a master at the outbreak of the Revolution, who had followed +the sea since boyhood. But it was more to his taste to command the Salem +ship General Pickering of 180 tons which was fitted out under a letter +of marque in the spring of 1780. She carried fourteen six-pounders and +forty-five men and boys, nothing very formidable, when Captain Haraden +sailed for Bilbao with a cargo of sugar. During the voyage, before his +crew had been hammered into shape, he beat off a British privateer of +twenty guns and safely tacked into the Bay of Biscay. + +There he sighted another hostile privateer, the Golden Eagle, larger +than his own ship. Instead of shifting his course to avoid her, Haraden +clapped on sail and steered alongside after nightfall, roaring through +his trumpet: "What ship is this? An American frigate, sir. Strike, or +I'll sink you with a broadside." + +Dazed by this unexpected summons in the gloom, the master of the Golden +Eagle promptly surrendered, and a prize crew was thrown aboard with +orders to follow the Pickering into Bilbao. While just outside that +Spanish harbor, a strange sail was descried and again Jonathan Haraden +cleared for action. The vessel turned out to be the Achilles, one of the +most powerful privateers out of London, with forty guns and a hundred +and fifty men, or almost thrice the fighting strength of the little +Pickering. She was, in fact, more like a sloop of war. Before Captain +Haraden could haul within gunshot to protect his prize, it had been +recaptured by the Achilles, which then maneuvered to engage the +Pickering. + +Darkness intervened, but Jonathan Haraden had no idea of escaping under +cover of it. He was waiting for the morning breeze and a chance to +fight it out to a finish. He was a handsome man with an air of serene +composure and a touch of the theatrical such as Nelson displayed in his +great moments. Having prepared his ship for battle, he slept soundly +until dawn and then dressed with fastidious care to stroll on deck, +where he beheld the Achilles bearing down on him with her crew at +quarters. + +His own men were clustered behind their open ports, matches lighted, +tackles and breechings cast off, crowbars, handspikes, and sponge-staves +in place, gunners stripped to the waist, powder-boys ready for the word +like sprinters on the mark. Forty-five of them against a hundred and +fifty, and Captain Haraden, debonair, unruffled, walking to and fro with +a leisurely demeanor, remarking that although the Achilles appeared to +be superior in force, "he had no doubt they would beat her if they were +firm and steady and did not throw away their fire." + +It was, indeed, a memorable sea-picture, the sturdy Pickering riding +deep with her burden of sugar and seeming smaller than she really was, +the Achilles towering like a frigate, and all Bilbao turned out to +watch the duel, shore and headlands crowded with spectators, the blue +harbor-mouth gay with an immense flotilla of fishing boats and pleasure +craft. The stake for which Haraden fought was to retake the Golden +Eagle prize and to gain his port. His seamanship was flawless. Vastly +outnumbered if it should come to boarding, he handled his vessel so as +to avoid the Achilles while he poured the broadsides into her. After two +hours the London privateer emerged from the smoke which had obscured the +combat and put out to sea in flight, hulled through and through, while +a farewell flight of crowbars, with which the guns of the Pickering had +been crammed to the muzzle, ripped through her sails and rigging. + +Haraden hoisted canvas and drove in chase, but the Achilles had the +heels of him "with a mainsail as large as a ship of the line," and +reluctantly he wore ship and, with the Golden Eagle again in his +possession, he sailed to an anchorage in Bilbao harbor. The Spanish +populace welcomed him with tremendous enthusiasm. He was carried through +the streets in a holiday procession and was the hero of banquets and +public receptions. + +Such a man was bound to be the idol of his sailors and one of them quite +plausibly related that "so great was the confidence he inspired that if +he but looked at a sail through his glass and told the helmsman to steer +for her, the observation went round,'If she is an enemy, she is ours.'" + +It was in this same General Pickering, no longer sugar-laden but in +cruising trim, that Jonathan Haraden accomplished a feat which Paul +Jones might have been proud to claim. There lifted above the sky-line +three armed merchantmen sailing in company from Halifax to New York, a +brig of fourteen guns, a ship of sixteen guns, a sloop of twelve guns. +When they flew signals and formed in line, the ship alone appeared +to outmatch the Pickering, but Haraden, in that lordly manner of his, +assured his men that "he had no doubt whatever that if they would +do their duty he would quickly capture the three vessels." Here +was performance very much out of the ordinary, naval strategy of an +exceptionally high order, and yet it is dismissed by the only witness +who took the trouble to mention it in these few, casual words: "This he +did with great ease by going alongside of each of them, one after the +other." + +One more story of this master sea-rover of the Revolution, sailor and +gentleman, who served his country so much more brilliantly than many +a landsman lauded in the written histories of the war. While in the +Pickering he attacked a heavily armed royal mail packet bound to England +from the West Indies, one of the largest merchant vessels of her day and +equipped to defend herself against privateers. A tough antagonist and a +hard nut to crack! They battered each other like two pugilists for four +hours and even then the decision was still in the balance. Then Haraden +sheered off to mend his damaged gear and splintered hull before closing +in again. + +He then discovered that all his powder had been shot away excepting one +last charge. Instead of calling it a drawn battle, he rammed home this +last shot in the locker, and ran down to windward of the packet, so +close that he could shout across to the other quarter-deck: "I will give +you five minutes to haul down your colors. If they are not down at the +end of that time, I will fire into you and sink you, so help me God." + +It was the bluff magnificent--courage cold-blooded and calculating. +The adversary was still unbeaten. Haraden stood with watch in hand and +sonorously counted off the minutes. It was the stronger will and not the +heavier metal that won the day. To be shattered by fresh broadsides at +pistol-range was too much for the nerves of the gallant English skipper +whose decks were already like a slaughterhouse. One by one, Haraden +shouted the minutes and his gunners blew their matches. At "four" the +red ensign came fluttering down and the mail packet was a prize of war. + +Another merchant seaman of this muster-roll of patriots was Silas +Talbot, who took to salt water as a cabin boy at the age of twelve and +was a prosperous shipmaster at twenty-one with savings invested in a +house of his own in Providence. Enlisting under Washington, he was made +a captain of infantry and was soon promoted, but he was restless ashore +and glad to obtain an odd assignment. As Colonel Talbot he selected +sixty infantry volunteers, most of them seamen by trade, and led them +aboard the small sloop Argo in May, 1779, to punish the New York Tories +who were equipping privateers against their own countrymen and working +great mischief in Long Island Sound. So serious was the situation that +General Gates found it almost impossible to obtain food supplies for the +northern department of the Continental army. + +Silas Talbot and his nautical infantrymen promptly fell in with the New +York privateer Lively, a fair match for him, and as promptly sent her +into port. He then ran offshore and picked up and carried into Boston +two English privateers headed for New York with large cargoes of +merchandise from the West Indies. But he was particularly anxious to +square accounts with a renegade Captain Hazard who made Newport his base +and had captured many American vessels with the stout brig King George, +using her for "the base purpose of plundering his old neighbors and +friends." + +On his second cruise in the Argo, young Silas Talbot encountered the +perfidious King George to the southward of Long Island and riddled her +with one broadside after another, first hailing Captain Hazard by name +and cursing him in double-shotted phrases for the traitorous swab that +he was. Then the seagoing infantry scrambled over the bulwarks and +tumbled the Tories down their own hatches without losing a man. A prize +crew with the humiliated King George made for New London, where there +was much cheering in the port, and "even the women, both young and old, +expressed the greatest joy." + +With no very heavy fighting, Talbot had captured five vessels and was +keen to show what his crew could do against mettlesome foemen. He found +them at last well out to sea in a large ship which seemed eager to +engage him. Only a few hundred feet apart through a long afternoon, they +briskly and cheerily belabored each other with grape and solid shot. +Talbot's speaking-trumpet was shot out of his hand, the tails of his +coat were shorn off, and all the officers and men stationed with him on +the quarter-deck were killed or wounded. + +His crew reported that the Argo was in a sinking condition, with the +water flooding the gun-deck, but he told them to lower a man or two in +the bight of a line and they pluckily plugged the holes from overside. +There was a lusty huzza when the Englishman's mainmast crashed to +the deck and this finished the affair. Silas Talbot found that he had +trounced the privateer Dragon, of twice his own tonnage and with the +advantage in both guns and men. + +While his crew was patching the Argo and pumping the water from her +hold, the lookout yelled that another sail was making for them. Without +hesitation Talbot somehow got this absurdly impudent one-masted craft +of his under way and told those of his sixty men who survived to prepare +for a second tussle. Fortunately another Yankee privateer joined the +chase and together they subdued the armed brig Hannah. When the Argo +safely convoyed the two prizes into New Bedford, "all who beheld her +were astonished that a vessel of her diminutive size could suffer so +much and yet get safely to port." + +Men fought and slew each other in those rude and distant days with a +certain courtesy, with a fine, punctilious regard for the etiquette of +the bloody game. There was the Scotch skipper of the Betsy, a privateer, +whom Silas Talbot hailed as follows, before they opened fire: + +"You must now haul down those British colors, my friend." + +"Notwithstanding I find you an enemy, as I suspected," was the dignified +reply, "yet, sir, I shall let them hang a little bit longer,--with your +permission,--so fire away, Flanagan." + +During another of her cruises the Argo pursued an artfully disguised +ship of the line which could have blown her to kingdom come with a +broadside of thirty guns. The little Argo was actually becalmed within +short range, but her company got out the sweeps and rowed her some +distance before darkness and a favoring slant of wind carried them +clear. In the summer of 1780, Captain Silas Talbot, again a mariner by +title, was given the private cruiser General Washington with one hundred +and twenty men, but he was less fortunate with her than when afloat in +the tiny Argo with his sixty Continentals. Off Sandy Hook he ran into +the British fleet under Admiral Arbuthnot and, being outsailed in a +gale of wind, he was forced to lower his flag to the great seventy-four +Culloden. After a year in English prisons he was released and made his +way home, serving no more in the war but having the honor to command the +immortal frigate Constitution in 1799 as a captain in the American Navy. + +In several notable instances the privateersmen tried conclusions with +ships that flew the royal ensign, and got the better of them. The hero +of an uncommonly brilliant action of this sort was Captain George Geddes +of Philadelphia, who was entrusted with the Congress, a noble privateer +of twenty-four guns and two hundred men. Several of the smaller British +cruisers had been sending parties ashore to plunder estates along the +southern shores, and one of them, the sloop of war Savage, had even +raided Washington's home at Mount Vernon. Later she shifted to the +coast of Georgia in quest of loot and was unlucky enough to fall athwart +Captain Geddes in the Congress. + +The privateer was the more formidable ship and faster on the wind, +forcing Captain Sterling of the Savage to accept the challenge. Disabled +aloft very early in the fight, Captain Geddes was unable to choose his +position, for which reason they literally battled hand-to-hand, hulls +grinding against each other, the gunners scorched by the flashes of the +cannon in the ports of the opposing ship, with scarcely room to ply +the rammers, and the sailors throwing missiles from the decks, hand +grenades, cold shot, scraps of iron, belaying-pins. + +As the vessels lay interlocked, the Savage was partly dismasted and +Captain Geddes, leaping upon the forecastle head, told the boarders to +follow him. Before they could swing their cutlases and dash over the +hammock-nettings, the British boatswain waved his cap and yelled that +the Savage had surrendered. Captain Sterling was dead, eight others were +killed, and twenty-four wounded. The American loss was about the same. +Captain Geddes, however, was unable to save his prize because a British +frigate swooped down and took them both into Charleston. + +When peace came in 1783, it was independence dearly bought by land and +sea, and no small part of the price was the loss of a thousand merchant +ships which would see their home ports no more. Other misfortunes added +to the toll of destruction. The great fishing fleets which had been the +chief occupation of coastwise New England were almost obliterated and +their crews were scattered. Many of the men had changed their allegiance +and were sailing out of Halifax, and others were impressed into British +men-of-war or returned broken in health from long confinement in British +prisons. The ocean was empty of the stanch schooners which had raced +home with lee rails awash to cheer waiting wives and sweethearts. + +The fate of Nantucket and its whalers was even more tragic. This colony +on its lonely island amid the shoals was helpless against raids by sea, +and its ships and storehouses were destroyed without mercy. Many vessels +in distant waters were captured before they were even aware that a +state of war existed. Of a fleet numbering a hundred and fifty sail, one +hundred and thirty-four were taken by the enemy and Nantucket whaling +suffered almost total extinction. These seamen, thus robbed of their +livelihood, fought nobly for their country's cause. Theirs was not the +breed to sulk or whine in port. Twelve hundred of them were killed or +made prisoners during the Revolution. They were to be found in the +Army and Navy and behind the guns of privateers. There were twenty-five +Nantucket whalemen in the crew of the Ranger when Paul Jones steered +her across the Atlantic on that famous cruise which inspired the old +forecastle song that begins + + 'Tis of the gallant Yankee ship + That flew the Stripes and Stars, + And the whistling wind from the west nor'west + Blew through her pitch pine spars. + With her starboard tacks aboard, my boys, + She hung upon the gale. + On an autumn night we raised the light + Off the Old Head of Kinsale. + +Pitiful as was the situation of Nantucket, with its only industry wiped +out and two hundred widows among the eight hundred families left on the +island, the aftermath of war seemed almost as ruinous along the whole +Atlantic coast. More ships could be built and there were thousands of +adventurous sailors to man them, but where were the markets for the +product of the farms and mills and plantations? The ports of Europe had +been so long closed to American shipping that little demand was left for +American goods. To the Government of England the people of the Republic +were no longer fellow-countrymen but foreigners. As such they were +subject to the Navigation Acts, and no cargoes could be sent to that +kingdom unless in British vessels. The flourishing trade with the West +Indies was made impossible for the same reason, a special Order in +Council aiming at one fell stroke to "put an end to the building and +increase of American vessels" and to finish the careers of three hundred +West Indiamen already afloat. In the islands themselves the results +were appalling. Fifteen thousand slaves died of starvation because the +American traders were compelled to cease bringing them dried fish +and corn during seasons in which their own crops were destroyed by +hurricanes. + +In 1776, one-third of the seagoing merchant marine of Great Britain had +been bought or built to order in America because lumber was cheaper +and wages were lower. This lucrative business was killed by a law which +denied Englishmen the privilege of purchasing ships built in American +yards. So narrow and bitter was this commercial enmity, so ardent +this desire to banish the Stars and Stripes from blue water, that Lord +Sheffield in 1784 advised Parliament that the pirates of Algiers and +Tripoli really benefited English commerce by preying on the shipping of +weaker nations. "It is not probable that the American States will have +a very free trade in the Mediterranean," said he. "It will not be to the +interest of any of the great maritime Powers to protect them from the +Barbary States. If they know their interests, they will not encourage +the Americans to be carriers. That the Barbary States are advantageous +to maritime Powers is certain." + +Denied the normal ebb and flow of trade and commerce and with the +imports from England far exceeding the value of the merchandise exported +thence, the United States, already impoverished, was drained of its +money, and a currency of dollars, guineas, joes, and moidores grew +scarcer day by day. There was no help in a government which consisted of +States united only in name. Congress comprised a handful of respectable +gentlemen who had little power and less responsibility, quarreling among +themselves for lack of better employment. Retaliation against England by +means of legislation was utterly impossible. Each State looked after +its commerce in its own peculiar fashion and the devil might take +the hindmost. Their rivalries and jealousies were like those of petty +kingdoms. If one State should close her ports is to English ships, the +others would welcome them in order to divert the trade, with no feeling +of national pride or federal cooperation. + +The Articles of Confederation had empowered Congress to make treaties of +commerce, but only such as did not restrain the legislative power of +any State from laying imposts and regulating exports and imports. If a +foreign power imposed heavy duties upon American shipping, it was for +the individual States and not for Congress to say whether the vessels of +the offending nation should be allowed free entrance to the ports of the +United States: It was folly to suppose, ran the common opinion, that +if South Carolina should bar her ports to Spain because rice and indigo +were excluded from the Spanish colonies, New Hampshire, which furnished +masts and lumber for the Spanish Navy, ought to do the same. The idea of +turning the whole matter over to Congress was considered preposterous by +many intelligent Americans. + +In these thirteen States were nearly three and a quarter million people +hemmed in a long and narrow strip between the sea and an unexplored +wilderness in which the Indians were an ever present peril. The Southern +States, including Maryland, prosperous agricultural regions, contained +almost one-half the English-speaking population of America. As colonies, +they had found the Old World eager for their rice, tobacco, indigo, +and tar, and slavery was the means of labor so firmly established that +one-fifth of the inhabitants were black. By contrast, the Northern +States were still concerned with commerce as the very lifeblood of their +existence. New England had not dreamed of the millions of spindles which +should hum on the banks of her rivers and lure her young men and women +from the farms to the clamorous factory towns. The city of New York +had not yet outgrown its traffic in furs and its magnificent commercial +destiny was still unrevealed. It was a considerable seaport but not yet +a gateway. From Sandy Hook, however, to the stormy headlands of Maine, +it was a matter of life and death that ships should freely come and +go with cargoes to exchange. All other resources were trifling in +comparison. + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE FAMOUS DAYS OF SALEM PORT + +In such compelling circumstances as these, necessity became the mother +of achievement. There is nothing finer in American history than the +dogged fortitude and high-hearted endeavor with which the merchant +seamen returned to their work after the Revolution and sought and +found new markets for their wares. It was then that Salem played +that conspicuous part which was, for a generation, to overshadow the +activities of all other American seaports. Six thousand privateersmen +had signed articles in her taverns, as many as the total population of +the town, and they filled it with a spirit of enterprise and daring. +Not for them the stupid monotony of voyages coastwise if more hazardous +ventures beckoned and there were havens and islands unvexed by trade +where bold men might win profit and perhaps fight for life and cargo. + +Now there dwelt in Salem one of the great men of his time, Elias Hasket +Derby, the first American millionaire, and very much more than this. He +was a shipping merchant with a vision and with the hard-headed sagacity +to make his dreams come true. His was a notable seafaring family, +to begin with. His father, Captain Richard Derby, born in 1712, had +dispatched his small vessels to the West Indies and Virginia and with +the returns from these voyages he had loaded assorted cargoes for Spain +and Madeira and had the proceeds remitted in bills of exchange to +London or in wine, salt, fruit, oil, lead, and handkerchiefs to America. +Richard Derby's vessels had eluded or banged away at the privateers +during the French War from 1756 to 1763, mounting from eight to twelve +guns, "with four cannon below decks for close quarters." Of such a +temper was this old sea-dog who led the militia and defiantly halted +General Gage's regulars at the North River bridge in Salem, two full +months before the skirmish at Lexington. Eight of the nineteen cannon +which it was proposed to seize from the patriots had been taken from the +ships of Captain Richard Derby and stored in his warehouse for the use +of the Provincial Congress. + +It was Richard's son, Captain John Derby, who carried to England in the +swift schooner Quero the first news of the affair at Lexington, ahead of +the King's messenger. A sensational arrival, if ever there was one! This +Salem shipmaster, cracking on sail like a proper son of his sire, making +the passage in twenty-nine days and handsomely beating the lubberly +Royal Express Packet Sukey which left Boston four days sooner, and +startling the British nation with the tidings which meant the loss of an +American empire! A singular coincidence was that this same Captain John +Derby should have been the first mariner to inform the United States +that peace had come, when he arrived from France in 1783 with the +message that a treaty had been signed. + +Elias Hasket Derby was another son of Richard. When his manifold +energies were crippled by the war, he diverted his ability and abundant +resources into privateering. He was interested in at least eighty of the +privateers out of Salem, invariably subscribing for such shares as might +not be taken up by his fellow-townsmen. He soon perceived that many +of these craft were wretchedly unfit for the purpose and were easily +captured or wrecked. It was characteristic of his genius that he +should establish shipyards of his own, turn his attention to naval +architecture, and begin to build a class of vessels vastly superior in +size, model, and speed to any previously launched in the colonies. They +were designed to meet the small cruiser of the British Navy on even +terms and were remarkably successful, both in enriching their owner and +in defying the enemy. + +At the end of the war Elias Hasket Derby discovered that these fine +ships were too large and costly to ply up and down the coast. Instead +of bewailing his hard lot, he resolved to send them to the other side of +the globe. At a time when the British and the Dutch East India companies +insolently claimed a monopoly of the trade of the Orient, when American +merchant seamen had never ventured beyond the two Atlantics, this was a +conception which made of commerce a surpassing romance and heralded the +golden era of the nation's life upon the sea. + +His Grand Turk of three hundred tons was promptly fitted out for a +pioneering voyage as far as the Cape of Good Hope. Salem knew her as +"the great ship" and yet her hull was not quite one hundred feet long. +Safely Captain Jonathan Ingersoll took her out over the long road, his +navigating equipment consisting of a few erroneous maps and charts, a +sextant, and Guthrie's Geographical Grammar. In Table Bay he sold his +cargo of provisions and then visited the coast of Guinea to dispose of +his rum for ivory and gold dust but brought not a single slave back, +Mr. Derby having declared that "he would rather sink the whole capital +employed than directly or indirectly be concerned in so infamous a +trade"--an unusual point of view for a shipping merchant of New England +in 1784! + +Derby ships were first to go to Mauritius, then called the Isle of +France, first at Calcutta, and among the earliest to swing at anchor off +Canton. When Elias Hasket Derby decided to invade this rich East India +commerce, he sent his eldest son, Elias Hasket, Jr., to England and the +Continent after a course at Harvard. The young man became a linguist +and made a thorough study of English and French methods of trade. Having +laid this foundation for the venture, the son was now sent to India, +where he lived for three years in the interests of his house, building +up a trade almost fabulously profitable. + +How fortunes were won in those stirring days may be discerned from +the record of young Derby's ventures while in the Orient. In 1788 the +proceeds of one cargo enabled him to buy a ship and a brigantine in the +Isle of France. These two vessels he sent to Bombay to load with cotton. +Two other ships of his fleet, the Astrea and Light Horse, were filled +at Calcutta and Rangoon and ordered to Salem. It was found, when the +profits of these transactions were reckoned, that the little squadron +had earned $100,000 above all outlay. + +To carry on such a business as this enlisted many men and industries. +While the larger ships were making their distant voyages, the brigs and +schooners were gathering cargoes for them, crossing to Gothenburg and +St. Petersburg for iron, duck, and hemp, to France, Spain, and Madeira +for wine and lead, to the French West Indies for molasses to be turned +into rum, to New York, Philadelphia, and Richmond for flour, provisions, +and tobacco. These shipments were assembled in the warehouses on Derby +Wharf and paid for the teas, coffees, pepper, muslin, silks, and ivory +which the ships from the Far East were fetching home. In fourteen years +the Derby ships made one hundred and twenty-five voyages to Europe and +far eastern ports and out of the thirty-five vessels engaged only one +was lost at sea. + +It was in 1785 when the Grand Turk, on a second voyage, brought back +a cargo of silks, teas, and nankeens from Batavia and China, that "The +Independent Chronicle" of London, unconsciously humorous, was moved to +affirm that "the Americans have given up all thought of a China trade +which can never be carried on to advantage without some settlement in +the East Indies." + +As soon as these new sea-trails had been furrowed by the keels of Elias +Hasket Derby, other Salem merchants were quick to follow in a rivalry +which left no sea unexplored for virgin markets and which ransacked +every nook and corner of barbarism which had a shore. Vessels slipped +their cables and sailed away by night for some secret destination with +whose savage potentate trade relations had been established. It might +be Captain Jonathan Carnes who, while at the port of Bencoolen in +1793, heard that pepper grew wild on the northern coast of Sumatra. He +whispered the word to the Salem owner, who sent him back in the schooner +Rajah with only four guns and ten men. Eighteen months later, Jonathan +Carnes returned to Salem with a cargo of pepper in bulk, the first +direct importation, and cleared seven hundred per cent on the voyage. +When he made ready to go again, keeping his business strictly to +himself, other owners tracked him clear to Bencoolen, but there he +vanished in the Rajah, and his secret with him, until he reappeared with +another precious cargo of pepper. When, at length, he shared this trade +with other vessels, it meant that Salem controlled the pepper market of +Sumatra and for many years supplied a large part of the world's demand. + +And so it happened that in the spicy warehouses that overlooked Salem +Harbor there came to be stored hemp from Luzon, gum copal from Zanzibar, +palm oil from Africa, coffee from Arabia, tallow from Madagascar, whale +oil from the Antarctic, hides and wool from the Rio de la Plata, nutmeg +and cloves from Malaysia. Such merchandise had been bought or bartered +for by shipmasters who were much more than mere navigators. They had to +be shrewd merchants on their own accounts, for the success or failure +of a voyage was mostly in their hands. Carefully trained and highly +intelligent men, they attained command in the early twenties and were +able to retire, after a few years more afloat, to own ships and exchange +the quarterdeck for the counting-room, and the cabin for the solid +mansion and lawn on Derby Street. Every opportunity, indeed, was offered +them to advance their own fortunes. They sailed not for wages but for +handsome commissions and privileges--in the Derby ships, five per cent +of a cargo outward bound, two and a half per cent of the freightage +home, five per cent profit on goods bought and sold between foreign +ports, and five per cent of the cargo space for their own use. + +Such was the system which persuaded the pick and flower of young +American manhood to choose the sea as the most advantageous career +possible. There was the Crowninshield family, for example, with five +brothers all in command of ships before they were old enough to vote and +at one time all five away from Salem, each in his own vessel and three +of them in the East India trade. "When little boys," to quote from +the memoirs of Benjamin Crowninshield, "they were all sent to a common +school and about their eleventh year began their first particular study +which should develop them as sailors and ship captains. These boys +studied their navigation as little chaps of twelve years old and were +required to thoroughly master the subject before being sent to sea.... +As soon as the art of navigation was mastered, the youngsters were sent +to sea, sometimes as common sailors but commonly as ship's clerks, in +which position they were able to learn everything about the management +of a ship without actually being a common sailor." + +This was the practice in families of solid station and social rank, for +to be a shipmaster was to follow the profession of a gentleman. Yet the +bright lad who entered by way of the forecastle also played for high +stakes. Soon promoted to the berth of mate, he was granted cargo space +for his own adventures in merchandise and a share of the profits. +In these days the youth of twenty-one is likely to be a college +undergraduate, rated too callow and unfit to be intrusted with the +smallest business responsibilities and tolerantly regarded as unable +to take care of himself. It provokes both a smile and a glow of pride, +therefore, to recall those seasoned striplings and what they did. + +No unusual instance was that of Nathaniel Silsbee, later United States +Senator from Massachusetts, who took command of the new ship Benjamin in +the year 1792, laden with a costly cargo from Salem for the Cape of +Good Hope and India, "with such instructions," says he, "as left the +management of the voyage very much to my own discretion. Neither +myself nor the chief mate, Mr. Charles Derby, had attained the age +of twenty-one years when we left home. I was not then twenty." This +reminded him to speak of his own family. Of the three Silsbee brothers, +"each of us obtained the command of vessels and the consignment of their +cargoes before attaining the age of twenty years, viz., myself at the +age of eighteen and a half, my brother William at nineteen and a half, +and my brother Zachariah before he was twenty years old. Each and all of +us left off going to sea before reaching the age of twenty-nine years." + +How resourcefully these children of the sea could handle affairs was +shown in this voyage of the Benjamin. While in the Indian Ocean young +Silsbee fell in with a frigate which gave him news of the beginning of +war between England and France. He shifted his course for Mauritius and +there sold the cargo for a dazzling price in paper dollars, which he +turned into Spanish silver. An embargo detained him for six months, +during which this currency increased to three times the value of the +paper money. He gave up the voyage to Calcutta, sold the Spanish dollars +and loaded with coffee and spices for Salem. At the Cape of Good Hope, +however, he discovered that he could earn a pretty penny by sending his +cargo home in other ships and loading the Benjamin again for Mauritius. +When, at length, he arrived in Salem harbor, after nineteen months away, +his enterprises had reaped a hundred per cent for Elias Hasket Derby and +his own share was the snug little fortune of four thousand dollars. Part +of this he, of course, invested at sea, and at twenty-two he was part +owner of the Betsy, East Indiaman, and on the road to independence. + +As second mate in the Benjamin had sailed Richard Cleveland, another +matured mariner of nineteen, who crowded into one life an Odyssey of +adventure noteworthy even in that era and who had the knack of writing +about it with rare skill and spirit. In 1797, when twenty-three years +old, he was master of the bark Enterprise bound from Salem to Mocha for +coffee. The voyage was abandoned at Havre and he sent the mate home +with the ship, deciding to remain abroad and gamble for himself with the +chances of the sea. In France he bought on credit a "cutter-sloop" +of forty-three tons, no larger than the yachts whose owners think it +venturesome to take them off soundings in summer cruises. In this little +box of a craft he planned to carry a cargo of merchandise to the Cape of +Good Hope and thence to Mauritius. + +His crew included two men, a black cook, and a brace of boys who were +hastily shipped at Havre. "Fortunately they were all so much in debt +as not to want any time to spend their advance, but were ready at the +instant, and with this motley crew, (who, for aught I knew, were robbers +or pirates) I put to sea." The only sailor of the lot was a Nantucket +lad who was made mate and had to be taught the rudiments of navigation +while at sea. Of the others he had this to say, in his lighthearted +manner: + +"The first of my fore-mast hands is a great, surly, crabbed, raw-boned, +ignorant Prussian who is so timid aloft that the mate has frequently +been obliged to do his duty there. I believe him to be more of a +soldier than a sailor, though he has often assured me that he has been +a boatswain's mate of a Dutch Indiaman, which I do not believe as he +hardly knows how to put two ends of a rope together.... My cook... a +good-natured negro and a tolerable cook, so unused to a vessel that in +the smoothest weather he cannot walk fore and aft without holding onto +something with both hands. This fear proceeds from the fact that he is +so tall and slim that if he should get a cant it might be fatal to +him. I did not think America could furnish such a specimen of the negro +race... nor did I ever see such a simpleton. It is impossible to teach +him anything and... he can hardly tell the main-halliards from the +mainstay. + +"Next is an English boy of seventeen years old, who from having lately +had the small-pox is feeble and almost blind, a miserable object, +but pity for his misfortunes induces me to make his duty as easy as +possible. Finally I have a little ugly French boy, the very image of a +baboon, who from having served for some time on different privateers has +all the tricks of a veteran man-of-war's man, though only thirteen years +old, and by having been in an English prison, has learned enough of the +language to be a proficient in swearing." + +With these human scrapings for a ship's company, the cutter Caroline was +three months on her solitary way as far as the Cape of Good Hope, where +the inhabitants "could not disguise their astonishment at the size of +the vessel, the boyish appearance of the master and mate, and the queer +and unique characters of the two men and boy who composed the crew." The +English officials thought it strange indeed, suspecting some scheme of +French spies or smuggled dispatches, but Richard Cleveland's petition +to the Governor, Lord McCartney, ingenuously patterned after certain +letters addressed to noblemen as found in an old magazine aboard his +vessel, won the day for him and he was permitted to sell the cutter and +her cargo, having changed his mind about proceeding farther. + +Taking passage to Batavia, he looked about for another venture but found +nothing to his liking and wandered on to Canton, where he was attracted +by the prospect of a voyage to the northwest coast of America to buy +furs from the Indians. In a cutter no larger than the Caroline he risked +all his cash and credit, stocking her with $20,000 worth of assorted +merchandise for barter, and put out across the Pacific, "having on board +twenty-one persons, consisting, except two Americans, of English, Irish, +Swedes and French, but principally the first, who were runaways from +the men-of-war and Indiamen, and two from a Botany Bay ship who had made +their escape, for we were obliged to take such as we could get, served +to complete a list of as accomplished villains as ever disgraced any +country." + +After a month of weary, drenching hardship off the China coast, this +crew of cutthroats mutinied. With a loyal handful, including the black +cook, Cleveland locked up the provisions, mounted two four-pounders +on the quarterdeck, rammed them full of grape-shot, and fetched up the +flint-lock muskets and pistols from the cabin. The mutineers were then +informed that if they poked their heads above the hatches he would blow +them overboard. Losing enthusiasm and weakened by hunger, they asked to +be set ashore; so the skipper marooned the lot. For two days the cutter +lay offshore while a truce was argued, the upshot being that four of the +rascals gave in and the others were left behind. + +Fifty days more of it and, washed by icy seas, racked and storm-beaten, +the vessel made Norfolk Sound. So small was the crew, so imminent the +danger that the Indians might take her by boarding, that screens +of hides were rigged along the bulwarks to hide the deck from view. +Stranded and getting clear, warding off attacks, Captain Richard +Cleveland stayed two months on the wilderness coast of Oregon, trading +one musket for eight prime sea-otter skins until there was no more +room below. Sixty thousand dollars was the value of the venture when +he sailed for China by way of the Sandwich Islands, forty thousand +of profit, and he was twenty-five years old with the zest for roving +undiminished. + +He next appeared in Calcutta, buying a twenty-five-ton pilot boat under +the Danish flag for a fling at Mauritius and a speculation in prizes +brought in by French privateers. Finding none in port, he loaded seven +thousand bags of coffee in a ship for Copenhagen and conveyed as a +passenger a kindred spirit, young Nathaniel Shaler, whom he took into +partnership. At Hamburg these two bought a fast brig, the Lelia Byrd, +to try their fortune on the west coast of South America, and recruited +a third partner, a boyish Polish nobleman, Count de Rousillon, who had +been an aide to Kosciusko. Three seafaring musketeers, true gentlemen +rovers, all under thirty, sailing out to beard the viceroys of Spain! + +From Valparaiso, where other American ships were detained and robbed, +they adroitly escaped and steered north to Mexico and California. At +San Diego they fought their way out of the harbor, silencing the +Spanish fort with their six guns. Then to Canton with furs, and Richard +Cleveland went home at thirty years of age after seven years' absence +and voyaging twice around the world, having wrested success from almost +every imaginable danger and obstacle, with $70,000 to make him a rich +man in his own town. He was neither more nor less than an American +sailor of the kind that made the old merchant marine magnificent. + +It was true romance, also, when the first American shipmasters set foot +in mysterious Japan, a half century before Perry's squadron shattered +the immemorial isolation of the land of the Shoguns and the Samurai. +Only the Dutch had been permitted to hold any foreign intercourse +whatever with this hermit nation and for two centuries they had +maintained their singular commercial monopoly at a price measured in +terms of the deepest degradation of dignity and respect. The few Dutch +merchants suffered to reside in Japan were restricted to a small +island in Nagasaki harbor, leaving it only once in four years when the +Resident, or chief agent, journeyed to Yeddo to offer gifts and most +humble obeisance to the Shogun, "creeping forward on his hands and feet, +and falling on his knees, bowed his head to the ground, and retired +again in absolute silence, crawling exactly like a crab," said one of +these pilgrims who added: "We may not keep Sundays or fast days, or +allow our spiritual hymns or prayers to be heard; never mention the name +of Christ. Besides these things, we have to submit to other insulting +imputations which are always painful to a noble heart. The reason which +impels the Dutch to bear all these sufferings so patiently is simply the +love of gain." + +In return for these humiliations the Dutch East India Company was +permitted to send one or two ships a year from Batavia to Japan and to +export copper, silk, gold, camphor, porcelain, bronze, and rare woods. +The American ship Franklin arrived at Batavia in 1799 and Captain James +Devereux of Salem learned that a charter was offered for one of these +annual voyages. After a deal of Yankee dickering with the hard-headed +Dutchmen, a bargain was struck and the Franklin sailed for Nagasaki with +cloves, chintz, sugar, tin, black pepper, sapan wood, and elephants' +teeth. The instructions were elaborate and punctilious, salutes to be +fired right and left, nine guns for the Emperor's guard while passing +in, thirteen guns at the anchorage; all books on board to be sealed +up in a cask, Bibles in particular, and turned over to the Japanese +officials, all firearms sent ashore, ship dressed with colors whenever +the "Commissaries of the Chief" graciously came aboard, and a carpet on +deck for them to sit upon. + +Two years later, the Margaret of Salem made the same sort of a voyage, +and in both instances the supercargoes, one of whom happened to be a +younger brother of Captain Richard Cleveland, wrote journals of the +extraordinary episode. For these mariners alone was the curtain lifted +which concealed the feudal Japan from the eyes of the civilized world. +Alert and curious, these Yankee traders explored the narrow streets of +Nagasaki, visited temples, were handsomely entertained by officers and +merchants, and exchanged their wares in the marketplace. They were as +much at home, no doubt, as when buying piculs of pepper from a rajah of +Qualah Battoo, or dining with an elderly mandarin of Cochin China. It +was not too much to say that "the profuse stores of knowledge brought +by every ship's crew, together with unheard of curiosities from +every savage shore, gave the community of Salem a rare alertness of +intellect." + +It was a Salem bark, the Lydia, that first displayed the American +flag to the natives of Guam in 1801. She was chartered by the Spanish +government of Manila to carry to the Marianne Islands, as those dots on +the chart of the Pacific were then called, the new Governor, his family, +his suite, and his luggage. First Mate William Haswell kept a diary in a +most conscientious fashion, and here and there one gleans an item with +a humor of its own. "Now having to pass through dangerous straits," he +observes, "we went to work to make boarding nettings and to get our arms +in the best order, but had we been attacked we should have been taken +with ease. Between Panay and Negros all the passengers were in the +greatest confusion for fear of being taken and put to death in the dark +and not have time to say their prayers." + +The decks were in confusion most of the time, what with the Governor, +his lady, three children, two servant girls and twelve men servants, +a friar and his servant, a judge and two servants, not to mention some +small hogs, two sheep, an ox, and a goat to feed the passengers who were +too dainty for sea provender. The friar was an interesting character. A +great pity that the worthy mate of the Lydia should not have been more +explicit! It intrigues the reader of his manuscript diary to be told +that "the Friar was praying night and day but it would not bring a +fair wind. His behavior was so bad that we were forced to send him to +Coventry, or in other words, no one would speak to him." + +The Spanish governors of Guam had in operation an economic system which +compelled the admiration of this thrifty Yankee mate. The natives +wore very few clothes, he concluded, because the Governor was the only +shopkeeper and he insisted on a profit of at least eight hundred per +cent. There was a native militia regiment of a thousand men who were +paid ten dollars a year. With this cash they bought Bengal goods, +cottons, Chinese pans, pots, knives, and hoes at the Governor's store, +so that "all this money never left the Governor's hands. It was fetched +to him by the galleons in passing, and when he was relieved he carried +it with him to Manila, often to the amount of eighty or ninety thousand +dollars." A glimpse of high finance without a flaw! + +There is pathos, simple and moving, in the stories of shipwreck and +stranding on hostile or desert coasts. These disasters were far more +frequent then than now, because navigation was partly guesswork and +ships were very small. Among these tragedies was that of the Commerce, +bound from Boston to Bombay in 1793. The captain lost his bearings and +thought he was off Malabar when the ship piled up on the beach in the +night. The nearest port was Muscat and the crew took to the boats in the +hope of reaching it. Stormy weather drove them ashore where armed Arabs +on camels stripped them of clothes and stores and left them to die among +the sand dunes. + +On foot they trudged day after day in the direction of Muscat, and how +they suffered and what they endured was told by one of the survivors, +young Daniel Saunders. Soon they began to drop out and die in their +tracks in the manner of "Benjamin Williams, William Leghorn, and Thomas +Barnard whose bodies were exposed naked to the scorching sun and finding +their strength and spirits quite exhausted they lay down expecting +nothing but death for relief." The next to be left behind was Mr. Robert +Williams, merchant and part owner, "and we therefore with reluctance +abandoned him to the mercy of God, suffering ourselves all the horrors +that fill the mind at the approach of death." Near the beach and a +forlorn little oasis, they stumbled across Charles Lapham, who had +become separated from them. He had been without water for five days "and +after many efforts he got upon his feet and endeavored to walk. Seeing +him in so wretched a condition I could not but sympathize enough with +him in his torments to go back with him" toward water two miles away, +"which both my other companions refused to do. Accordingly they walked +forward while I went back a considerable distance with Lapham until, his +strength failing him, he suddenly fell on the ground, nor was he able +to rise again or even speak to me. Finding it vain to stay with him, I +covered him with sprays and leaves which I tore from an adjacent tree, +it being the last friendly office I could do him." + +Eight living skeletons left of eighteen strong seamen tottered into +Muscat and were cared for by the English consul. Daniel Saunders worked +his passage to England, was picked up by a press-gang, escaped, and so +returned to Salem. It was the fate of Juba Hill, the black cook from +Boston, to be detained among the Arabs as a slave. It is worth noting +that a black sea-cook figured in many of these tales of daring and +disaster, and among them was the heroic and amazing figure of one Peter +Jackson who belonged in the brig Ceres. While running down the river +from Calcutta she was thrown on her beam ends and Peter, perhaps dumping +garbage over the rail, took a header. Among the things tossed to him as +he floated away was a sail-boom on which he was swiftly carried out of +sight by the turbid current. All on board concluded that Peter Jackson +had been eaten by sharks or crocodiles and it was so reported when they +arrived home. An administrator was appointed for his goods and chattels +and he was officially deceased in the eyes of the law. A year or so +later this unconquerable sea-cook appeared in the streets of Salem, +grinning a welcome to former shipmates who fled from him in terror as +a ghostly visitation. He had floated twelve hours on his sail-boom, +it seemed, fighting off the sharks with his feet; and finally drifting +ashore. "He had hard work to do away with the impressions of being +dead," runs the old account, "but succeeded and was allowed the rights +and privileges of the living." + +The community of interests in these voyages of long ago included not +only the ship's company but also the townspeople, even the boys and +girls, who entrusted their little private speculations or "adventures" +to the captain. It was a custom which flourished well into the +nineteenth century. These memoranda are sprinkled through the account +books of the East Indiamen out of Salem and Boston. It might be Miss +Harriet Elkins who requested the master of the Messenger "please to +purchase at Calcutta two net beads with draperies; if at Batavia or any +spice market, nutmegs or mace; or if at Canton, two Canton shawls of the +enclosed colors at $5 per shawl. Enclosed is $10." + +Again, it might be Mr. John R. Tucker who ventured in the same ship one +hundred Spanish dollars to be invested in coffee and sugar, or Captain +Nathaniel West who risked in the Astrea fifteen boxes of spermaceti +candles and a pipe of Teneriffe wine. It is interesting to discover what +was done with Mr. Tucker's hundred Spanish dollars, as invested for him +by the skipper of the Messenger at Batavia and duly accounted for. +Ten bags of coffee were bought for $83.30, the extra expenses of duty, +boat-hire, and sacking bringing the total outlay to $90.19. The coffee +was sold at Antwerp on the way home for $183.75, and Mr. Tucker's +handsome profit on the adventure was therefore $93.56, or more than one +hundred per cent. + +It was all a grand adventure, in fact, and the word was aptly chosen to +fit this ocean trade. The merchant freighted his ship and sent her +out to vanish from his ken for months and months of waiting, with the +greater part of his savings, perhaps, in goods and specie beneath her +hatches. No cable messages kept him in touch with her nor were there +frequent letters from the master. Not until her signal was displayed by +the fluttering flags of the headland station at the harbor mouth could +he know whether he had gained or lost a fortune. The spirit of such +merchants was admirably typified in the last venture of Elias Hasket +Derby in 1798, when unofficial war existed between the United States and +France. + +American ships were everywhere seeking refuge from the privateers under +the tricolor, which fairly ran amuck in the routes of trade. For this +reason it meant a rich reward to land a cargo abroad. The ship Mount +Vernon, commanded by Captain Elias Hasket Derby, Jr., was laden with +sugar and coffee for Mediterranean ports, and was prepared for trouble, +with twenty guns mounted and fifty men to handle them. A smart ship and +a powerful one, she raced across to Cape Saint Vincent in sixteen days, +which was clipper speed. She ran into a French fleet of sixty sail, +exchanged broadsides with the nearest, and showed her stern to the +others. + +"We arrived at 12 o'clock [wrote Captain Derby from Gibraltar] popping +at Frenchmen all the forenoon. At 10 A.M. off Algeciras Point we were +seriously attacked by a large latineer who had on board more than one +hundred men. He came so near our broadside as to allow our six-pound +grape to do execution handsomely. We then bore away and gave him our +stern guns in a cool and deliberate manner, doing apparently great +execution. Our bars having cut his sails considerably, he was thrown +into confusion, struck both his ensign and his pennant. I was then +puzzled to know what to do with so many men; our ship was running large +with all her steering sails out, so that we could not immediately bring +her to the wind, and we were directly off Algeciras Point from whence I +had reason to fear she might receive assistance, and my port Gibraltar +in full view. These were circumstances that induced me to give up the +gratification of bringing him in. It was, however, a satisfaction to +flog the rascal in full view of the English fleet who were to leeward." + + + +CHAPTER V. YANKEE VIKINGS AND NEW TRADE ROUTES + +Soon after the Revolution the spirit of commercial exploration began +to stir in other ports than Salem. Out from New York sailed the ship +Empress of China in 1784 for the first direct voyage to Canton, to make +the acquaintance of a vast nation absolutely unknown to the people +of the United States, nor had one in a million of the industrious and +highly civilized Chinese ever so much as heard the name of the little +community of barbarians who dwelt on the western shore of the North +Atlantic. The oriental dignitaries in their silken robes graciously +welcomed the foreign ship with the strange flag and showed a lively +interest in the map spread upon the cabin table, offering every facility +to promote this new market for their silks and teas. After an absence +of fifteen months the Empress of China returned to her home port and her +pilgrimage aroused so much attention that the report of the supercargo, +Samuel Shaw, was read in Congress. + +Surpassing this achievement was that of Captain Stewart Dean, who very +shortly afterward had his fling at the China trade in an eighty-ton +sloop built at Albany. He was a stout-hearted old privateersman of the +Revolution whom nothing could dismay, and in this tiny Experiment of +his he won merited fame as one of the American pioneers of blue water. +Fifteen men and boys sailed with him, drilled and disciplined as if the +sloop were a frigate, and when the Experiment hauled into the stream, of +Battery Park, New York, "martial music and the boatswain's whistle were +heard on board with all the pomp and circumstance of war." Typhoons +and Malay proas, Chinese pirates and unknown shoals, had no terrors for +Stewart Dean. He saw Canton for himself, found a cargo, and drove home +again in a four months' passage, which was better than many a clipper +could do at a much later day. Smallest and bravest of the first Yankee +East Indiamen, this taut sloop, with the boatswain's pipe trilling +cheerily and all hands ready with cutlases and pikes to repel boarders, +was by no means the least important vessel that ever passed in by Sandy +Hook. + +In the beginnings of this picturesque relation with the Far East, Boston +lagged behind Salem, but her merchants, too, awoke to the opportunity +and so successfully that for generations there were no more conspicuous +names and shipping-houses in the China trade than those of Russell, +Perkins, and Forbes. The first attempt was very ambitious and rather +luckless. The largest merchantman ever built at that time in the United +States was launched at Quincy in 1789 to rival the towering ships of the +British East India Company. This Massachusetts created a sensation. +Her departure was a national event. She embodied the dreams of Captain +Randall and of the Samuel Shaw who had gone as supercargo in the Empress +of China. They formed a partnership and were able to find the necessary +capital. + +This six-hundred-ton ship loomed huge in the ayes of the crowds which +visited her. She was in fact no larger than such four-masted coasting +schooners as claw around Hatteras with deck-loads of Georgia pine or +fill with coal for down East, and manage it comfortably with seven or +eight men for a crew. The Massachusetts, however, sailed in 411 the +old-fashioned state and dignity of a master, four mates, a purser, +surgeon, carpenter, gunner, four quartermasters, three midshipmen, a +cooper, two cooks, a steward, and fifty seamen. The second officer was +Amasa Delano, a man even more remarkable than the ship, who wandered far +and wide and wrote a fascinating book about his voyages, a classic of +its kind, the memoirs of an American merchant mariner of a breed long +since extinct. + +While the Massachusetts was fitting out at Boston, one small annoyance +ruffled the auspicious undertaking. Three different crews were signed +before a full complement could be persuaded to tarry in the forecastle. +The trouble was caused by a fortune-teller of Lynn, Moll Pitcher by +name, who predicted disaster for the ship. Now every honest sailor knows +that certain superstitions are gospel fact, such as the bad luck brought +by a cross-eyed Finn, a black cat, or going to sea on Friday, and +these eighteenth century shellbacks must not be too severely chided for +deserting while they had the chance. As it turned out, the voyage did +have a sorry ending and death overtook an astonishingly large number of +the ship's people. + +Though she had been designed and built by master craftsmen of New +England who knew their trade surpassingly well, it was discovered when +the ship arrived at Canton that her timbers were already rotting. They +were of white oak which had been put into her green instead of properly +seasoned. This blunder wrecked the hopes of her owners. To cap it, the +cargo of masts and spars had also been stowed while wet and covered +with mud and ice, and the hatches had been battened. As a result the +air became so foul with decay that several hundred barrels of beef were +spoiled. To repair the ship was beyond the means of Captain Randall +and Samuel Shaw, and reluctantly they sold her to the Danish East India +Company at a heavy loss. Nothing could have been more unexpected than to +find that, for once, the experienced shipbuilders had been guilty of a +miscalculation. + +The crew scattered, and perhaps the prediction of the fortune-teller of +Lynn followed their roving courses, for when Captain Amasa Delano tried +to trace them a few years later, he jotted down such obituaries as these +on the list of names: + + "John Harris. A slave in Algiers at last accounts. + Roger Dyer. Died and thrown overboard off Cape Horn. + William Williams. Lost overboard off Japan. + James Crowley. Murdered by the Chinese near Macao. + John Johnson. Died on board an English Indiaman. + Seth Stowell. Was drowned at Whampoa in 1790. + Jeremiah Chace. Died with the small-pox at Whampoa in 1791. + Humphrey Chadburn. Shot and died at Whampoa in 1791. + Samuel Tripe. Drowned off Java Head in 1790. + James Stackpole. Murdered by the Chinese. + Nicholas Nicholson. Died with the leprosy at Macao. + William Murphy. Killed by Chinese pirates. + Larry Conner. Killed at sea." + +There were more of these gruesome items--so many of them that it appears +as though no more than a handful of this stalwart crew survived the +Massachusetts by a dozen years. Incredible as it sounds, Captain +Delano's roster accounted for fifty of them as dead while he was still +in the prime of life, and most of them had been snuffed out by violence. +As for his own career, it was overcast by no such unlucky star, and he +passed unscathed through all the hazards and vicissitudes that could +be encountered in that rugged and heroic era of endeavor. Set adrift in +Canton when the Massachusetts was sold, he promptly turned his hand to +repairing a large Danish ship which had been wrecked by storm, and he +virtually rebuilt her to the great satisfaction of the owners. + +Thence, with money in his pocket, young Delano went to Macao, where +he fell in with Commodore John McClure of the English Navy, who was +in command of an expedition setting out to explore a part of the South +Seas, including the Pelew Islands, New Guinea, New Holland, and the +Spice Islands. The Englishman liked this resourceful Yankee seaman and +did him the honor to say, recalls Delano, "that he considered I should +be a very useful man to him as a seaman, an officer, or a shipbuilder; +and if it was agreeable to me to go on board the Panther with him, I +should receive the some pay and emoluments with his lieutenants and +astronomers." A signal honor it was at a time when no love was lost +between British and American seafarers who had so recently fought each +other afloat. + +And so Amasa Delano embarked as a lieutenant of the Bombay Marine, to +explore tropic harbors and goons until then unmapped and to parley with +dusky kings. Commodore McClure, diplomatic and humane, had almost no +trouble with the untutored islanders, except on the coast of New Guinea, +where the Panther was attacked by a swarm of canoes and the surgeon was +killed. It was a spirited little affair, four-foot arrows pelting like +hail across the deck, a cannon hurling grapeshot from the taffrail, +Amasa Delano hit in the chest and pulling out the arrow to jump to his +duty again. + +Only a few years earlier the mutineers of the Bounty had established +themselves on Pitcairn Island, and Delano was able to compile the first +complete narrative of this extraordinary colony, which governed itself +in the light of the primitive Christian virtues. There was profound +wisdom in the comment of Amasa Delano: "While the present natural, +simple, and affectionate character prevails among these descendants +of the mutineers, they will be delightful to our minds, they will be +amiable and acceptable in the sight of God, and they will be useful +and happy among themselves. Let it be our fervent prayer that neither +canting and hypocritical emissaries from schools of artificial theology +on the one hand, nor sensual and licentious crews and adventurers on the +other, may ever enter the charming village of Pitcairn to give disease +to the minds or the bodies of the unsuspecting inhabitants." + +Two years of this intensely romantic existence, and Delano started +homeward. But there was a chance of profit at Mauritius, and there he +bought a tremendous East Indiaman of fourteen hundred tons as a joint +venture with a Captain Stewart and put a crew of a hundred and fifty men +on board. She had been brought in by a French privateer and Delano was +moved to remark, with an indignation which was much in advance of his +times: "Privateering is entirely at variance with the first principle of +honorable warfare.... This system of licensed robbery enables a wicked +and mercenary man to insult and injure even neutral friends on the +ocean; and when he meets an honest sailor who may have all his earnings +on board his ship but who carries an enemy's flag, he plunders him of +every cent and leaves him the poor consolation that it is done according +to law.... When the Malay subjects of Abba Thule cut down the cocoanut +trees of an enemy, in the spirit of private revenge, he asked them why +they acted in opposition to the principles on which they knew he always +made and conducted a war. They answered, and let the reason make us +humble, 'The English do so.'" + +In his grand East Indiaman young Captain Delano traded on the coast of +India but soon came to grief. The enterprise had been too large for him +to swing with what cash and credit he could muster, and the ship was +sold from under him to pay her debts. Again on the beach, with one +solitary gold moidore in his purse, he found a friendly American skipper +who offered him a passage to Philadelphia, which he accepted with the +pious reflection that, although his mind was wounded and mortified by +the financial disaster, his motives had been perfectly pure and honest. +He never saw his native land with so little pleasure as on this return +to it, he assures us, and the shore on which he would have leaped with +delight was covered with gloom and sadness. + +Now what makes it so well worth while to sketch in brief outline the +careers of one and another of these bygone shipmasters is that they +accurately reflected the genius and the temper of their generation. +There was, in truth, no such word as failure in their lexicon. It is +this quality that appeals to us beyond all else. Thrown on their beam +ends, they were presently planning something else, eager to shake dice +with destiny and with courage unbroken. It was so with Amasa Delano, who +promptly went to work "with what spirits I could revive within me. After +a time they returned to their former elasticity." + +He obtained a position as master builder in a shipyard, saved some +money, borrowed more, and with one of his brothers was soon blithely +building a vessel of two hundred tons for a voyage into the Pacific +and to the northwest coast after seals. They sailed along Patagonia and +found much to interest them, dodged in and out of the ports of Chili and +Peru, and incidentally recaptured a Spanish ship which was in the hands +of the slaves who formed her cargo. + +This was all in the day's work and happened at the island of Santa +Maria, not far from Juan Fernandez, where Captain Delano's Perseverance +found the high-pooped Tryal in a desperate state. Spanish sailors who +had survived the massacre were leaping overboard or scrambling up to the +mastheads while the African savages capered on deck and flourished their +weapons. Captain Delano liked neither the Spaniard nor the slavetrade, +but it was his duty to help fellow seamen in distress; so he cleared +for action and ordered two boats away to attend to the matter. The chief +mate, Rufus Low, was in charge, and a gallant sailor he showed himself. +They had to climb the high sides of the Tryal and carry, in hand-to-hand +conflict, the barricades of water-casks and bales of matting which the +slaves had built across the deck. There was no hanging back, and even +a mite of a midshipman from Boston pranced into it with his dirk. The +negroes were well armed and fought ferociously. The mate was seriously +wounded, four seamen were stabbed, the Spanish first mate had two musket +balls in him, and a passenger was killed in the fray. + +Having driven the slaves below and battened them down, the American +party returned next morning to put the irons on them. A horrid sight +confronted them. Thirsting for vengeance, the Spanish sailors had +spread-eagled several of the negroes to ringbolts in the deck and were +shaving the living flesh from them with razor-edged boarding lances. +Captain Delano thereupon disarmed these brutes and locked them up in +their turn, taking possession of the ship until he could restore order. +The sequel was that he received the august thanks of the Viceroy of +Chili and a gold medal from His Catholic Majesty. As was the custom, the +guilty slaves, poor wretches, were condemned to be dragged to the gibbet +at the tails of mules, to be hanged, their bodies burned, and their +heads stuck upon poles in the plaza. + +It was while in this Chilean port of Talcahuano that Amasa Delano heard +the tale of the British whaler which had sailed just before his arrival. +He tells it so well that I am tempted to quote it as a generous tribute +to a sailor of a rival race. After all, they were sprung from a common +stock and blood was thicker than water. Besides, it is the sort of +yarn that ought to be dragged to the light of day from its musty burial +between the covers of Delano's rare and ancient "Voyages and Travels." + +The whaler Betsy, it seems, went in and anchored under the guns of the +forts to seek provisions and make repairs. The captain went ashore +to interview the officials, leaving word that no Spaniards should be +allowed to come aboard because of the bad feeling against the English. +Three or four large boats filled with troops presently veered alongside +and were ordered to keep clear. This command was resented, and the +troops opened fire, followed by the forts. Now for the deed of a man +with his two feet under him. + +"The chief officer of the Betsy whose name was Hudson, a man of +extraordinary bravery, cut his cable and his ship swung the wrong way, +with her head in shore, passing close to several Spanish ships which, +with every vessel in the harbor that could bring a gun to bear, together +with three hundred soldiers in boats and on ship's decks and the two +batteries, all kept up a constant fire on him. The wind was light, +nearly a calm. The shot flew so thick that it was difficult for him to +make sail, some part of the rigging being cut away every minute. + +"He kept his men at the guns, and when the ship swung her broadside so +as to bear upon any of the Spanish ships, he kept up a fire at them. In +this situation the brave fellow continued to lie for three-quarters of +an hour before he got his topsails sheeted home. The action continued +in this manner for near an hour and a half. He succeeded in getting the +ship to sea, however, in defiance of all the force that could be brought +against him. The ship was very much cut to pieces in sails, rigging, and +hull; and a considerable number of men were killed and wounded on board. + +"Hudson kept flying from one part of the deck to the other during the +whole time of action, encouraging and threatening the men as occasion +required. He kept a musket in his hand most part of the time, firing +when he could find the leisure. Some of the men came aft and begged him +to give up the ship, telling him they should all be killed--that the +carpenter had all one side of him shot away--that one man was cut in +halves with a double-headed shot as he was going aloft to loose the +foretopsail and the body had fallen on deck in two separate parts--that +such a man was killed at his duty on the forecastle, and one more had +been killed in the maintop--that Sam, Jim, Jack, and Tom were wounded +and that they would do nothing more towards getting the ship out of the +harbor. + +"His reply to them was, 'then you shall be sure to die, for if they +do not kill you I will, so sure as you persist in any such cowardly +resolution,' saying at the same time, 'OUT SHE GOES, OR DOWN SHE GOES.'" + +By this resolute and determined conduct he kept the men to their duty +and succeeded in accomplishing one of the most daring enterprises +perhaps ever attempted. + +An immortal phrase, this simple dictum of first mate Hudson of the +Betsy, "Out she goes, or down she goes," and not unworthy of being +mentioned in the same breath with Farragut's "Damn the torpedoes." + +Joined by his brother Samuel in the schooner Pilgrim, which was used +as a tender in the sealing trade, Amasa Delano frequented unfamiliar +beaches until he had taken his toll of skins and was ready to bear away +for Canton to sell them. There were many Yankee ships after seals in +those early days, enduring more peril and privation than the whalemen, +roving over the South Pacific among the rock-bound islands unknown +to the merchant navigator. The men sailed wholly on shares, a seaman +receiving one per cent of the catch and the captain ten per cent, and +they slaughtered the seal by the million, driving them from the most +favored haunts within a few years. For instance, American ships first +visited Mas a Fuera in 1797, and Captain Delano estimated that during +the seven years following three million skins were taken to China from +this island alone. He found as many as fourteen vessels there at one +time, and he himself carried away one hundred thousand skins. It was a +gold mine for profit while it lasted. + +There were three Delano brothers afloat in two vessels, and of their +wanderings Amasa set down this epitome: "Almost the whole of our +connections who were left behind had need of our assistance, and to look +forward it was no more than a reasonable calculation to make that +our absence would not be less than three years... together with the +extraordinary uncertainty of the issue of the voyage, as we had nothing +but our hands to depend upon to obtain a cargo which was only to be done +through storms, dangers, and breakers, and taken from barren rocks in +distant regions. But after a voyage of four years for one vessel and +five for the other, we were all permitted to return safe home to our +friends and not quite empty-handed. We had built both of the vessels we +were in and navigated them two and three times around the globe." Each +one of the brothers had been a master builder and rigger and a navigator +of ships in every part of the world. + +By far the most important voyage undertaken by American merchantmen +during the decade of brilliant achievement following the Revolution was +that of Captain Robert Gray in the Columbia, which was the first ship +to visit and explore the northwest coast and to lead the way for such +adventurers as Richard Cleveland and Amasa Delano. On his second voyage +in 1792, Captain Gray discovered the great river he christened Columbia +and so gave to the United States its valid title to that vast territory +which Lewis and Clark were to find after toiling over the mountains +thirteen years later. + + + +CHAPTER VI. "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" + +When the first Congress under the new Federal Constitution assembled +in 1789, a spirit of pride was manifested in the swift recovery and the +encouraging growth of the merchant marine, together with a concerted +determination to promote and protect it by means of national +legislation. The most imperative need was a series of retaliatory +measures to meet the burdensome navigation laws of England, to give +American ships a fair field and no favors. The Atlantic trade was +therefore stimulated by allowing a reduction of ten per cent of the +customs duties on goods imported in vessels built and owned by American +citizens. The East India trade, which already employed forty New England +ships, was fostered in like manner. Teas brought direct under the +American flag paid an average duty of twelve cents a pound while teas in +foreign bottoms were taxed twenty-seven cents. It was sturdy protection, +for on a cargo of one hundred thousand pounds of assorted teas from +India or China, a British ship would pay $27,800 into the custom house +and a Salem square-rigger only $10,980. + +The result was that the valuable direct trade with the Far East was +absolutely secured to the American flag. Not content with this, Congress +decreed a system of tonnage duties which permitted the native owner to +pay six cents per ton on his vessel while the foreigner laid down fifty +cents as an entry fee for every ton his ship measured, or thirty cents +if he owned an American-built vessel. In 1794, Congress became even more +energetic in defense of its mariners and increased the tariff rates on +merchandise in foreign vessels. A nation at last united, jealous of its +rights, resentful of indignities long suffered, and intelligently alive +to its shipping as the chief bulwark of prosperity, struck back with +peaceful weapons and gained a victory of incalculable advantage. +Its Congress, no longer feeble and divided, laid the foundations for +American greatness upon the high seas which was to endure for more than +a half century. Wars, embargoes, and confiscations might interrupt but +they could not seriously harm it. + +In the three years after 1789 the merchant shipping registered for the +foreign trade increased from 123,893 tons to 411,438 tons, presaging a +growth without parallel in the history of the commercial world. Foreign +ships were almost entirely driven out of American ports, and ninety-one +per cent of imports and eighty-six per cent of exports were conveyed +in vessels built and manned by Americans. Before Congress intervened, +English merchantmen had controlled three-fourths of our commerce +overseas. When Thomas Jefferson, as Secretary of State, fought down +Southern opposition to a retaliatory shipping policy, he uttered a +warning which his countrymen were to find still true and apt in the +twentieth century: "If we have no seamen, our ships will be useless, +consequently our ship timber, iron, and hemp; our shipbuilding will be +at an end; ship carpenters will go over to other nations; our young men +have no call to the sea; our products, carried in foreign bottoms, +will be saddled with war-freight and insurance in time of war--and the +history of the last hundred years shows that the nation which is our +carrier has three years of war for every four years of peace." + +The steady growth of an American merchant marine was interrupted only +once in the following decade. In the year 1793 war broke out between +England and France. A decree of the National Convention of the French +Republic granted neutral vessels the same rights as those which flew the +tricolor. This privilege reopened a rushing trade with the West Indies, +and hundreds of ships hastened from American ports to Martinique, +Guadeloupe, and St. Lucia. + +Like a thunderbolt came the tidings that England refused to look upon +this trade with the French colonies as neutral and that her cruisers +had been told to seize all vessels engaged in it and to search them +for English-born seamen. This ruling was enforced with such barbarous +severity that it seemed as if the War for Independence had been fought +in vain. Without warning, unable to save themselves, great fleets of +Yankee merchantmen were literally swept from the waters of the West +Indies. At St. Eustatius one hundred and thirty of them were condemned. +The judges at Bermuda condemned eleven more. Crews and passengers were +flung ashore without food or clothing, were abused, insulted, or perhaps +impressed in British privateers. The ships were lost to their owners. +There was no appeal and no redress. At Martinique an English fleet and +army captured St. Pierre in February, 1794. Files of marines boarded +every American ship in the harbor, tore down the colors, and flung two +hundred and fifty seamen into the foul holds of a prison hulk. There +they were kept, half-dead with thirst and hunger while their vessels, +uncared for, had stranded or sunk at their moorings. Scores of outrages +as abominable as this were on record in the office of the Secretary of +State. Shipmasters were afraid to sail to the southward and, for lack +of these markets for dried cod, the fishing schooners of Marblehead were +idle. + +For a time a second war with England seemed imminent. An alarmed +Congress passed laws to create a navy and to fortify the most important +American harbors. President Washington recommended an embargo of thirty +days, which Congress promptly voted and then extended for thirty +more. It was a popular measure and strictly enforced by the mariners +themselves. The mates and captains of the brigs and snows in the +Delaware River met and resolved not to go to sea for another ten days, +swearing to lie idle sooner than feed the British robbers in the West +Indies. It was in the midst of these demonstrations that Washington +seized the one hope of peace and recommended a special mission to +England. + +The treaty negotiated by John Jay in 1794 was received with an outburst +of popular indignation. Jay was damned as a traitor, while the sailors +of Portsmouth burned him in effigy. By way of an answer to the terms of +the obnoxious treaty, a seafaring mob in Boston raided and burned +the British privateer Speedwell, which had put into that port as a +merchantman with her guns and munitions hidden beneath a cargo of West +India produce. + +The most that can be said of the commercial provisions of the treaty is +that they opened direct trade with the East Indies but at the price of +complete freedom of trade for British shipping in American ports. It +must be said, too, that although the treaty failed to clear away the +gravest cause of hostility--the right of search and impressment--yet it +served to postpone the actual dash, and during the years in which it was +in force American shipping splendidly prospered, freed of most irksome +handicaps. + +The quarrel with France had been brewing at the same time and for +similar reasons. Neutral trade with England was under the ban, and the +Yankee shipmaster was in danger of losing his vessel if he sailed to or +from a port under the British flag. It was out of the frying-pan into +the fire, and French privateers welcomed the excuse to go marauding in +the Atlantic and the Caribbean. What it meant to fight off these greedy +cutthroats is told in a newspaper account of the engagement of +Captain Richard Wheatland, who was homeward bound to Salem in the ship +Perseverance in 1799. He was in the Old Straits of Bahama when a +fast schooner came up astern, showing Spanish colors and carrying +a tremendous press of canvas. Unable to run away from her, Captain +Wheatland reported to his owners: + +"We took in steering sails, wore ship, hauled up our courses, piped all +hands to quarters and prepared for action. The schooner immediately took +in sail, hoisted an English Union flag and passed under our lee at a +considerable distance. We wore ship, she did the same, and we passed +each other within half a musket. A fellow hailed us in broken English +and ordered the boat hoisted out and the captain to come aboard, which +he refused. He again ordered our boat out and enforced his orders with a +menace that in case of refusal he would sink us, using at the same time +the vilest and most infamous language it is possible to conceive of. +... We hauled the ship to wind and as he passed poured a whole +broadside into him with great success. Sailing faster than we, he ranged +considerably ahead, tacked and again passed, giving us a broadside and +furious discharge of musketry, which he kept up incessantly until the +latter part of the engagement. His musket balls reached us in every +direction but his large shot either fell short or went considerably over +us while our guns loaded with round shot and square bars of iron were +plied so briskly and directed with such good judgment that before he +got out of range we had cut his mainsail and foretopsail all to rags and +cleared his decks so effectively that when he bore away from us there +were scarcely ten men to be seen. He then struck his English flag and +hoisted the flag of The Terrible Republic and made off with all the sail +he could carry, much disappointed, no doubt, at not being able to give +us a fraternal embrace. We feel confidence that we have rid the world of +some infamous pests of society." + +By this time, the United States was engaged in active hostilities with +France, although war had not been declared. The news of the indignities +which American commissions had suffered at the hands of the French +Directory had stirred the people to war pitch. Strong measures for +national defense were taken, which stopped little short of war. The +country rallied to the slogan, "Millions for defense but not one cent +for tribute," and the merchants of the seaports hastened to subscribe +funds to build frigates to be loaned to the Government. Salem launched +the famous Essex, ready for sea six months after the keel was laid, at +a cost of $75,000. Her two foremost merchants, Elias Hasket Derby and +William Gray, led the list with ten thousand dollars each. The call sent +out by the master builder, Enos Briggs, rings with thrilling effect: + +"To Sons of Freedom! All true lovers of Liberty of your Country! Step +forth and give your assistance in building the frigate to oppose French +insolence and piracy. Let every man in possession of a white oak tree be +ambitious to be foremost in hurrying down the timber to Salem where the +noble structure is to be fabricated to maintain your rights upon the +seas and make the name of America respected among the nations of the +world. Your largest and longest trees are wanted, and the arms of them +for knees and rising timber. Four trees are wanted for the keel which +altogether will measure 146 feet in length, and hew sixteen inches +square." + +This handsome frigate privately built by patriots of the republic +illuminates the coastwise spirit and conditions of her time. She was +a Salem ship from keel to truck. Captain Jonathan Haraden, the finest +privateersman of the Revolution, made the rigging for the mainmast at +his ropewalk in Brown Street. Joseph Vincent fitted out the foremast and +Thomas Briggs the mizzenmast in their lofts at the foot of the Common. +When the huge hemp cables were ready for the frigate, the workmen +carried them to the shipyard on their shoulders, the parade led by fife +and drum. Her sails were cut from duck woven in Daniel Rust's factory +in Broad Street and her iron work was forged by Salem shipsmiths. It +was not surprising that Captain Richard Derby was chosen to command +the Essex, but he was abroad in a ship of his own and she sailed under +Captain Edward Preble of the Navy. + +The war cloud passed and the merchant argosies overflowed the wharves +and havens of New England, which had ceased to monopolize the business +on blue water. New York had become a seaport with long ranks of +high-steeved bowsprits soaring above pleasant Battery Park and a forest +of spars extending up the East River. In 1790 more than two thousand +ships, brigs, schooners, and smaller craft had entered and cleared, +and the merchants met in the coffee-houses to discuss charters, +bills-of-lading, and adventures. Sailors commanded thrice the wages of +laborers ashore. Shipyards were increasing and the builders could build +as large and swift East Indiamen as those of which Boston and Salem +boasted. + +Philadelphia had her Stephen Girard, whose wealth was earned in ships, +a man most remarkable and eccentric, whose career was one of the great +maritime romances. Though his father was a prosperous merchant of +Bordeaux engaged in the West India trade, he was shifting for himself as +a cabin-boy on his father's ships when only fourteen years old. With +no schooling, barely able to read and write, this urchin sailed between +Bordeaux and the French West Indies for nine years, until he gained +the rank of first mate. At the age of twenty-six he entered the port of +Philadelphia in command of a sloop which had narrowly escaped capture by +British frigates. There he took up his domicile and laid the foundation +of his fortune in small trading ventures to New Orleans and Santo +Domingo. + +In 1791 he began to build a fleet of beautiful ships for the China +and India trade, their names, Montesquieu, Helvetius, Voltaire, and +Rousseau, revealing his ideas of religion and liberty. So successfully +did he combine banking and shipping that in 1813 he was believed to be +the wealthiest merchant in the United States. In that year one of his +ships from China was captured off the Capes of the Delaware by a British +privateer. Her cargo of teas, nankeens, and silks was worth half a +million dollars to him but he succeeded in ransoming it on the spot by +counting out one hundred and eighty thousand Spanish milled dollars. No +privateersman could resist such strategy as this. + +Alone in his old age, without a friend or relative to close his eyes +in death, Stephen Girard, once a penniless, ignorant French cabin-boy, +bequeathed his millions to philanthropy, and the Girard College for +orphan boys, in Philadelphia, is his monument. + +The Treaty of Amiens brought a little respite to Europe and a peaceful +interlude for American shipmasters, but France and England came to grips +again in 1803. For two years thereafter the United States was almost the +only important neutral nation not involved in the welter of conflict on +land and sea, and trade everywhere sought the protection of the +Stars and Stripes. England had swept her own rivals, men-of-war and +merchantmen, from the face of the waters. France and Holland ceased to +carry cargoes beneath their own ensigns. Spain was afraid to send her +galleons to Mexico and Peru. All the Continental ports were begging for +American ships to transport their merchandise. It was a maritime harvest +unique and unexpected. + +Yankee skippers were dominating the sugar trade of Cuba and were rolling +across the Atlantic with the coffee, hides, and indigo of Venezuela and +Brazil. Their fleets crowded the roadsteads of Manila and Batavia +and packed the warehouses of Antwerp, Lisbon, and Hamburg. It was a +situation which England could not tolerate without attempting to thwart +an immense traffic which she construed as giving aid and comfort to her +enemies. Under cover of the so-called Rule of 1756 British admiralty +courts began to condemn American vessels carrying products from enemies' +colonies to Europe, even when the voyage was broken by first entering an +American port. It was on record in September, 1805, that fifty American +ships had been condemned in England and as many more in the British West +Indies. + +This was a trifling disaster, however, compared with the huge calamity +which befell when Napoleon entered Berlin as a conqueror and proclaimed +his paper blockade of the British Isles. There was no French navy to +enforce it, but American vessels dared not sail for England lest they +be snapped up by French privateers. The British Government savagely +retaliated with further prohibitions, and Napoleon countered in like +manner until no sea was safe for a neutral ship and the United States +was powerless to assert its rights. Thomas Jefferson as President used +as a weapon the Embargo of 1807, which was, at first, a popular measure, +and which he justified in these pregnant sentences: "The whole world +is thus laid under interdict by these two nations, and our own vessels, +their cargoes, and crews, are to be taken by the one or the other for +whatever place they may be destined out of our limits. If, therefore, on +leaving our harbors we are certainly to lose them, is it not better as +to vessels, cargoes, and seamen, to keep them at home?" + +A people proud, independent, and pugnacious, could not long submit to a +measure of defense which was, in the final sense, an abject surrender to +brute force. New England, which bore the brunt of the embargo, was first +to rebel against it. Sailors marched through the streets clamoring for +bread or loaded their vessels and fought their way to sea. In New +York the streets of the waterside were deserted, ships dismantled, +countinghouses unoccupied, and warehouses empty. In one year foreign +commerce decreased in value from $108,000,000 to $22,000,000. + +After fifteen months Congress repealed the law, substituting a +Non-Intercourse Act which suspended trade with Great Britain and France +until their offending orders were repealed. All such measures were +doomed to be futile. Words and documents, threats and arguments could +not intimidate adversaries who paid heed to nothing else than broadsides +from line-of-battle ships or the charge of battalions. With other +countries trade could now be opened. Hopefully the hundreds of American +ships long pent-up in harbor winged it deep-laden for the Baltic, the +North Sea, and the Mediterranean. But few of them ever returned. Like +a brigand, Napoleon lured them into a trap and closed it, advising the +Prussian Government, which was under his heel: "Let the American ships +enter your ports. Seize them afterward. You shall deliver the cargoes to +me and I will take them in part payment of the Prussian war debt." + +Similar orders were executed wherever his mailed fist reached, the +pretext being reprisal for the Non-Intercourse Act. More than two +hundred American vessels were lost to their owners, a ten-million-dollar +robbery for which France paid an indemnity of five millions after +twenty years. It was the grand climax of the exploitation which American +commerce had been compelled to endure through two centuries of tumult +and bloodshed afloat. There lingers today in many a coastwise town an +inherited dislike for France. It is a legacy of that far-off catastrophe +which beggared many a household and filled the streets with haggard, +broken shipmasters. + +It was said of this virile merchant marine that it throve under pillage +and challenged confiscation. Statistics confirm this brave paradox. In +1810, while Napoleon was doing his worst, the deep-sea tonnage amounted +to 981,019; and it is a singular fact that in proportion to population +this was to stand as the high tide of American foreign shipping until +thirty-seven years later. It ebbed during the War of 1812 but rose again +with peace and a real and lasting freedom of the seas. + +This second war with England was fought in behalf of merchant seamen +and they played a nobly active part in it. The ruthless impressment +of seamen was the most conspicuous provocation, but it was only one +of many. Two years before hostilities were openly declared, British +frigates were virtually blockading the port of New York, halting and +searching ships as they pleased, making prizes of those with French +destinations, stealing sailors to fill their crews, waging war in +everything but name, and enjoying the sport of it. A midshipman of +one of them merrily related: "Every morning at daybreak we set about +arresting the progress of all the vessels we saw, firing off guns to the +right and left to make every ship that was running in heave to or wait +until we had leisure to send a boat on board to see, in our lingo, what +she was made of. I have frequently known a dozen and sometimes a couple +of dozen ships lying a league or two off the port, losing their fair +wind, their tide, and worse than all, their market for many hours, +sometimes the whole day, before our search was completed." + +The right of a belligerent to search neutral vessels for contraband of +war or evidence of a forbidden destination was not the issue at stake. +This was a usage sanctioned by such international law as then existed. +It was the alleged right to search for English seamen in neutral vessels +that Great Britain exercised, not only on the high seas but even in +territorial waters, which the American Government refused to recognize. +In vain the Government had endeavored to protect its sailors from +impressment by means of certificates of birth and citizenship. These +documents were jeered at by the English naval lieutenant and his +boarding gang, who kidnapped from the forecastle such stalwart tars as +pleased their fancy. The victim who sought to inform an American consul +of his plight was lashed to the rigging and flogged by a boatswain's +mate. The files of the State Department, in 1807, had contained the +names of six thousand American sailors who were as much slaves and +prisoners aboard British men-of-war as if they had been made captives by +the Dey of Algiers. One of these incidents, occurring on the ship Betsy, +Captain Nathaniel Silsbee, while at Madras in 1795, will serve to show +how this brutal business was done. + +"I received a note early one morning from my chief mate that one of my +sailors, Edward Hulen, a fellow townsman whom I had known from boyhood, +had been impressed and taken on board of a British frigate then being +in port.... I immediately went on board my ship and having there learned +all the facts in the case, proceeded to the frigate, where I found Hulen +and in his presence was informed by the first lieutenant of the frigate +that he had taken Hulen from my ship under a peremptory order from his +commander to visit every American ship in port and take from each of +them one or more of their seamen.... I then called upon Captain Cook, +who commanded the frigate, and sought first by all the persuasive means +that I was capable of using and ultimately by threats to appeal to the +Government of the place to obtain Hulen's release, but in vain.... +It remained for me only to recommend Hulen to that protection of +the lieutenant which a good seaman deserves, and to submit to the +high-handed insult thus offered to the flag of my country which I had no +means either of preventing or resisting." + +After several years' detention in the British Navy, Hulen returned to +Salem and lived to serve on board privateers in the second war with +England. + +Several years' detention! This was what it meant to be a pressed man, +perhaps with wife and children at home who had no news of him nor any +wages to support them. At the time of the Nore Mutiny in 1797, there +were ships in the British fleet whose men had not been paid off for +eight, ten, twelve, and in one instance fifteen years. These wooden +walls of England were floating hells, and a seaman was far better off in +jail. He was flogged if he sulked and again if he smiled flogged until +the blood ran for a hundred offenses as trivial as these. His food was +unspeakably bad and often years passed before he was allowed to set foot +ashore. Decent men refused to volunteer and the ships were filled with +the human scum and refuse caught in the nets of the press-gangs of +Liverpool, London, and Bristol. + +It is largely forgotten or unknown that this system of recruiting was +as intolerable in England as it was in the United States and as fiercely +resented. Oppressive and unjust, it was nevertheless endured as the +bulwark of England's defense against her foes. It ground under its heel +the very people it protected and made them serfs in order to keep them +free. No man of the common people who lived near the coast of England +was safe from the ruffianly press-gangs nor any merchant ship that +entered her ports. It was the most cruel form of conscription ever +devised. Mob violence opposed it again and again, and British East +Indiamen fought the King's tenders sooner than be stripped of their +crews and left helpless. Feeling in America against impressment was +never more highly inflamed, even on the brink of the War of 1812, than +it had long been in England itself, although the latter country was +unable to rise and throw it off. Here are the words, not of an angry +American patriot but of a modern English historian writing of his own +nation: * "To the people the impress was an axe laid at the foot of the +tree. There was here no question, as with trade, of the mere loss of +hands who could be replaced. Attacking the family in the person of its +natural supporter and protector, the octopus system of which the gangs +were the tentacles, struck at the very foundations of domestic life and +brought to thousands of households a poverty as bitter and a grief as +poignant as death. ... The mutiny at the Nore brought the people face to +face with the appalling risks attendant on wholesale pressing while the +war with America, incurred for the sole purpose of upholding the right +to press, taught them the lengths to which their rulers were still +prepared to go in order to enslave them." * + + + * The Press Gang Afloat and Ashore, by J. R. Hutchinson. + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE BRILLIANT ERA OF 1812 + +American privateering in 1812 was even bolder and more successful than +during the Revolution. It was the work of a race of merchant seamen who +had found themselves, who were in the forefront of the world's trade and +commerce, and who were equipped to challenge the enemy's pretensions to +supremacy afloat. Once more there was a mere shadow of a navy to protect +them, but they had learned to trust their own resources. They would send +to sea fewer of the small craft, slow and poorly armed, and likely to +meet disaster. They were capable of manning what was, in fact, a +private navy comprised of fast and formidable cruisers. The intervening +generation had advanced the art of building and handling ships beyond +all rivalry, and England grudgingly acknowledged their ability. The year +of 1812 was indeed but a little distance from the resplendent modern era +of the Atlantic packet and the Cape Horn clipper. + +Already these Yankee deep-water ships could be recognized afar by their +lofty spars and snowy clouds of cotton duck beneath which the slender +hull was a thin black line. Far up to the gleaming royals they carried +sail in winds so strong that the lumbering English East Indiamen were +hove to or snugged down to reefed topsails. It was not recklessness but +better seamanship. The deeds of the Yankee privateers of 1812 prove this +assertion to the hilt. Their total booty amounted to thirteen hundred +prizes taken over all the Seven Seas, with a loss to England of forty +million dollars in ships and cargoes. There were, all told, more +than five hundred of them in commission, but New England no longer +monopolized this dashing trade. Instead of Salem it was Baltimore that +furnished the largest fleet--fifty-eight vessels, many of them the fast +ships and schooners which were to make the port famous as the home +of the Baltimore clipper model. All down the coast, out of Norfolk, +Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans, sallied the +privateers to show that theirs was, in truth, a seafaring nation +ardently united in a common cause. + +Again and more vehemently the people of England raised their voices in +protest and lament, for these saucy sea-raiders fairly romped to and fro +in the Channel, careless of pursuit, conducting a blockade of their own +until London was paying the famine price of fifty-eight dollars a barrel +for flour, and it was publicly declared mortifying and distressing +that "a horde of American cruisers should be allowed, unresisted and +unmolested, to take, burn, or sink our own vessels in our own inlets and +almost in sight of our own harbors." It was Captain Thomas Boyle in the +Chasseur of Baltimore who impudently sent ashore his proclamation of a +blockade of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which he +requested should be posted in Lloyd's Coffee House. + +A wonderfully fine figure of a fighting seaman was this Captain Boyle, +with an Irish sense of humor which led him to haunt the enemy's coast +and to make sport of the frigates which tried to catch him. His Chasseur +was considered one of the ablest privateers of the war and the most +beautiful vessel ever seen in Baltimore. A fleet and graceful schooner +with a magical turn for speed, she mounted sixteen long twelve-pounders +and carried a hundred officers, seamen, and marines, and was never +outsailed in fair winds or foul. "Out of sheer wantonness," said an +admirer, "she sometimes affected to chase the enemy's men-of-war of +far superior force." Once when surrounded by two frigates and two naval +brigs, she slipped through and was gone like a phantom. During his +first cruise in the Chasseur, Captain Boyle captured eighteen valuable +merchantmen. It was such defiant rovers as he that provoked the "Morning +Chronicle" of London to splutter "that the whole coast of Ireland from +Wexford round by Cape Clear to Carrickfergus, should have been for above +a month under the unresisted domination of a few petty fly-by-nights +from the blockaded ports of the United States is a grievance equally +intolerable and disgraceful." + +This was when the schooner Syren had captured His Majesty's cutter +Landrail while crossing the Irish Sea with dispatches; when the Governor +Tompkins burned fourteen English vessels in the English Channel in quick +succession; when the Harpy of Baltimore cruised for three months off +the Irish and English coasts and in the Bay of Biscay, and returned to +Boston filled with spoils, including a half million dollars of money; +when the Prince de Neuchatel hovered at her leisure in the Irish +Channel and made coasting trade impossible; and when the Young Wasp of +Philadelphia cruised for six months in those same waters. + +Two of the privateers mentioned were first-class fighting ships whose +engagements were as notable, in their way, as those of the American +frigates which made the war as illustrious by sea as it was ignominious +by land. While off Havana in 1815, Captain Boyle met the schooner St. +Lawrence of the British Navy, a fair match in men and guns. The Chasseur +could easily have run away but stood up to it and shot the enemy +to pieces in fifteen minutes. Brave and courteous were these two +commanders, and Lieutenant Gordon of the St. Lawrence gave his captor a +letter which read, in part: "In the event of Captain Boyle's becoming +a prisoner of war to any British cruiser I consider it a tribute justly +due to his humane and generous treatment of myself, the surviving +officers, and crew of His Majesty's late schooner St. Lawrence, to state +that his obliging attention and watchful solicitude to preserve our +effects and render us comfortable during the short time we were in his +possession were such as justly entitle him to the indulgence and respect +of every British subject." + +The Prince de Neuchatel had the honor of beating off the attack of a +forty-gun British frigate--an exploit second only to that of the General +Armstrong in the harbor of Fayal. This privateer with a foreign name +hailed from New York and was so fortunate as to capture for her owners +three million dollars' worth of British merchandise. With Captain J. +Ordronaux on the quarterdeck, she was near Nantucket Shoals at noon on +October 11, 1814, when a strange sail was discovered. As this vessel +promptly gave chase, Captain Ordronaux guessed-and as events proved +correctly--that she must be a British frigate. She turned out to be the +Endymion. The privateer had in tow a prize which she was anxious to +get into port, but she was forced to cast off the hawser late in the +afternoon and make every effort to escape. + +The breeze died with the sun and the vessels were close inshore. +Becalmed, the privateer and the frigate anchored a quarter of a mile +apart. Captain Ordronaux might have put his crew on the beach in boats +and abandoned his ship. This was the reasonable course, for, as he had +sent in several prize crews, he was short-handed and could muster no +more than thirty-seven men and boys. The Endymion, on the other hand, +had a complement of three hundred and fifty sailors and marines, and in +size and fighting power she was in the class of the American frigates +President and Constitution. Quite unreasonably, however, the master of +the privateer decided to await events. + +The unexpected occurred shortly after dusk when several boats loaded to +the gunwales with a boarding party crept away from the frigate. Five +of them, with one hundred and twenty men, made a concerted attack +at different points, alongside and under the bow and stern. Captain +Ordronaux had told his crew that he would blow up the ship with all +hands before striking his colors, and they believed him implicitly. This +was the hero who was described as "a Jew by persuasion, a Frenchman by +birth, an American for convenience, and so diminutive in stature as +to make him appear ridiculous, in the eyes of others, even for him to +enforce authority among a hardy, weatherbeaten crew should they do aught +against his will." He was big enough, nevertheless, for this night's +bloody work, and there was no doubt about his authority. While the +British tried to climb over the bulwarks, his thirty-seven men and boys +fought like raging devils, with knives, pistols, cutlases, with their +bare fists and their teeth. A few of the enemy gained the deck, but +the privateersmen turned and killed them. Others leaped aboard and were +gradually driving the Americans back, when the skipper ran to the hatch +above the powder magazine, waving a lighted match and swearing to drop +it in if his crew retreated one step further. Either way the issue +seemed desperate. But again they took their skipper's word for it and +rallied for a bloody struggle which soon swept the decks. + +No more than twenty minutes had passed and the battle was won. The enemy +was begging for quarter. One boat had been sunk, three had drifted away +filled with dead and wounded, and the fifth was captured with thirty-six +men in it of whom only eight were unhurt. The American loss was +seven killed and twenty-four wounded, or thirty-one of her crew of +thirty-seven. Yet they had not given up the ship. The frigate Endymion +concluded that once was enough, and next morning the Prince de Neuchatel +bore away for Boston with a freshening breeze. + +Those were merchant seamen also who held the General Armstrong against +a British squadron through that moonlit night in Fayal Roads, inflicting +heavier losses than were suffered in any naval action of the war. It is +a story Homeric, almost incredible in its details and so often repeated +that it can be only touched upon in this brief chronicle. The leader +was a kindly featured man who wore a tall hat, side-whiskers, and a tail +coat. His portrait might easily have served for that of a New England +deacon of the old school. No trace of the swashbuckler in this Captain +Samuel Reid, who had been a thrifty, respected merchant skipper until +offered the command of a privateer. + +Touching at the Azores for water and provisions in September, 1814, +he was trapped in port by the great seventy-four-gun ship of the +line Plantagenet, the thirty-eight-gun frigate Rota, and the warbrig +Carnation. Though he was in neutral water, they paid no heed to this +but determined to destroy a Yankee schooner which had played havoc with +their shipping. Four hundred men in twelve boats, with a howitzer in +the bow of each boat, were sent against the General Armstrong in one +flotilla. But not a man of the four hundred gained her deck. Said an +eyewitness: "The Americans fought with great firmness but more like +bloodthirsty savages than anything else. They rushed into the boats +sword in hand and put every soul to death as far as came within their +power. Some of the boats were left without a single man to row them, +others with three or four. The most that any one returned with was about +ten. Several boats floated ashore full of dead bodies.... For three days +after the battle we were employed in burying the dead that washed on +shore in the surf." + +This tragedy cost the British squadron one hundred and twenty men in +killed and one hundred and thirty in wounded, while Captain Reid lost +only two dead and had seven wounded. He was compelled to retreat ashore +next day when the ships stood in to sink his schooner with their big +guns, but the honors of war belonged to him and well-earned were the +popular tributes when he saw home again, nor was there a word too much +in the florid toast: "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." + +It is not to glorify war nor to rekindle an ancient feud that such +episodes as these are recalled to mind. These men, and others like them, +did their duty as it came to them, and they were sailors of whom +the whole Anglo-Saxon race might be proud. In the crisis they were +Americans, not privateersmen in quest of plunder, and they would gladly +die sooner than haul down the Stars and Stripes. The England against +which they fought was not the England of today. Their honest grievances, +inflicted by a Government too intent upon crushing Napoleon to be fair +to neutrals, have long ago been obliterated. This War of 1812 cleared +the vision of the Mother Country and forever taught her Government that +the people of the Republic were, in truth, free and independent. + +This lesson was driven home not only by the guns of the Constitution and +the United States, but also by the hundreds of privateers and the forty +thousand able seamen who were eager to sail in them. They found no great +place in naval history, but England knew their prowess and respected it. +Every schoolboy is familiar with the duels of the Wasp and the Frolic, +of the Enterprise and the Boxer; but how many people know what happened +when the privateer Decatur met and whipped the Dominica of the British +Navy to the southward of Bermuda? + +Captain Diron was the man who did it as he was cruising out of +Charleston, South Carolina, in the summer of 1813. Sighting an armed +schooner slightly heavier than his own vessel, he made for her and was +unperturbed when the royal ensign streamed from her gaff. Clearing for +action, he closed the hatches so that none of his men could hide below. +The two schooners fought in the veiling smoke until the American could +ram her bowsprit over the other's stern and pour her whole crew aboard. +In the confined space of the deck, almost two hundred men and lads were +slashing and stabbing and shooting amid yells and huzzas. Lieutenant +Barrette, the English commander, only twenty-five years old, was +mortally hurt and every other officer, excepting the surgeon and one +midshipman, was killed or wounded. Two-thirds of the crew were down but +still they refused to surrender, and Captain Diron had to pull down the +colors with his own hands. Better discipline and marksmanship had won +the day for him and his losses were comparatively small. + +Men of his description were apt to think first of glory and let the +profits go hang, for there was no cargo to be looted in a King's ship. +Other privateersmen, however, were not so valiant or quarrelsome, and +there was many a one tied up in London River or the Mersey which had +been captured without very savage resistance. Yet on the whole it is +fair to say that the private armed ships outfought and outsailed the +enemy as impressively as did the few frigates of the American Navy. + +There was a class of them which exemplified the rapid development of the +merchant marine in a conspicuous manner--large commerce destroyers too +swift to be caught, too powerful to fear the smaller cruisers. They were +extremely profitable business ventures, entrusted to the command of the +most audacious and skillful masters that could be engaged. Of this type +was the ship America of Salem, owned by the Crowninshields, which made +twenty-six prizes and brought safely into port property which realized +more than a million dollars. Of this the owners and shareholders +received six hundred thousand dollars as dividends. She was a stately +vessel, built for the East India trade, and was generally conceded to +be the fastest privateer afloat. For this service the upper deck was +removed and the sides were filled in with stout oak timber as an armored +protection, and longer yards and royal masts gave her a huge area +of sail. Her crew of one hundred and fifty men had the exacting +organization of a man-of-war, including, it is interesting to note, +three lieutenants, three mates, a sailingmaster, surgeon, purser, +captain of marines, gunners, seven prize masters, armorer, drummer, +and a fifer. Discipline was severe, and flogging was the penalty for +breaking the regulations. + +During her four cruises, the America swooped among the plodding +merchantmen like a falcon on a dovecote, the sight of her frightening +most of her prey into submission, with a brush now and then to exercise +the crews of the twenty-two guns, and perhaps a man or two hit. Long +after the war, Captain James Chever, again a peaceful merchant mariner, +met at Valparaiso, Sir James Thompson, commander of the British frigate +Dublin, which had been fitted out in 1813 for the special purpose of +chasing the America. In the course of a cordial chat between the two +captains the Briton remarked: + +"I was once almost within gun-shot of that infernal Yankee +skimming-dish, just as night came on. By daylight she had outsailed +the Dublin so devilish fast that she was no more than a speck on the +horizon. By the way, I wonder if you happen to know the name of the +beggar that was master of her." + +"I'm the beggar," chuckled Captain Chever, and they drank each other's +health on the strength of it. + +Although the Treaty of Ghent omitted mention of the impressment of +sailors, which had been the burning issue of the war, there were no more +offenses of this kind. American seafarers were safe against kidnapping +on their own decks, and they had won this security by virtue of their +own double-shotted guns. At the same time England lifted the curse of +the press-gang from her own people, who refused longer to endure it. + +There seemed no reason why the two nations, having finally fought their +differences to a finish, should not share the high seas in peaceful +rivalry; but the irritating problems of protection and reciprocity +survived to plague and hamper commerce. It was difficult for England +to overcome the habit of guarding her trade against foreign invasion. +Agreeing with the United States to waive all discriminating duties +between the ports of the two countries--this was as much as she was at +that time willing to yield. She still insisted upon regulating the trade +of her West Indies and Canada. American East Indiamen were to be limited +to direct voyages and could not bring cargoes to Europe. Though this +discrimination angered Congress, to which it appeared as lopsided +reciprocity, the old duties were nevertheless repealed; and then, +presto! the British colonial policy of exclusion was enforced and eighty +thousand tons of American shipping became idle because the West India +market was closed. + +There followed several years of unhappy wrangling, a revival of the old +smuggling spirit, the risk of seizure and confiscations, and shipping +merchants with long faces talking ruin. The theory of free trade versus +protection was as debatable and opinions were as conflicting then as +now. Some were for retaliation, others for conciliation; and meanwhile +American shipmasters went about their business, with no room for +theories in their honest heads, and secured more and more of the world's +trade. Curiously enough, the cries of calamity in the United States +were echoed across the water, where the "London Times" lugubriously +exclaimed: "The shipping interest, the cradle of our navy, is half +ruined. Our commercial monopoly exists no longer; and thousands of our +manufacturers are starving or seeking redemption in distant lands. +We have closed the Western Indies against America from feelings +of commercial rivalry. Its active seamen have already engrossed an +important branch of our carrying trade to the Eastern Indies. Her +starred flag is now conspicuous on every sea and will soon defy our +thunder." + +It was not until 1849 that Great Britain threw overboard her long +catalogue of protective navigation laws which had been piling up since +the time of Cromwell, and declared for free trade afloat. Meanwhile the +United States had drifted in the same direction, barring foreign +flags from its coastwise shipping but offering full exemption from all +discriminating duties and tonnage duties to every maritime nation which +should respond in like manner. This latter legislation was enacted in +1828 and definitely abandoned the doctrine of protection in so far as +it applied to American ships and sailors. For a generation thereafter, +during which ocean rivalry was a battle royal of industry, enterprise, +and skill, the United States was paramount and her merchant marine +attained its greatest successes. + +There is one school of modern economists who hold that the seeds of +decay and downfall were planted by this adoption of free trade in 1828, +while another faction of gentlemen quite as estimable and authoritative +will quote facts and figures by the ream to prove that governmental +policies had nothing whatever to do with the case. These adversaries +have written and are still writing many volumes in which they almost +invariably lose their tempers. Partisan politics befog the tariff issue +afloat as well as ashore, and one's course is not easy to chart. It is +indisputable, however, that so long as Yankee ships were better, faster, +and more economically managed, they won a commanding share of the +world's trade. When they ceased to enjoy these qualities of superiority, +they lost the trade and suffered for lack of protection to overcome the +handicap. + +The War of 1812 was the dividing line between two eras of salt water +history. On the farther side lay the turbulent centuries of hazard and +bloodshed and piracy, of little ships and indomitable seamen who pursued +their voyages in the reek of gunpowder and of legalized pillage by the +stronger, and of merchant adventurers who explored new markets wherever +there was water enough to float their keels. They belonged to the rude +and lusty youth of a world which lived by the sword and which gloried +in action. Even into the early years of the nineteenth century these +mariners still sailed--Elizabethan in deed and spirit. + +On the hither side of 1812 were seas unvexed by the privateer and the +freebooter. The lateen-rigged corsairs had been banished from their +lairs in the harbors of Algiers, and ships needed to show no broadsides +of cannon in the Atlantic trade. For a time they carried the +old armament among the lawless islands of the Orient and off +Spanish-American coasts where the vocation of piracy made its last +stand, but the great trade routes of the globe were peaceful highways +for the white-winged fleets of all nations. The American seamen who +had fought for the right to use the open sea were now to display their +prowess in another way and in a romance of achievement that was no less +large and thrilling. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE PACKET SHIPS OF THE "ROARING FORTIES" + +It was on the stormy Atlantic, called by sailormen the Western Ocean, +that the packet ships won the first great contest for supremacy and knew +no rivals until the coming of the age of steam made them obsolete. Their +era antedated that of the clipper and was wholly distinct. The Atlantic +packet was the earliest liner: she made regular sailings and carried +freight and passengers instead of trading on her owners' account as was +the ancient custom. Not for her the tranquillity of tropic seas and +the breath of the Pacific trades, but an almost incessant battle with +swinging surges and boisterous winds, for she was driven harder in all +weathers and seasons than any other ships that sailed. In such battering +service as this the lines of the clipper were too extremely fine, her +spars too tall and slender. The packet was by no means slow and if +the list of her record passages was superb, it was because they were +accomplished by masters who would sooner let a sail blow away than take +it in and who raced each other every inch of the way. + +They were small ships of three hundred to five hundred tons when the +famous Black Ball Line was started in 1816. From the first they were the +ablest vessels that could be built, full-bodied and stoutly rigged. They +were the only regular means of communication between the United States +and Europe and were entrusted with the mails, specie, government +dispatches, and the lives of eminent personages. Blow high, blow low, +one of the Black Ball packets sailed from New York for Liverpool on the +first and sixteenth of every month. Other lines were soon competing--the +Red Star and the Swallow Tail out of New York, and fine ships from +Boston and Philadelphia. With the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 +the commercial greatness of New York was assured, and her Atlantic +packets increased in size and numbers, averaging a thousand tons each in +the zenith of their glory. + +England, frankly confessing herself beaten and unable to compete +with such ships as these, changed her attitude from hostility to open +admiration. She surrendered the Atlantic packet trade to American +enterprise, and British merchantmen sought their gains in other waters. +The Navigation Laws still protected their commerce in the Far East and +they were content to jog at a more sedate gait than these weltering +packets whose skippers were striving for passages of a fortnight, with +the forecastle doors nailed fast and the crew compelled to stay on deck +from Sandy Hook to Fastnet Rock. + +No blustering, rum-drinking tarpaulin was the captain who sailed the +Independence, the Ocean Queen, or the Dreadnought but a man very careful +of his manners and his dress, who had been selected from the most highly +educated merchant service in the world. He was attentive to the comfort +of his passengers and was presumed to have no other duties on deck than +to give the proper orders to his first officer and work out his daily +reckoning. It was an exacting, nerve-racking ordeal, however, demanding +a sleepless vigilance, courage, and cool judgment of the first order. +The compensations were large. As a rule, he owned a share of the ship +and received a percentage of the freights and passage money. His rank +when ashore was more exalted than can be conveyed in mere words. Any +normal New York boy would sooner have been captain of a Black Ball +packet than President of the United States, and he knew by heart the +roaring chantey + + It is of a flash packet, + A packet of fame. + She is bound to New York + And the Dreadnought's her name. + She is bound to the west'ard + Where the stormy winds blow. + Bound away to the west'ard, + Good Lord, let her go. + + +There were never more than fifty of these ships afloat, a trifling +fraction of the American deep-water tonnage of that day, but the laurels +they won were immortal. Not only did the English mariner doff his hat to +them, but a Parliamentary committee reported in 1837 that "the American +ships frequenting the ports of England are stated by several witnesses +to be superior to those of a similar class among the ships of Great +Britain, the commanders and officers being generally considered to be +more competent as seamen and navigators and more uniformly persons of +education than the commanders and officers of British ships of a similar +size and class trading from England to America." + +It was no longer a rivalry with the flags of other nations but an +unceasing series of contests among the packets of the several lines, and +their records aroused far more popular excitement than when the great +steamers of this century were chipping off the minutes, at an enormous +coal consumption, toward a five-day passage. Theirs were tests of real +seamanship, and there were few disasters. The packet captain scorned a +towboat to haul him into the stream if the wind served fair to set all +plain sail as his ship lay at her wharf. Driving her stern foremost, +he braced his yards and swung her head to sea, clothing the masts with +soaring canvas amid the farewell cheers of the crowds which lined the +waterfront. + +A typical match race was sailed between the Black Ball liner Columbus, +Captain De Peyster, and the Sheridan, Captain Russell, of the splendid +Dramatic fleet, in 1837. The stake was $10,000 a side, put up by the +owners and their friends. The crews were picked men who were promised a +bonus of fifty dollars each for winning. The ships sailed side by side +in February, facing the wild winter passage, and the Columbus reached +Liverpool in the remarkable time of sixteen days, two days ahead of the +Sheridan. + +The crack packets were never able to reel off more than twelve or +fourteen knots under the most favorable conditions, but they were kept +going night and day, and some of them maintained their schedules almost +with the regularity of the early steamers. The Montezuma, the Patrick +Henry, and the Southampton crossed from New York to Liverpool in fifteen +days, and for years the Independence held the record of fourteen days +and six hours. It remained for the Dreadnought, Captain Samuel Samuels, +in 1859, to set the mark for packet ships to Liverpool at thirteen days +and eight hours. + +Meanwhile the era of the matchless clipper had arrived and it was one of +these ships which achieved the fastest Atlantic passage ever made by a +vessel under sail. The James Baines was built for English owners to be +used in the Australian trade. She was a full clipper of 2515 tons, twice +the size of the ablest packets, and was praised as "the most perfect +sailing ship that ever entered the river Mersey." Bound out from Boston +to Liverpool, she anchored after twelve days and six hours at sea. + +There was no lucky chance in this extraordinary voyage, for this clipper +was the work of the greatest American builder, Donald McKay, who at the +same time designed the Lightning for the same owners. This clipper, +sent across the Atlantic on her maiden trip, left in her foaming wake a +twenty-four hour run which no steamer had even approached and which +was not equaled by the fastest express steamers until twenty-five years +later when the greyhound Arizona ran eighteen knots in one hour on her +trial trip. This is a rather startling statement when one reflects +that the Arizona of the Guion line seems to a generation still living +a modern steamer and record-holder. It is even more impressive when +coupled with the fact that, of the innumerable passenger steamers +traversing the seas today, only a few are capable of a speed of more +than eighteen knots. + +This clipper Lightning did her 436 sea miles in one day, or eighteen and +a half knots, better than twenty land miles an hour, and this is how the +surpassing feat was entered in her log, or official journal: "March 1. +Wind south. Strong gales; bore away for the North Channel, carrying away +the foretopsail and lost jib; hove the log several times and found the +ship going through the water at the rate of 18 to 18 1/2 knots; lee rail +under water and rigging slack. Distance run in twenty-four hours, 436 +miles." The passage was remarkably fast, thirteen days and nineteen and +a half hours from Boston Light, but the spectacular feature was this +day's work. It is a fitting memorial of the Yankee clipper, and, save +only a cathedral, the loveliest, noblest fabric ever wrought by man's +handiwork. + +The clipper, however, was a stranger in the Atlantic and her chosen +courses were elsewhere. The records made by the James Baines and the +Lightning were no discredit to the stanch, unconquerable packet ships +which, year in and year out, held their own with the steamer lines until +just before the Civil War. It was the boast of Captain Samuels that +on her first voyage in 1853 the Dreadnought reached Sandy Hook as +the Cunarder Canada, which had left Liverpool a day ahead of her, was +passing in by Boston Light. Twice she carried the latest news to Europe, +and many seasoned travelers preferred her to the mail steamers. + +The masters and officers who handled these ships with such magnificent +success were true-blue American seamen, inspired by the finest +traditions, successors of the privateersmen of 1812. The forecastles, +however, were filled with English, Irish, and Scandinavians. American +lads shunned these ships and, in fact, the ambitious youngster of the +coastwise towns began to cease following the sea almost a century ago. +It is sometimes forgotten that the period during which the best American +manhood sought a maritime career lay between the Revolution and the War +of 1812. Thereafter the story became more and more one of American ships +and less of American sailors, excepting on the quarter-deck. + +In later years the Yankee crews were to be found in the ports where the +old customs survived, the long trading voyage, the community of interest +in cabin and forecastle, all friends and neighbors together, with +opportunities for profit and advancement. Such an instance was that of +the Salem ship George, built at Salem in 1814 and owned by the great +merchant, Joseph Peabody. For twenty-two years she sailed in the East +India trade, making twenty-one round voyages, with an astonishing +regularity which would be creditable for a modern cargo tramp. Her +sailors were native-born, seldom more than twenty-one years old, +and most of them were studying navigation. Forty-five of them became +shipmasters, twenty of them chief mates, and six second mates. This +reliable George was, in short, a nautical training-school of the best +kind and any young seaman with the right stuff in him was sure of +advancement. + +Seven thousand sailors signed articles in the counting-room of Joseph +Peabody and went to sea in his eighty ships which flew the house-flag +in Calcutta, Canton, Sumatra, and the ports of Europe until 1844. These +were mostly New England boys who followed in the footsteps of their +fathers because deep-water voyages were still "adventures" and a career +was possible under a system which was both congenial and paternal. +Brutal treatment was the rare exception. Flogging still survived in the +merchant service and was defended by captains otherwise humane, but +a skipper, no matter how short-tempered, would be unlikely to abuse a +youth whose parents might live on the same street with him and attend +the same church. + +The Atlantic packets brought a different order of things, which was to +be continued through the clipper era. Yankee sailors showed no love for +the cold and storms of the Western Ocean in these foaming packets which +were remorselessly driven for speed. The masters therefore took +what they could get. All the work of rigging, sail-making, scraping, +painting, and keeping a ship in perfect repair was done in port instead +of at sea, as was the habit in the China and California clippers, and +the lore and training of the real deep-water sailor became superfluous. +The crew of a packet made sail or took it in with the two-fisted mates +to show them how. + +From these conditions was evolved the "Liverpool packet rat," hairy and +wild and drunken, the prey of crimps and dive-keepers ashore, brave and +toughened to every hardship afloat, climbing aloft in his red shirt, +dungaree breeches, and sea-boots, with a snow-squall whistling, the +rigging sheathed with ice, and the old ship burying her bows in the +thundering combers. It was the doctrine of his officers that he could +not be ruled by anything short of violence, and the man to tame and +hammer him was the "bucko" second mate, the test of whose fitness was +that he could whip his weight in wild cats. When he became unable to +maintain discipline with fists and belaying-pins, he was deposed for a +better man. + +Your seasoned packet rat sought the ship with a hard name by choice. +His chief ambition was to kick in the ribs or pound senseless some +invincible bucko mate. There was provocation enough on both sides. +Officers had to take their ships to sea and strain every nerve to make +a safe and rapid passage with crews which were drunk and useless when +herded aboard, half of them greenhorns, perhaps, who could neither +reef nor steer. Brutality was the one argument able to enforce instant +obedience among men who respected nothing else. As a class the packet +sailors became more and more degraded because their life was intolerable +to decent men. It followed therefore that the quarterdeck employed +increasing severity, and, as the officer's authority in this respect was +unchecked and unlimited, it was easy to mistake the harshest tyranny for +wholesome discipline. + +Reenforcing the bucko mate was the tradition that the sailor was a dog, +a different human species from the landsman, without laws and usages +to protect him. This was a tradition which, for centuries, had been +fostered in the naval service, and it survived among merchant sailors as +an unhappy anachronism even into the twentieth century, when an +American Congress was reluctant to bestow upon a seaman the decencies of +existence enjoyed by the poorest laborer ashore. + +It is in the nature of a paradox that the brilliant success of the +packet ships in dominating the North Atlantic trade should have been a +factor in the decline of the nation's maritime prestige and resources. +Through a period of forty years the pride and confidence in these ships, +their builders, and the men who sailed them, was intense and universal. +They were a superlative product of the American genius, which still +displayed the energies of a maritime race. On other oceans the situation +was no less gratifying. American ships were the best and cheapest in the +world. The business held the confidence of investors and commanded an +abundance of capital. It was assumed, as late as 1840, that the wooden +sailing ship would continue to be the supreme type of deep-water vessel +because the United States possessed the greatest stores of timber, +the most skillful builders and mechanics, and the ablest merchant +navigators. No industry was ever more efficiently organized and +conducted. American ships were most in demand and commanded the highest +freights. The tonnage in foreign trade increased to a maximum of 904,476 +in 1845. There was no doubt in the minds of the shrewdest merchants and +owners and builders of the time that Great Britain would soon cease to +be the mistress of the seas and must content herself with second place. + +It was not considered ominous when, in 1838, the Admiralty had requested +proposals for a steam service to America. This demand was prompted by +the voyages of the Sirius and Great Western, wooden-hulled sidewheelers +which thrashed along at ten knots' speed and crossed the Atlantic in +fourteen to seventeen days. This was a much faster rate than the average +time of the Yankee packets, but America was unperturbed and showed no +interest in steam. In 1839 the British Government awarded an Atlantic +mail contract, with an annual subsidy of $425,000 to Samuel Cunard and +his associates, and thereby created the most famous of the Atlantic +steamship companies. + +Four of these liners began running in 1840--an event which foretold the +doom of the packet fleets, though the warning was almost unheeded in +New York and Boston. Four years later Enoch Train was establishing a new +packet line to Liverpool with the largest, finest ships built up to that +time, the Washington Irving, Anglo-American, Ocean Monarch, Anglo-Saxon, +and Daniel Webster. Other prominent shipping houses were expanding +their service and were launching noble packets until 1853. Meanwhile the +Cunard steamers were increasing in size and speed, and the service was +no longer an experiment. + +American capital now began to awaken from its dreams, and Edward K. +Collins, managing owner of the Dramatic line of packets, determined to +challenge the Cunarders at their own game. Aided by the Government +to the extent of $385,000 a year as subsidy, he put afloat the four +magnificent steamers, Atlantic, Pacific, Baltic, and Arctic, which were +a day faster than the Cunarders in crossing, and reduced the voyage to +nine and ten days. The Collins line, so auspiciously begun in 1850, and +promising to give the United States the supremacy in steam which it had +won under sail, was singularly unfortunate and short-lived. The Arctic +and the Pacific were lost at sea, and Congress withdrew its financial +support after five years. Deprived of this aid, Mr. Collins was unable +to keep the enterprise afloat in competition with the subsidized +Cunard fleet. In this manner and with little further effort by American +interests to compete for the prize, the dominion of the Atlantic passed +into British hands. + +The packet ships had held on too long. It had been a stirring episode +for the passengers to cheer in mid-ocean when the lofty pyramids of +canvas swept grandly by some wallowing steamer and left her far astern, +but in the fifties this gallant picture became less frequent, and a +sooty banner of smoke on the horizon proclaimed the new era and the +obliteration of all the rushing life and beauty of the tall ship under +sail. Slow to realize and acknowledge defeat, persisting after the +steamers were capturing the cabin passenger and express freight +traffic, the American ship-owners could not visualize this profound +transformation. Their majestic clippers still surpassed all rivals in +the East India and China trade and were racing around the Horn, making +new records for speed and winning fresh nautical triumphs for the Stars +and Stripes. + +This reluctance to change the industrial and commercial habits of +generations of American shipowners was one of several causes for the +decadence which was hastened by the Civil War. For once the astute +American was caught napping by his British cousin, who was swayed by no +sentimental values and showed greater adaptability in adopting the iron +steamer with the screw propeller as the inevitable successor of the +wooden ship with arching topsails. + +The golden age of the American merchant marine was that of the +square-rigged ship, intricate, capricious, and feminine in her beauty, +with forty nimble seamen in the forecastle, not that of the metal trough +with an engine in the middle and mechanics sweating in her depths. When +the Atlantic packet was compelled to abdicate, it was the beginning +of the end. After all, her master was the fickle wind, for a slashing +outward passage might be followed by weeks of beating home to the +westward. Steadily forging ahead to the beat of her paddles or +the thrash of her screw, the steamer even of that day was far more +dependable than the sailing vessel. The Lightning clipper might run a +hundred miles farther in twenty-four hours than ever a steamer had +done, but she could not maintain this meteoric burst of speed. Upon the +heaving surface of the Western Ocean there was enacted over again the +fable of the hare and the tortoise. + +Most of the famous chanteys were born in the packet service and shouted +as working choruses by the tars of this Western Ocean before the +chanteyman perched upon a capstan and led the refrain in the clipper +trade. You will find their origin unmistakable in such lines as these: + + As I was a-walking down Rotherhite Street, + 'Way, ho, blow the man down; + A pretty young creature I chanced for to meet, + Give me some time to blow the man down. + Soon we'll be in London City, + Blow, boys, blow, + And see the gals all dressed so pretty, + Blow, my bully boys, blow. + + +Haunting melodies, folk-song as truly as that of the plantation negro, +they vanished from the sea with a breed of men who, for all their +faults, possessed the valor of the Viking and the fortitude of the +Spartan. Outcasts ashore--which meant to them only the dance halls of +Cherry Street and the grog-shops of Ratcliffe Road--they had virtues +that were as great as their failings. Across the intervening years, with +a pathos indefinable, come the lovely strains of + + Shenandoah, I'll ne'er forget you, + Away, ye rolling river, + Till the day I die I'll love you ever, + Ah, ha, we're bound away. + + + +CHAPTER IX. THE STATELY CLIPPER AND HER GLORY + +The American clipper ship was the result of an evolution which can be +traced back to the swift privateers which were built during the War of +1812. In this type of vessel the shipyards of Chesapeake Bay excelled +and their handiwork was known as the "Baltimore clipper," the name +suggested by the old English verb which Dryden uses to describe the +flight of the falcon that "clips it down the wind." The essential +difference between the clipper ship and other kinds of merchant craft +was that speed and not capacity became the chief consideration. This was +a radical departure for large vessels, which in all maritime history had +been designed with an eye to the number of tons they were able to +carry. More finely molded lines had hitherto been found only in the much +smaller French lugger, the Mediterranean galley, the American schooner. + +To borrow the lines of these fleet and graceful models and apply them +to the design of a deepwater ship was a bold conception. It was first +attempted by Isaac McKim, a Baltimore merchant, who ordered his builders +in 1832 to reproduce as closely as possible the superior sailing +qualities of the renowned clipper brigs and schooners of their own port. +The result was the Ann McKim, of nearly five hundred tons, the first +Yankee clipper ship, and distinguished as such by her long, easy +water-lines, low free-board, and raking stem. She was built and finished +without regard to cost, copper-sheathed, the decks gleaming with +brasswork and mahogany fittings. But though she was a very fast and +handsome ship and the pride of her owner, the Ann McKim could stow so +little cargo that shipping men regarded her as unprofitable and swore by +their full-bodied vessels a few years longer. + +That the Ann McKim, however, influenced the ideas of the most +progressive builders is very probable, for she was later owned by the +New York firm of Howland and Aspinwall, who placed an order for the +first extremely sharp clipper ship of the era. This vessel, the Rainbow, +was designed by John W. Griffeths, a marine architect, who was a pioneer +in that he studied shipbuilding as a science instead of working by +rule-of-thumb. The Rainbow, which created a sensation while on the +stocks because of her concave or hollowed lines forward, which defied +all tradition and practice, was launched in 1845. She was a more radical +innovation than the Ann McKim but a successful one, for on her second +voyage to China the Rainbow went out against the northeast monsoon in +ninety-two days and came home in eighty-eight, a record which few ships +were able to better. Her commander, Captain John Land, declared her to +be the fastest ship in the world and there were none to dispute him. + +Even the Rainbow however, was eclipsed when not long afterward Howland +and Aspinwall, now converted to the clipper, ordered the Sea Witch to be +built for Captain Bob Waterman. Among all the splendid skippers of the +time he was the most dashing figure. About his briny memory cluster a +hundred yarns, some of them true, others legendary. It has been argued +that the speed of the clippers was due more to the men who commanded +them than to their hulls and rigging, and to support the theory the +career of Captain Bob Waterman is quoted. He was first known to fame in +the old Natchez, which was not a clipper at all and was even rated as +slow while carrying cotton from New Orleans to New York. But Captain Bob +took this full-pooped old packet ship around the Horn and employed her +in the China tea trade. The voyages which he made in her were all fast, +and he crowned them with the amazing run of seventy-eight days from +Canton to New York, just one day behind the swiftest clipper passage +ever sailed and which he himself performed in the Sea Witch. Incredulous +mariners simply could not explain this feat of the Natchez and suggested +that Bob Waterman must have brought the old hooker home by some new +route of his own discovery. + +Captain Bob had won a reputation for discipline as the mate of a Black +Ball liner, a rough school, and he was not a mild man. Ashore his +personality was said to have been a most attractive one, but there is +no doubt that afloat he worked the very souls out of his sailors. The +rumors that he frightfully abused them were not current, however, +until he took the Sea Witch and showed the world the fastest ship under +canvas. Low in the water, with black hull and gilded figurehead, she +seemed too small to support her prodigious cloud of sail. For her +there were to be no leisurely voyages with Captain Bob Waterman on the +quarter-deck. Home from Canton she sped in seventy-seven days and then +in seventy-nine--records which were never surpassed. + +With what consummate skill and daring this master mariner drove his ship +and how the race of hardy sailors to which he belonged compared with +those of other nations may be descried in the log of another of them, +Captain Philip Dumaresq, homeward bound from China in 1849 in the +clipper Great Britain. Three weeks out from Java Head she had overtaken +and passed seven ships heading the same way, and then she began to rush +by them in one gale after another. Her log records her exploits in such +entries as these: "Passed a ship under double reefs, we with our royals +and studdingsails set.... Passed a ship laying-to under a close-reefed +maintopsail.... Split all three topsails and had to heave to.... Seven +vessels in sight and we outsail all of them.... Under double-reefed +topsails passed several vessels hove-to." Much the same record might be +read in the log of the medium clipper Florence--and it is the same story +of carrying sail superbly on a ship which had been built to stand +up under it: "Passed two barks under reefed courses and close-reefed +topsails standing the same way, we with royals and topgallant +studding-sails," or "Passed a ship under topsails, we with our royals +set." For eleven weeks "the topsail halliards were started only once, to +take in a single reef for a few hours." It is not surprising, therefore, +to learn that, seventeen days out from Shanghai, the Florence exchanged +signals with the English ship John Hagerman, which had sailed thirteen +days before her. + +Two notable events in the history of the nineteenth century occurred +within the same year, 1849, to open new fields of trade to the Yankee +clipper. One of these was the repeal of the British Navigation Laws +which had given English ships a monopoly of the trade between London +and the British East Indies, and the other was the discovery of gold +in California. After centuries of pomp and power, the great East India +Company had been deprived of its last exclusive rights afloat in 1833. +Its ponderous, frigate-built merchantmen ceased to dominate the British +commerce with China and India and were sold or broken up. All British +ships were now free to engage in this trade, but the spirit and customs +of the old regime still strongly survived. Flying the house-flags of +private owners, the East Indiamen and China tea ships were still built +and manned like frigates, slow, comfortable, snugging down for the night +under reduced sail. There was no competition to arouse them until the +last barrier of the Navigation Laws was let down and they had to meet +the Yankee clipper with the tea trade as the huge stake. + +Then at last it was farewell to the gallant old Indianian and her +ornate, dignified prestige. With a sigh the London Times confessed: "We +must run a race with our gigantic and unshackled rival. We must set our +long-practised skill, our steady industry, and our dogged determination +against his youth, ingenuity, and ardor. Let our shipbuilders and +employers take warning in time. There will always be an abundant supply +of vessels good enough and fast enough for short voyages. But we +want fast vessels for the long voyages which otherwise will fall into +American hands." + +Before English merchants could prepare themselves for these new +conditions, the American clipper Oriental was loading in 1850 at Hong +Kong with tea for the London market. Because of her reputation for +speed, she received freightage of six pounds sterling per ton while +British ships rode at anchor with empty holds or were glad to sail at +three pounds ten per ton. Captain Theodore Palmer delivered his sixteen +hundred tons of tea in the West India Docks, London, after a crack +passage of ninety-one days which had never been equaled. His clipper +earned $48,000, or two-thirds of what it had cost to build her. Her +arrival in London created a profound impression. The port had seen +nothing like her for power and speed; her skysail yards soared far +above the other shipping; the cut of her snowy canvas was faultless; all +clumsy, needless tophamper had been done away with; and she appeared +to be the last word in design and construction, as lean and fine and +spirited as a race-horse in training. + +This new competition dismayed British shipping until it could rally +and fight with similar weapons The technical journal, Naval Science, +acknowledged that the tea trade of the London markets had passed almost +out of the hands of the English ship-owner, and that British vessels, +well-manned and well-found, were known to lie for weeks in the harbor +of Foo-chow, waiting for a cargo and seeing American clippers come in, +load, and sail immediately with full cargoes at a higher freight than +they could command. Even the Government viewed the loss of trade with +concern and sent admiralty draftsmen to copy the lines of the Oriental +and Challenge while they were in drydock. + +British clippers were soon afloat, somewhat different in model from the +Yankee ships, but very fast and able, and racing them in the tea trade +until the Civil War. With them it was often nip and tuck, as in the +contest between the English Lord of the Isles and the American clipper +bark Maury in 1856. The prize was a premium of one pound per ton for +the first ship to reach London with tea of the new crop. The Lord of +the Isles finished loading and sailed four days ahead of the Maury, and +after thirteen thousand miles of ocean they passed Gravesend within ten +minutes of each other. The British skipper, having the smartest tug +and getting his ship first into dock, won the honors. In a similar race +between the American Sea Serpent and the English Crest of the Wave, both +ships arrived off the Isle of Wight on the same day. It was a notable +fact that the Lord of the Isles was the first tea clipper built of iron +at a date when the use of this stubborn material was not yet thought of +by the men who constructed the splendid wooden ships of America. + +For the peculiar requirements of the tea trade, English maritime talent +was quick to perfect a clipper type which, smaller than the great Yankee +skysail-yarder, was nevertheless most admirable for its beauty and +performance. On both sides of the Atlantic partizans hotly championed +their respective fleets. In 1852 the American Navigation Club, organized +by Boston merchants and owners, challenged the shipbuilders of Great +Britain to race from a port in England to a port in China and return, +for a stake of $50,000 a side, ships to be not under eight hundred nor +over twelve hundred tons American register. The challenge was aimed at +the Stornaway and the Chrysolite, the two clippers that were known to be +the fastest ships under the British flag. Though this sporting defiance +caused lively discussion, nothing came of it, and it was with a spirit +even keener that Sampson and Tappan of Boston offered to match their +Nightingale for the same amount against any clipper afloat, British or +American. + +In spite of the fact that Yankee enterprise had set the pace in the +tea trade, within a few years after 1850 England had so successfully +mastered the art of building these smaller clippers that the honors were +fairly divided. The American owners were diverting their energies to +the more lucrative trade in larger ships sailing around the Horn to San +Francisco, a long road which, as a coastwise voyage, was forbidden +to foreign vessels under the navigation laws. After the Civil War the +fastest tea clippers flew the British flag and into the seventies they +survived the competition of steam, racing among themselves for the +premiums awarded to the quickest dispatch. No more of these beautiful +vessels were launched after 1869, and one by one they vanished into +other trades, overtaken by the same fate which had befallen the Atlantic +packet and conquered by the cargo steamers which filed through the Suez +Canal. + +Until 1848 San Francisco had been a drowsy little Mexican trading-post, +a huddle of adobe huts and sheds where American ships collected +hides--vividly described in Two Years Before the Mast--or a whaler +called for wood and water. During the year preceding the frenzied +migration of the modern Argonauts, only two merchant ships, one bark +and one brig, sailed in through the Golden Gate. In the twelve months +following, 775 vessels cleared from Atlantic ports for San Francisco, +besides the rush from other countries, and nearly fifty thousand +passengers scrambled ashore to dig for gold. Crews deserted their +ships, leaving them unable to go to sea again for lack of men, and in +consequence a hundred of them were used as storehouses, hotels, and +hospitals, or else rotted at their moorings. Sailors by hundreds jumped +from the forecastle without waiting to stow the sails or receive their +wages. Though offered as much as two hundred dollars a month to sign +again, they jeered at the notion. Of this great fleet at San Francisco +in 1849, it was a lucky ship that ever left the harbor again. + +It seemed as if the whole world were bound to California and almost +overnight there was created the wildest, most extravagant demand for +transportation known to history. A clipper costing $70,000 could pay for +herself in one voyage, with freights at sixty dollars a ton. This gold +stampede might last but a little while. To take instant advantage of it +was the thing. The fastest ships, and as many of them as could be built, +would skim the cream of it. This explains the brief and illustrious era +of the California clipper, one hundred and sixty of which were launched +from 1850 to 1854. The shipyards of New York and Boston were crowded +with them, and they graced the keel blocks of the historic old ports +of New England--Medford, Mystic, Newburyport, Portsmouth, Portland, +Rockland, and Bath--wherever the timber and the shipwrights could be +assembled. + +Until that time there had been few ships afloat as large as a thousand +tons. These were of a new type, rapidly increased to fifteen hundred, +two thousand tons, and over. They presented new and difficult problems +in spars and rigging able to withstand the strain of immense areas of +canvas which climbed two hundred feet to the skysail pole and which, +with lower studdingsails set, spread one hundred and sixty feet from +boom-end to boom-end. There had to be the strength to battle with the +furious tempests of Cape Horn and at the same time the driving power to +sweep before the sweet and steadfast tradewinds. Such a queenly clipper +was the Flying Cloud, the achievement of that master builder, Donald +McKay, which sailed from New York to San Francisco in eighty-nine days, +with Captain Josiah Creesy in command. This record was never lowered and +was equaled only twice--by the Flying Cloud herself and by the Andrew +Jackson nine years later. It was during this memorable voyage that +the Flying Cloud sailed 1256 miles in four days while steering to the +northward under topgallantsails after rounding Cape Horn. This was a +rate of speed which, if sustained, would have carried her from New York +to Queenstown in eight days and seventeen hours. This speedy passage was +made in 1851, and only two years earlier the record for the same voyage +of fifteen thousand miles had been one hundred and twenty days, by the +clipper Memnon. + +Donald McKay now resolved to build a ship larger and faster than the +Flying Cloud, and his genius neared perfection in the Sovereign of the +Seas, of 2421 tons register, which exceeded in size all merchant vessels +afloat. This Titan of the clipper fleet was commanded by Donald's +brother, Captain Lauchlan McKay, with a crew of one hundred and five +men and boys. During her only voyage to San Francisco she was partly +dismasted, but Lauchlan McKay rigged her anew at sea in fourteen days +and still made port in one hundred and three days, a record for the +season of the year. + +It was while running home from Honolulu in 1853 that the Sovereign of +the Seas realized the hopes of her builder. In eleven days she sailed +3562 miles, with four days logged for a total of 1478 knots. Making +allowance for the longitudes and difference in time, this was an average +daily run of 378 sea miles or 435 land miles. Using the same comparison, +the distance from Sandy Hook to Queenstown would have been covered in +seven days and nine hours. Figures are arid reading, perhaps, but these +are wet by the spray and swept by the salt winds of romance. During one +of these four days the Sovereign of the Seas reeled off 424 nautical +miles, during which her average speed was seventeen and two-thirds knots +and at times reached nineteen and twenty. The only sailing ship which +ever exceeded this day's work was the Lightning, built later by the +same Donald McKay, which ran 436 knots in the Atlantic passage already +referred to. The Sovereign of the Seas could also boast of a sensational +feat upon the Western Ocean, for between New York and Liverpool she +outsailed the Cunard liner Canada by 325 miles in five days. + +It is curiously interesting to notice that the California clipper era +is almost generally ignored by the foremost English writers of maritime +history. For one thing, it was a trade in which their own ships were not +directly concerned, and partizan bias is apt to color the views of +the best of us when national prestige is involved. American historians +themselves have dispensed with many unpleasant facts when engaged with +the War of 1812. With regard to the speed of clipper ships, however, +involving a rivalry far more thrilling and important than all the races +ever sailed for the America's cup, the evidence is available in concrete +form. + +Lindsay's "History of Merchant Shipping" is the most elaborate English +work of the kind. Heavily ballasted with facts and rather dull reading +for the most part, it kindles with enthusiasm when eulogizing the +Thermopylae and the Sir Launcelot, composite clippers of wood and iron, +afloat in 1870, which it declares to be "the fastest sailing ships +that ever traversed the ocean." This fairly presents the issue which a +true-blooded Yankee has no right to evade. The greatest distance sailed +by the Sir Launcelot in twenty-four hours between China and London was +354 knots, compared with the 424 miles of the Sovereign of the Seas and +the 436 miles of the Lightning. Her best sustained run was one of seven +days for an average of a trifle more than 300 miles a day. Against this +is to be recorded the performance of the Sovereign of the Seas, 3562 +miles in eleven days, at the rate of 324 miles every twenty-four hours, +and her wonderful four-day run of 1478 miles, an average of 378 miles. + +The Thermopylae achieved her reputation in a passage of sixty-three days +from London to Melbourne--a record which was never beaten. Her fastest +day's sailing was 330 miles, or not quite sixteen knots an hour. In six +days she traversed 1748 miles, an average of 291 miles a day. In this +Australian trade the American clippers made little effort to compete. +Those engaged in it were mostly built for English owners and sailed by +British skippers, who could not reasonably be expected to get the most +out of these loftily sparred Yankee ships, which were much larger than +their own vessels of the same type. The Lightning showed what she could +do from Melbourne to Liverpool by making the passage in sixty-three' +days, with 3722 miles in ten consecutive days and one day's sprint of +412 miles. + +In the China tea trade the Thermopylae drove home from Foo-chow in +ninety-one days, which was equaled by the Sir Launcelot. The American +Witch of the Wave had a ninety-day voyage to her credit, and the Comet +ran from Liverpool to Shanghai in eighty-four days. Luck was a larger +factor on this route than in the California or Australian trade because +of the fitful uncertainty of the monsoons, and as a test of speed it was +rather unsatisfactory. In a very fair-minded and expert summary, Captain +Arthur H. Clark, * in his youth an officer on Yankee clippers, has +discussed this question of rival speed and power under sail--a question +which still absorbs those who love the sea. His conclusion is that +in ordinary weather at sea, when great power to carry sail was not +required, the British tea clippers were extremely fast vessels, chiefly +on account of their narrow beam. Under these conditions they were +perhaps as fast as the American clippers of the same class, such as the +Sea Witch, White Squall, Northern Light, and Sword-Fish. But if speed +is to be reckoned by the maximum performance of a ship under the most +favorable conditions, then the British tea clippers were certainly no +match for the larger American ships such as the Flying Cloud, Sovereign +of the Seas, Hurricane, Trade Wind, Typhoon, Flying Fish, Challenge, and +Red Jacket. The greater breadth of the American ships in proportion to +their length meant power to carry canvas and increased buoyancy which +enabled them, with their sharper ends, to be driven in strong gales and +heavy seas at much greater speed than the British clippers. The latter +were seldom of more than one thousand tons' register and combined in a +superlative degree the good qualities of merchant ships. + + + * "The Clipper Ship Era." N.Y., 1910. + + +It was the California trade, brief and crowded and fevered, which saw +the roaring days of the Yankee clipper and which was familiar with +racing surpassing in thrill and intensity that of the packet ships of +the Western Ocean. In 1851, for instance, the Raven, Sea Witch, and +Typhoon sailed for San Francisco within the same week. They crossed the +Equator a day apart and stood away to the southward for three thousand +miles of the southeast trades and the piping westerly winds which +prevailed farther south. At fifty degrees south latitude the Raven and +the Sea Witch were abeam of each other with the Typhoon only two days +astern. + +Now they stripped for the tussle to windward around Cape Horn, sending +down studdingsail booms and skysail yards, making all secure with extra +lashings, plunging into the incessant head seas of the desolate ocean, +fighting it out tack for tack, reefing topsails and shaking them out +again, the vigilant commanders going below only to change their clothes, +the exhausted seamen stubbornly, heroically handling with frozen, +bleeding fingers the icy sheets and canvas. A fortnight of this inferno +and the Sea Witch and the Raven gained the Pacific, still within sight +of each other, and the Typhoon only one day behind. Then they swept +northward, blown by the booming tradewinds, spreading studdingsails, +skysails, and above them, like mere handkerchiefs, the water-sails and +ring-tails. Again the three clippers crossed the Equator. Close-hauled +on the starboard tack, their bowsprits were pointed for the last stage +of the journey to the Golden Gate. The Typhoon now overhauled her rivals +and was the first to signal her arrival, but the victory was earned +by the Raven, which had set her departure from Boston Light while the +others had sailed from New York. The Typhoon and the Raven were only a +day apart, with the Sea Witch five days behind the leader. + +Clipper ship crews included men of many nations. In the average +forecastle there would be two or three Americans, a majority of English +and Norwegians, and perhaps a few Portuguese and Italians. The hardiest +seamen, and the most unmanageable, were the Liverpool packet rats who +were lured from their accustomed haunts to join the clippers by the +magical call of the gold-diggings. There were not enough deep-water +sailors to man half the ships that were built in these few years, and +the crimps and boarding-house runners decoyed or flung aboard on sailing +day as many men as were demanded, and any drunken, broken landlubber was +good enough to be shipped as an able seaman. They were things of rags +and tatters--their only luggage a bottle of whiskey. + +The mates were thankful if they could muster enough real sailors to +work the ship to sea and then began the stern process of whipping the +wastrels and incompetents into shape for the perils and emergencies of +the long voyage. That these great clippers were brought safely to port +is a shining tribute to the masterful skill of their officers. While +many of them were humane and just, with all their severity, the stories +of savage abuse which are told of some are shocking in the extreme. +The defense was that it was either mutiny or club the men under. Better +treatment might have persuaded better men to sail. Certain it is that +life in the forecastle of a clipper was even more intolerable to the +self-respecting American youth than it had previously been aboard the +Atlantic packet. + +When Captain Bob Waterman arrived at San Francisco in the Challenge +clipper in 1851, a mob tried very earnestly to find and hang him and his +officers because of the harrowing stories told by his sailors. That +he had shot several of them from the yards with his pistol to make +the others move faster was one count in the indictment. For his part, +Captain Waterman asserted that a more desperate crew of ruffians had +never sailed out of New York and that only two of them were Americans. +They were mutinous from the start, half of them blacklegs of the vilest +type who swore to get the upper hand of him. His mates, boatswain, +and carpenter had broken open their chests and boxes and had removed a +collection of slung-shots, knuckle-dusters, bowie-knives, and pistols. +Off Rio Janeiro they had tried to kill the chief mate, and Captain +Waterman had been compelled to jump in and stretch two of them dead with +an iron belaying-pin. Off Cape Horn three sailors fell from aloft and +were lost. This accounted for the casualties. + +The truth of such episodes as these was difficult to fathom. Captain +Waterman demanded a legal investigation, but nothing came of his request +and he was commended by his owners for his skill and courage in bringing +the ship to port without losing a spar or a sail. It was a skipper of +this old school who blandly maintained the doctrine that if you wanted +the men to love you, you must starve them and knock them down. The fact +is proven by scores of cases that the discipline of the American clipper +was both famously efficient and notoriously cruel. It was not until long +after American sailors had ceased to exist that adequate legislation was +enacted to provide that they should be treated as human beings afloat +and ashore. Other days and other customs! It is perhaps unkind to judge +these vanished master-mariners too harshly, for we cannot comprehend the +crises which continually beset them in their command. + +No more extreme clipper ships were built after 1854. The California +frenzy had subsided and speed in carrying merchandise was no longer +so essential; besides, the passenger traffic was seeking the Isthmian +route. What were called medium clippers enjoyed a profitable trade +for many years later, and one of them, the Andrew Jackson, was never +outsailed for the record from New York to San Francisco. This splendid +type of ship was to be found on every sea, for the United States was +still a commanding factor in the maritime activities of South America, +India, China, Europe, and Australia. In 1851 its merchant tonnage +rivaled that of England and was everywhere competing with it. + +The effects of the financial panic of 1857 and the aftermath of business +depression were particularly disastrous to American ships. Freights were +so low as to yield no profit, and the finest clippers went begging for +charters. The yards ceased to launch new tonnage. British builders had +made such rapid progress in design and construction that the days of +Yankee preference in the China trade had passed. The Stars and Stripes +floated over ships waiting idle in Manila Bay, at Shanghai, Hong-Kong, +and Calcutta. The tide of commerce had slackened abroad as well as at +home and the surplus of deep-water tonnage was world-wide. + +In earlier generations afloat, the American spirit had displayed amazing +recuperative powers. The havoc of the Revolution had been unable to +check it, and its vigor and aggressive enterprise had never been +more notable than after the blows dealt by the Embargo, the French +Spoliations, and the War of 1812. The conditions of trade and the temper +of the people were now so changed that this mighty industry, aforetime +so robust and resilient, was unable to recover from such shocks as the +panic of 1857 and the Civil War. Yet it had previously survived and +triumphed over calamities far more severe. The destruction wrought by +Confederate cruisers was trifling compared with the work of the British +and French privateers when the nation was very small and weak. + +The American spirit had ceased to concern itself with the sea as the +vital and dominant element. The footsteps of the young men no longer +turned toward the wharf and the waterside and the tiers of tall ships +outward bound. They were aspiring to conquer an inland empire of prairie +and mountain and desert, impelled by the same pioneering and adventurous +ardor which had burned in their seafaring sires. Steam had vanquished +sail--an epochal event in a thousand years of maritime history--but the +nation did not care enough to accept this situation as a new challenge +or to continue the ancient struggle for supremacy upon the sea. England +did care, because it was life or death to the little, sea-girt island, +but as soon as the United States ceased to be a strip of Atlantic +seaboard and the panorama, of a continent was unrolled to settlement, +it was foreordained that the maritime habit of thought and action +should lose its virility in America. All great seafaring races, English, +Norwegian, Portuguese, and Dutch, have taken to salt water because there +was lack of space, food, or work ashore, and their strong young men +craved opportunities. Like the Pilgrim Fathers and their fishing +shallops they had nowhere else to go. + +When the Flying Cloud and the clippers of her kind--taut, serene, +immaculate--were sailing through the lonely spaces of the South Atlantic +and the Pacific, they sighted now and then the stumpy, slatternly rig +and greasy hull of a New Bedford whaler, perhaps rolling to the weight +of a huge carcass alongside. With a poor opinion of the seamanship +of these wandering barks, the clipper crews rolled out, among their +favorite chanteys: + + Oh, poor Reuben Ranzo, + Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo, + Oh, Ranzo was no sailor, + So they shipped him aboard a whaler, + Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo. + +This was crass, intolerant prejudice. The whaling ship was careless of +appearances, it is true, and had the air of an ocean vagabond; but there +were other duties more important than holystoning decks, scraping spars, +and trimming the yards to a hair. On a voyage of two or three +years, moreover, there was always plenty of time tomorrow. Brave and +resourceful seamen were these New England adventurers and deep-sea +hunters who made nautical history after their own fashion. They +flourished coeval with the merchant marine in its prime, and they passed +from the sea at about the same time and for similar reasons. Modernity +dispensed with their services, and young men found elsewhere more +profitable and easier employment. + +The great days of Nantucket as a whaling port were passed before the +Revolution wiped out her ships and killed or scattered her sailors. +It was later discovered that larger ships were more economical, and +Nantucket harbor bar was too shoal to admit their passage. For this +reason New Bedford became the scene of the foremost activity, and +Nantucket thereafter played a minor part, although her barks went +cruising on to the end of the chapter and her old whaling families were +true to strain. As explorers the whalemen rambled into every nook +and corner of the Pacific before merchant vessels had found their way +thither. They discovered uncharted islands and cheerfully fought savages +or suffered direful shipwreck. The chase led them into Arctic regions +where their stout barks were nipped like eggshells among the grinding +floes, or else far to the southward where they broiled in tropic calms. +The New Bedford lad was as keen to go a-whaling as was his counterpart +in Boston or New York to be the dandy mate of a California clipper, and +true was the song: + + I asked a maiden by my side, + Who sighed and looked to me forlorn, + "Where is your heart?" She quick replied, + "Round Cape Horn." + +Yankee whaling reached its high tide in 1857 when the New Bedford fleet +alone numbered 329 sail and those owned in other ports of Buzzard's Bay +swelled the total to 426 vessels, besides thirty more hailing from New +London and Sag Harbor. In this year the value of the catch was more +than ten million dollars. The old custom of sailing on shares or +"lays" instead of wages was never changed. It was win or lose for +all hands--now a handsome fortune or again an empty hold and pockets +likewise. There was Captain W.T. Walker of New Bedford who, in 1847, +bought for a song a ship so old that she was about to be broken up for +junk and no insurance broker would look at her. In this rotten relic +he shipped a crew and went sailing in the Pacific. Miraculously keeping +afloat, this Envoy of his was filled to the hatches with oil and bones, +twice running, before she returned to her home port; and she earned +$138,450 on a total investment of eight thousand dollars. + +The ship Sarah of Nantucket, after a three years' cruise, brought +back 3497 barrels of sperm oil which sold for $89,000, and the William +Hamilton of New Bedford set another high mark by stowing 4181 barrels of +a value of $109,269. The Pioneer of New London, Captain Ebenezer Morgan, +was away only a year and stocked a cargo of oil and whalebone which sold +for $150,060. Most of the profits of prosperous voyages were taken +as the owners' share, and the incomes of the captain and crew were +so niggardly as to make one wonder why they persisted in a calling so +perilous, arduous, and poorly paid. During the best years of whaling, +when the ships were averaging $16,000 for a voyage, the master received +an eighteenth, or about nine hundred dollars a year. The highly skilled +hands, such as the boat-steerers and harpooners, had a lay of only one +seventy-fifth, or perhaps a little more than two hundred dollars cash as +the reward of a voyage which netted the owner at least fifty per cent on +his investment. Occasionally they fared better than this and sometimes +worse. The answer to the riddle is that they liked the life and had +always the gambling spirit which hopes for a lucky turn of the cards. + +The countless episodes of fragile boats smashed to kindling by fighting +whales, of the attack renewed with harpoon and lance, of ships actually +rammed and sunk, would fill a volume by themselves and have been +stirringly narrated in many a one. Zanzibar and Kamchatka, Tasmania and +the Seychelles knew the lean, sun-dried Yankee whaleman and his motto of +a "dead whale or a stove boat." The Civil War did not drive him from the +seas. The curious fact is that his products commanded higher prices +in 1907 than fifty years before, but the number of his ships rapidly +decreased. Whales were becoming scarce, and New England capital +preferred other forms of investment. The leisurely old sailing craft was +succeeded by the steam whaler, and the explosive bomb slew, instead of +the harpoon and lance hurled by the sinewy right arm of a New Bedford +man or Cape Verde islander. + +Roving whaler and armed East Indiaman, plunging packet ship and stately +clipper, they served their appointed days and passed on their several +courses to become mere memories, as shadowy and unsubstantial as the +gleam of their own topsails when seen at twilight. The souls of their +sailors have fled to Fiddler's Green, where all dead mariners go. They +were of the old merchant marine which contributed something fine and +imperishable to the story of the United States. Down the wind, vibrant +and deep-throated, comes their own refrain for a requiem: + + We're outward bound this very day, + Good-bye, fare you well, + Good-bye, fare you well. + We're outward bound this very day, + Hurrah, my boys, we're outward bound. + + + +CHAPTER X. BOUND COASTWISE + +One thinks of the old merchant marine in terms of the clipper ship and +distant ports. The coasting trade has been overlooked in song and story; +yet, since the year 1859, its fleets have always been larger and more +important than the American deep-water commerce nor have decay and +misfortune overtaken them. It is a traffic which flourished from the +beginning, ingeniously adapting itself to new conditions, unchecked by +war, and surviving with splendid vigor, under steam and sail, in this +modern era. + +The seafaring pioneers won their way from port to port of the +tempestuous Atlantic coast in tiny ketches, sloops, and shallops when +the voyage of five hundred miles from New England to Virginia was a +prolonged and hazardous adventure. Fog and shoals and lee shores beset +these coastwise sailors, and shipwrecks were pitifully frequent. In +no Hall of Fame will you find the name of Captain Andrew Robinson +of Gloucester, but he was nevertheless an illustrious benefactor and +deserves a place among the most useful Americans. His invention was the +Yankee schooner of fore-and-aft rig, and he gave to this type of vessel +its name. * Seaworthy, fast, and easily handled, adapted for use in +the early eighteenth century when inland transportation was almost +impossible, the schooner carried on trade between the colonies and was +an important factor in the growth of the fisheries. + + + * It is said that as the odd two-master slid gracefully into the water, +a spectator exclaimed: "See how she scoons!" "Aye," answered Captain +Robinson, "a SCHOONER let her be!" This launching took place in 1718 or +1714. + + +Before the Revolution the first New England schooners were beating up +to the Grand Bank of Newfoundland after cod and halibut. They were of +no more than fifty tons' burden, too small for their task but manned +by fishermen of surpassing hardihood. Marblehead was then the foremost +fishing port with two hundred brigs and schooners on the offshore banks. +But to Gloucester belongs the glory of sending the first schooner to the +Grand Bank. * From these two rock-bound harbors went thousands of trained +seamen to man the privateers and the ships of the Continental navy, +slinging their hammocks on the gun-decks beside the whalemen of +Nantucket. These fishermen and coastwise sailors fought on the land as +well and followed the drums of Washington's armies until the final +scene at Yorktown. Gloucester and Marblehead were filled with widows and +orphans, and half their men-folk were dead or missing. + + + * Marvin's "American Merchant Marine," p. 287. + + +The fishing-trade soon prospered again, and the men of the old ports +tenaciously clung to the sea even when the great migration flowed +westward to people the wilderness and found a new American empire. +They were fishermen from father to son, bound together in an intimate +community of interests, a race of pure native or English stock, +deserving this tribute which was paid to them in Congress: "Every +person on board our fishing vessels has an interest in common with his +associates; their reward depends upon their industry and enterprise. +Much caution is observed in the selection of the crews of our fishing +vessels; it often happens that every individual is connected by blood +and the strongest ties of friendship; our fishermen are remarkable for +their sobriety and good conduct, and they rank with the most skillful +navigators." + +Fishing and the coastwise merchant trade were closely linked. Schooners +loaded dried cod as well as lumber for southern ports and carried back +naval stores and other southern products. Well-to-do fishermen owned +trading vessels and sent out their ventures, the sailors shifting from +one forecastle to the other. With a taste for an easier life than the +stormy, freezing Banks, the young Gloucesterman would sign on for a +voyage to Pernambuco or Havana and so be fired with ambition to become +a mate or master and take to deep water after a while. In this way was +maintained a school of seamanship which furnished the most intelligent +and efficient officers of the merchant marine. For generations they were +mostly recruited from the old fishing and shipping ports of New England +until the term "Yankee shipmaster" had a meaning peculiarly its own. + +Seafaring has undergone so many revolutionary changes and old days and +ways are so nearly obliterated that it is singular to find the sailing +vessel still employed in great numbers, even though the gasolene motor +is being installed to kick her along in spells of calm weather. The +Gloucester fishing schooner, perfect of her type, stanch, fleet, and +powerful, still drives homeward from the Banks under a tall press of +canvas, and her crew still divide the earnings, share and share, as did +their forefathers a hundred and fifty years ago. But the old New England +strain of blood no longer predominates, and Portuguese, Scandinavians, +and Nova Scotia "Bluenoses" bunk with the lads of Gloucester stock. Yet +they are alike for courage, hardihood, and mastery of the sea, and the +traditions of the calling are undimmed. + +There was a time before the Civil War when Congress jealously protected +the fisheries by means of a bounty system and legislation aimed against +our Canadian neighbors. The fishing fleets were regarded as a source +of national wealth and the nursery of prime seamen for the navy and +merchant marine. In 1858 the bounty system was abandoned, however, and +the fishermen were left to shift for themselves, earning small profits +at peril of their lives and preferring to follow the sea because they +knew no other profession. In spite of this loss of assistance from the +Government, the tonnage engaged in deep-sea fisheries was never so great +as in the second year of the Civil War. Four years later the industry +had shrunk one-half; and it has never recovered its early importance * + + + * In 1882, the tonnage amounted to 193,459; in 1866, to 89,336. + + +The coastwise merchant trade, on the other hand, has been jealously +guarded against competition and otherwise fostered ever since 1789, when +the first discriminatory tonnage tax was enforced. The Embargo Act of +1808 prohibited domestic commerce to foreign flags, and this edict was +renewed in the American Navigation Act of 1817. It remained a firmly +established doctrine of maritime policy until the Great War compelled +its suspension as an emergency measure. The theories of protection +and free trade have been bitterly debated for generations, but in this +instance the practice was eminently successful and the results were +vastly impressive. Deepwater shipping dwindled and died, but the +increase in coastwise sailing was consistent. It rose to five million +tons early in this century and makes the United States still one of the +foremost maritime powers in respect to saltwater activity. + +To speak of this deep-water shipping as trade coastwise is misleading, +in a way. The words convey an impression of dodging from port to port +for short distances, whereas many of the voyages are longer than those +of the foreign routes in European waters. It is farther by sea from +Boston to Philadelphia than from Plymouth, England, to Bordeaux. A +schooner making the run from Portland to Savannah lays more knots over +her stern than a tramp bound out from England to Lisbon. It is a shorter +voyage from Cardiff to Algiers than an American skipper pricks off on +his chart when he takes his steamer from New York to New Orleans or +Galveston. This coastwise trade may lack the romance of the old school +of the square-rigged ship in the Roaring Forties, but it has always +been the more perilous and exacting. Its seamen suffer hardships unknown +elsewhere, for they have to endure winters of intense cold and heavy +gales and they are always in risk of stranding or being driven ashore. + +The story of these hardy men is interwoven, for the most part, with the +development of the schooner in size and power. This graceful craft, +so peculiar to its own coast and people, was built for utility and +possessed a simple beauty of its own when under full sail. The schooners +were at first very small because it was believed that large fore-and-aft +sails could not be handled with safety. They were difficult to reef or +lower in a blow until it was discovered that three masts instead of two +made the task much easier. For many years the three-masted schooner was +the most popular kind of American merchant vessel. They clustered in +every Atlantic port and were built in the yards of New England, New +York, New Jersey, and Virginia,--built by the mile, as the saying was, +and sawed off in lengths to suit the owners' pleasure. They carried +the coal, ice, lumber of the whole seaboard and were so economical of +man-power that they earned dividends where steamers or square-rigged +ships would not have paid for themselves. + +As soon as a small steam-engine was employed to hoist the sails, it +became possible to launch much larger schooners and to operate them at +a marvelously low cost. Rapidly the four-master gained favor, and then +came the five- and six-masted vessels, gigantic ships of their kind. +Instead of the hundred-ton schooner of a century ago, Hampton Roads +and Boston Harbor saw these great cargo carriers which could stow under +hatches four and five thousand tons of coal, and whose masts soared a +hundred and fifty feet above the deck. Square-rigged ships of the same +capacity would have required crews of a hundred men, but these schooners +were comfortably handled by a company of fifteen all told, only ten of +whom were in the forecastle. There was no need of sweating and hauling +at braces and halliards. The steam-winch undertook all this toil. The +tremendous sails, stretching a hundred feet from boom to gaff could +not have been managed otherwise. Even for trimming sheets or setting +topsails, it was necessary merely to take a turn or two around the drum +of the winch engine and turn the steam valve. The big schooner was the +last word in cheap, efficient transportation by water. In her own sphere +of activity she was as notable an achievement as the Western Ocean +packet or the Cape Horn clipper. + +The masters who sailed these extraordinary vessels also changed and had +to learn a new kind of seamanship. They must be very competent men, for +the tests of their skill and readiness were really greater than those +demanded of the deepwater skipper. They drove these great schooners +alongshore winter and summer; across Nantucket Shoals and around Cape +Cod, and their salvation depended on shortening sail ahead of the gale. +Let the wind once blow and the sea get up, and it was almost impossible +to strip the canvas off an unwieldy six-master. The captain's chief fear +was of being blown offshore, of having his vessel run away with him! +Unlike the deep-water man, he preferred running in toward the beach and +letting go his anchors. There he would ride out the storm and hoist sail +when the weather moderated. + +These were American shipmasters of the old breed, raised in schooners +as a rule, and adapting themselves to modern conditions. They sailed for +nominal wages and primage, or five per cent of the gross freight paid +the vessel. Before the Great War in Europe, freights were low and the +schooner skippers earned scanty incomes. Then came a world shortage +of tonnage and immediately coastwise freights soared skyward. The big +schooners of the Palmer fleet began to reap fabulous dividends and their +masters shared in the unexpected opulence. Besides their primage they +owned shares in their vessels, a thirty-second or so, and presently +their settlement at the end of a voyage coastwise amounted to an income +of a thousand dollars a month. They earned this money, and the +managing owners cheerfully paid them, for there had been lean years and +uncomplaining service and the sailor had proved himself worthy of his +hire. So tempting was the foreign war trade, that a fleet of them was +sent across the Atlantic until the American Government barred them from +the war zone as too easy a prey for submarine attack. They therefore +returned to the old coastwise route or loaded for South American +ports--singularly interesting ships because they were the last bold +venture of the old American maritime spirit, a challenge to the Age of +Steam. + +No more of these huge, towering schooners have been built in the last +dozen years. Steam colliers and barges have won the fight because time +is now more valuable than cheapness of transportation. The schooner +might bowl down to Norfolk from Boston or Portland in four days and be +threshing about for two weeks in head winds on the return voyage. + +The small schooner appeared to be doomed somewhat earlier. She had +ceased to be profitable in competition with the larger, more modern +fore-and-after, but these battered, veteran craft died hard. They +harked back to a simpler age, to the era of the stage-coach and the +spinning-wheel, to the little shipyards that were to be found on every +bay and inlet of New England. They were still owned and sailed by men +who ashore were friends and neighbors. Even now you may find during your +summer wanderings some stumpy, weatherworn two-master running on for +shelter overnight, which has plied up and down the coast for fifty or +sixty years, now leaking like a basket and too frail for winter voyages. +It was in a craft very much like this that your rude ancestors went +privateering against the British. Indeed, the little schooner Polly, +which fought briskly in the War of 1812, is still afloat and loading +cargoes in New England ports. + +These little coasters, surviving long after the stately merchant marine +had vanished from blue water, have enjoyed a slant of favoring fortune +in recent years. They, too, have been in demand, and once again there is +money to spare for paint and cordage and calking. They have been granted +a new lease of life and may be found moored at the wharfs, beached on +the marine railways, or anchored in the stream, eagerly awaiting their +turn to refit. It is a matter of vital concern that the freight on +spruce boards from Bangor to New York has increased to five dollars a +thousand feet. Many of these craft belong to grandfatherly skippers who +dared not venture past Cape Cod in December, lest the venerable Matilda +Emerson or the valetudinarian Joshua R. Coggswell should open up and +founder in a blow. During the winter storms these skippers used to hug +the kitchen stove in bleak farmhouses until spring came and they could +put to sea again. The rigor of circumstances, however, forced others to +seek for trade the whole year through. In a recent winter fifty-seven +schooners were lost on the New England coast, most of which were unfit +for anything but summer breezes. As by a miracle, others have been able +to renew their youth, to replace spongy planking and rotten stems, and +to deck themselves out in white canvas and fresh paint! + +The captains of these craft foregather in the ship-chandler's shops, +where the floor is strewn with sawdust, the armchairs are capacious, +and the environment harmonizes with the tales that are told. It is an +informal club of coastwise skippers and the old energy begins to show +itself once more. They move with a brisker gait than when times were so +hard and they went begging for charters at any terms. A sinewy patriarch +stumps to a window, flourishes his arm at an ancient two-master, and +booms out: + +"That vessel of mine is as sound as a nut, I tell ye. She ain't as big +as some, but I'd like nothin' better than to fill her full of suthin' +for the west coast of Africy, same as the Horace M. Bickford that +cleared t'other day, stocked for SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS." + +"Huh, you'd get lost out o' sight of land, John," is the cruel retort, +"and that old shoe-box of yours 'ud be scared to death without a harbor +to run into every time the sun clouded over. Expect to navigate to +Africy with an alarm-clock and a soundin'-lead, I presume." + +"Mebbe I'd better let well enough alone," replies the old man. "Africy +don't seem as neighborly as Phippsburg and Machiasport. I'll chance it +as far as Philadelphy next voyage and I guess the old woman can buy a +new dress." + +The activity and the reawakening of the old shipyards, their slips all +filled with the frames of wooden vessels for the foreign trade, is +like a revival of the old merchant marine, a reincarnation of ghostly +memories. In mellowed dignity the square white houses beneath the New +England elms recall to mind the mariners who dwelt therein. It seems +as if their shipyards also belonged to the past; but the summer visitor +finds a fresh attraction in watching the new schooners rise from the +stocks, and the gay pageant of launching them, every mast ablaze with +bunting, draws crowds to the water-front. And as a business venture, +with somewhat of the tang of old-fashioned romance, the casual stranger +is now and then tempted to purchase a sixty-fourth "piece" of a splendid +Yankee four-master and keep in touch with its roving fortunes. The +shipping reports of the daily newspaper prove more fascinating than the +ticker tape, and the tidings of a successful voyage thrill one with a +sense of personal gratification. For the sea has not lost its magic +and its mystery, and those who go down to it in ships must still battle +against elemental odds--still carry on the noble and enduring traditions +of the Old Merchant Marine. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +As a rule, American historians like McMaster, Adams, and Rhodes give +too little space to the maritime achievements of the nation. The gap has +been partially filled by the following special works: + +Winthrop L. Marvin, "The American Merchant Marine: Its History and +Romance from 1620 to 1902" (1902). This is the most nearly complete +volume of its kind by an author who knows the subject and handles it +with accuracy. + +John R. Spears, "The Story of the American Merchant Marine" (1910), "The +American Slave Trade" (1901), "The Story of the New England Whalers" +(1908). Mr. Spears has sought original sources for much of his material +and his books are worth reading, particularly his history of the +slave-trade. + +Ralph D. Paine, "The Ships and Sailors of Old Salem: The Record of a +Brilliant Era of American Achievement" (1912). A history of the most +famous seaport of the Atlantic coast, drawn from log-books and other +manuscript collections. "The Book of Buried Treasure: Being a True +History of the Gold, Jewels, and Plate of Pirates, Galleons, etc." +(1911). Several chapters have to do with certain picturesque pirates and +seamen of the colonies. + +Edgar S. Maclay, "A History of American Privateers" (1899). The only +book of its kind, and indispensable to those who wish to learn the story +of Yankee ships and sailors. + +J. R. Hutchinson, "The Press Gang Afloat and Ashore" (1914). This recent +volume, written from an English point of view, illuminates the system of +conscription which caused the War of 1812. + +Nothing can take the place, however, of the narratives of those master +mariners who made the old merchant marine famous: + +Richard Henry Dana, Jr., "Two Years Before the Mast" (1840). The latest +edition, handsomely illustrated, (1915). The classic narrative of +American forecastle life in the sailing-ship era. + +Captain Richard Cleveland, "Narrative of Voyages and Commercial +Enterprises" (1842). This is one of the fascinating autobiographies of +the old school of shipmasters who had the gift of writing. + +Captain Amasa Delano, "Narrative of Voyages and Travels" (1817). +Another of the rare human documents of blue water. It describes the most +adventurous period of activity, a century ago. + +Captain Arthur H. Clark, "The Clipper Ship Era" (1910). A thrilling, +spray-swept, true story. Far and away the best account of the clipper, +by a man who was an officer of one in his youth. + +Robert Bennet Forbes, "Notes on Ships of the Past" (1888). Random facts +and memories of a famous Boston ship-owner. It is valuable for its +records of noteworthy passages. + +Captain John D. Whidden, "Ocean Life in the Old Sailing Ship Days" +(1908). The entertaining reminiscences of a veteran shipmaster. + +Captain A. W. Nelson, "Yankee Swanson: Chapters from a Life at Sea" +(1913). Another of the true romances, recommended for a lively sense of +humor and a faithful portrayal of life aboard a windjammer. + +There are many other personal narratives, some of them privately printed +and very old, which may be found in the libraries. Typical of them is +"A Journal of the Travels and Sufferings of Daniel Saunders" (1794), in +which a young sailor relates his adventures after shipwreck on the coast +of Arabia. + +Among general works the following are valuable: + +J. Grey Jewell, "Among Our Sailors" (1874). A plea for more humane +treatment of American seamen, with many instances on shocking +brutalities as reported to the author, who was a United States Consul. + +E. Keble Chatterton, "Sailing Ships: The Story of their Development" +(1909). An elaborate history of the development of the sailing vessel +from the earliest times to the modern steel clipper. + +W. S. Lindsay, "History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce," 4 +vols. (1874-76). An English work, notably fair to the American marine, +and considered authoritative. + +Douglas Owen, "Ocean Trade and Shipping" (1914). An English economist +explains the machinery of maritime trade and commerce. + +William Wood, "All Afloat." In "The Chronicles of Canada Series." +Glasgow, Brook and Co., Toronto, 1914. + +J. B. McMaster, "The Life and Times of Stephen Girard, Mariner and +Merchant," 2 vols. (1918). + +The relation of governmental policy to the merchant marine is discussed +by various writers: + +David A. Wells, "Our Merchant Marine: How It Rose, Increased, Became +Great, Declined, and Decayed" (1882). A political treatise in defense of +a protective policy. + +William A. Bates, "American Marine: The Shipping Question in History +and Politics" (1892); "American Navigation: The Political History of Its +Rise and Ruin" (1902). These works are statistical and highly technical, +partly compiled from governmental reports, and are also frankly +controversial. + +Henry Hall, "American Navigation, With Some Account of the Causes of Its +Former Prosperity and Present Decline" (1878). + +Charles S. Hill, "History of American Shipping: Its Prestige, Decline, +and Prospect" (1883). + +J. D. J. Kelley, "The Question of Ships: The Navy and the Merchant +Marine" (1884). + +Arthur J. Maginnis, "The Atlantic Ferry: Its Ships, Men, and Working" +(1900). + +A vast amount of information is to be found in the Congressional Report +of the Merchant Marine Commission, published in three volumes (1905). + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Old Merchant Marine, by Ralph D. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END* + + + + + +THIS BOOK, VOLUME 36 IN THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA SERIES, ALLEN +JOHNSON, EDITOR, WAS DONATED TO PROJECT GUTENBERG BY THE JAMES J. +KELLY LIBRARY OF ST. GREGORY'S UNIVERSITY; THANKS TO ALEV AKMAN. + +Scanned by Dianne Bean. Proofed by Carrie Lorenz. + + + + + +THE OLD MERCHANT MARINE, A CHRONICLE OF AMERICAN SHIPS AND SAILORS + +BY RALPH D. PAINE + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. COLONIAL ADVENTURERS IN LITTLE SHIPS +II. THE PRIVATEERS OF '76 +III. OUT CUTLASES AND BOARD! +IV. THE FAMOUS DAYS OF SALEM PORT +V. YANKEE VIKINGS AND NEW TRADE ROUTES +VI. "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS!" +VII. THE BRILLIANT ERA OF 1812 +VIII. THE PACKET SHIPS OF THE "ROARING FORTIES" +IX. THE STATELY CLIPPER AND HER GLORY +X. BOUND COASTWISE +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + + + +THE OLD MERCHANT MARINE + +CHAPTER I. COLONIAL ADVENTURERS IN LITTLE SHIPS + +The story of American ships and sailors is an epic of blue water +which seems singularly remote, almost unreal, to the later +generations. A people with a native genius for seafaring won and +held a brilliant supremacy through two centuries and then forsook +this heritage of theirs. The period of achievement was no more +extraordinary than was its swift declension. A maritime race +whose topsails flecked every ocean, whose captains courageous +from father to son had fought with pike and cannonade to defend +the freedom of the seas, turned inland to seek a different +destiny and took no more thought for the tall ships and rich +cargoes which had earned so much renown for its flag. + +Vanished fleets and brave memories--a chronicle of America which +had written its closing chapters before the Civil War! There will +be other Yankee merchantmen in times to come, but never days like +those when skippers sailed on seas uncharted in quest of ports +mysterious and unknown. + +The Pilgrim Fathers, driven to the northward of their intended +destination in Virginia, landed on the shore of Cape Cod not so +much to clear the forest and till the soil as to establish a +fishing settlement. Like the other Englishmen who long before +1620 had steered across to harvest the cod on the Grand Bank, +they expected to wrest a livelihood mostly from salt water. The +convincing argument in favor of Plymouth was that it offered a +good harbor for boats and was "a place of profitable fishing." +Both pious and amphibious were these pioneers whom the wilderness +and the red Indian confined to the water's edge, where they were +soon building ships to trade corn for beaver skins with the +Kennebec colony. + +Even more energetic in taking profit from the sea were the +Puritans who came to Massachusetts Bay in 1629, bringing +carpenters and shipbuilders with them to hew the pine and oak so +close at hand into keelsons, frames, and planking. Two years +later, Governor John Winthrop launched his thirty-ton sloop +Blessing of the Bay, and sent her to open "friendly commercial +relations" with the Dutch of Manhattan. Brisk though the traffic +was in furs and wampum, these mariners of Boston and Salem were +not content to voyage coastwise. Offshore fishing made skilled, +adventurous seamen of them, and what they caught with hook and +line, when dried and salted, was readily exchanged for other +merchandise in Bermuda, Barbados, and Europe. + +A vessel was a community venture, and the custom still survives +in the ancient ports of the Maine coast where the shapely wooden +schooners are fashioned. The blacksmith, the rigger, the calker, +took their pay in shares. They became part owners, as did +likewise the merchant who supplied stores and material; and when +the ship was afloat, the master, the mates, and even the seamen, +were allowed cargo space for commodities which they might buy and +sell to their own advantage. Thus early they learned to trade as +shrewdly as they navigated, and every voyage directly concerned a +whole neighborhood. + +This kind of enterprise was peculiar to New England because other +resources were lacking. To the westward the French were more +interested in exploring the rivers leading to the region of the +Great Lakes and in finding fabulous rewards in furs. The Dutch on +the Hudson were similarly engaged by means of the western trails +to the country of the Iroquois, while the planters of Virginia +had discovered an easy opulence in the tobacco crop, with slave +labor to toil for them, and they were not compelled to turn to +the hardships and the hazards of the sea. The New Englander, +hampered by an unfriendly climate, hard put to it to grow +sufficient food, with land immensely difficult to clear, was +between the devil and the deep sea, and he sagaciously chose the +latter. Elsewhere in the colonies the forest was an enemy to be +destroyed with infinite pains. The New England pioneer regarded +it with favor as the stuff with which to make stout ships and +step the straight masts in them. + +And so it befell that the seventeenth century had not run its +course before New England was hardily afloat on every Atlantic +trade route, causing Sir Josiah Child, British merchant and +economist, to lament in 1668 that in his opinion nothing was +"more prejudicial and in prospect more dangerous to any mother +kingdom than the increase of shipping in her colonies, +plantations, or provinces." + +This absorbing business of building wooden vessels was scattered +in almost every bay and river of the indented coast from Nova +Scotia to Buzzard's Bay and the sheltered waters of Long Island +Sound. It was not restricted, as now, to well-equipped yards with +crews of trained artisans. Hard by the huddled hamlet of log +houses was the row of keel-blocks sloping to the tide. In winter +weather too rough for fishing, when the little farms lay idle, +this Yankee Jack-of-all-trades plied his axe and adze to shape +the timbers, and it was a routine task to peg together a sloop, a +ketch, or a brig, mere cockleshells, in which to fare forth to +London, or Cadiz, or the Windward Islands--some of them not much +larger and far less seaworthy than the lifeboat which hangs at a +liner's davits. Pinching poverty forced him to dispense with the +ornate, top-heavy cabins and forecastles of the foreign +merchantmen, while invention, bred of necessity, molded finer +lines and less clumsy models to weather the risks of a stormy +coast and channels beset with shoals and ledges. The square-rig +did well enough for deepwater voyages, but it was an awkward, +lubberly contrivance for working along shore, and the colonial +Yankee therefore evolved the schooner with her flat fore-and-aft +sails which enabled her to beat to windward and which required +fewer men in the handling. + +Dimly but unmistakably these canny seafarers in their rude +beginnings foreshadowed the creation of a merchant marine which +should one day comprise the noblest, swiftest ships driven by the +wind and the finest sailors that ever trod a deck. Even then +these early vessels were conspicuously efficient, carrying +smaller crews than the Dutch or English, paring expenses to a +closer margin, daring to go wherever commerce beckoned in order +to gain a dollar at peril of their skins. + +By the end of the seventeenth century more than a thousand +vessels were registered as built in the New England colonies, and +Salem already displayed the peculiar talent for maritime +adventure which was to make her the most illustrious port of the +New World. The first of her line of shipping merchants was Philip +English, who was sailing his own ketch Speedwell in 1676 and so +rapidly advanced his fortunes that in a few years he was the +richest man on the coast, with twenty-one vessels which traded +coastwise with Virginia and offshore with Bilbao, Barbados, St. +Christopher's, and France. Very devout were his bills of lading, +flavored in this manner: "Twenty hogsheads of salt, shipped by +the Grace of God in the good sloop called the Mayflower . . . . +and by God's Grace bound to Virginia or Merriland." + +No less devout were the merchants who ordered their skippers to +cross to the coast of Guinea and fill the hold with negroes to be +sold in the West Indies before returning with sugar and molasses +to Boston or Rhode Island. The slave-trade flourished from the +very birth of commerce in Puritan New England and its golden +gains and exotic voyages allured high-hearted lads from farm and +counter. In 1640 the ship Desire, built at Marblehead, returned +from the West Indies and "brought some cotton and tobacco and +negroes, etc. from thence." Earlier than this the Dutch of +Manhattan had employed black labor, and it was provided that the +Incorporated West India Company should "allot to each Patroon +twelve black men and women out of the Prizes in which Negroes +should be found." + +It was in the South, however, that this kind of labor was most +needed and, as the trade increased, Virginia and the Carolinas +became the most lucrative markets. Newport and Bristol drove a +roaring traffic in "rum and niggers," with a hundred sail to be +found in the infamous Middle Passage. The master of one of these +Rhode Island slavers, writing home from Guinea in 1736, portrayed +the congestion of the trade in this wise: "For never was there so +much Rum on the Coast at one time before. Not ye like of ye +French ships was never seen before, for ye whole coast is full of +them. For my part I can give no guess when I shall get away, for +I purchast but 27 slaves since I have been here, for slaves is +very scarce. We have had nineteen Sail of us at one time in ye +Road, so that ships that used to carry pryme slaves off is now +forced to take any that comes. Here is seven sail of us Rum men +that are ready to devour one another, for our case is desprit." + +Two hundred years of wickedness unspeakable and human torture +beyond all computation, justified by Christian men and sanctioned +by governments, at length rending the nation asunder in civil war +and bequeathing a problem still unsolved--all this followed in +the wake of those first voyages in search of labor which could be +bought and sold as merchandise. It belonged to the dark ages with +piracy and witchcraft, better forgotten than recalled, save for +its potent influence in schooling brave seamen and building +faster ships for peace and war. + +These colonial seamen, in truth, fought for survival amid dangers +so manifold as to make their hardihood astounding. It was not +merely a matter of small vessels with a few men and boys daring +distant voyages and the mischances of foundering or stranding, +but of facing an incessant plague of privateers, French and +Spanish, Dutch and English, or a swarm of freebooters under no +flag at all. Coasts were unlighted, charts few and unreliable, +and the instruments of navigation almost as crude as in the days +of Columbus. Even the savage Indian, not content with lurking in +ambush, went afloat to wreak mischief, and the records of the +First Church of Salem contain this quaint entry under date of +July 25, 1677: "The Lord having given a Commission to the Indians +to take no less than 13 of the Fishing Ketches of Salem and +Captivate the men . . . it struck a great consternation into all +the people here. The Pastor moved on the Lord's Day, and the +whole people readily consented, to keep the Lecture Day following +as a Fast Day, which was accordingly done . . . . The Lord was +pleased to send in some of the Ketches on the Fast Day which was +looked on as a gracious smile of Providence. Also there had been +19 wounded men sent into Salem a little while before; also a +Ketch sent out from Salem as a man-of-war to recover the rest of +the Ketches. The Lord give them Good Success." + +To encounter a pirate craft was an episode almost commonplace and +often more sordid than picturesque. Many of these sea rogues were +thieves with small stomach for cutlasses and slaughter. They were +of the sort that overtook Captain John Shattuck sailing home from +Jamaica in 1718 when he reported his capture by one Captain +Charles Vain, "a Pyrat" of 12 guns and 120 men who took him to +Crooked Island, plundered him of various articles, stripped the +brig, abused the crew, and finally let him go. In the same year +the seamen of the Hopewell related that near Hispaniola they met +with pirates who robbed and ill-treated them and carried off +their mate because they had no navigator. + +Ned Low, a gentleman rover of considerable notoriety, stooped to +filch the stores and gear from a fleet of fourteen poor fishermen +of Cape Sable. He had a sense of dramatic values, however, and +frequently brandished his pistols on deck, besides which, as set +down by one of his prisoners, "he had a young child in Boston for +whom he entertained such tenderness that on every lucid interval +from drinking and revelling, I have seen him sit down and weep +plentifully." + +A more satisfying figure was Thomas Pounds, who was taken by the +sloop Mary, sent after him from Boston in 1689. He was discovered +in Vineyard Sound, and the two vessels fought a gallant action, +the pirate flying a red flag and refusing to strike. Captain +Samuel Pease of the Mary was mortally wounded, while Pounds, this +proper pirate, strode his quarter-deck and waved his naked sword, +crying, "Come on board, ye dogs, and I will strike YOU +presently." This invitation was promptly accepted by the stout +seamen from Boston, who thereupon swarmed over the bulwark and +drove all hands below, preserving Thomas Pounds to be hanged in +public. + +In 1703 John Quelch, a man of resource, hoisted what he called +"Old Roger" over the Charles--a brigantine which had been +equipped as a privateer to cruise against the French of Acadia. +This curious flag of his was described as displaying a skeleton +with an hour-glass in one hand and "a dart in the heart with +three drops of blood proceeding from it in the other." Quelch led +a mutiny, tossed the skipper overboard, and sailed for Brazil, +capturing several merchantmen on the way and looting them of rum, +silks, sugar, gold dust, and munitions. Rashly he came sailing +back to Marblehead, primed with a plausible yarn, but his men +talked too much when drunk and all hands were jailed. Upon the +gallows Quelch behaved exceedingly well, "pulling off his hat and +bowing to the spectators," while the somber Puritan merchants in +the crowd were, many of them, quietly dealing in the merchandise +fetched home by pirates who were lucky enough to steer clear of +the law. + +This was a shady industry in which New York took the more active +part, sending out supplies to the horde of pirates who ravaged +the waters of the Far East and made their haven at Madagascar, +and disposing of the booty received in exchange. Governor +Fletcher had dirtied his hands by protecting this commerce and, +as a result, Lord Bellomont was named to succeed him. Said +William III, "I send you, my Lord, to New York, because an honest +and intrepid man is wanted to put these abuses down, and because +I believe you to be such a man." + +Such were the circumstances in which Captain William Kidd, +respectable master mariner in the merchant service, was employed +by Lord Bellomont, royal Governor of New York, New Hampshire, and +Massachusetts, to command an armed ship and harry the pirates of +the West Indies and Madagascar. Strangest of all the sea tales of +colonial history is that of Captain Kidd and his cruise in the +Adventure-Galley. His name is reddened with crimes never +committed, his grisly phantom has stalked through the legends +and literature of piracy, and the Kidd tradition still has magic +to set treasure-seekers exploring almost every beach, cove, and +headland from Halifax to the Gulf of Mexico. Yet if truth were +told, he never cut a throat or made a victim walk the plank. He +was tried and hanged for the trivial offense of breaking the head +of a mutinous gunner of his own crew with a wooden bucket. It was +even a matter of grave legal doubt whether he had committed one +single piratical act. His trial in London was a farce. In the +case of the captured ships he alleged that they were sailing +under French passes, and he protested that his privateering +commission justified him, and this contention was not disproven. +The suspicion is not wanting that he was condemned as a scapegoat +because certain noblemen of England had subscribed the capital to +outfit his cruise, expecting to win rich dividends in gold +captured from the pirates he was sent to attack. Against these +men a political outcry was raised, and as a result Captain Kidd +was sacrificed. He was a seaman who had earned honorable +distinction in earlier years, and fate has played his memory a +shabby trick. + +It was otherwise with Blackbeard, most flamboyant of all colonial +pirates, who filled the stage with swaggering success, chewing +wine-glasses in his cabin, burning sulphur to make his ship seem +more like hell, and industriously scourging the whole Atlantic +coast. Charleston lived in terror of him until Lieutenant +Maynard, in a small sloop, laid him alongside in a +hammer-and-tongs engagement and cut off the head of Blackbeard to +dangle from the bowsprit as a trophy. + +Of this rudely adventurous era, it would be hard to find a seaman +more typical than the redoubtable Sir William Phips who became +the first royal Governor of the Massachusetts Colony in 1692. +Born on a frontier farm of the Maine coast while many of the +Pilgrim fathers were living, "his faithful mother," wrote Cotton +Mather, "had no less than twenty-six children, whereof twenty-one +were sons; but equivalent to them all was William, one of the +youngest, whom, his father dying, was left young with his mother, +and with her he lived, keeping ye sheep in Ye Wilderness until he +was eighteen years old." Then he apprenticed himself to a +neighboring shipwright who was building sloops and pinnaces and, +having learned the trade, set out for Boston. As a ship-carpenter +he plied his trade, spent his wages in the taverns of the +waterside and there picked up wondrous yarns of the silver-laden +galleons of Spain which had shivered their timbers on the reefs +of the Bahama Passage or gone down in the hurricanes that beset +those southerly seas. Meantime he had married a wealthy widow +whose property enabled him to go treasure-hunting on the Spanish +main. From his first voyage thither in a small vessel he escaped +with his life and barely enough treasure to pay the cost of the +expedition. + +In no wise daunted he laid his plans to search for a richly +ladened galleon which was said to have been wrecked half a +century before off the coast of Hispaniola. Since his own funds +were not sufficient for this exploit, he betook himself to +England to enlist the aid of the Government. With bulldog +persistence he besieged the court of James II for a whole year, +this rough-and-ready New England shipmaster, until he was given a +royal frigate for his purpose. He failed to fish up more silver +from the sands but, nothing daunted, he persuaded other patrons +to outfit him with a small merchantman, the James and Mary, in +which he sailed for the coast of Hispaniola. This time he found +his galleon and thirty-two tons of silver. "Besides that +incredible treasure of plate, thus fetched up from seven or eight +fathoms under water, there were vast riches of Gold, and Pearls, +and Jewels . . . . All that a Spanish frigot was to be enriched +withal." + +Up the Thames sailed the lucky little merchantman in the year of +1687, with three hundred thousand pounds sterling as her +freightage of treasure. Captain Phips made honest division with +his backers and, because men of his integrity were not over +plentiful in England after the Restoration, King James knighted +him. He sailed home to Boston, "a man of strong and sturdy +frame," as Hawthorne fancied him, "whose face had been roughened +by northern tempests and blackened by the burning sun of the West +Indies . . . . He wears an immense periwig flowing down over his +shoulders . . . . His red, rough hands which have done many a +good day's work with the hammer and adze are half-covered by the +delicate lace rues at the wrist." But he carried with him the +manners of the forecastle, a man hasty and unlettered but +superbly brave and honest. Even after he had become Governor he +thrashed the captain of the Nonesuch frigate of the royal navy, +and used his fists on the Collector of the Port after cursing him +with tremendous gusto. Such behavior in a Governor was too +strenuous, and Sir William Phips was summoned to England, where +he died while waiting his restoration to office and royal favor. +Failing both, he dreamed of still another treasure voyage, "for +it was his purpose, upon his dismission from his Government once +more to have gone upon his old Fishing-Trade, upon a mighty shelf +of rock and banks of sand that lie where he had informed +himself." + + + +CHAPTER II. THE PRIVATEERS OF '76 + +The wars of England with France and Spain spread turmoil upon the +high seas during the greater part of the eighteenth century. Yet +with an immense tenacity of purpose, these briny forefathers +increased their trade and multiplied their ships in the face of +every manner of adversity. The surprising fact is that most of +them were not driven ashore to earn their bread. What Daniel +Webster said of them at a later day was true from the beginning: +"It is not, sir, by protection and bounties, but by unwearied +exertion, by extreme economy, by that manly and resolute spirit +which relies on itself to protect itself. These causes alone +enable American ships still to keep the element and show the flag +of their country in distant seas." + +What was likely to befall a shipmaster in the turbulent +eighteenth century may be inferred from the misfortunes of +Captain Michael Driver of Salem. In 1759 he was in command of the +schooner Three Brothers, bound to the West Indies on his lawful +business. Jogging along with a cargo of fish and lumber, he was +taken by a privateer under British colors and sent into Antigua +as a prize. Unable to regain either his schooner or his two +thousand dollar cargo, he sadly took passage for home. Another +owner gave him employment and he set sail in the schooner Betsy +for Guadaloupe. During this voyage, poor man, he was captured and +carried into port by a French privateer. On the suggestion that +he might ransom his vessel on payment of four thousand livres, he +departed for Boston in hope of finding the money, leaving behind +three of his sailors as hostages. + +Cash in hand for the ransom, the long-suffering Captain Michael +Driver turned southward again, now in the schooner Mary, and he +flew a flag of truce to indicate his errand. This meant nothing +to the ruffian who commanded the English privateer Revenge. He +violently seized the innocent Mary and sent her into New +Providence. Here Captain Driver made lawful protest before the +authorities, and was set at liberty with vessel and cargo--an act +of justice quite unusual in the Admiralty Court of the Bahamas. + +Unmolested, the harassed skipper managed to gain Cape Francois +and rescue his three seamen and his schooner in exchange for the +ransom money. As he was about to depart homeward bound, a French +frigate snatched him and his crew out of their vessel and threw +them ashore at Santiago, where for two months they existed as +ragged beachcombers until by some judicial twist the schooner was +returned to them. They worked her home and presented their long +list of grievances to the colonial Government of Massachusetts, +which duly forwarded them--and that was the end of it. Three +years had been spent in this catalogue of misadventures, and +Captain Driver, his owners, and his men were helpless against +such intolerable aggression. They and their kind were a prey to +every scurvy rascal who misused a privateering commission to fill +his own pockets. + +Stoutly resolved to sail and trade as they pleased, these +undaunted Americans, nevertheless, increased their business on +blue water until shortly before the Revolution the New England +fleet alone numbered six hundred sail. Its captains felt at home +in Surinam and the Canaries. They trimmed their yards in the +reaches of the Mediterranean and the North Sea or bargained +thriftily in the Levant. The whalers of Nantucket, in their +apple-bowed barks, explored and hunted in distant seas, and the +smoke of their try-pots darkened the waters of Baffin Bay, +Guinea, and Brazil. It was they who inspired Edmund Burke's +familiar eulogy: "No sea but is vexed by their fisheries. No +climate that is not a witness to their toils. Neither the +perseverance of Holland nor the activity of France, nor the +dexterous and firm sagacity of England ever carried this most +perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has +been pushed by this recent people--a people who are still, as it +were, but in the gristle and not yet hardened into the bone of +manhood." + +In 1762, seventy-eight whalers cleared from American ports, of +which more than half were from Nantucket. Eight years later there +were one hundred and twenty-five whalers out of Nantucket which +took 14,331 barrels of oil valued at $358,200. In size these +vessels averaged no more than ninety tons, a fishing smack of +today, and yet they battered their way half around the watery +globe and comfortably supported six thousand people who dwelt on +a sandy island unfit for farming and having no other industries. +Every Nantucket lad sailed for his "lay" or share of the catch +and aspired to command eventually a whaler of his own. + +Whaler, merchantman, and slaver were training a host of +incomparable seamen destined to harry the commerce of England +under the new-born Stars and Stripes, and now, in 1775, on the +brink of actual war, Parliament flung a final provocation and +aroused the furious enmity of the fishermen who thronged the +Grand Bank. Lord North proposed to forbid the colonies to export +fish to those foreign markets in which every seacoast village was +vitally concerned, and he also contemplated driving the fishing +fleets from their haunts off Newfoundland. This was to rob six +thousand sturdy men of a livelihood afloat and to spread ruin +among the busy ports, such as Marblehead and Gloucester, from +which sailed hundreds of pinks, snows, and schooners. This +measure became law notwithstanding the protests of twenty-one +peers of the realm who declared: "We dissent because the attempt +to coerce by famine the whole body of the inhabitants of great +and populous provinces is without example in the history of this, +or perhaps, of any civilized nation." + +The sailormen bothered their heads very little about taxation +without representation but whetted their anger with grudges more +robust. They had been beggared and bullied and shot at from the +Bay of Biscay to Barbados, and no sooner was the Continental +Congress ready to issue privateering commissions and letters of +marque than for them it was up anchor and away to bag a +Britisher. Scarcely had a shipmaster signaled his arrival with a +deep freight of logwood, molasses, or sugar than he received +orders to discharge with all speed and clear his decks for +mounting heavier batteries and slinging the hammocks of a hundred +eager privateersmen who had signed articles in the tavern +rendezvous. The timbered warehouses were filled with long-toms +and nine-pounders, muskets, blunderbusses, pistols, cutlases, +boarding-pikes, hand grenades, tomahawks, grape, canister, and +doubleheaded shot. + +In the narrow, gabled streets of Salem, Boston, New York, and +Baltimore, crowds trooped after the fifes and drums with a +strapping recruiting officer to enroll "all gentlemen seamen and +able-bodied landsmen who had a mind to distinguish themselves in +the glorious cause of their country and make their fortunes." +Many a ship's company was mustered between noon and sunset, +including men who had served in armed merchantmen and who in +times of nominal peace had fought the marauders of Europe or +whipped the corsairs of Barbary in the Strait of Gibraltar. Never +was a race of seamen so admirably fitted for the daring trade of +privateering as the crews of these tall sloops, topsail +schooners, and smart square-riggers, their sides checkered with +gun-ports, and ready to drive to sea like hawks. + +In some instances the assurance of these hardy men was both +absurd and sublime. Ramshackle boats with twenty or thirty men +aboard, mounting one or two old guns, sallied out in the +expectation of gold and glory, only to be captured by the first +British cruiser that chanced to sight them. A few even sailed +with no cannon at all, confident of taking them out of the first +prize overhauled by laying alongside--and so in some cases they +actually did. + +The privateersmen of the Revolution played a larger part in +winning the war than has been commonly recognized. This fact, +however, was clearly perceived by Englishmen of that era, as "The +London Spectator" candidly admitted: "The books at Lloyds will +recount it, and the rate of assurances at that time will prove +what their diminutive strength was able to effect in the face of +our navy, and that when nearly one hundred pennants were flying +on our coast. Were we able to prevent their going in and out, or +stop them from taking our trade and our storeships even in sight +of our garrisons? Besides, were they not in the English and Irish +Channels, picking up our homeward bound trade, sending their +prizes into French and Spanish ports to the great terror of our +merchants and shipowners?" + +The naval forces of the Thirteen Colonies were pitifully feeble +in comparison with the mighty fleets of the enemy whose flaming +broadsides upheld the ancient doctrine that "the Monarchs of +Great Britain have a peculiar and Sovereign authority upon the +Ocean . . . from the Laws of God and of Nature, besides an +uninterrupted Fruition of it for so many Ages past as that its +Beginnings cannot be traced out."* + +* "The Seaman's Vade-Mecum." London, 1744. + + +In 1776 only thirty-one Continental cruisers of all classes were +in commission, and this number was swiftly diminished by capture +and blockade until in 1782 no more than seven ships flew the flag +of the American Navy. On the other hand, at the close of 1777, +one hundred and seventy-four private armed vessels had been +commissioned, mounting two thousand guns and carrying nine +thousand men. During this brief period of the war they took as +prizes 733 British merchantmen and inflicted losses of more than +two million pounds sterling. Over ten thousand seamen were made +prisoners at a time when England sorely needed them for drafting +into her navy. To lose them was a far more serious matter than +for General Washington to capture as many Hessian mercenaries who +could be replaced by purchase. + +In some respects privateering as waged a century and more ago was +a sordid, unlovely business, the ruling motive being rather a +greed of gain than an ardent love of country. Shares in lucky +ships were bought and sold in the gambling spirit of a stock +exchange. Fortunes were won and lost regardless of the public +service. It became almost impossible to recruit men for the navy +because they preferred the chance of booty in a privateer. For +instance, the State of Massachusetts bought a twenty-gun ship, +the Protector, as a contribution to the naval strength, and one +of her crew, Ebenezer Fox, wrote of the effort to enlist +sufficient men: "The recruiting business went on slowly, however, +but at length upwards of three hundred men were carried, dragged, +and driven abroad; of all ages, kinds, and descriptions; in all +the various stages of intoxication from that of sober tipsiness +to beastly drunkenness; with the uproar and clamor that may be +more easily imagined than described. Such a motley group has +never been seen since Falstaff's ragged regiment paraded the +streets of Coventry." + +There was nothing of glory to boast of in fetching into port some +little Nova Scotia coasting schooner with a cargo of deals and +potatoes, whose master was also the owner and who lost the +savings of a lifetime because he lacked the men and guns to +defend his property against spoliation. The war was no concern of +his, and he was the victim of a system now obsolete among +civilized nations, a relic of a barbarous and piratical age whose +spirit has been revived and gloried in recently only by the +Government of the German Empire. The chief fault of the +privateersman was that he sailed and fought for his own gain, but +he was never guilty of sinking ships with passengers and crew +aboard, and very often he played the gentleman in gallant style. +Nothing could have seemed to him more abhorrent and incredible +than a kind of warfare which should drown women and children +because they had embarked under an enemy's flag. + +Extraordinary as were the successes of the Yankee privateers, it +was a game of give-and-take, a weapon which cut both ways, and +the temptation is to extol their audacious achievements while +glossing over the heavy losses which their own merchant marine +suffered. The weakness of privateering was that it was wholly +offensive and could not, like a strong navy, protect its own +commerce from depredation. While the Americans were capturing +over seven hundred British vessels during the first two years of +the war, as many as nine hundred American ships were taken or +sunk by the enemy, a rate of destruction which fairly swept the +Stars and Stripes from the tracks of ocean commerce. As prizes +these vessels were sold at Liverpool and London for an average +amount of two thousand pounds each and the loss to the American +owners was, of course, ever so much larger. + +The fact remains, nevertheless--and it is a brilliant page of +history to recall--that in an inchoate nation without a navy, +with blockading squadrons sealing most of its ports, with ragged +armies on land which retreated oftener than they fought, private +armed ships dealt the maritime prestige of Great Britain a far +deadlier blow than the Dutch, French, and Spanish were able to +inflict. In England, there resulted actual distress, even lack of +food, because these intrepid seamen could not be driven away from +her own coasts and continued to snatch their prizes from under +the guns of British forts and fleets. The plight of the West +India Colonies was even worse, as witness this letter from a +merchant of Grenada: "We are happy if we can get anything for +money by reason of the quantity of vessels taken by the +Americans. 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 American privateers. God knows, +if this American war continues much longer, we shall all die of +hunger." + +On both sides, by far the greater number of captures was made +during the earlier period of the war which cleared the seas of +the smaller, slower, and unarmed vessels. As the war progressed +and the profits flowed in, swifter and larger ships were built +for the special business of privateering until the game resembled +actual naval warfare. Whereas, at first, craft of ten guns with +forty or fifty men had been considered adequate for the service, +three or four years later ships were afloat with a score of heavy +cannon and a trained crew of a hundred and fifty or two hundred +men, ready to engage a sloop of war or to stand up to the enemy's +largest privateers. In those days single ship actions, now almost +forgotten in naval tactics, were fought with illustrious skill +and courage, and commanders won victories worthy of comparison +with deeds distinguished in the annals of the American Navy. + + + +CHAPTER III. OUT CUTLASES AND BOARD + +Salem was the foremost privateering port of the Revolution, and +from this pleasant harbor, long since deserted by ships and +sailormen, there filled away past Cape Ann one hundred and +fifty-eight vessels of all sizes to scan the horizon for British +topsails. They accounted for four hundred prizes, or half the +whole number to the credit of American arms afloat. This +preeminence was due partly to freedom from a close blockade and +partly to a seafaring population which was born and bred to its +trade and knew no other. Besides the crews of Salem merchantmen, +privateering enlisted the idle fishermen of ports nearby and the +mariners of Boston whose commerce had been snuffed out by the +British occupation. Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston sent +some splendid armed ships to sea but not with the impetuous rush +nor in anything like the numbers enrolled by this gray old town +whose fame was unique. + +For the most part, the records of all these brave ships and the +thousands of men who sailed and sweated and fought in them are +dim and scanty, no more than routine entries in dusty log-books +which read like this: "Filled away in pursuit of a second sail in +the N. W. At 4.30 she hoisted English colors and commenced firing +her stern guns. At 5.90 took in the steering sails, at the same +time she fired a broadside. We opened a fire from our larboard +battery and at 5.30 she struck her colors. Got out the boats and +boarded her. She proved to be the British brig Acorn from +Liverpool to Rio Janeiro, mounting fourteen cannon."* But now and +then one finds in these old sea-journals an entry more intimate +and human, such as the complaint of the master of the privateer +Scorpion, cruising in 1778 and never a prize in sight. "This Book +I made to keep the Accounts of my Voyage but God knows beste what +that will be, for I am at this time very Impashent but I hope +soon there will be a Change to ease my Trubled Mind. On this Day +I was Chaced by Two Ships of War which I tuck to be Enemies, but +coming on thick Weather I have lost site of them and so conclude +myself escaped which is a small good Fortune in the midste of my +Discouragements."** A burst of gusty laughter still echoes along +the crowded deck of the letter-of-marque schooner Success, whose +master, Captain Philip Thrash, inserted this diverting comment in +his humdrum record of the day's work: "At one half past 8 +discovered a sail ahead. Tacked ship. At 9 tacked ship again and +past just to Leeward of the Sail which appeared to be a damn'd +Comical Boat, by G-d." + +* From the manuscript collections of the Essex Institute, Salem, +Mass. + +** From the manuscript collections of the Essex Institute, Salem, +Mass. + + +There are a few figures of the time and place which stand out, +full-length, in vivid colors against a background that satisfies +the desire of romance and thrillingly conveys the spirit of the +time and the place. Such a one was Captain Jonathan Haraden, +Salem privateersman, who captured one thousand British cannon +afloat and is worthy to be ranked as one of the ablest +sea-fighters of his generation. He was a merchant mariner, a +master at the outbreak of the Revolution, who had followed the +sea since boyhood. But it was more to his taste to command the +Salem ship General Pickering of 180 tons which was fitted out +under a letter of marque in the spring of 1780. She carried +fourteen six-pounders and forty-five men and boys, nothing very +formidable, when Captain Haraden sailed for Bilbao with a cargo +of sugar. During the voyage, before his crew had been hammered +into shape, he beat off a British privateer of twenty guns and +safely tacked into the Bay of Biscay. + +There he sighted another hostile privateer, the Golden Eagle, +larger than his own ship. Instead of shifting his course to avoid +her, Haraden clapped on sail and steered alongside after +nightfall, roaring through his trumpet: "What ship is this? An +American frigate, sir. Strike, or I'll sink you with a +broadside." + +Dazed by this unexpected summons in the gloom, the master of the +Golden Eagle promptly surrendered, and a prize crew was thrown +aboard with orders to follow the Pickering into Bilbao. While +just outside that Spanish harbor, a strange sail was descried and +again Jonathan Haraden cleared for action. The vessel turned out +to be the Achilles, one of the most powerful privateers out of +London, with forty guns and a hundred and fifty men, or almost +thrice the fighting strength of the little Pickering. She was, in +fact, more like a sloop of war. Before Captain Haraden could haul +within gunshot to protect his prize, it had been recaptured by +the Achilles, which then maneuvered to engage the Pickering. + +Darkness intervened, but Jonathan Haraden had no idea of escaping +under cover of it. He was waiting for the morning breeze and a +chance to fight it out to a finish. He was a handsome man with an +air of serene composure and a touch of the theatrical such as +Nelson displayed in his great moments. Having prepared his ship +for battle, he slept soundly until dawn and then dressed with +fastidious care to stroll on deck, where he beheld the Achilles +bearing down on him with her crew at quarters. + +His own men were clustered behind their open ports, matches +lighted, tackles and breechings cast off, crowbars, handspikes, +and sponge-staves in place, gunners stripped to the waist, +powder-boys ready for the word like sprinters on the mark. +Forty-five of them against a hundred and fifty, and Captain +Haraden, debonair, unruffled, walking to and fro with a leisurely +demeanor, remarking that although the Achilles appeared to be +superior in force, "he had no doubt they would beat her if they +were firm and steady and did not throw away their fire." + +It was, indeed, a memorable sea-picture, the sturdy Pickering +riding deep with her burden of sugar and seeming smaller than she +really was, the Achilles towering like a frigate, and all Bilbao +turned out to watch the duel, shore and headlands crowded with +spectators, the blue harbor-mouth gay with an immense flotilla of +fishing boats and pleasure craft. The stake for which Haraden +fought was to retake the Golden Eagle prize and to gain his port. +His seamanship was flawless. Vastly outnumbered if it should come +to boarding, he handled his vessel so as to avoid the Achilles +while he poured the broadsides into her. After two hours the +London privateer emerged from the smoke which had obscured the +combat and put out to sea in flight, hulled through and through, +while a farewell flight of crowbars, with which the guns of the +Pickering had been crammed to the muzzle, ripped through her +sails and rigging. + +Haraden hoisted canvas and drove in chase, but the Achilles had +the heels of him "with a mainsail as large as a ship of the +line," and reluctantly he wore ship and, with the Golden Eagle +again in his possession, he sailed to an anchorage in Bilbao +harbor. The Spanish populace welcomed him with tremendous +enthusiasm. He was carried through the streets in a holiday +procession and was the hero of banquets and public receptions. + +Such a man was bound to be the idol of his sailors and one of +them quite plausibly related that "so great was the confidence he +inspired that if he but looked at a sail through his glass and +told the helmsman to steer for her, the observation went +round,'If she is an enemy, she is ours.'" + +It was in this same General Pickering, no longer sugar-laden but +in cruising trim, that Jonathan Haraden accomplished a feat which +Paul Jones might have been proud to claim. There lifted above the +sky-line three armed merchantmen sailing in company from Halifax +to New York, a brig of fourteen guns, a ship of sixteen guns, a +sloop of twelve guns. When they flew signals and formed in line, +the ship alone appeared to outmatch the Pickering, but Haraden, +in that lordly manner of his, assured his men that "he had no +doubt whatever that if they would do their duty he would quickly +capture the three vessels." Here was performance very much out of +the ordinary, naval strategy of an exceptionally high order, and +yet it is dismissed by the only witness who took the trouble to +mention it in these few, casual words: "This he did with great +ease by going alongside of each of them, one after the other." + +One more story of this master sea-rover of the Revolution, sailor +and gentleman, who served his country so much more brilliantly +than many a landsman lauded in the written histories of the war. +While in the Pickering he attacked a heavily armed royal mail +packet bound to England from the West Indies, one of the largest +merchant vessels of her day and equipped to defend herself +against privateers. A tough antagonist and a hard nut to crack! +They battered each other like two pugilists for four hours and +even then the decision was still in the balance. Then Haraden +sheered off to mend his damaged gear and splintered hull before +closing in again. + +He then discovered that all his powder had been shot away +excepting one last charge. Instead of calling it a drawn battle, +he rammed home this last shot in the locker, and ran down to +windward of the packet, so close that he could shout across to +the other quarter-deck: "I will give you five minutes to haul +down your colors. If they are not down at the end of that time, I +will fire into you and sink you, so help me God." + +It was the bluff magnificent--courage cold-blooded and +calculating. The adversary was still unbeaten. Haraden stood with +watch in hand and sonorously counted off the minutes. It was the +stronger will and not the heavier metal that won the day. To be +shattered by fresh broadsides at pistol-range was too much for +the nerves of the gallant English skipper whose decks were +already like a slaughterhouse. One by one, Haraden shouted the +minutes and his gunners blew their matches. At "four" the red +ensign came fluttering down and the mail packet was a prize of +war. + +Another merchant seaman of this muster-roll of patriots was Silas +Talbot, who took to salt water as a cabin boy at the age of +twelve and was a prosperous shipmaster at twenty-one with savings +invested in a house of his own in Providence. Enlisting under +Washington, he was made a captain of infantry and was soon +promoted, but he was restless ashore and glad to obtain an odd +assignment. As Colonel Talbot he selected sixty infantry +volunteers, most of them seamen by trade, and led them aboard the +small sloop Argo in May, 1779, to punish the New York Tories who +were equipping privateers against their own countrymen and +working great mischief in Long Island Sound. So serious was the +situation that General Gates found it almost impossible to obtain +food supplies for the northern department of the Continental +army. + +Silas Talbot and his nautical infantrymen promptly fell in with +the New York privateer Lively, a fair match for him, and as +promptly sent her into port. He then ran offshore and picked up +and carried into Boston two English privateers headed for New +York with large cargoes of merchandise from the West Indies. But +he was particularly anxious to square accounts with a renegade +Captain Hazard who made Newport his base and had captured many +American vessels with the stout brig King George, using her for +"the base purpose of plundering his old neighbors and friends." + +On his second cruise in the Argo, young Silas Talbot encountered +the perfidious King George to the southward of Long Island and +riddled her with one broadside after another, first hailing +Captain Hazard by name and cursing him in double-shotted phrases +for the traitorous swab that he was. Then the seagoing infantry +scrambled over the bulwarks and tumbled the Tories down their own +hatches without losing a man. A prize crew with the humiliated +King George made for New London, where there was much cheering in +the port, and "even the women, both young and old, expressed the +greatest joy." + +With no very heavy fighting, Talbot had captured five vessels and +was keen to show what his crew could do against mettlesome +foemen. He found them at last well out to sea in a large ship +which seemed eager to engage him. Only a few hundred feet apart +through a long afternoon, they briskly and cheerily belabored +each other with grape and solid shot. Talbot's speaking-trumpet +was shot out of his hand, the tails of his coat were shorn off, +and all the officers and men stationed with him on the +quarter-deck were killed or wounded. + +His crew reported that the Argo was in a sinking condition, with +the water flooding the gun-deck, but he told them to lower a man +or two in the bight of a line and they pluckily plugged the holes +from overside. There was a lusty huzza when the Englishman's +mainmast crashed to the deck and this finished the affair. Silas +Talbot found that he had trounced the privateer Dragon, of twice +his own tonnage and with the advantage in both guns and men. + +While his crew was patching the Argo and pumping the water from +her hold, the lookout yelled that another sail was making for +them. Without hesitation Talbot somehow got this absurdly +impudent one-masted craft of his under way and told those of his +sixty men who survived to prepare for a second tussle. +Fortunately another Yankee privateer joined the chase and +together they subdued the armed brig Hannah. When the Argo safely +convoyed the two prizes into New Bedford, "all who beheld her +were astonished that a vessel of her diminutive size could suffer +so much and yet get safely to port." + +Men fought and slew each other in those rude and distant days +with a certain courtesy, with a fine, punctilious regard for the +etiquette of the bloody game. There was the Scotch skipper of the +Betsy, a privateer, whom Silas Talbot hailed as follows, before +they opened fire: + +"You must now haul down those British colors, my friend." + +"Notwithstanding I find you an enemy, as I suspected," was the +dignified reply, "yet, sir, I shall let them hang a little bit +longer,--with your permission,--so fire away, Flanagan." + +During another of her cruises the Argo pursued an artfully +disguised ship of the line which could have blown her to kingdom +come with a broadside of thirty guns. The little Argo was +actually becalmed within short range, but her company got out the +sweeps and rowed her some distance before darkness and a favoring +slant of wind carried them clear. In the summer of 1780, Captain +Silas Talbot, again a mariner by title, was given the private +cruiser General Washington with one hundred and twenty men, but +he was less fortunate with her than when afloat in the tiny Argo +with his sixty Continentals. Off Sandy Hook he ran into the +British fleet under Admiral Arbuthnot and, being outsailed in a +gale of wind, he was forced to lower his flag to the great +seventy-four Culloden. After a year in English prisons he was +released and made his way home, serving no more in the war but +having the honor to command the immortal frigate Constitution in +1799 as a captain in the American Navy. + +In several notable instances the privateersmen tried conclusions +with ships that flew the royal ensign, and got the better of +them. The hero of an uncommonly brilliant action of this sort was +Captain George Geddes of Philadelphia, who was entrusted with the +Congress, a noble privateer of twenty-four guns and two hundred +men. Several of the smaller British cruisers had been sending +parties ashore to plunder estates along the southern shores, and +one of them, the sloop of war Savage, had even raided +Washington's home at Mount Vernon. Later she shifted to the coast +of Georgia in quest of loot and was unlucky enough to fall +athwart Captain Geddes in the Congress. + +The privateer was the more formidable ship and faster on the +wind, forcing Captain Sterling of the Savage to accept the +challenge. Disabled aloft very early in the fight, Captain Geddes +was unable to choose his position, for which reason they +literally battled hand-to-hand, hulls grinding against each +other, the gunners scorched by the flashes of the cannon in the +ports of the opposing ship, with scarcely room to ply the +rammers, and the sailors throwing missiles from the decks, hand +grenades, cold shot, scraps of iron, belaying-pins. + +As the vessels lay interlocked, the Savage was partly dismasted +and Captain Geddes, leaping upon the forecastle head, told the +boarders to follow him. Before they could swing their cutlases +and dash over the hammock-nettings, the British boatswain waved +his cap and yelled that the Savage had surrendered. Captain +Sterling was dead, eight others were killed, and twenty-four +wounded. The American loss was about the same. Captain Geddes, +however, was unable to save his prize because a British frigate +swooped down and took them both into Charleston. + +When peace came in 1783, it was independence dearly bought by +land and sea, and no small part of the price was the loss of a +thousand merchant ships which would see their home ports no more. +Other misfortunes added to the toll of destruction. The great +fishing fleets which had been the chief occupation of coastwise +New England were almost obliterated and their crews were +scattered. Many of the men had changed their allegiance and were +sailing out of Halifax, and others were impressed into British +men-of-war or returned broken in health from long confinement in +British prisons. The ocean was empty of the stanch schooners +which had raced home with lee rails awash to cheer waiting wives +and sweethearts. + +The fate of Nantucket and its whalers was even more tragic. This +colony on its lonely island amid the shoals was helpless against +raids by sea, and its ships and storehouses were destroyed +without mercy. Many vessels in distant waters were captured +before they were even aware that a state of war existed. Of a +fleet numbering a hundred and fifty sail, one hundred and +thirty-four were taken by the enemy and Nantucket whaling +suffered almost total extinction. These seamen, thus robbed of +their livelihood, fought nobly for their country's cause. Theirs +was not the breed to sulk or whine in port. Twelve hundred of +them were killed or made prisoners during the Revolution. They +were to be found in the Army and Navy and behind the guns of +privateers. There were twenty-five Nantucket whalemen in the crew +of the Ranger when Paul Jones steered her across the Atlantic on +that famous cruise which inspired the old forecastle song that +begins + + 'Tis of the gallant Yankee ship + That flew the Stripes and Stars, + And the whistling wind from the west nor'west + Blew through her pitch pine spars. + With her starboard tacks aboard, my boys, + She hung upon the gale. + On an autumn night we raised the light + Off the Old Head of Kinsale. + +Pitiful as was the situation of Nantucket, with its only industry +wiped out and two hundred widows among the eight hundred families +left on the island, the aftermath of war seemed almost as ruinous +along the whole Atlantic coast. More ships could be built and +there were thousands of adventurous sailors to man them, but +where were the markets for the product of the farms and mills and +plantations? The ports of Europe had been so long closed to +American shipping that little demand was left for American goods. +To the Government of England the people of the Republic were no +longer fellow-countrymen but foreigners. As such they were +subject to the Navigation Acts, and no cargoes could be sent to +that kingdom unless in British vessels. The flourishing trade +with the West Indies was made impossible for the same reason, a +special Order in Council aiming at one fell stroke to "put an end +to the building and increase of American vessels" and to finish +the careers of three hundred West Indiamen already afloat. In the +islands themselves the results were appalling. Fifteen thousand +slaves died of starvation because the American traders were +compelled to cease bringing them dried fish and corn during +seasons in which their own crops were destroyed by hurricanes. + +In 1776, one-third of the seagoing merchant marine of Great +Britain had been bought or built to order in America because +lumber was cheaper and wages were lower. This lucrative business +was killed by a law which denied Englishmen the privilege of +purchasing ships built in American yards. So narrow and bitter +was this commercial enmity, so ardent this desire to banish the +Stars and Stripes from blue water, that Lord Sheffield in 1784 +advised Parliament that the pirates of Algiers and Tripoli really +benefited English commerce by preying on the shipping of weaker +nations. "It is not probable that the American States will have a +very free trade in the Mediterranean," said he. "It will not be +to the interest of any of the great maritime Powers to protect +them from the Barbary States. If they know their interests, they +will not encourage the Americans to be carriers. That the Barbary +States are advantageous to maritime Powers is certain." + +Denied the normal ebb and flow of trade and commerce and with the +imports from England far exceeding the value of the merchandise +exported thence, the United States, already impoverished, was +drained of its money, and a currency of dollars, guineas, joes, +and moidores grew scarcer day by day. There was no help in a +government which consisted of States united only in name. +Congress comprised a handful of respectable gentlemen who had +little power and less responsibility, quarreling among themselves +for lack of better employment. Retaliation against England by +means of legislation was utterly impossible. Each State looked +after its commerce in its own peculiar fashion and the devil +might take the hindmost. Their rivalries and jealousies were like +those of petty kingdoms. If one State should close her ports is +to English ships, the others would welcome them in order to +divert the trade, with no feeling of national pride or federal +cooperation. + +The Articles of Confederation had empowered Congress to make +treaties of commerce, but only such as did not restrain the +legislative power of any State from laying imposts and regulating +exports and imports. If a foreign power imposed heavy duties upon +American shipping, it was for the individual States and not for +Congress to say whether the vessels of the offending nation +should be allowed free entrance to the ports of the United +States: It was folly to suppose, ran the common opinion, that if +South Carolina should bar her ports to Spain because rice and +indigo were excluded from the Spanish colonies, New Hampshire, +which furnished masts and lumber for the Spanish Navy, ought to +do the same. The idea of turning the whole matter over to +Congress was considered preposterous by many intelligent +Americans. + +In these thirteen States were nearly three and a quarter million +people hemmed in a long and narrow strip between the sea and an +unexplored wilderness in which the Indians were an ever present +peril. The Southern States, including Maryland, prosperous +agricultural regions, contained almost one-half the English- +speaking population of America. As colonies, they had found the +Old World eager for their rice, tobacco, indigo, and tar, and +slavery was the means of labor so firmly established that +one-fifth of the inhabitants were black. By contrast, the +Northern States were still concerned with commerce as the very +lifeblood of their existence. New England had not dreamed of the +millions of spindles which should hum on the banks of her rivers +and lure her young men and women from the farms to the clamorous +factory towns. The city of New York had not yet outgrown its +traffic in furs and its magnificent commercial destiny was still +unrevealed. It was a considerable seaport but not yet a gateway. +From Sandy Hook, however, to the stormy headlands of Maine, it +was a matter of life and death that ships should freely come and +go with cargoes to exchange. All other resources were trifling in +comparison. + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE FAMOUS DAYS OF SALEM PORT + +In such compelling circumstances as these, necessity became the +mother of achievement. There is nothing finer in American history +than the dogged fortitude and high-hearted endeavor with which +the merchant seamen returned to their work after the Revolution +and sought and found new markets for their wares. It was then +that Salem played that conspicuous part which was, for a +generation, to overshadow the activities of all other American +seaports. Six thousand privateersmen had signed articles in her +taverns, as many as the total population of the town, and they +filled it with a spirit of enterprise and daring. Not for them +the stupid monotony of voyages coastwise if more hazardous +ventures beckoned and there were havens and islands unvexed by +trade where bold men might win profit and perhaps fight for life +and cargo. + +Now there dwelt in Salem one of the great men of his time, Elias +Hasket Derby, the first American millionaire, and very much more +than this. He was a shipping merchant with a vision and with the +hard-headed sagacity to make his dreams come true. His was a +notable seafaring family, to begin with. His father, Captain +Richard Derby, born in 1712, had dispatched his small vessels to +the West Indies and Virginia and with the returns from these +voyages he had loaded assorted cargoes for Spain and Madeira and +had the proceeds remitted in bills of exchange to London or in +wine, salt, fruit, oil, lead, and handkerchiefs to America. +Richard Derby's vessels had eluded or banged away at the +privateers during the French War from 1756 to 1763, mounting from +eight to twelve guns, "with four cannon below decks for close +quarters." Of such a temper was this old sea-dog who led the +militia and defiantly halted General Gage's regulars at the North +River bridge in Salem, two full months before the skirmish at +Lexington. Eight of the nineteen cannon which it was proposed to +seize from the patriots had been taken from the ships of Captain +Richard Derby and stored in his warehouse for the use of the +Provincial Congress. + +It was Richard's son, Captain John Derby, who carried to England +in the swift schooner Quero the first news of the affair at +Lexington, ahead of the King's messenger. A sensational arrival, +if ever there was one! This Salem shipmaster, cracking on sail +like a proper son of his sire, making the passage in twenty-nine +days and handsomely beating the lubberly Royal Express Packet +Sukey which left Boston four days sooner, and startling the +British nation with the tidings which meant the loss of an +American empire! A singular coincidence was that this same +Captain John Derby should have been the first mariner to inform +the United States that peace had come, when he arrived from +France in 1783 with the message that a treaty had been signed. + +Elias Hasket Derby was another son of Richard. When his manifold +energies were crippled by the war, he diverted his ability and +abundant resources into privateering. He was interested in at +least eighty of the privateers out of Salem, invariably +subscribing for such shares as might not be taken up by his +fellow-townsmen. He soon perceived that many of these craft were +wretchedly unfit for the purpose and were easily captured or +wrecked. It was characteristic of his genius that he should +establish shipyards of his own, turn his attention to naval +architecture, and begin to build a class of vessels vastly +superior in size, model, and speed to any previously launched in +the colonies. They were designed to meet the small cruiser of the +British Navy on even terms and were remarkably successful, both +in enriching their owner and in defying the enemy. + +At the end of the war Elias Hasket Derby discovered that these +fine ships were too large and costly to ply up and down the +coast. Instead of bewailing his hard lot, he resolved to send +them to the other side of the globe. At a time when the British +and the Dutch East India companies insolently claimed a monopoly +of the trade of the Orient, when American merchant seamen had +never ventured beyond the two Atlantics, this was a conception +which made of commerce a surpassing romance and heralded the +golden era of the nation's life upon the sea. + +His Grand Turk of three hundred tons was promptly fitted out for +a pioneering voyage as far as the Cape of Good Hope. Salem knew +her as "the great ship" and yet her hull was not quite one +hundred feet long. Safely Captain Jonathan Ingersoll took her out +over the long road, his navigating equipment consisting of a few +erroneous maps and charts, a sextant, and Guthrie's Geographical +Grammar. In Table Bay he sold his cargo of provisions and then +visited the coast of Guinea to dispose of his rum for ivory and +gold dust but brought not a single slave back, Mr. Derby having +declared that "he would rather sink the whole capital employed +than directly or indirectly be concerned in so infamous a +trade"--an unusual point of view for a shipping merchant of New +England in 1784! + +Derby ships were first to go to Mauritius, then called the Isle +of France, first at Calcutta, and among the earliest to swing at +anchor off Canton. When Elias Hasket Derby decided to invade this +rich East India commerce, he sent his eldest son, Elias Hasket, +Jr., to England and the Continent after a course at Harvard. The +young man became a linguist and made a thorough study of English +and French methods of trade. Having laid this foundation for the +venture, the son was now sent to India, where he lived for three +years in the interests of his house, building up a trade almost +fabulously profitable. + +How fortunes were won in those stirring days may be discerned +from the record of young Derby's ventures while in the Orient. In +1788 the proceeds of one cargo enabled him to buy a ship and a +brigantine in the Isle of France. These two vessels he sent to +Bombay to load with cotton. Two other ships of his fleet, the +Astrea and Light Horse, were filled at Calcutta and Rangoon and +ordered to Salem. It was found, when the profits of these +transactions were reckoned, that the little squadron had earned +$100,000 above all outlay. + +To carry on such a business as this enlisted many men and +industries. While the larger ships were making their distant +voyages, the brigs and schooners were gathering cargoes for +them, crossing to Gothenburg and St. Petersburg for iron, duck, +and hemp, to France, Spain, and Madeira for wine and lead, to the +French West Indies for molasses to be turned into rum, to New +York, Philadelphia, and Richmond for flour, provisions, and +tobacco. These shipments were assembled in the warehouses on +Derby Wharf and paid for the teas, coffees, pepper, muslin, +silks, and ivory which the ships from the Far East were fetching +home. In fourteen years the Derby ships made one hundred and +twenty-five voyages to Europe and far eastern ports and out of +the thirty-five vessels engaged only one was lost at sea. + +It was in 1785 when the Grand Turk, on a second voyage, brought +back a cargo of silks, teas, and nankeens from Batavia and China, +that "The Independent Chronicle" of London, unconsciously +humorous, was moved to affirm that "the Americans have given up +all thought of a China trade which can never be carried on to +advantage without some settlement in the East Indies." + +As soon as these new sea-trails had been furrowed by the keels of +Elias Hasket Derby, other Salem merchants were quick to follow in +a rivalry which left no sea unexplored for virgin markets and +which ransacked every nook and corner of barbarism which had a +shore. Vessels slipped their cables and sailed away by night for +some secret destination with whose savage potentate trade +relations had been established. It might be Captain Jonathan +Carnes who, while at the port of Bencoolen in 1793, heard that +pepper grew wild on the northern coast of Sumatra. He whispered +the word to the Salem owner, who sent him back in the schooner +Rajah with only four guns and ten men. Eighteen months later, +Jonathan Carnes returned to Salem with a cargo of pepper in bulk, +the first direct importation, and cleared seven hundred per cent +on the voyage. When he made ready to go again, keeping his +business strictly to himself, other owners tracked him clear to +Bencoolen, but there he vanished in the Rajah, and his secret with +him, until he reappeared with another precious cargo of pepper. +When, at length, he shared this trade with other vessels, it +meant that Salem controlled the pepper market of Sumatra and for +many years supplied a large part of the world's demand. + +And so it happened that in the spicy warehouses that overlooked +Salem Harbor there came to be stored hemp from Luzon, gum copal +from Zanzibar, palm oil from Africa, coffee from Arabia, tallow +from Madagascar, whale oil from the Antarctic, hides and wool +from the Rio de la Plata, nutmeg and cloves from Malaysia. Such +merchandise had been bought or bartered for by shipmasters who +were much more than mere navigators. They had to be shrewd +merchants on their own accounts, for the success or failure of a +voyage was mostly in their hands. Carefully trained and highly +intelligent men, they attained command in the early twenties and +were able to retire, after a few years more afloat, to own ships +and exchange the quarterdeck for the counting-room, and the cabin +for the solid mansion and lawn on Derby Street. Every +opportunity, indeed, was offered them to advance their own +fortunes. They sailed not for wages but for handsome commissions +and privileges--in the Derby ships, five per cent of a cargo +outward bound, two and a half per cent of the freightage home, +five per cent profit on goods bought and sold between foreign +ports, and five per cent of the cargo space for their own use. + +Such was the system which persuaded the pick and flower of young +American manhood to choose the sea as the most advantageous +career possible. There was the Crowninshield family, for example, +with five brothers all in command of ships before they were old +enough to vote and at one time all five away from Salem, each in +his own vessel and three of them in the East India trade. "When +little boys," to quote from the memoirs of Benjamin +Crowninshield, "they were all sent to a common school and about +their eleventh year began their first particular study which +should develop them as sailors and ship captains. These boys +studied their navigation as little chaps of twelve years old and +were required to thoroughly master the subject before being sent +to sea . . . . As soon as the art of navigation was mastered, the +youngsters were sent to sea, sometimes as common sailors but +commonly as ship's clerks, in which position they were able to +learn everything about the management of a ship without actually +being a common sailor." + +This was the practice in families of solid station and social +rank, for to be a shipmaster was to follow the profession of a +gentleman. Yet the bright lad who entered by way of the +forecastle also played for high stakes. Soon promoted to the +berth of mate, he was granted cargo space for his own adventures +in merchandise and a share of the profits. In these days the +youth of twenty-one is likely to be a college undergraduate, +rated too callow and unfit to be intrusted with the smallest +business responsibilities and tolerantly regarded as unable to +take care of himself. It provokes both a smile and a glow of +pride, therefore, to recall those seasoned striplings and what +they did. + +No unusual instance was that of Nathaniel Silsbee, later United +States Senator from Massachusetts, who took command of the new +ship Benjamin in the year 1792, laden with a costly cargo from +Salem for the Cape of Good Hope and India, "with such +instructions," says he, "as left the management of the voyage +very much to my own discretion. Neither myself nor the chief +mate, Mr. Charles Derby, had attained the age of twenty-one years +when we left home. I was not then twenty." This reminded him to +speak of his own family. Of the three Silsbee brothers, "each of +us obtained the command of vessels and the consignment of their +cargoes before attaining the age of twenty years, viz., myself at +the age of eighteen and a half, my brother William at nineteen +and a half, and my brother Zachariah before he was twenty years +old. Each and all of us left off going to sea before reaching the +age of twenty-nine years." + +How resourcefully these children of the sea could handle affairs +was shown in this voyage of the Benjamin. While in the Indian +Ocean young Silsbee fell in with a frigate which gave him news of +the beginning of war between England and France. He shifted his +course for Mauritius and there sold the cargo for a dazzling +price in paper dollars, which he turned into Spanish silver. An +embargo detained him for six months, during which this currency +increased to three times the value of the paper money. He gave up +the voyage to Calcutta, sold the Spanish dollars and loaded with +coffee and spices for Salem. At the Cape of Good Hope, however, +he discovered that he could earn a pretty penny by sending his +cargo home in other ships and loading the Benjamin again for +Mauritius. When, at length, he arrived in Salem harbor, after +nineteen months away, his enterprises had reaped a hundred per +cent for Elias Hasket Derby and his own share was the snug little +fortune of four thousand dollars. Part of this he, of course, +invested at sea, and at twenty-two he was part owner of the +Betsy, East Indiaman, and on the road to independence. + +As second mate in the Benjamin had sailed Richard Cleveland, +another matured mariner of nineteen, who crowded into one life an +Odyssey of adventure noteworthy even in that era and who had the +knack of writing about it with rare skill and spirit. In 1797, +when twenty-three years old, he was master of the bark Enterprise +bound from Salem to Mocha for coffee. The voyage was abandoned at +Havre and he sent the mate home with the ship, deciding to remain +abroad and gamble for himself with the chances of the sea. In +France he bought on credit a "cutter-sloop" of forty-three tons, +no larger than the yachts whose owners think it venturesome to +take them off soundings in summer cruises. In this little box of +a craft he planned to carry a cargo of merchandise to the Cape of +Good Hope and thence to Mauritius. + +His crew included two men, a black cook, and a brace of boys who +were hastily shipped at Havre. "Fortunately they were all so much +in debt as not to want any time to spend their advance, but were +ready at the instant, and with this motley crew, (who, for aught +I knew, were robbers or pirates) I put to sea." The only sailor +of the lot was a Nantucket lad who was made mate and had to be +taught the rudiments of navigation while at sea. Of the others he +had this to say, in his lighthearted manner: + +"The first of my fore-mast hands is a great, surly, crabbed, +raw-boned, ignorant Prussian who is so timid aloft that the mate +has frequently been obliged to do his duty there. I believe him +to be more of a soldier than a sailor, though he has often +assured me that he has been a boatswain's mate of a Dutch +Indiaman, which I do not believe as he hardly knows how to put +two ends of a rope together .... My cook . . . a good-natured +negro and a tolerable cook, so unused to a vessel that in the +smoothest weather he cannot walk fore and aft without holding +onto something with both hands. This fear proceeds from the fact +that he is so tall and slim that if he should get a cant it might +be fatal to him. I did not think America could furnish such a +specimen of the negro race . . . nor did I ever see such a +simpleton. It is impossible to teach him anything and . . . he +can hardly tell the main-halliards from the mainstay. + +"Next is an English boy of seventeen years old, who from having +lately had the small-pox is feeble and almost blind, a miserable +object, but pity for his misfortunes induces me to make his duty +as easy as possible. Finally I have a little ugly French boy, the +very image of a baboon, who from having served for some time on +different privateers has all the tricks of a veteran man-of-war's +man, though only thirteen years old, and by having been in an +English prison, has learned enough of the language to be a +proficient in swearing." + +With these human scrapings for a ship's company, the cutter +Caroline was three months on her solitary way as far as the Cape +of Good Hope, where the inhabitants "could not disguise their +astonishment at the size of the vessel, the boyish appearance of +the master and mate, and the queer and unique characters of the +two men and boy who composed the crew." The English officials +thought it strange indeed, suspecting some scheme of French spies +or smuggled dispatches, but Richard Cleveland's petition to the +Governor, Lord McCartney, ingenuously patterned after certain +letters addressed to noblemen as found in an old magazine aboard +his vessel, won the day for him and he was permitted to sell the +cutter and her cargo, having changed his mind about proceeding +farther. + +Taking passage to Batavia, he looked about for another venture +but found nothing to his liking and wandered on to Canton, where +he was attracted by the prospect of a voyage to the northwest +coast of America to buy furs from the Indians. In a cutter no +larger than the Caroline he risked all his cash and credit, +stocking her with $20,000 worth of assorted merchandise for +barter, and put out across the Pacific, "having on board +twenty-one persons, consisting, except two Americans, of English, +Irish, Swedes and French, but principally the first, who were +runaways from the men-of-war and Indiamen, and two from a Botany +Bay ship who had made their escape, for we were obliged to take +such as we could get, served to complete a list of as +accomplished villains as ever disgraced any country." + +After a month of weary, drenching hardship off the China coast, +this crew of cutthroats mutinied. With a loyal handful, including +the black cook, Cleveland locked up the provisions, mounted two +four-pounders on the quarterdeck, rammed them full of grape-shot, +and fetched up the flint-lock muskets and pistols from the cabin. +The mutineers were then informed that if they poked their heads +above the hatches he would blow them overboard. Losing enthusiasm +and weakened by hunger, they asked to be set ashore; so the +skipper marooned the lot. For two days the cutter lay offshore +while a truce was argued, the upshot being that four of the +rascals gave in and the others were left behind. + +Fifty days more of it and, washed by icy seas, racked and +storm-beaten, the vessel made Norfolk Sound. So small was the +crew, so imminent the danger that the Indians might take her by +boarding, that screens of hides were rigged along the bulwarks to +hide the deck from view. Stranded and getting clear, warding off +attacks, Captain Richard Cleveland stayed two months on the +wilderness coast of Oregon, trading one musket for eight prime +sea-otter skins until there was no more room below. Sixty +thousand dollars was the value of the venture when he sailed for +China by way of the Sandwich Islands, forty thousand of profit, +and he was twenty-five years old with the zest for roving +undiminished. + +He next appeared in Calcutta, buying a twenty-five-ton pilot boat +under the Danish flag for a fling at Mauritius and a speculation +in prizes brought in by French privateers. Finding none in port, +he loaded seven thousand bags of coffee in a ship for Copenhagen +and conveyed as a passenger a kindred spirit, young Nathaniel +Shaler, whom he took into partnership. At Hamburg these two +bought a fast brig, the Lelia Byrd, to try their fortune on the +west coast of South America, and recruited a third partner, a +boyish Polish nobleman, Count de Rousillon, who had been an aide +to Kosciusko. Three seafaring musketeers, true gentlemen rovers, +all under thirty, sailing out to beard the viceroys of Spain! + +From Valparaiso, where other American ships were detained and +robbed, they adroitly escaped and steered north to Mexico and +California. At San Diego they fought their way out of the harbor, +silencing the Spanish fort with their six guns. Then to Canton +with furs, and Richard Cleveland went home at thirty years of age +after seven years' absence and voyaging twice around the world, +having wrested success from almost every imaginable danger and +obstacle, with $70,000 to make him a rich man in his own town. He +was neither more nor less than an American sailor of the kind +that made the old merchant marine magnificent. + +It was true romance, also, when the first American shipmasters +set foot in mysterious Japan, a half century before Perry's +squadron shattered the immemorial isolation of the land of the +Shoguns and the Samurai. Only the Dutch had been permitted to +hold any foreign intercourse whatever with this hermit nation and +for two centuries they had maintained their singular commercial +monopoly at a price measured in terms of the deepest degradation +of dignity and respect. The few Dutch merchants suffered to +reside in Japan were restricted to a small island in Nagasaki +harbor, leaving it only once in four years when the Resident, or +chief agent, journeyed to Yeddo to offer gifts and most humble +obeisance to the Shogun, "creeping forward on his hands and feet, +and falling on his knees, bowed his head to the ground, and +retired again in absolute silence, crawling exactly like a crab," +said one of these pilgrims who added: "We may not keep Sundays or +fast days, or allow our spiritual hymns or prayers to be heard; +never mention the name of Christ. Besides these things, we have +to submit to other insulting imputations which are always painful +to a noble heart. The reason which impels the Dutch to bear all +these sufferings so patiently is simply the love of gain." + +In return for these humiliations the Dutch East India Company was +permitted to send one or two ships a year from Batavia to Japan +and to export copper, silk, gold, camphor, porcelain, bronze, and +rare woods. The American ship Franklin arrived at Batavia in 1799 +and Captain James Devereux of Salem learned that a charter was +offered for one of these annual voyages. After a deal of Yankee +dickering with the hard-headed Dutchmen, a bargain was struck and +the Franklin sailed for Nagasaki with cloves, chintz, sugar, tin, +black pepper, sapan wood, and elephants' teeth. The instructions +were elaborate and punctilious, salutes to be fired right and +left, nine guns for the Emperor's guard while passing in, +thirteen guns at the anchorage; all books on board to be sealed +up in a cask, Bibles in particular, and turned over to the +Japanese officials, all firearms sent ashore, ship dressed with +colors whenever the "Commissaries of the Chief" graciously came +aboard, and a carpet on deck for them to sit upon. + +Two years later, the Margaret of Salem made the same sort of a +voyage, and in both instances the supercargoes, one of whom +happened to be a younger brother of Captain Richard Cleveland, +wrote journals of the extraordinary episode. For these mariners +alone was the curtain lifted which concealed the feudal Japan +from the eyes of the civilized world. Alert and curious, these +Yankee traders explored the narrow streets of Nagasaki, visited +temples, were handsomely entertained by officers and merchants, +and exchanged their wares in the marketplace. They were as much +at home, no doubt, as when buying piculs of pepper from a rajah +of Qualah Battoo, or dining with an elderly mandarin of Cochin +China. It was not too much to say that "the profuse stores of +knowledge brought by every ship's crew, together with unheard of +curiosities from every savage shore, gave the community of Salem +a rare alertness of intellect." + +It was a Salem bark, the Lydia, that first displayed the American +flag to the natives of Guam in 1801. She was chartered by the +Spanish government of Manila to carry to the Marianne Islands, as +those dots on the chart of the Pacific were then called, the new +Governor, his family, his suite, and his luggage. First Mate +William Haswell kept a diary in a most conscientious fashion, and +here and there one gleans an item with a humor of its own. "Now +having to pass through dangerous straits," he observes, "we went +to work to make boarding nettings and to get our arms in the best +order, but had we been attacked we should have been taken with +ease. Between Panay and Negros all the passengers were in the +greatest confusion for fear of being taken and put to death in +the dark and not have time to say their prayers." + +The decks were in confusion most of the time, what with the +Governor, his lady, three children, two servant girls and twelve +men servants, a friar and his servant, a judge and two servants, +not to mention some small hogs, two sheep, an ox, and a goat to +feed the passengers who were too dainty for sea provender. The +friar was an interesting character. A great pity that the worthy +mate of the Lydia should not have been more explicit! It +intrigues the reader of his manuscript diary to be told that "the +Friar was praying night and day but it would not bring a fair +wind. His behavior was so bad that we were forced to send him to +Coventry, or in other words, no one would speak to him." + +The Spanish governors of Guam had in operation an economic system +which compelled the admiration of this thrifty Yankee mate. The +natives wore very few clothes, he concluded, because the Governor +was the only shopkeeper and he insisted on a profit of at least +eight hundred per cent. There was a native militia regiment of a +thousand men who were paid ten dollars a year. With this cash +they bought Bengal goods, cottons, Chinese pans, pots, knives, +and hoes at the Governor's store, so that "all this money never +left the Governor's hands. It was fetched to him by the galleons +in passing, and when he was relieved he carried it with him to +Manila, often to the amount of eighty or ninety thousand +dollars." A glimpse of high finance without a flaw! + +There is pathos, simple and moving, in the stories of shipwreck +and stranding on hostile or desert coasts. These disasters were +far more frequent then than now, because navigation was partly +guesswork and ships were very small. Among these tragedies was +that of the Commerce, bound from Boston to Bombay in 1793. The +captain lost his bearings and thought he was off Malabar when the +ship piled up on the beach in the night. The nearest port was +Muscat and the crew took to the boats in the hope of reaching it. +Stormy weather drove them ashore where armed Arabs on camels +stripped them of clothes and stores and left them to die among +the sand dunes. + +On foot they trudged day after day in the direction of Muscat, +and how they suffered and what they endured was told by one of +the survivors, young Daniel Saunders. Soon they began to drop out +and die in their tracks in the manner of "Benjamin Williams, +William Leghorn, and Thomas Barnard whose bodies were exposed +naked to the scorching sun and finding their strength and spirits +quite exhausted they lay down expecting nothing but death for +relief." The next to be left behind was Mr. Robert Williams, +merchant and part owner, "and we therefore with reluctance +abandoned him to the mercy of God, suffering ourselves all the +horrors that fill the mind at the approach of death." Near the +beach and a forlorn little oasis, they stumbled across Charles +Lapham, who had become separated from them. He had been without +water for five days "and after many efforts he got upon his feet +and endeavored to walk. Seeing him in so wretched a condition I +could not but sympathize enough with him in his torments to go +back with him" toward water two miles away, "which both my other +companions refused to do. Accordingly they walked forward while I +went back a considerable distance with Lapham until, his strength +failing him, he suddenly fell on the ground, nor was he able to +rise again or even speak to me. Finding it vain to stay with him, +I covered him with sprays and leaves which I tore from an +adjacent tree, it being the last friendly office I could do him." + +Eight living skeletons left of eighteen strong seamen tottered +into Muscat and were cared for by the English consul. Daniel +Saunders worked his passage to England, was picked up by a +press-gang, escaped, and so returned to Salem. It was the fate of +Juba Hill, the black cook from Boston, to be detained among the +Arabs as a slave. It is worth noting that a black sea-cook +figured in many of these tales of daring and disaster, and among +them was the heroic and amazing figure of one Peter Jackson who +belonged in the brig Ceres. While running down the river from +Calcutta she was thrown on her beam ends and Peter, perhaps +dumping garbage over the rail, took a header. Among the things +tossed to him as he floated away was a sail-boom on which he was +swiftly carried out of sight by the turbid current. All on board +concluded that Peter Jackson had been eaten by sharks or +crocodiles and it was so reported when they arrived home. An +administrator was appointed for his goods and chattels and he was +officially deceased in the eyes of the law. A year or so later +this unconquerable sea-cook appeared in the streets of Salem, +grinning a welcome to former shipmates who fled from him in +terror as a ghostly visitation. He had floated twelve hours on +his sail-boom, it seemed, fighting off the sharks with his feet; +and finally drifting ashore. "He had hard work to do away with +the impressions of being dead," runs the old account, "but +succeeded and was allowed the rights and privileges of the +living." + +The community of interests in these voyages of long ago included +not only the ship's company but also the townspeople, even the +boys and girls, who entrusted their little private speculations +or "adventures" to the captain. It was a custom which flourished +well into the nineteenth century. These memoranda are sprinkled +through the account books of the East Indiamen out of Salem and +Boston. It might be Miss Harriet Elkins who requested the master +of the Messenger "please to purchase at Calcutta two net beads +with draperies; if at Batavia or any spice market, nutmegs or +mace; or if at Canton, two Canton shawls of the enclosed colors +at $5 per shawl. Enclosed is $10." + +Again, it might be Mr. John R. Tucker who ventured in the same +ship one hundred Spanish dollars to be invested in coffee and +sugar, or Captain Nathaniel West who risked in the Astrea fifteen +boxes of spermaceti candles and a pipe of Teneriffe wine. It is +interesting to discover what was done with Mr. Tucker's hundred +Spanish dollars, as invested for him by the skipper of the +Messenger at Batavia and duly accounted for. Ten bags of coffee +were bought for $83.30, the extra expenses of duty, boat-hire, +and sacking bringing the total outlay to $90.19. The coffee was +sold at Antwerp on the way home for $183.75, and Mr. Tucker's +handsome profit on the adventure was therefore $93.56, or more +than one hundred per cent. + +It was all a grand adventure, in fact, and the word was aptly +chosen to fit this ocean trade. The merchant freighted his ship +and sent her out to vanish from his ken for months and months of +waiting, with the greater part of his savings, perhaps, in goods +and specie beneath her hatches. No cable messages kept him in +touch with her nor were there frequent letters from the master. +Not until her signal was displayed by the fluttering flags of the +headland station at the harbor mouth could he know whether he had +gained or lost a fortune. The spirit of such merchants was +admirably typified in the last venture of Elias Hasket Derby in +1798, when unofficial war existed between the United States and +France. + +American ships were everywhere seeking refuge from the privateers +under the tricolor, which fairly ran amuck in the routes of +trade. For this reason it meant a rich reward to land a cargo +abroad. The ship Mount Vernon, commanded by Captain Elias Hasket +Derby, Jr., was laden with sugar and coffee for Mediterranean +ports, and was prepared for trouble, with twenty guns mounted and +fifty men to handle them. A smart ship and a powerful one, she +raced across to Cape Saint Vincent in sixteen days, which was +clipper speed. She ran into a French fleet of sixty sail, +exchanged broadsides with the nearest, and showed her stern to +the others. + +"We arrived at 12 o'clock [wrote Captain Derby from Gibraltar] +popping at Frenchmen all the forenoon. At 10 A.M. off Algeciras +Point we were seriously attacked by a large latineer who had on +board more than one hundred men. He came so near our broadside as +to allow our six-pound grape to do execution handsomely. We then +bore away and gave him our stern guns in a cool and deliberate +manner, doing apparently great execution. Our bars having cut his +sails considerably, he was thrown into confusion, struck both his +ensign and his pennant. I was then puzzled to know what to do +with so many men; our ship was running large with all her +steering sails out, so that we could not immediately bring her to +the wind, and we were directly off Algeciras Point from whence I +had reason to fear she might receive assistance, and my port +Gibraltar in full view. These were circumstances that induced me +to give up the gratification of bringing him in. It was, however, +a satisfaction to flog the rascal in full view of the English +fleet who were to leeward." + + + +CHAPTER V. YANKEE VIKINGS AND NEW TRADE ROUTES + +Soon after the Revolution the spirit of commercial exploration +began to stir in other ports than Salem. Out from New York sailed +the ship Empress of China in 1784 for the first direct voyage to +Canton, to make the acquaintance of a vast nation absolutely +unknown to the people of the United States, nor had one in a +million of the industrious and highly civilized Chinese ever so +much as heard the name of the little community of barbarians who +dwelt on the western shore of the North Atlantic. The oriental +dignitaries in their silken robes graciously welcomed the +foreign ship with the strange flag and showed a lively interest +in the map spread upon the cabin table, offering every facility +to promote this new market for their silks and teas. After an +absence of fifteen months the Empress of China returned to her +home port and her pilgrimage aroused so much attention that the +report of the supercargo, Samuel Shaw, was read in Congress. + +Surpassing this achievement was that of Captain Stewart Dean, who +very shortly afterward had his fling at the China trade in an +eighty-ton sloop built at Albany. He was a stout-hearted old +privateersman of the Revolution whom nothing could dismay, and in +this tiny Experiment of his he won merited fame as one of the +American pioneers of blue water. Fifteen men and boys sailed with +him, drilled and disciplined as if the sloop were a frigate, and +when the Experiment hauled into the stream, of Battery Park, New +York, "martial music and the boatswain's whistle were heard on +board with all the pomp and circumstance of war." Typhoons and +Malay proas, Chinese pirates and unknown shoals, had no terrors +for Stewart Dean. He saw Canton for himself, found a cargo, and +drove home again in a four months' passage, which was better than +many a clipper could do at a much later day. Smallest and bravest +of the first Yankee East Indiamen, this taut sloop, with the +boatswain's pipe trilling cheerily and all hands ready with +cutlases and pikes to repel boarders, was by no means the least +important vessel that ever passed in by Sandy Hook. + +In the beginnings of this picturesque relation with the Far East, +Boston lagged behind Salem, but her merchants, too, awoke to the +opportunity and so successfully that for generations there were +no more conspicuous names and shipping-houses in the China trade +than those of Russell, Perkins, and Forbes. The first attempt was +very ambitious and rather luckless. The largest merchantman ever +built at that time in the United States was launched at Quincy in +1789 to rival the towering ships of the British East India +Company. This Massachusetts created a sensation. Her departure +was a national event. She embodied the dreams of Captain Randall +and of the Samuel Shaw who had gone as supercargo in the Empress +of China. They formed a partnership and were able to find the +necessary capital. + +This six-hundred-ton ship loomed huge in the ayes of the crowds +which visited her. She was in fact no larger than such +four-masted coasting schooners as claw around Hatteras with +deck-loads of Georgia pine or fill with coal for down East, and +manage it comfortably with seven or eight men for a crew. The +Massachusetts, however, sailed in 411 the old-fashioned state and +dignity of a master, four mates, a purser, surgeon, carpenter, +gunner, four quartermasters, three midshipmen, a cooper, two +cooks, a steward, and fifty seamen. The second officer was Amasa +Delano, a man even more remarkable than the ship, who wandered +far and wide and wrote a fascinating book about his voyages, a +classic of its kind, the memoirs of an American merchant mariner +of a breed long since extinct. + +While the Massachusetts was fitting out at Boston, one small +annoyance ruffled the auspicious undertaking. Three different +crews were signed before a full complement could be persuaded to +tarry in the forecastle. The trouble was caused by a +fortune-teller of Lynn, Moll Pitcher by name, who predicted +disaster for the ship. Now every honest sailor knows that certain +superstitions are gospel fact, such as the bad luck brought by a +cross-eyed Finn, a black cat, or going to sea on Friday, and +these eighteenth century shellbacks must not be too severely +chided for deserting while they had the chance. As it turned out, +the voyage did have a sorry ending and death overtook an +astonishingly large number of the ship's people. + +Though she had been designed and built by master craftsmen of New +England who knew their trade surpassingly well, it was discovered +when the ship arrived at Canton that her timbers were already +rotting. They were of white oak which had been put into her green +instead of properly seasoned. This blunder wrecked the hopes of +her owners. To cap it, the cargo of masts and spars had also been +stowed while wet and covered with mud and ice, and the hatches +had been battened. As a result the air became so foul with decay +that several hundred barrels of beef were spoiled. To repair the +ship was beyond the means of Captain Randall and Samuel Shaw, and +reluctantly they sold her to the Danish East India Company at a +heavy loss. Nothing could have been more unexpected than to find +that, for once, the experienced shipbuilders had been guilty of a +miscalculation. + +The crew scattered, and perhaps the prediction of the +fortune-teller of Lynn followed their roving courses, for when +Captain Amasa Delano tried to trace them a few years later, he +jotted down such obituaries as these on the list of names: + + "John Harris. A slave in Algiers at last accounts. + Roger Dyer. Died and thrown overboard off Cape Horn. + William Williams. Lost overboard off Japan. + James Crowley. Murdered by the Chinese near Macao. + John Johnson. Died on board an English Indiaman. + Seth Stowell. Was drowned at Whampoa in 1790. + Jeremiah Chace. Died with the small-pox at Whampoa in 1791. + Humphrey Chadburn. Shot and died at Whampoa in 1791. + Samuel Tripe. Drowned off Java Head in 1790. + James Stackpole. Murdered by the Chinese. + Nicholas Nicholson. Died with the leprosy at Macao. + William Murphy. Killed by Chinese pirates. + Larry Conner. Killed at sea." + +There were more of these gruesome items--so many of them that it +appears as though no more than a handful of this stalwart crew +survived the Massachusetts by a dozen years. Incredible as it +sounds, Captain Delano's roster accounted for fifty of them as +dead while he was still in the prime of life, and most of them +had been snuffed out by violence. As for his own career, it was +overcast by no such unlucky star, and he passed unscathed through +all the hazards and vicissitudes that could be encountered in +that rugged and heroic era of endeavor. Set adrift in Canton when +the Massachusetts was sold, he promptly turned his hand to +repairing a large Danish ship which had been wrecked by storm, +and he virtually rebuilt her to the great satisfaction of the +owners. + +Thence, with money in his pocket, young Delano went to Macao, +where he fell in with Commodore John McClure of the English Navy, +who was in command of an expedition setting out to explore a part +of the South Seas, including the Pelew Islands, New Guinea, New +Holland, and the Spice Islands. The Englishman liked this +resourceful Yankee seaman and did him the honor to say, recalls +Delano, "that he considered I should be a very useful man to him +as a seaman, an officer, or a shipbuilder; and if it was +agreeable to me to go on board the Panther with him, I should +receive the some pay and emoluments with his lieutenants and +astronomers." A signal honor it was at a time when no love was +lost between British and American seafarers who had so recently +fought each other afloat. + +And so Amasa Delano embarked as a lieutenant of the Bombay +Marine, to explore tropic harbors and goons until then unmapped +and to parley with dusky kings. Commodore McClure, diplomatic and +humane, had almost no trouble with the untutored islanders, +except on the coast of New Guinea, where the Panther was attacked +by a swarm of canoes and the surgeon was killed. It was a +spirited little affair, four-foot arrows pelting like hail across +the deck, a cannon hurling grapeshot from the taffrail, Amasa +Delano hit in the chest and pulling out the arrow to jump to his +duty again. + +Only a few years earlier the mutineers of the Bounty had +established themselves on Pitcairn Island, and Delano was able to +compile the first complete narrative of this extraordinary +colony, which governed itself in the light of the primitive +Christian virtues. There was profound wisdom in the comment of +Amasa Delano: "While the present natural, simple, and +affectionate character prevails among these descendants of the +mutineers, they will be delightful to our minds, they will be +amiable and acceptable in the sight of God, and they will be +useful and happy among themselves. Let it be our fervent prayer +that neither canting and hypocritical emissaries from schools of +artificial theology on the one hand, nor sensual and licentious +crews and adventurers on the other, may ever enter the charming +village of Pitcairn to give disease to the minds or the bodies of +the unsuspecting inhabitants." + +Two years of this intensely romantic existence, and Delano +started homeward. But there was a chance of profit at Mauritius, +and there he bought a tremendous East Indiaman of fourteen +hundred tons as a joint venture with a Captain Stewart and put a +crew of a hundred and fifty men on board. She had been brought in +by a French privateer and Delano was moved to remark, with an +indignation which was much in advance of his times: "Privateering +is entirely at variance with the first principle of honorable +warfare . . . . This system of licensed robbery enables a wicked +and mercenary man to insult and injure even neutral friends on +the ocean; and when he meets an honest sailor who may have all +his earnings on board his ship but who carries an enemy's flag, +he plunders him of every cent and leaves him the poor consolation +that it is done according to law . . . . When the Malay subjects +of Abba Thule cut down the cocoanut trees of an enemy, in the +spirit of private revenge, he asked them why they acted in +opposition to the principles on which they knew he always made +and conducted a war. They answered, and let the reason make us +humble, 'The English do so.'" + +In his grand East Indiaman young Captain Delano traded on the +coast of India but soon came to grief. The enterprise had been +too large for him to swing with what cash and credit he could +muster, and the ship was sold from under him to pay her debts. +Again on the beach, with one solitary gold moidore in his purse, +he found a friendly American skipper who offered him a passage to +Philadelphia, which he accepted with the pious reflection that, +although his mind was wounded and mortified by the financial +disaster, his motives had been perfectly pure and honest. He +never saw his native land with so little pleasure as on this +return to it, he assures us, and the shore on which he would have +leaped with delight was covered with gloom and sadness. + +Now what makes it so well worth while to sketch in brief outline +the careers of one and another of these bygone shipmasters is +that they accurately reflected the genius and the temper of their +generation. There was, in truth, no such word as failure in their +lexicon. It is this quality that appeals to us beyond all else. +Thrown on their beam ends, they were presently planning something +else, eager to shake dice with destiny and with courage unbroken. +It was so with Amasa Delano, who promptly went to work "with what +spirits I could revive within me. After a time they returned to +their former elasticity." + +He obtained a position as master builder in a shipyard, saved +some money, borrowed more, and with one of his brothers was soon +blithely building a vessel of two hundred tons for a voyage into +the Pacific and to the northwest coast after seals. They sailed +along Patagonia and found much to interest them, dodged in and +out of the ports of Chili and Peru, and incidentally recaptured a +Spanish ship which was in the hands of the slaves who formed her +cargo. + +This was all in the day's work and happened at the island of +Santa Maria, not far from Juan Fernandez, where Captain Delano's +Perseverance found the high-pooped Tryal in a desperate state. +Spanish sailors who had survived the massacre were leaping +overboard or scrambling up to the mastheads while the African +savages capered on deck and flourished their weapons. Captain +Delano liked neither the Spaniard nor the slavetrade, but it was +his duty to help fellow seamen in distress; so he cleared for +action and ordered two boats away to attend to the matter. The +chief mate, Rufus Low, was in charge, and a gallant sailor he +showed himself. They had to climb the high sides of the Tryal and +carry, in hand-to-hand conflict, the barricades of water-casks +and bales of matting which the slaves had built across the deck. +There was no hanging back, and even a mite of a midshipman from +Boston pranced into it with his dirk. The negroes were well armed +and fought ferociously. The mate was seriously wounded, four +seamen were stabbed, the Spanish first mate had two musket balls +in him, and a passenger was killed in the fray. + +Having driven the slaves below and battened them down, the +American party returned next morning to put the irons on them. A +horrid sight confronted them. Thirsting for vengeance, the +Spanish sailors had spread-eagled several of the negroes to +ringbolts in the deck and were shaving the living flesh from them +with razor-edged boarding lances. Captain Delano thereupon +disarmed these brutes and locked them up in their turn, taking +possession of the ship until he could restore order. The sequel +was that he received the august thanks of the Viceroy of Chili +and a gold medal from His Catholic Majesty. As was the custom, +the guilty slaves, poor wretches, were condemned to be dragged to +the gibbet at the tails of mules, to be hanged, their bodies +burned, and their heads stuck upon poles in the plaza. + +It was while in this Chilean port of Talcahuano that Amasa Delano +heard the tale of the British whaler which had sailed just before +his arrival. He tells it so well that I am tempted to quote it as +a generous tribute to a sailor of a rival race. After all, they +were sprung from a common stock and blood was thicker than water. +Besides, it is the sort of yarn that ought to be dragged to the +light of day from its musty burial between the covers of Delano's +rare and ancient "Voyages and Travels." + +The whaler Betsy, it seems, went in and anchored under the guns +of the forts to seek provisions and make repairs. The captain +went ashore to interview the officials, leaving word that no +Spaniards should be allowed to come aboard because of the bad +feeling against the English. Three or four large boats filled +with troops presently veered alongside and were ordered to keep +clear. This command was resented, and the troops opened fire, +followed by the forts. Now for the deed of a man with his two +feet under him. + +"The chief officer of the Betsy whose name was Hudson, a man of +extraordinary bravery, cut his cable and his ship swung the wrong +way, with her head in shore, passing close to several Spanish +ships which, with every vessel in the harbor that could bring a +gun to bear, together with three hundred soldiers in boats and on +ship's decks and the two batteries, all kept up a constant fire +on him. The wind was light, nearly a calm. The shot flew so thick +that it was difficult for him to make sail, some part of the +rigging being cut away every minute. + +"He kept his men at the guns, and when the ship swung her +broadside so as to bear upon any of the Spanish ships, he kept up +a fire at them. In this situation the brave fellow continued to +lie for three-quarters of an hour before he got his topsails +sheeted home. The action continued in this manner for near an +hour and a half. He succeeded in getting the ship to sea, +however, in defiance of all the force that could be brought +against him. The ship was very much cut to pieces in sails, +rigging, and hull; and a considerable number of men were killed +and wounded on board. + +"Hudson kept flying from one part of the deck to the other during +the whole time of action, encouraging and threatening the men as +occasion required. He kept a musket in his hand most part of the +time, firing when he could find the leisure. Some of the men came +aft and begged him to give up the ship, telling him they should +all be killed--that the carpenter had all one side of him shot +away--that one man was cut in halves with a double-headed shot as +he was going aloft to loose the foretopsail and the body had +fallen on deck in two separate parts--that such a man was killed +at his duty on the forecastle, and one more had been killed in +the maintop--that Sam, Jim, Jack, and Tom were wounded and that +they would do nothing more towards getting the ship out of the +harbor. + +"His reply to them was, 'then you shall be sure to die, for if +they do not kill you I will, so sure as you persist in any such +cowardly resolution,' saying at the same time, 'OUT SHE GOES, OR +DOWN SHE GOES.'" + +By this resolute and determined conduct he kept the men to their +duty and succeeded in accomplishing one of the most daring +enterprises perhaps ever attempted. + +An immortal phrase, this simple dictum of first mate Hudson of +the Betsy, "Out she goes, or down she goes," and not unworthy of +being mentioned in the same breath with Farragut's "Damn the +torpedoes." + +Joined by his brother Samuel in the schooner Pilgrim, which was +used as a tender in the sealing trade, Amasa Delano frequented +unfamiliar beaches until he had taken his toll of skins and was +ready to bear away for Canton to sell them. There were many +Yankee ships after seals in those early days, enduring more peril +and privation than the whalemen, roving over the South Pacific +among the rock-bound islands unknown to the merchant navigator. +The men sailed wholly on shares, a seaman receiving one per cent +of the catch and the captain ten per cent, and they slaughtered +the seal by the million, driving them from the most favored +haunts within a few years. For instance, American ships first +visited Mas a Fuera in 1797, and Captain Delano estimated that +during the seven years following three million skins were taken +to China from this island alone. He found as many as fourteen +vessels there at one time, and he himself carried away one +hundred thousand skins. It was a gold mine for profit while it +lasted. + +There were three Delano brothers afloat in two vessels, and of +their wanderings Amasa set down this epitome: "Almost the whole +of our connections who were left behind had need of our +assistance, and to look forward it was no more than a reasonable +calculation to make that our absence would not be less than three +years . . . together with the extraordinary uncertainty of the +issue of the voyage, as we had nothing but our hands to depend +upon to obtain a cargo which was only to be done through storms, +dangers, and breakers, and taken from barren rocks in distant +regions. But after a voyage of four years for one vessel and five +for the other, we were all permitted to return safe home to our +friends and not quite empty-handed. We had built both of the +vessels we were in and navigated them two and three times around +the globe." Each one of the brothers had been a master builder +and rigger and a navigator of ships in every part of the world. + +By far the most important voyage undertaken by American +merchantmen during the decade of brilliant achievement following +the Revolution was that of Captain Robert Gray in the Columbia, +which was the first ship to visit and explore the northwest coast +and to lead the way for such adventurers as Richard Cleveland and +Amasa Delano. On his second voyage in 1792, Captain Gray +discovered the great river he christened Columbia and so gave to +the United States its valid title to that vast territory which +Lewis and Clark were to find after toiling over the mountains +thirteen years later. + + + +CHAPTER VI. "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" + +When the first Congress under the new Federal Constitution +assembled in 1789, a spirit of pride was manifested in the swift +recovery and the encouraging growth of the merchant marine, +together with a concerted determination to promote and protect it +by means of national legislation. The most imperative need was a +series of retaliatory measures to meet the burdensome navigation +laws of England, to give American ships a fair field and no +favors. The Atlantic trade was therefore stimulated by allowing a +reduction of ten per cent of the customs duties on goods imported +in vessels built and owned by American citizens. The East India +trade, which already employed forty New England ships, was +fostered in like manner. Teas brought direct under the American +flag paid an average duty of twelve cents a pound while teas in +foreign bottoms were taxed twenty-seven cents. It was sturdy +protection, for on a cargo of one hundred thousand pounds of +assorted teas from India or China, a British ship would pay +$27,800 into the custom house and a Salem square-rigger only +$10,980. + +The result was that the valuable direct trade with the Far East +was absolutely secured to the American flag. Not content with +this, Congress decreed a system of tonnage duties which permitted +the native owner to pay six cents per ton on his vessel while the +foreigner laid down fifty cents as an entry fee for every ton his +ship measured, or thirty cents if he owned an American-built +vessel. In 1794, Congress became even more energetic in defense +of its mariners and increased the tariff rates on merchandise in +foreign vessels. A nation at last united, jealous of its rights, +resentful of indignities long suffered, and intelligently alive +to its shipping as the chief bulwark of prosperity, struck back +with peaceful weapons and gained a victory of incalculable +advantage. Its Congress, no longer feeble and divided, laid the +foundations for American greatness upon the high seas which was +to endure for more than a half century. Wars, embargoes, and +confiscations might interrupt but they could not seriously harm +it. + +In the three years after 1789 the merchant shipping registered +for the foreign trade increased from 123,893 tons to 411,438 +tons, presaging a growth without parallel in the history of the +commercial world. Foreign ships were almost entirely driven out +of American ports, and ninety-one per cent of imports and +eighty-six per cent of exports were conveyed in vessels built and +manned by Americans. Before Congress intervened, English +merchantmen had controlled three-fourths of our commerce +overseas. When Thomas Jefferson, as Secretary of State, fought +down Southern opposition to a retaliatory shipping policy, he +uttered a warning which his countrymen were to find still true +and apt in the twentieth century: "If we have no seamen, our +ships will be useless, consequently our ship timber, iron, and +hemp; our shipbuilding will be at an end; ship carpenters will go +over to other nations; our young men have no call to the sea; our +products, carried in foreign bottoms, will be saddled with +war-freight and insurance in time of war--and the history of the +last hundred years shows that the nation which is our carrier has +three years of war for every four years of peace." + +The steady growth of an American merchant marine was interrupted +only once in the following decade. In the year 1793 war broke out +between England and France. A decree of the National Convention +of the French Republic granted neutral vessels the same rights as +those which flew the tricolor. This privilege reopened a rushing +trade with the West Indies, and hundreds of ships hastened from +American ports to Martinique, Guadeloupe, and St. Lucia. + +Like a thunderbolt came the tidings that England refused to look +upon this trade with the French colonies as neutral and that her +cruisers had been told to seize all vessels engaged in it and to +search them for English-born seamen. This ruling was enforced +with such barbarous severity that it seemed as if the War for +Independence had been fought in vain. Without warning, unable to +save themselves, great fleets of Yankee merchantmen were +literally swept from the waters of the West Indies. At St. +Eustatius one hundred and thirty of them were condemned. The +judges at Bermuda condemned eleven more. Crews and passengers +were flung ashore without food or clothing, were abused, +insulted, or perhaps impressed in British privateers. The ships +were lost to their owners. There was no appeal and no redress. At +Martinique an English fleet and army captured St. Pierre in +February, 1794. Files of marines boarded every American ship in +the harbor, tore down the colors, and flung two hundred and fifty +seamen into the foul holds of a prison hulk. There they were +kept, half-dead with thirst and hunger while their vessels, +uncared for, had stranded or sunk at their moorings. Scores of +outrages as abominable as this were on record in the office of +the Secretary of State. Shipmasters were afraid to sail to the +southward and, for lack of these markets for dried cod, the +fishing schooners of Marblehead were idle. + +For a time a second war with England seemed imminent. An alarmed +Congress passed laws to create a navy and to fortify the most +important American harbors. President Washington recommended an +embargo of thirty days, which Congress promptly voted and then +extended for thirty more. It was a popular measure and strictly +enforced by the mariners themselves. The mates and captains of +the brigs and snows in the Delaware River met and resolved not to +go to sea for another ten days, swearing to lie idle sooner than +feed the British robbers in the West Indies. It was in the midst +of these demonstrations that Washington seized the one hope of +peace and recommended a special mission to England. + +The treaty negotiated by John Jay in 1794 was received with an +outburst of popular indignation. Jay was damned as a traitor, +while the sailors of Portsmouth burned him in effigy. By way of +an answer to the terms of the obnoxious treaty, a seafaring mob +in Boston raided and burned the British privateer Speedwell, +which had put into that port as a merchantman with her guns and +munitions hidden beneath a cargo of West India produce. + +The most that can be said of the commercial provisions of the +treaty is that they opened direct trade with the East Indies but +at the price of complete freedom of trade for British shipping in +American ports. It must be said, too, that although the treaty +failed to clear away the gravest cause of hostility--the right of +search and impressment--yet it served to postpone the actual +dash, and during the years in which it was in force American +shipping splendidly prospered, freed of most irksome handicaps. + +The quarrel with France had been brewing at the same time and for +similar reasons. Neutral trade with England was under the ban, +and the Yankee shipmaster was in danger of losing his vessel if +he sailed to or from a port under the British flag. It was out of +the frying-pan into the fire, and French privateers welcomed the +excuse to go marauding in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. What it +meant to fight off these greedy cutthroats is told in a newspaper +account of the engagement of Captain Richard Wheatland, who was +homeward bound to Salem in the ship Perseverance in 1799. He was +in the Old Straits of Bahama when a fast schooner came up astern, +showing Spanish colors and carrying a tremendous press of canvas. +Unable to run away from her, Captain Wheatland reported to his +owners: + +"We took in steering sails, wore ship, hauled up our courses, +piped all hands to quarters and prepared for action. The schooner +immediately took in sail, hoisted an English Union flag and +passed under our lee at a considerable distance. We wore ship, +she did the same, and we passed each other within half a musket. +A fellow hailed us in broken English and ordered the boat hoisted +out and the captain to come aboard, which he refused. He again +ordered our boat out and enforced his orders with a menace that +in case of refusal he would sink us, using at the same time the +vilest and most infamous language it is possible to conceive of. +. . . We hauled the ship to wind and as he passed poured a whole +broadside into him with great success. Sailing faster than we, he +ranged considerably ahead, tacked and again passed, giving us a +broadside and furious discharge of musketry, which he kept up +incessantly until the latter part of the engagement. His musket +balls reached us in every direction but his large shot either +fell short or went considerably over us while our guns loaded +with round shot and square bars of iron were plied so briskly and +directed with such good judgment that before he got out of range +we had cut his mainsail and foretopsail all to rags and cleared +his decks so effectively that when he bore away from us there +were scarcely ten men to be seen. He then struck his English flag +and hoisted the flag of The Terrible Republic and made off with +all the sail he could carry, much disappointed, no doubt, at not +being able to give us a fraternal embrace. We feel confidence +that we have rid the world of some infamous pests of society." + +By this time, the United States was engaged in active hostilities +with France, although war had not been declared. The news of the +indignities which American commissions had suffered at the hands +of the French Directory had stirred the people to war pitch. +Strong measures for national defense were taken, which stopped +little short of war. The country rallied to the slogan, "Millions +for defense but not one cent for tribute," and the merchants of +the seaports hastened to subscribe funds to build frigates to be +loaned to the Government. Salem launched the famous Essex, ready +for sea six months after the keel was laid, at a cost of $75,000. +Her two foremost merchants, Elias Hasket Derby and William Gray, +led the list with ten thousand dollars each. The call sent out by +the master builder, Enos Briggs, rings with thrilling effect: + +"To Sons of Freedom! All true lovers of Liberty of your Country! +Step forth and give your assistance in building the frigate to +oppose French insolence and piracy. Let every man in possession +of a white oak tree be ambitious to be foremost in hurrying down +the timber to Salem where the noble structure is to be fabricated +to maintain your rights upon the seas and make the name of +America respected among the nations of the world. Your largest +and longest trees are wanted, and the arms of them for knees and +rising timber. Four trees are wanted for the keel which +altogether will measure 146 feet in length, and hew sixteen +inches square." + +This handsome frigate privately built by patriots of the republic +illuminates the coastwise spirit and conditions of her time. She +was a Salem ship from keel to truck. Captain Jonathan Haraden, +the finest privateersman of the Revolution, made the rigging for +the mainmast at his ropewalk in Brown Street. Joseph Vincent +fitted out the foremast and Thomas Briggs the mizzenmast in their +lofts at the foot of the Common. When the huge hemp cables were +ready for the frigate, the workmen carried them to the shipyard +on their shoulders, the parade led by fife and drum. Her sails +were cut from duck woven in Daniel Rust's factory in Broad Street +and her iron work was forged by Salem shipsmiths. It was not +surprising that Captain Richard Derby was chosen to command the +Essex, but he was abroad in a ship of his own and she sailed +under Captain Edward Preble of the Navy. + +The war cloud passed and the merchant argosies overflowed the +wharves and havens of New England, which had ceased to monopolize +the business on blue water. New York had become a seaport with +long ranks of high-steeved bowsprits soaring above pleasant +Battery Park and a forest of spars extending up the East River. +In 1790 more than two thousand ships, brigs, schooners, and +smaller craft had entered and cleared, and the merchants met in +the coffee-houses to discuss charters, bills-of-lading, and +adventures. Sailors commanded thrice the wages of laborers +ashore. Shipyards were increasing and the builders could build as +large and swift East Indiamen as those of which Boston and Salem +boasted. + +Philadelphia had her Stephen Girard, whose wealth was earned in +ships, a man most remarkable and eccentric, whose career was one +of the great maritime romances. Though his father was a +prosperous merchant of Bordeaux engaged in the West India trade, +he was shifting for himself as a cabin-boy on his father's ships +when only fourteen years old. With no schooling, barely able to +read and write, this urchin sailed between Bordeaux and the +French West Indies for nine years, until he gained the rank of +first mate. At the age of twenty-six he entered the port of +Philadelphia in command of a sloop which had narrowly escaped +capture by British frigates. There he took up his domicile and +laid the foundation of his fortune in small trading ventures to +New Orleans and Santo Domingo. + +In 1791 he began to build a fleet of beautiful ships for the +China and India trade, their names, Montesquieu, Helvetius, +Voltaire, and Rousseau, revealing his ideas of religion and +liberty. So successfully did he combine banking and shipping that +in 1813 he was believed to be the wealthiest merchant in the +United States. In that year one of his ships from China was +captured off the Capes of the Delaware by a British privateer. +Her cargo of teas, nankeens, and silks was worth half a million +dollars to him but he succeeded in ransoming it on the spot by +counting out one hundred and eighty thousand Spanish milled +dollars. No privateersman could resist such strategy as this. + +Alone in his old age, without a friend or relative to close his +eyes in death, Stephen Girard, once a penniless, ignorant French +cabin-boy, bequeathed his millions to philanthropy, and the +Girard College for orphan boys, in Philadelphia, is his monument. + +The Treaty of Amiens brought a little respite to Europe and a +peaceful interlude for American shipmasters, but France and +England came to grips again in 1803. For two years thereafter the +United States was almost the only important neutral nation not +involved in the welter of conflict on land and sea, and trade +everywhere sought the protection of the Stars and Stripes. +England had swept her own rivals, men-of-war and merchantmen, +from the face of the waters. France and Holland ceased to carry +cargoes beneath their own ensigns. Spain was afraid to send her +galleons to Mexico and Peru. All the Continental ports were +begging for American ships to transport their merchandise. It was +a maritime harvest unique and unexpected. + +Yankee skippers were dominating the sugar trade of Cuba and were +rolling across the Atlantic with the coffee, hides, and indigo of +Venezuela and Brazil. Their fleets crowded the roadsteads of +Manila and Batavia and packed the warehouses of Antwerp, Lisbon, +and Hamburg. It was a situation which England could not tolerate +without attempting to thwart an immense traffic which she +construed as giving aid and comfort to her enemies. Under cover +of the so-called Rule of 1756 British admiralty courts began to +condemn American vessels carrying products from enemies' colonies +to Europe, even when the voyage was broken by first entering an +American port. It was on record in September, 1805, that fifty +American ships had been condemned in England and as many more in +the British West Indies. + +This was a trifling disaster, however, compared with the huge +calamity which befell when Napoleon entered Berlin as a conqueror +and proclaimed his paper blockade of the British Isles. There was +no French navy to enforce it, but American vessels dared not sail +for England lest they be snapped up by French privateers. The +British Government savagely retaliated with further prohibitions, +and Napoleon countered in like manner until no sea was safe for a +neutral ship and the United States was powerless to assert its +rights. Thomas Jefferson as President used as a weapon the +Embargo of 1807, which was, at first, a popular measure, and +which he justified in these pregnant sentences: "The whole world +is thus laid under interdict by these two nations, and our own +vessels, their cargoes, and crews, are to be taken by the one or +the other for whatever place they may be destined out of our +limits. If, therefore, on leaving our harbors we are certainly to +lose them, is it not better as to vessels, cargoes, and seamen, +to keep them at home?" + +A people proud, independent, and pugnacious, could not long +submit to a measure of defense which was, in the final sense, an +abject surrender to brute force. New England, which bore the +brunt of the embargo, was first to rebel against it. Sailors +marched through the streets clamoring for bread or loaded their +vessels and fought their way to sea. In New York the streets of +the waterside were deserted, ships dismantled, countinghouses +unoccupied, and warehouses empty. In one year foreign commerce +decreased in value from $108,000,000 to $22,000,000. + +After fifteen months Congress repealed the law, substituting a +Non-Intercourse Act which suspended trade with Great Britain and +France until their offending orders were repealed. All such +measures were doomed to be futile. Words and documents, threats +and arguments could not intimidate adversaries who paid heed to +nothing else than broadsides from line-of-battle ships or the +charge of battalions. With other countries trade could now be +opened. Hopefully the hundreds of American ships long pent-up in +harbor winged it deep-laden for the Baltic, the North Sea, and +the Mediterranean. But few of them ever returned. Like a brigand, +Napoleon lured them into a trap and closed it, advising the +Prussian Government, which was under his heel: "Let the American +ships enter your ports. Seize them afterward. You shall deliver +the cargoes to me and I will take them in part payment of the +Prussian war debt." + +Similar orders were executed wherever his mailed fist reached, +the pretext being reprisal for the Non-Intercourse Act. More than +two hundred American vessels were lost to their owners, a +ten-million-dollar robbery for which France paid an indemnity of +five millions after twenty years. It was the grand climax of the +exploitation which American commerce had been compelled to endure +through two centuries of tumult and bloodshed afloat. There +lingers today in many a coastwise town an inherited dislike for +France. It is a legacy of that far-off catastrophe which beggared +many a household and filled the streets with haggard, broken +shipmasters. + +It was said of this virile merchant marine that it throve under +pillage and challenged confiscation. Statistics confirm this +brave paradox. In 1810, while Napoleon was doing his worst, the +deep-sea tonnage amounted to 981,019; and it is a singular fact +that in proportion to population this was to stand as the high +tide of American foreign shipping until thirty-seven years later. +It ebbed during the War of 1812 but rose again with peace and a +real and lasting freedom of the seas. + +This second war with England was fought in behalf of merchant +seamen and they played a nobly active part in it. The ruthless +impressment of seamen was the most conspicuous provocation, but +it was only one of many. Two years before hostilities were openly +declared, British frigates were virtually blockading the port of +New York, halting and searching ships as they pleased, making +prizes of those with French destinations, stealing sailors to +fill their crews, waging war in everything but name, and enjoying +the sport of it. A midshipman of one of them merrily related: +"Every morning at daybreak we set about arresting the progress of +all the vessels we saw, firing off guns to the right and left to +make every ship that was running in heave to or wait until we had +leisure to send a boat on board to see, in our lingo, what she +was made of. I have frequently known a dozen and sometimes a +couple of dozen ships lying a league or two off the port, losing +their fair wind, their tide, and worse than all, their market for +many hours, sometimes the whole day, before our search was +completed." + +The right of a belligerent to search neutral vessels for +contraband of war or evidence of a forbidden destination was not +the issue at stake. This was a usage sanctioned by such +international law as then existed. It was the alleged right to +search for English seamen in neutral vessels that Great Britain +exercised, not only on the high seas but even in territorial +waters, which the American Government refused to recognize. In +vain the Government had endeavored to protect its sailors from +impressment by means of certificates of birth and citizenship. +These documents were jeered at by the English naval lieutenant +and his boarding gang, who kidnapped from the forecastle such +stalwart tars as pleased their fancy. The victim who sought to +inform an American consul of his plight was lashed to the rigging +and flogged by a boatswain's mate. The files of the State +Department, in 1807, had contained the names of six thousand +American sailors who were as much slaves and prisoners aboard +British men-of-war as if they had been made captives by the Dey +of Algiers. One of these incidents, occurring on the ship Betsy, +Captain Nathaniel Silsbee, while at Madras in 1795, will serve to +show how this brutal business was done. + +"I received a note early one morning from my chief mate that one +of my sailors, Edward Hulen, a fellow townsman whom I had known +from boyhood, had been impressed and taken on board of a British +frigate then being in port .... I immediately went on board my +ship and having there learned all the facts in the case, +proceeded to the frigate, where I found Hulen and in his presence +was informed by the first lieutenant of the frigate that he had +taken Hulen from my ship under a peremptory order from his +commander to visit every American ship in port and take from each +of them one or more of their seamen .... I then called upon +Captain Cook, who commanded the frigate, and sought first by all +the persuasive means that I was capable of using and ultimately +by threats to appeal to the Government of the place to obtain +Hulen's release, but in vain . . . . It remained for me only to +recommend Hulen to that protection of the lieutenant which a good +seaman deserves, and to submit to the high-handed insult thus +offered to the flag of my country which I had no means either of +preventing or resisting." + +After several years' detention in the British Navy, Hulen +returned to Salem and lived to serve on board privateers in the +second war with England. + +Several years' detention! This was what it meant to be a pressed +man, perhaps with wife and children at home who had no news of +him nor any wages to support them. At the time of the Nore Mutiny +in 1797, there were ships in the British fleet whose men had not +been paid off for eight, ten, twelve, and in one instance fifteen +years. These wooden walls of England were floating hells, and a +seaman was far better off in jail. He was flogged if he sulked +and again if he smiled flogged until the blood ran for a hundred +offenses as trivial as these. His food was unspeakably bad and +often years passed before he was allowed to set foot ashore. +Decent men refused to volunteer and the ships were filled with +the human scum and refuse caught in the nets of the press-gangs +of Liverpool, London, and Bristol. + +It is largely forgotten or unknown that this system of recruiting +was as intolerable in England as it was in the United States and +as fiercely resented. Oppressive and unjust, it was nevertheless +endured as the bulwark of England's defense against her foes. It +ground under its heel the very people it protected and made them +serfs in order to keep them free. No man of the common people who +lived near the coast of England was safe from the ruffianly +press-gangs nor any merchant ship that entered her ports. It was +the most cruel form of conscription ever devised. Mob violence +opposed it again and again, and British East Indiamen fought the +King's tenders sooner than be stripped of their crews and left +helpless. Feeling in America against impressment was never more +highly inflamed, even on the brink of the War of 1812, than it +had long been in England itself, although the latter country was +unable to rise and throw it off. Here are the words, not of an +angry American patriot but of a modern English historian writing +of his own nation:* "To the people the impress was an axe laid at +the foot of the tree. There was here no question, as with trade, +of the mere loss of hands who could be replaced. Attacking the +family in the person of its natural supporter and protector, the +octopus system of which the gangs were the tentacles, struck at +the very foundations of domestic life and brought to thousands of +households a poverty as bitter and a grief as poignant as death. +. . . The mutiny at the Nore brought the people face to face with +the appalling risks attendant on wholesale pressing while the war +with America, incurred for the sole purpose of upholding the +right to press, taught them the lengths to which their rulers +were still prepared to go in order to enslave them."* + +* The Press Gang Afloat and Ashore, by J. R. Hutchinson. + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE BRILLIANT ERA OF 1812 + +American privateering in 1812 was even bolder and more successful +than during the Revolution. It was the work of a race of merchant +seamen who had found themselves, who were in the forefront of the +world's trade and commerce, and who were equipped to challenge +the enemy's pretensions to supremacy afloat. Once more there was +a mere shadow of a navy to protect them, but they had learned to +trust their own resources. They would send to sea fewer of the +small craft, slow and poorly armed, and likely to meet disaster. +They were capable of manning what was, in fact, a private navy +comprised of fast and formidable cruisers. The intervening +generation had advanced the art of building and handling ships +beyond all rivalry, and England grudgingly acknowledged their +ability. The year of 1812 was indeed but a little distance from +the resplendent modern era of the Atlantic packet and the Cape +Horn clipper. + +Already these Yankee deep-water ships could be recognized afar by +their lofty spars and snowy clouds of cotton duck beneath which +the slender hull was a thin black line. Far up to the gleaming +royals they carried sail in winds so strong that the lumbering +English East Indiamen were hove to or snugged down to reefed +topsails. It was not recklessness but better seamanship. The +deeds of the Yankee privateers of 1812 prove this assertion to +the hilt. Their total booty amounted to thirteen hundred prizes +taken over all the Seven Seas, with a loss to England of forty +million dollars in ships and cargoes. There were, all told, more +than five hundred of them in commission, but New England no +longer monopolized this dashing trade. Instead of Salem it was +Baltimore that furnished the largest fleet--fifty-eight vessels, +many of them the fast ships and schooners which were to make the +port famous as the home of the Baltimore clipper model. All down +the coast, out of Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, and +New Orleans, sallied the privateers to show that theirs was, in +truth, a seafaring nation ardently united in a common cause. + +Again and more vehemently the people of England raised their +voices in protest and lament, for these saucy sea-raiders fairly +romped to and fro in the Channel, careless of pursuit, conducting +a blockade of their own until London was paying the famine price +of fifty-eight dollars a barrel for flour, and it was publicly +declared mortifying and distressing that "a horde of American +cruisers should be allowed, unresisted and unmolested, to take, +burn, or sink our own vessels in our own inlets and almost in +sight of our own harbors." It was Captain Thomas Boyle in the +Chasseur of Baltimore who impudently sent ashore his proclamation +of a blockade of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, +which he requested should be posted in Lloyd's Coffee House. + +A wonderfully fine figure of a fighting seaman was this Captain +Boyle, with an Irish sense of humor which led him to haunt the +enemy's coast and to make sport of the frigates which tried to +catch him. His Chasseur was considered one of the ablest +privateers of the war and the most beautiful vessel ever seen in +Baltimore. A fleet and graceful schooner with a magical turn for +speed, she mounted sixteen long twelve-pounders and carried a +hundred officers, seamen, and marines, and was never outsailed in +fair winds or foul. "Out of sheer wantonness," said an admirer, +"she sometimes affected to chase the enemy's men-of-war of far +superior force." Once when surrounded by two frigates and two +naval brigs, she slipped through and was gone like a phantom. +During his first cruise in the Chasseur, Captain Boyle captured +eighteen valuable merchantmen. It was such defiant rovers as he +that provoked the "Morning Chronicle" of London to splutter "that +the whole coast of Ireland from Wexford round by Cape Clear +to Carrickfergus, should have been for above a month under the +unresisted domination of a few petty fly-by-nights from the +blockaded ports of the United States is a grievance equally +intolerable and disgraceful." + +This was when the schooner Syren had captured His Majesty's +cutter Landrail while crossing the Irish Sea with dispatches; +when the Governor Tompkins burned fourteen English vessels in the +English Channel in quick succession; when the Harpy of Baltimore +cruised for three months off the Irish and English coasts and in +the Bay of Biscay, and returned to Boston filled with spoils, +including a half million dollars of money; when the Prince de +Neuchatel hovered at her leisure in the Irish Channel and made +coasting trade impossible; and when the Young Wasp of +Philadelphia cruised for six months in those same waters. + +Two of the privateers mentioned were first-class fighting ships +whose engagements were as notable, in their way, as those of the +American frigates which made the war as illustrious by sea as it +was ignominious by land. While off Havana in 1815, Captain Boyle +met the schooner St. Lawrence of the British Navy, a fair match +in men and guns. The Chasseur could easily have run away but +stood up to it and shot the enemy to pieces in fifteen minutes. +Brave and courteous were these two commanders, and Lieutenant +Gordon of the St. Lawrence gave his captor a letter which read, +in part: "In the event of Captain Boyle's becoming a prisoner of +war to any British cruiser I consider it a tribute justly due to +his humane and generous treatment of myself, the surviving +officers, and crew of His Majesty's late schooner St. Lawrence, +to state that his obliging attention and watchful solicitude to +preserve our effects and render us comfortable during the short +time we were in his possession were such as justly entitle him to +the indulgence and respect of every British subject." + +The Prince de Neuchatel had the honor of beating off the attack +of a forty-gun British frigate--an exploit second only to that of +the General Armstrong in the harbor of Fayal. This privateer with +a foreign name hailed from New York and was so fortunate as to +capture for her owners three million dollars' worth of British +merchandise. With Captain J. Ordronaux on the quarterdeck, she +was near Nantucket Shoals at noon on October 11, 1814, when a +strange sail was discovered. As this vessel promptly gave chase, +Captain Ordronaux guessed-and as events proved correctly--that +she must be a British frigate. She turned out to be the Endymion. +The privateer had in tow a prize which she was anxious to get +into port, but she was forced to cast off the hawser late in the +afternoon and make every effort to escape. + +The breeze died with the sun and the vessels were close inshore. +Becalmed, the privateer and the frigate anchored a quarter of a +mile apart. Captain Ordronaux might have put his crew on the +beach in boats and abandoned his ship. This was the reasonable +course, for, as he had sent in several prize crews, he was +short-handed and could muster no more than thirty-seven men and +boys. The Endymion, on the other hand, had a complement of three +hundred and fifty sailors and marines, and in size and fighting +power she was in the class of the American frigates President and +Constitution. Quite unreasonably, however, the master of the +privateer decided to await events. + +The unexpected occurred shortly after dusk when several boats +loaded to the gunwales with a boarding party crept away from the +frigate. Five of them, with one hundred and twenty men, made a +concerted attack at different points, alongside and under the bow +and stern. Captain Ordronaux had told his crew that he would blow +up the ship with all hands before striking his colors, and they +believed him implicitly. This was the hero who was described as +"a Jew by persuasion, a Frenchman by birth, an American for +convenience, and so diminutive in stature as to make him appear +ridiculous, in the eyes of others, even for him to enforce +authority among a hardy, weatherbeaten crew should they do aught +against his will." He was big enough, nevertheless, for this +night's bloody work, and there was no doubt about his authority. +While the British tried to climb over the bulwarks, his +thirty-seven men and boys fought like raging devils, with knives, +pistols, cutlases, with their bare fists and their teeth. A few +of the enemy gained the deck, but the privateersmen turned and +killed them. Others leaped aboard and were gradually driving the +Americans back, when the skipper ran to the hatch above the +powder magazine, waving a lighted match and swearing to drop it +in if his crew retreated one step further. Either way the issue +seemed desperate. But again they took their skipper's word for it +and rallied for a bloody struggle which soon swept the decks. + +No more than twenty minutes had passed and the battle was won. +The enemy was begging for quarter. One boat had been sunk, three +had drifted away filled with dead and wounded, and the fifth was +captured with thirty-six men in it of whom only eight were +unhurt. The American loss was seven killed and twenty-four +wounded, or thirty-one of her crew of thirty-seven. Yet they had +not given up the ship. The frigate Endymion concluded that once +was enough, and next morning the Prince de Neuchatel bore away +for Boston with a freshening breeze. + +Those were merchant seamen also who held the General Armstrong +against a British squadron through that moonlit night in Fayal +Roads, inflicting heavier losses than were suffered in any naval +action of the war. It is a story Homeric, almost incredible in +its details and so often repeated that it can be only touched +upon in this brief chronicle. The leader was a kindly featured +man who wore a tall hat, side-whiskers, and a tail coat. His +portrait might easily have served for that of a New England +deacon of the old school. No trace of the swashbuckler in this +Captain Samuel Reid, who had been a thrifty, respected merchant +skipper until offered the command of a privateer. + +Touching at the Azores for water and provisions in September, +1814, he was trapped in port by the great seventy-four-gun ship +of the line Plantagenet, the thirty-eight-gun frigate Rota, and +the warbrig Carnation. Though he was in neutral water, they paid +no heed to this but determined to destroy a Yankee schooner which +had played havoc with their shipping. Four hundred men in twelve +boats, with a howitzer in the bow of each boat, were sent against +the General Armstrong in one flotilla. But not a man of the four +hundred gained her deck. Said an eyewitness: "The Americans +fought with great firmness but more like bloodthirsty savages +than anything else. They rushed into the boats sword in hand and +put every soul to death as far as came within their power. Some +of the boats were left without a single man to row them, others +with three or four. The most that any one returned with was about +ten. Several boats floated ashore full of dead bodies . . . . For +three days after the battle we were employed in burying the dead +that washed on shore in the surf." + +This tragedy cost the British squadron one hundred and twenty men +in killed and one hundred and thirty in wounded, while Captain +Reid lost only two dead and had seven wounded. He was compelled +to retreat ashore next day when the ships stood in to sink his +schooner with their big guns, but the honors of war belonged to +him and well-earned were the popular tributes when he saw home +again, nor was there a word too much in the florid toast: +"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." + +It is not to glorify war nor to rekindle an ancient feud that +such episodes as these are recalled to mind. These men, and +others like them, did their duty as it came to them, and they +were sailors of whom the whole Anglo-Saxon race might be proud. +In the crisis they were Americans, not privateersmen in quest of +plunder, and they would gladly die sooner than haul down the +Stars and Stripes. The England against which they fought was not +the England of today. Their honest grievances, inflicted by a +Government too intent upon crushing Napoleon to be fair to +neutrals, have long ago been obliterated. This War of 1812 +cleared the vision of the Mother Country and forever taught her +Government that the people of the Republic were, in truth, free +and independent. + +This lesson was driven home not only by the guns of the +Constitution and the United States, but also by the hundreds of +privateers and the forty thousand able seamen who were eager to +sail in them. They found no great place in naval history, but +England knew their prowess and respected it. Every schoolboy is +familiar with the duels of the Wasp and the Frolic, of the +Enterprise and the Boxer; but how many people know what happened +when the privateer Decatur met and whipped the Dominica of the +British Navy to the southward of Bermuda? + +Captain Diron was the man who did it as he was cruising out of +Charleston, South Carolina, in the summer of 1813. Sighting an +armed schooner slightly heavier than his own vessel, he made for +her and was unperturbed when the royal ensign streamed from her +gaff. Clearing for action, he closed the hatches so that none of +his men could hide below. The two schooners fought in the veiling +smoke until the American could ram her bowsprit over the other's +stern and pour her whole crew aboard. In the confined space of +the deck, almost two hundred men and lads were slashing and +stabbing and shooting amid yells and huzzas. Lieutenant Barrette, +the English commander, only twenty-five years old, was mortally +hurt and every other officer, excepting the surgeon and one +midshipman, was killed or wounded. Two-thirds of the crew were +down but still they refused to surrender, and Captain Diron had +to pull down the colors with his own hands. Better discipline and +marksmanship had won the day for him and his losses were +comparatively small. + +Men of his description were apt to think first of glory and let +the profits go hang, for there was no cargo to be looted in a +King's ship. Other privateersmen, however, were not so valiant or +quarrelsome, and there was many a one tied up in London River or +the Mersey which had been captured without very savage +resistance. Yet on the whole it is fair to say that the private +armed ships outfought and outsailed the enemy as impressively as +did the few frigates of the American Navy. + +There was a class of them which exemplified the rapid development +of the merchant marine in a conspicuous manner--large commerce +destroyers too swift to be caught, too powerful to fear the +smaller cruisers. They were extremely profitable business +ventures, entrusted to the command of the most audacious and +skillful masters that could be engaged. Of this type was the ship +America of Salem, owned by the Crowninshields, which made +twenty-six prizes and brought safely into port property which +realized more than a million dollars. Of this the owners and +shareholders received six hundred thousand dollars as dividends. +She was a stately vessel, built for the East India trade, and was +generally conceded to be the fastest privateer afloat. For this +service the upper deck was removed and the sides were filled in +with stout oak timber as an armored protection, and longer yards +and royal masts gave her a huge area of sail. Her crew of one +hundred and fifty men had the exacting organization of a +man-of-war, including, it is interesting to note, three +lieutenants, three mates, a sailingmaster, surgeon, purser, +captain of marines, gunners, seven prize masters, armorer, +drummer, and a fifer. Discipline was severe, and flogging was the +penalty for breaking the regulations. + +During her four cruises, the America swooped among the plodding +merchantmen like a falcon on a dovecote, the sight of her +frightening most of her prey into submission, with a brush now +and then to exercise the crews of the twenty-two guns, and +perhaps a man or two hit. Long after the war, Captain James +Chever, again a peaceful merchant mariner, met at Valparaiso, Sir +James Thompson, commander of the British frigate Dublin, which +had been fitted out in 1813 for the special purpose of chasing +the America. In the course of a cordial chat between the two +captains the Briton remarked: + +"I was once almost within gun-shot of that infernal Yankee +skimming-dish, just as night came on. By daylight she had +outsailed the Dublin so devilish fast that she was no more than a +speck on the horizon. By the way, I wonder if you happen to know +the name of the beggar that was master of her." + +"I'm the beggar," chuckled Captain Chever, and they drank each +other's health on the strength of it. + +Although the Treaty of Ghent omitted mention of the impressment +of sailors, which had been the burning issue of the war, there +were no more offenses of this kind. American seafarers were safe +against kidnapping on their own decks, and they had won this +security by virtue of their own double-shotted guns. At the same +time England lifted the curse of the press-gang from her own +people, who refused longer to endure it. + +There seemed no reason why the two nations, having finally fought +their differences to a finish, should not share the high seas in +peaceful rivalry; but the irritating problems of protection and +reciprocity survived to plague and hamper commerce. It was +difficult for England to overcome the habit of guarding her trade +against foreign invasion. Agreeing with the United States to +waive all discriminating duties between the ports of the two +countries--this was as much as she was at that time willing to +yield. She still insisted upon regulating the trade of her West +Indies and Canada. American East Indiamen were to be limited to +direct voyages and could not bring cargoes to Europe. Though this +discrimination angered Congress, to which it appeared as lopsided +reciprocity, the old duties were nevertheless repealed; and then, +presto! the British colonial policy of exclusion was enforced and +eighty thousand tons of American shipping became idle because the +West India market was closed. + +There followed several years of unhappy wrangling, a revival of +the old smuggling spirit, the risk of seizure and confiscations, +and shipping merchants with long faces talking ruin. The theory +of free trade versus protection was as debatable and opinions +were as conflicting then as now. Some were for retaliation, +others for conciliation; and meanwhile American shipmasters went +about their business, with no room for theories in their honest +heads, and secured more and more of the world's trade. Curiously +enough, the cries of calamity in the United States were echoed +across the water, where the "London Times" lugubriously +exclaimed: "The shipping interest, the cradle of our navy, is +half ruined. Our commercial monopoly exists no longer; and +thousands of our manufacturers are starving or seeking redemption +in distant lands. We have closed the Western Indies against +America from feelings of commercial rivalry. Its active seamen +have already engrossed an important branch of our carrying trade +to the Eastern Indies. Her starred flag is now conspicuous on +every sea and will soon defy our thunder." + +It was not until 1849 that Great Britain threw overboard her long +catalogue of protective navigation laws which had been piling up +since the time of Cromwell, and declared for free trade afloat. +Meanwhile the United States had drifted in the same direction, +barring foreign flags from its coastwise shipping but offering +full exemption from all discriminating duties and tonnage duties +to every maritime nation which should respond in like manner. +This latter legislation was enacted in 1828 and definitely +abandoned the doctrine of protection in so far as it applied to +American ships and sailors. For a generation thereafter, during +which ocean rivalry was a battle royal of industry, enterprise, +and skill, the United States was paramount and her merchant +marine attained its greatest successes. + +There is one school of modern economists who hold that the seeds +of decay and downfall were planted by this adoption of free trade +in 1828, while another faction of gentlemen quite as estimable +and authoritative will quote facts and figures by the ream to +prove that governmental policies had nothing whatever to do with +the case. These adversaries have written and are still writing +many volumes in which they almost invariably lose their tempers. +Partisan politics befog the tariff issue afloat as well as +ashore, and one's course is not easy to chart. It is +indisputable, however, that so long as Yankee ships were better, +faster, and more economically managed, they won a commanding +share of the world's trade. When they ceased to enjoy these +qualities of superiority, they lost the trade and suffered for +lack of protection to overcome the handicap. + +The War of 1812 was the dividing line between two eras of salt +water history. On the farther side lay the turbulent centuries of +hazard and bloodshed and piracy, of little ships and indomitable +seamen who pursued their voyages in the reek of gunpowder and of +legalized pillage by the stronger, and of merchant adventurers +who explored new markets wherever there was water enough to float +their keels. They belonged to the rude and lusty youth of a world +which lived by the sword and which gloried in action. Even into +the early years of the nineteenth century these mariners still +sailed--Elizabethan in deed and spirit. + +On the hither side of 1812 were seas unvexed by the privateer and +the freebooter. The lateen-rigged corsairs had been banished from +their lairs in the harbors of Algiers, and ships needed to show +no broadsides of cannon in the Atlantic trade. For a time they +carried the old armament among the lawless islands of the Orient +and off Spanish-American coasts where the vocation of piracy made +its last stand, but the great trade routes of the globe were +peaceful highways for the white-winged fleets of all nations. The +American seamen who had fought for the right to use the open sea +were now to display their prowess in another way and in a romance +of achievement that was no less large and thrilling. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE PACKET SHIPS OF THE "ROARING FORTIES" + +It was on the stormy Atlantic, called by sailormen the Western +Ocean, that the packet ships won the first great contest for +supremacy and knew no rivals until the coming of the age of steam +made them obsolete. Their era antedated that of the clipper and +was wholly distinct. The Atlantic packet was the earliest liner: +she made regular sailings and carried freight and passengers +instead of trading on her owners' account as was the ancient +custom. Not for her the tranquillity of tropic seas and the +breath of the Pacific trades, but an almost incessant battle with +swinging surges and boisterous winds, for she was driven harder +in all weathers and seasons than any other ships that sailed. In +such battering service as this the lines of the clipper were too +extremely fine, her spars too tall and slender. The packet was by +no means slow and if the list of her record passages was superb, +it was because they were accomplished by masters who would sooner +let a sail blow away than take it in and who raced each other +every inch of the way. + +They were small ships of three hundred to five hundred tons when +the famous Black Ball Line was started in 1816. From the first +they were the ablest vessels that could be built, full-bodied and +stoutly rigged. They were the only regular means of communication +between the United States and Europe and were entrusted with the +mails, specie, government dispatches, and the lives of eminent +personages. Blow high, blow low, one of the Black Ball packets +sailed from New York for Liverpool on the first and sixteenth of +every month. Other lines were soon competing--the Red Star and +the Swallow Tail out of New York, and fine ships from Boston and +Philadelphia. With the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 the +commercial greatness of New York was assured, and her Atlantic +packets increased in size and numbers, averaging a thousand tons +each in the zenith of their glory. + +England, frankly confessing herself beaten and unable to compete +with such ships as these, changed her attitude from hostility to +open admiration. She surrendered the Atlantic packet trade to +American enterprise, and British merchantmen sought their gains +in other waters. The Navigation Laws still protected their +commerce in the Far East and they were content to jog at a more +sedate gait than these weltering packets whose skippers were +striving for passages of a fortnight, with the forecastle doors +nailed fast and the crew compelled to stay on deck from Sandy +Hook to Fastnet Rock. + +No blustering, rum-drinking tarpaulin was the captain who sailed +the Independence, the Ocean Queen, or the Dreadnought but a man +very careful of his manners and his dress, who had been selected +from the most highly educated merchant service in the world. He +was attentive to the comfort of his passengers and was presumed +to have no other duties on deck than to give the proper orders to +his first officer and work out his daily reckoning. It was an +exacting, nerve-racking ordeal, however, demanding a sleepless +vigilance, courage, and cool judgment of the first order. The +compensations were large. As a rule, he owned a share of the ship +and received a percentage of the freights and passage money. His +rank when ashore was more exalted than can be conveyed in mere +words. Any normal New York boy would sooner have been captain of +a Black Ball packet than President of the United States, and he +knew by heart the roaring chantey + + It is of a flash packet, + A packet of fame. + She is bound to New York + And the Dreadnought's her name. + She is bound to the west'ard + Where the stormy winds blow. + Bound away to the west'ard, + Good Lord, let her go. + + +There were never more than fifty of these ships afloat, a +trifling fraction of the American deep-water tonnage of that day, +but the laurels they won were immortal. Not only did the English +mariner doff his hat to them, but a Parliamentary committee +reported in 1837 that "the American ships frequenting the ports +of England are stated by several witnesses to be superior to +those of a similar class among the ships of Great Britain, the +commanders and officers being generally considered to be more +competent as seamen and navigators and more uniformly persons of +education than the commanders and officers of British ships of a +similar size and class trading from England to America." + +It was no longer a rivalry with the flags of other nations but an +unceasing series of contests among the packets of the several +lines, and their records aroused far more popular excitement than +when the great steamers of this century were chipping off the +minutes, at an enormous coal consumption, toward a five-day +passage. Theirs were tests of real seamanship, and there were few +disasters. The packet captain scorned a towboat to haul him into +the stream if the wind served fair to set all plain sail as his +ship lay at her wharf. Driving her stern foremost, he braced his +yards and swung her head to sea, clothing the masts with soaring +canvas amid the farewell cheers of the crowds which lined the +waterfront. + +A typical match race was sailed between the Black Ball liner +Columbus, Captain De Peyster, and the Sheridan, Captain Russell, +of the splendid Dramatic fleet, in 1837. The stake was $10,000 a +side, put up by the owners and their friends. The crews were +picked men who were promised a bonus of fifty dollars each for +winning. The ships sailed side by side in February, facing the +wild winter passage, and the Columbus reached Liverpool in the +remarkable time of sixteen days, two days ahead of the Sheridan. + +The crack packets were never able to reel off more than twelve or +fourteen knots under the most favorable conditions, but they were +kept going night and day, and some of them maintained their +schedules almost with the regularity of the early steamers. The +Montezuma, the Patrick Henry, and the Southampton crossed from +New York to Liverpool in fifteen days, and for years the +Independence held the record of fourteen days and six hours. It +remained for the Dreadnought, Captain Samuel Samuels, in 1859, to +set the mark for packet ships to Liverpool at thirteen days and +eight hours. + +Meanwhile the era of the matchless clipper had arrived and it was +one of these ships which achieved the fastest Atlantic passage +ever made by a vessel under sail. The James Baines was built for +English owners to be used in the Australian trade. She was a full +clipper of 2515 tons, twice the size of the ablest packets, and +was praised as "the most perfect sailing ship that ever entered +the river Mersey." Bound out from Boston to Liverpool, she +anchored after twelve days and six hours at sea. + +There was no lucky chance in this extraordinary voyage, for this +clipper was the work of the greatest American builder, Donald +McKay, who at the same time designed the Lightning for the same +owners. This clipper, sent across the Atlantic on her maiden +trip, left in her foaming wake a twenty-four hour run which no +steamer had even approached and which was not equaled by the +fastest express steamers until twenty-five years later when the +greyhound Arizona ran eighteen knots in one hour on her trial +trip. This is a rather startling statement when one reflects that +the Arizona of the Guion line seems to a generation still living +a modern steamer and record-holder. It is even more impressive +when coupled with the fact that, of the innumerable passenger +steamers traversing the seas today, only a few are capable of a +speed of more than eighteen knots. + +This clipper Lightning did her 436 sea miles in one day, or +eighteen and a half knots, better than twenty land miles an hour, +and this is how the surpassing feat was entered in her log, or +official journal: "March 1. Wind south. Strong gales; bore away +for the North Channel, carrying away the foretopsail and lost +jib; hove the log several times and found the ship going through +the water at the rate of 18 to 18 1/2 knots; lee rail under water +and rigging slack. Distance run in twenty-four hours, 436 miles." +The passage was remarkably fast, thirteen days and nineteen and a +half hours from Boston Light, but the spectacular feature was +this day's work. It is a fitting memorial of the Yankee clipper, +and, save only a cathedral, the loveliest, noblest fabric ever +wrought by man's handiwork. + +The clipper, however, was a stranger in the Atlantic and her +chosen courses were elsewhere. The records made by the James +Baines and the Lightning were no discredit to the stanch, +unconquerable packet ships which, year in and year out, held +their own with the steamer lines until just before the Civil War. +It was the boast of Captain Samuels that on her first voyage in +1853 the Dreadnought reached Sandy Hook as the Cunarder Canada, +which had left Liverpool a day ahead of her, was passing in by +Boston Light. Twice she carried the latest news to Europe, and +many seasoned travelers preferred her to the mail steamers. + +The masters and officers who handled these ships with such +magnificent success were true-blue American seamen, inspired by +the finest traditions, successors of the privateersmen of 1812. +The forecastles, however, were filled with English, Irish, and +Scandinavians. American lads shunned these ships and, in fact, +the ambitious youngster of the coastwise towns began to cease +following the sea almost a century ago. It is sometimes forgotten +that the period during which the best American manhood sought a +maritime career lay between the Revolution and the War of 1812. +Thereafter the story became more and more one of American ships +and less of American sailors, excepting on the quarter-deck. + +In later years the Yankee crews were to be found in the ports +where the old customs survived, the long trading voyage, the +community of interest in cabin and forecastle, all friends and +neighbors together, with opportunities for profit and +advancement. Such an instance was that of the Salem ship George, +built at Salem in 1814 and owned by the great merchant, Joseph +Peabody. For twenty-two years she sailed in the East India trade, +making twenty-one round voyages, with an astonishing regularity +which would be creditable for a modern cargo tramp. Her sailors +were native-born, seldom more than twenty-one years old, and most +of them were studying navigation. Forty-five of them became +shipmasters, twenty of them chief mates, and six second mates. +This reliable George was, in short, a nautical training-school of +the best kind and any young seaman with the right stuff in him +was sure of advancement. + +Seven thousand sailors signed articles in the counting-room of +Joseph Peabody and went to sea in his eighty ships which flew the +house-flag in Calcutta, Canton, Sumatra, and the ports of Europe +until 1844. These were mostly New England boys who followed in +the footsteps of their fathers because deep-water voyages were +still "adventures" and a career was possible under a system which +was both congenial and paternal. Brutal treatment was the rare +exception. Flogging still survived in the merchant service and +was defended by captains otherwise humane, but a skipper, no +matter how short-tempered, would be unlikely to abuse a youth +whose parents might live on the same street with him and attend +the same church. + +The Atlantic packets brought a different order of things, which +was to be continued through the clipper era. Yankee sailors +showed no love for the cold and storms of the Western Ocean in +these foaming packets which were remorselessly driven for speed. +The masters therefore took what they could get. All the work of +rigging, sail-making, scraping, painting, and keeping a ship in +perfect repair was done in port instead of at sea, as was the +habit in the China and California clippers, and the lore and +training of the real deep-water sailor became superfluous. The +crew of a packet made sail or took it in with the two-fisted +mates to show them how. + +From these conditions was evolved the "Liverpool packet rat," +hairy and wild and drunken, the prey of crimps and dive-keepers +ashore, brave and toughened to every hardship afloat, climbing +aloft in his red shirt, dungaree breeches, and sea-boots, with a +snow-squall whistling, the rigging sheathed with ice, and the old +ship burying her bows in the thundering combers. It was the +doctrine of his officers that he could not be ruled by anything +short of violence, and the man to tame and hammer him was the +"bucko" second mate, the test of whose fitness was that he could +whip his weight in wild cats. When he became unable to maintain +discipline with fists and belaying-pins, he was deposed for a +better man. + +Your seasoned packet rat sought the ship with a hard name by +choice. His chief ambition was to kick in the ribs or pound +senseless some invincible bucko mate. There was provocation +enough on both sides. Officers had to take their ships to sea and +strain every nerve to make a safe and rapid passage with crews +which were drunk and useless when herded aboard, half of them +greenhorns, perhaps, who could neither reef nor steer. Brutality +was the one argument able to enforce instant obedience among men +who respected nothing else. As a class the packet sailors became +more and more degraded because their life was intolerable to +decent men. It followed therefore that the quarterdeck employed +increasing severity, and, as the officer's authority in this +respect was unchecked and unlimited, it was easy to mistake the +harshest tyranny for wholesome discipline. + +Reenforcing the bucko mate was the tradition that the sailor was +a dog, a different human species from the landsman, without laws +and usages to protect him. This was a tradition which, for +centuries, had been fostered in the naval service, and it +survived among merchant sailors as an unhappy anachronism even +into the twentieth century, when an American Congress was +reluctant to bestow upon a seaman the decencies of existence +enjoyed by the poorest laborer ashore. + +It is in the nature of a paradox that the brilliant success of +the packet ships in dominating the North Atlantic trade should +have been a factor in the decline of the nation's maritime +prestige and resources. Through a period of forty years the pride +and confidence in these ships, their builders, and the men who +sailed them, was intense and universal. They were a superlative +product of the American genius, which still displayed the +energies of a maritime race. On other oceans the situation was no +less gratifying. American ships were the best and cheapest in the +world. The business held the confidence of investors and +commanded an abundance of capital. It was assumed, as late as +1840, that the wooden sailing ship would continue to be the +supreme type of deep-water vessel because the United States +possessed the greatest stores of timber, the most skillful +builders and mechanics, and the ablest merchant navigators. No +industry was ever more efficiently organized and conducted. +American ships were most in demand and commanded the highest +freights. The tonnage in foreign trade increased to a maximum of +904,476 in 1845. There was no doubt in the minds of the shrewdest +merchants and owners and builders of the time that Great Britain +would soon cease to be the mistress of the seas and must content +herself with second place. + +It was not considered ominous when, in 1838, the Admiralty had +requested proposals for a steam service to America. This demand +was prompted by the voyages of the Sirius and Great Western, +wooden-hulled sidewheelers which thrashed along at ten knots' +speed and crossed the Atlantic in fourteen to seventeen days. +This was a much faster rate than the average time of the Yankee +packets, but America was unperturbed and showed no interest in +steam. In 1839 the British Government awarded an Atlantic mail +contract, with an annual subsidy of $425,000 to Samuel Cunard and +his associates, and thereby created the most famous of the +Atlantic steamship companies. + +Four of these liners began running in 1840--an event which +foretold the doom of the packet fleets, though the warning was +almost unheeded in New York and Boston. Four years later Enoch +Train was establishing a new packet line to Liverpool with the +largest, finest ships built up to that time, the Washington +Irving, Anglo-American, Ocean Monarch, Anglo-Saxon, and Daniel +Webster. Other prominent shipping houses were expanding their +service and were launching noble packets until 1853. Meanwhile +the Cunard steamers were increasing in size and speed, and the +service was no longer an experiment. + +American capital now began to awaken from its dreams, and Edward +K. Collins, managing owner of the Dramatic line of packets, +determined to challenge the Cunarders at their own game. Aided by +the Government to the extent of $385,000 a year as subsidy, he +put afloat the four magnificent steamers, Atlantic, Pacific, +Baltic, and Arctic, which were a day faster than the Cunarders in +crossing, and reduced the voyage to nine and ten days. The +Collins line, so auspiciously begun in 1850, and promising to +give the United States the supremacy in steam which it had won +under sail, was singularly unfortunate and short-lived. The +Arctic and the Pacific were lost at sea, and Congress withdrew +its financial support after five years. Deprived of this aid, Mr. +Collins was unable to keep the enterprise afloat in competition +with the subsidized Cunard fleet. In this manner and with little +further effort by American interests to compete for the prize, +the dominion of the Atlantic passed into British hands. + +The packet ships had held on too long. It had been a stirring +episode for the passengers to cheer in mid-ocean when the lofty +pyramids of canvas swept grandly by some wallowing steamer and +left her far astern, but in the fifties this gallant picture +became less frequent, and a sooty banner of smoke on the horizon +proclaimed the new era and the obliteration of all the rushing +life and beauty of the tall ship under sail. Slow to realize and +acknowledge defeat, persisting after the steamers were capturing +the cabin passenger and express freight traffic, the American +ship-owners could not visualize this profound transformation. +Their majestic clippers still surpassed all rivals in the East +India and China trade and were racing around the Horn, making new +records for speed and winning fresh nautical triumphs for the +Stars and Stripes. + +This reluctance to change the industrial and commercial habits of +generations of American shipowners was one of several causes for +the decadence which was hastened by the Civil War. For once the +astute American was caught napping by his British cousin, who was +swayed by no sentimental values and showed greater adaptability +in adopting the iron steamer with the screw propeller as the +inevitable successor of the wooden ship with arching topsails. + +The golden age of the American merchant marine was that of the +square-rigged ship, intricate, capricious, and feminine in her +beauty, with forty nimble seamen in the forecastle, not that of +the metal trough with an engine in the middle and mechanics +sweating in her depths. When the Atlantic packet was compelled to +abdicate, it was the beginning of the end. After all, her master +was the fickle wind, for a slashing outward passage might be +followed by weeks of beating home to the westward. Steadily +forging ahead to the beat of her paddles or the thrash of her +screw, the steamer even of that day was far more dependable than +the sailing vessel. The Lightning clipper might run a hundred +miles farther in twenty-four hours than ever a steamer had done, +but she could not maintain this meteoric burst of speed. Upon the +heaving surface of the Western Ocean there was enacted over again +the fable of the hare and the tortoise. + +Most of the famous chanteys were born in the packet service and +shouted as working choruses by the tars of this Western Ocean +before the chanteyman perched upon a capstan and led the refrain +in the clipper trade. You will find their origin unmistakable in +such lines as these: + + As I was a-walking down Rotherhite Street, + 'Way, ho, blow the man down; + A pretty young creature I chanced for to meet, + Give me some time to blow the man down. + Soon we'll be in London City, + Blow, boys, blow, + And see the gals all dressed so pretty, + Blow, my bully boys, blow. + + +Haunting melodies, folk-song as truly as that of the plantation +negro, they vanished from the sea with a breed of men who, for +all their faults, possessed the valor of the Viking and the +fortitude of the Spartan. Outcasts ashore--which meant to them +only the dance halls of Cherry Street and the grog-shops of +Ratcliffe Road--they had virtues that were as great as their +failings. Across the intervening years, with a pathos +indefinable, come the lovely strains of + + Shenandoah, I'll ne'er forget you, + Away, ye rolling river, + Till the day I die I'll love you ever, + Ah, ha, we're bound away. + + + +CHAPTER IX. THE STATELY CLIPPER AND HER GLORY + +The American clipper ship was the result of an evolution which +can be traced back to the swift privateers which were built +during the War of 1812. In this type of vessel the shipyards of +Chesapeake Bay excelled and their handiwork was known as the +"Baltimore clipper," the name suggested by the old English verb +which Dryden uses to describe the flight of the falcon that +"clips it down the wind." The essential difference between the +clipper ship and other kinds of merchant craft was that speed and +not capacity became the chief consideration. This was a radical +departure for large vessels, which in all maritime history had +been designed with an eye to the number of tons they were able to +carry. More finely molded lines had hitherto been found only in +the much smaller French lugger, the Mediterranean galley, the +American schooner. + +To borrow the lines of these fleet and graceful models and apply +them to the design of a deepwater ship was a bold conception. It +was first attempted by Isaac McKim, a Baltimore merchant, who +ordered his builders in 1832 to reproduce as closely as possible +the superior sailing qualities of the renowned clipper brigs and +schooners of their own port. The result was the Ann McKim, of +nearly five hundred tons, the first Yankee clipper ship, and +distinguished as such by her long, easy water-lines, low +free-board, and raking stem. She was built and finished without +regard to cost, copper-sheathed, the decks gleaming with +brasswork and mahogany fittings. But though she was a very fast +and handsome ship and the pride of her owner, the Ann McKim could +stow so little cargo that shipping men regarded her as +unprofitable and swore by their full-bodied vessels a few years +longer. + +That the Ann McKim, however, influenced the ideas of the most +progressive builders is very probable, for she was later owned by +the New York firm of Howland and Aspinwall, who placed an order +for the first extremely sharp clipper ship of the era. This +vessel, the Rainbow, was designed by John W. Griffeths, a marine +architect, who was a pioneer in that he studied shipbuilding as a +science instead of working by rule-of-thumb. The Rainbow, which +created a sensation while on the stocks because of her concave or +hollowed lines forward, which defied all tradition and practice, +was launched in 1845. She was a more radical innovation than the +Ann McKim but a successful one, for on her second voyage to China +the Rainbow went out against the northeast monsoon in ninety-two +days and came home in eighty-eight, a record which few ships were +able to better. Her commander, Captain John Land, declared her to +be the fastest ship in the world and there were none to dispute +him. + +Even the Rainbow however, was eclipsed when not long afterward +Howland and Aspinwall, now converted to the clipper, ordered the +Sea Witch to be built for Captain Bob Waterman. Among all the +splendid skippers of the time he was the most dashing figure. +About his briny memory cluster a hundred yarns, some of them +true, others legendary. It has been argued that the speed of the +clippers was due more to the men who commanded them than to their +hulls and rigging, and to support the theory the career of +Captain Bob Waterman is quoted. He was first known to fame in the +old Natchez, which was not a clipper at all and was even rated as +slow while carrying cotton from New Orleans to New York. But +Captain Bob took this full-pooped old packet ship around the Horn +and employed her in the China tea trade. The voyages which he +made in her were all fast, and he crowned them with the amazing +run of seventy-eight days from Canton to New York, just one day +behind the swiftest clipper passage ever sailed and which he +himself performed in the Sea Witch. Incredulous mariners simply +could not explain this feat of the Natchez and suggested that Bob +Waterman must have brought the old hooker home by some new route +of his own discovery. + +Captain Bob had won a reputation for discipline as the mate of a +Black Ball liner, a rough school, and he was not a mild man. +Ashore his personality was said to have been a most attractive +one, but there is no doubt that afloat he worked the very souls +out of his sailors. The rumors that he frightfully abused them +were not current, however, until he took the Sea Witch and showed +the world the fastest ship under canvas. Low in the water, with +black hull and gilded figurehead, she seemed too small to support +her prodigious cloud of sail. For her there were to be no +leisurely voyages with Captain Bob Waterman on the quarter-deck. +Home from Canton she sped in seventy-seven days and then in +seventy-nine--records which were never surpassed. + +With what consummate skill and daring this master mariner drove +his ship and how the race of hardy sailors to which he belonged +compared with those of other nations may be descried in the log +of another of them, Captain Philip Dumaresq, homeward bound from +China in 1849 in the clipper Great Britain. Three weeks out from +Java Head she had overtaken and passed seven ships heading the +same way, and then she began to rush by them in one gale after +another. Her log records her exploits in such entries as these: +"Passed a ship under double reefs, we with our royals and +studdingsails set . . . . Passed a ship laying-to under a +close-reefed maintopsail . . . . Split all three topsails and had +to heave to . . . . Seven vessels in sight and we outsail all of +them . . . . Under double-reefed topsails passed several vessels +hove-to." Much the same record might be read in the log of the +medium clipper Florence--and it is the same story of carrying +sail superbly on a ship which had been built to stand up under +it: "Passed two barks under reefed courses and close-reefed +topsails standing the same way, we with royals and topgallant +studding-sails," or "Passed a ship under topsails, we with our +royals set." For eleven weeks "the topsail halliards were started +only once, to take in a single reef for a few hours." It is not +surprising, therefore, to learn that, seventeen days out from +Shanghai, the Florence exchanged signals with the English ship +John Hagerman, which had sailed thirteen days before her. + +Two notable events in the history of the nineteenth century +occurred within the same year, 1849, to open new fields of trade +to the Yankee clipper. One of these was the repeal of the British +Navigation Laws which had given English ships a monopoly of the +trade between London and the British East Indies, and the other +was the discovery of gold in California. After centuries of pomp +and power, the great East India Company had been deprived of its +last exclusive rights afloat in 1833. Its ponderous, +frigate-built merchantmen ceased to dominate the British commerce +with China and India and were sold or broken up. All British +ships were now free to engage in this trade, but the spirit and +customs of the old regime still strongly survived. Flying the +house-flags of private owners, the East Indiamen and China tea +ships were still built and manned like frigates, slow, +comfortable, snugging down for the night under reduced sail. +There was no competition to arouse them until the last barrier of +the Navigation Laws was let down and they had to meet the Yankee +clipper with the tea trade as the huge stake. + +Then at last it was farewell to the gallant old Indianian and her +ornate, dignified prestige. With a sigh the London Times +confessed: "We must run a race with our gigantic and unshackled +rival. We must set our long-practised skill, our steady industry, +and our dogged determination against his youth, ingenuity, and +ardor. Let our shipbuilders and employers take warning in time. +There will always be an abundant supply of vessels good enough +and fast enough for short voyages. But we want fast vessels for +the long voyages which otherwise will fall into American hands." + +Before English merchants could prepare themselves for these new +conditions, the American clipper Oriental was loading in 1850 at +Hong Kong with tea for the London market. Because of her +reputation for speed, she received freightage of six pounds +sterling per ton while British ships rode at anchor with empty +holds or were glad to sail at three pounds ten per ton. Captain +Theodore Palmer delivered his sixteen hundred tons of tea in the +West India Docks, London, after a crack passage of ninety-one +days which had never been equaled. His clipper earned $48,000, or +two-thirds of what it had cost to build her. Her arrival in +London created a profound impression. The port had seen nothing +like her for power and speed; her skysail yards soared far above +the other shipping; the cut of her snowy canvas was faultless; +all clumsy, needless tophamper had been done away with; and she +appeared to be the last word in design and construction, as lean +and fine and spirited as a race-horse in training. + +This new competition dismayed British shipping until it could +rally and fight with similar weapons The technical journal, Naval +Science, acknowledged that the tea trade of the London markets +had passed almost out of the hands of the English ship-owner, and +that British vessels, well-manned and well-found, were known to +lie for weeks in the harbor of Foo-chow, waiting for a cargo and +seeing American clippers come in, load, and sail immediately with +full cargoes at a higher freight than they could command. Even +the Government viewed the loss of trade with concern and sent +admiralty draftsmen to copy the lines of the Oriental and +Challenge while they were in drydock. + +British clippers were soon afloat, somewhat different in model +from the Yankee ships, but very fast and able, and racing them in +the tea trade until the Civil War. With them it was often nip and +tuck, as in the contest between the English Lord of the Isles and +the American clipper bark Maury in 1856. The prize was a premium +of one pound per ton for the first ship to reach London with tea +of the new crop. The Lord of the Isles finished loading and +sailed four days ahead of the Maury, and after thirteen thousand +miles of ocean they passed Gravesend within ten minutes of each +other. The British skipper, having the smartest tug and getting +his ship first into dock, won the honors. In a similar race +between the American Sea Serpent and the English Crest of the +Wave, both ships arrived off the Isle of Wight on the same day. +It was a notable fact that the Lord of the Isles was the first +tea clipper built of iron at a date when the use of this stubborn +material was not yet thought of by the men who constructed the +splendid wooden ships of America. + +For the peculiar requirements of the tea trade, English maritime +talent was quick to perfect a clipper type which, smaller than +the great Yankee skysail-yarder, was nevertheless most admirable +for its beauty and performance. On both sides of the Atlantic +partizans hotly championed their respective fleets. In 1852 the +American Navigation Club, organized by Boston merchants and +owners, challenged the shipbuilders of Great Britain to race from +a port in England to a port in China and return, for a stake of +$50,000 a side, ships to be not under eight hundred nor over +twelve hundred tons American register. The challenge was aimed at +the Stornaway and the Chrysolite, the two clippers that were +known to be the fastest ships under the British flag. Though this +sporting defiance caused lively discussion, nothing came of it, +and it was with a spirit even keener that Sampson and Tappan of +Boston offered to match their Nightingale for the same amount +against any clipper afloat, British or American. + +In spite of the fact that Yankee enterprise had set the pace in +the tea trade, within a few years after 1850 England had so +successfully mastered the art of building these smaller clippers +that the honors were fairly divided. The American owners were +diverting their energies to the more lucrative trade in larger +ships sailing around the Horn to San Francisco, a long road +which, as a coastwise voyage, was forbidden to foreign vessels +under the navigation laws. After the Civil War the fastest tea +clippers flew the British flag and into the seventies they +survived the competition of steam, racing among themselves for +the premiums awarded to the quickest dispatch. No more of these +beautiful vessels were launched after 1869, and one by one they +vanished into other trades, overtaken by the same fate which had +befallen the Atlantic packet and conquered by the cargo steamers +which filed through the Suez Canal. + +Until 1848 San Francisco had been a drowsy little Mexican +trading-post, a huddle of adobe huts and sheds where American +ships collected hides--vividly described in Two Years Before the +Mast--or a whaler called for wood and water. During the year +preceding the frenzied migration of the modern Argonauts, only +two merchant ships, one bark and one brig, sailed in through the +Golden Gate. In the twelve months following, 775 vessels cleared +from Atlantic ports for San Francisco, besides the rush from +other countries, and nearly fifty thousand passengers scrambled +ashore to dig for gold. Crews deserted their ships, leaving them +unable to go to sea again for lack of men, and in consequence a +hundred of them were used as storehouses, hotels, and hospitals, +or else rotted at their moorings. Sailors by hundreds jumped from +the forecastle without waiting to stow the sails or receive their +wages. Though offered as much as two hundred dollars a month to +sign again, they jeered at the notion. Of this great fleet at San +Francisco in 1849, it was a lucky ship that ever left the harbor +again. + +It seemed as if the whole world were bound to California and +almost overnight there was created the wildest, most extravagant +demand for transportation known to history. A clipper costing +$70,000 could pay for herself in one voyage, with freights at +sixty dollars a ton. This gold stampede might last but a little +while. To take instant advantage of it was the thing. The fastest +ships, and as many of them as could be built, would skim the +cream of it. This explains the brief and illustrious era of the +California clipper, one hundred and sixty of which were launched +from 1850 to 1854. The shipyards of New York and Boston were +crowded with them, and they graced the keel blocks of the +historic old ports of New England--Medford, Mystic, Newburyport, +Portsmouth, Portland, Rockland, and Bath--wherever the timber and +the shipwrights could be assembled. + +Until that time there had been few ships afloat as large as a +thousand tons. These were of a new type, rapidly increased to +fifteen hundred, two thousand tons, and over. They presented new +and difficult problems in spars and rigging able to withstand the +strain of immense areas of canvas which climbed two hundred feet +to the skysail pole and which, with lower studdingsails set, +spread one hundred and sixty feet from boom-end to boom-end. +There had to be the strength to battle with the furious tempests +of Cape Horn and at the same time the driving power to sweep +before the sweet and steadfast tradewinds. Such a queenly clipper +was the Flying Cloud, the achievement of that master builder, +Donald McKay, which sailed from New York to San Francisco in +eighty-nine days, with Captain Josiah Creesy in command. This +record was never lowered and was equaled only twice--by the +Flying Cloud herself and by the Andrew Jackson nine years later. +It was during this memorable voyage that the Flying Cloud sailed +1256 miles in four days while steering to the northward under +topgallantsails after rounding Cape Horn. This was a rate of +speed which, if sustained, would have carried her from New York +to Queenstown in eight days and seventeen hours. This speedy +passage was made in 1851, and only two years earlier the record +for the same voyage of fifteen thousand miles had been one +hundred and twenty days, by the clipper Memnon. + +Donald McKay now resolved to build a ship larger and faster than +the Flying Cloud, and his genius neared perfection in the +Sovereign of the Seas, of 2421 tons register, which exceeded in +size all merchant vessels afloat. This Titan of the clipper fleet +was commanded by Donald's brother, Captain Lauchlan McKay, with a +crew of one hundred and five men and boys. During her only voyage +to San Francisco she was partly dismasted, but Lauchlan McKay +rigged her anew at sea in fourteen days and still made port in +one hundred and three days, a record for the season of the year. + +It was while running home from Honolulu in 1853 that the +Sovereign of the Seas realized the hopes of her builder. In +eleven days she sailed 3562 miles, with four days logged for a +total of 1478 knots. Making allowance for the longitudes and +difference in time, this was an average daily run of 378 sea +miles or 435 land miles. Using the same comparison, the distance +from Sandy Hook to Queenstown would have been covered in seven +days and nine hours. Figures are arid reading, perhaps, but these +are wet by the spray and swept by the salt winds of romance. +During one of these four days the Sovereign of the Seas reeled +off 424 nautical miles, during which her average speed was +seventeen and two-thirds knots and at times reached nineteen and +twenty. The only sailing ship which ever exceeded this day's work +was the Lightning, built later by the same Donald McKay, which +ran 436 knots in the Atlantic passage already referred to. The +Sovereign of the Seas could also boast of a sensational feat upon +the Western Ocean, for between New York and Liverpool she +outsailed the Cunard liner Canada by 325 miles in five days. + +It is curiously interesting to notice that the California clipper +era is almost generally ignored by the foremost English writers +of maritime history. For one thing, it was a trade in which their +own ships were not directly concerned, and partizan bias is apt +to color the views of the best of us when national prestige is +involved. American historians themselves have dispensed with many +unpleasant facts when engaged with the War of 1812. With regard +to the speed of clipper ships, however, involving a rivalry far +more thrilling and important than all the races ever sailed for +the America's cup, the evidence is available in concrete form. + +Lindsay's "History of Merchant Shipping" is the most elaborate +English work of the kind. Heavily ballasted with facts and rather +dull reading for the most part, it kindles with enthusiasm when +eulogizing the Thermopylae and the Sir Launcelot, composite +clippers of wood and iron, afloat in 1870, which it declares to +be "the fastest sailing ships that ever traversed the ocean." +This fairly presents the issue which a true-blooded Yankee has no +right to evade. The greatest distance sailed by the Sir Launcelot +in twenty-four hours between China and London was 354 knots, +compared with the 424 miles of the Sovereign of the Seas and the +436 miles of the Lightning. Her best sustained run was one of +seven days for an average of a trifle more than 300 miles a day. +Against this is to be recorded the performance of the Sovereign +of the Seas, 3562 miles in eleven days, at the rate of 324 miles +every twenty-four hours, and her wonderful four-day run of 1478 +miles, an average of 378 miles. + +The Thermopylae achieved her reputation in a passage of +sixty-three days from London to Melbourne--a record which was +never beaten. Her fastest day's sailing was 330 miles, or not +quite sixteen knots an hour. In six days she traversed 1748 +miles, an average of 291 miles a day. In this Australian trade +the American clippers made little effort to compete. Those +engaged in it were mostly built for English owners and sailed by +British skippers, who could not reasonably be expected to get the +most out of these loftily sparred Yankee ships, which were much +larger than their own vessels of the same type. The Lightning +showed what she could do from Melbourne to Liverpool by making +the passage in sixty-three' days, with 3722 miles in ten +consecutive days and one day's sprint of 412 miles. + +In the China tea trade the Thermopylae drove home from Foo-chow +in ninety-one days, which was equaled by the Sir Launcelot. The +American Witch of the Wave had a ninety-day voyage to her credit, +and the Comet ran from Liverpool to Shanghai in eighty-four days. +Luck was a larger factor on this route than in the California or +Australian trade because of the fitful uncertainty of the +monsoons, and as a test of speed it was rather unsatisfactory. In +a very fair-minded and expert summary, Captain Arthur H. Clark,* +in his youth an officer on Yankee clippers, has discussed this +question of rival speed and power under sail--a question which +still absorbs those who love the sea. His conclusion is that in +ordinary weather at sea, when great power to carry sail was not +required, the British tea clippers were extremely fast vessels, +chiefly on account of their narrow beam. Under these conditions +they were perhaps as fast as the American clippers of the same +class, such as the Sea Witch, White Squall, Northern Light, and +Sword-Fish. But if speed is to be reckoned by the maximum +performance of a ship under the most favorable conditions, then +the British tea clippers were certainly no match for the larger +American ships such as the Flying Cloud, Sovereign of the Seas, +Hurricane, Trade Wind, Typhoon, Flying Fish, Challenge, and Red +Jacket. The greater breadth of the American ships in proportion +to their length meant power to carry canvas and increased +buoyancy which enabled them, with their sharper ends, to be +driven in strong gales and heavy seas at much greater speed than +the British clippers. The latter were seldom of more than one +thousand tons' register and combined in a superlative degree the +good qualities of merchant ships. + +* "The Clipper Ship Era." N.Y., 1910. + + +It was the California trade, brief and crowded and fevered, which +saw the roaring days of the Yankee clipper and which was familiar +with racing surpassing in thrill and intensity that of the packet +ships of the Western Ocean. In 1851, for instance, the Raven, Sea +Witch, and Typhoon sailed for San Francisco within the same week. +They crossed the Equator a day apart and stood away to the +southward for three thousand miles of the southeast trades and +the piping westerly winds which prevailed farther south. At fifty +degrees south latitude the Raven and the Sea Witch were abeam of +each other with the Typhoon only two days astern. + +Now they stripped for the tussle to windward around Cape Horn, +sending down studdingsail booms and skysail yards, making all +secure with extra lashings, plunging into the incessant head seas +of the desolate ocean, fighting it out tack for tack, reefing +topsails and shaking them out again, the vigilant commanders +going below only to change their clothes, the exhausted seamen +stubbornly, heroically handling with frozen, bleeding fingers the +icy sheets and canvas. A fortnight of this inferno and the Sea +Witch and the Raven gained the Pacific, still within sight of +each other, and the Typhoon only one day behind. Then they swept +northward, blown by the booming tradewinds, spreading +studdingsails, skysails, and above them, like mere handkerchiefs, +the water-sails and ring-tails. Again the three clippers crossed +the Equator. Close-hauled on the starboard tack, their bowsprits +were pointed for the last stage of the journey to the Golden +Gate. The Typhoon now overhauled her rivals and was the first to +signal her arrival, but the victory was earned by the Raven, +which had set her departure from Boston Light while the others +had sailed from New York. The Typhoon and the Raven were only a +day apart, with the Sea Witch five days behind the leader. + +Clipper ship crews included men of many nations. In the average +forecastle there would be two or three Americans, a majority of +English and Norwegians, and perhaps a few Portuguese and +Italians. The hardiest seamen, and the most unmanageable, were +the Liverpool packet rats who were lured from their accustomed +haunts to join the clippers by the magical call of the +gold-diggings. There were not enough deep-water sailors to man +half the ships that were built in these few years, and the crimps +and boarding-house runners decoyed or flung aboard on sailing day +as many men as were demanded, and any drunken, broken landlubber +was good enough to be shipped as an able seaman. They were things +of rags and tatters--their only luggage a bottle of whiskey. + +The mates were thankful if they could muster enough real sailors +to work the ship to sea and then began the stern process of +whipping the wastrels and incompetents into shape for the perils +and emergencies of the long voyage. That these great clippers +were brought safely to port is a shining tribute to the masterful +skill of their officers. While many of them were humane and just, +with all their severity, the stories of savage abuse which are +told of some are shocking in the extreme. The defense was that it +was either mutiny or club the men under. Better treatment might +have persuaded better men to sail. Certain it is that life in the +forecastle of a clipper was even more intolerable to the +self-respecting American youth than it had previously been aboard +the Atlantic packet. + +When Captain Bob Waterman arrived at San Francisco in the +Challenge clipper in 1851, a mob tried very earnestly to find and +hang him and his officers because of the harrowing stories told +by his sailors. That he had shot several of them from the yards +with his pistol to make the others move faster was one count in +the indictment. For his part, Captain Waterman asserted that a +more desperate crew of ruffians had never sailed out of New York +and that only two of them were Americans. They were mutinous from +the start, half of them blacklegs of the vilest type who swore to +get the upper hand of him. His mates, boatswain, and carpenter +had broken open their chests and boxes and had removed a +collection of slung-shots, knuckle-dusters, bowie-knives, and +pistols. Off Rio Janeiro they had tried to kill the chief mate, +and Captain Waterman had been compelled to jump in and stretch +two of them dead with an iron belaying-pin. Off Cape Horn three +sailors fell from aloft and were lost. This accounted for the +casualties. + +The truth of such episodes as these was difficult to fathom. +Captain Waterman demanded a legal investigation, but nothing came +of his request and he was commended by his owners for his skill +and courage in bringing the ship to port without losing a spar or +a sail. It was a skipper of this old school who blandly +maintained the doctrine that if you wanted the men to love you, +you must starve them and knock them down. The fact is proven by +scores of cases that the discipline of the American clipper was +both famously efficient and notoriously cruel. It was not until +long after American sailors had ceased to exist that adequate +legislation was enacted to provide that they should be treated as +human beings afloat and ashore. Other days and other customs! It +is perhaps unkind to judge these vanished master-mariners too +harshly, for we cannot comprehend the crises which continually +beset them in their command. + +No more extreme clipper ships were built after 1854. The +California frenzy had subsided and speed in carrying merchandise +was no longer so essential; besides, the passenger traffic was +seeking the Isthmian route. What were called medium clippers +enjoyed a profitable trade for many years later, and one of them, +the Andrew Jackson, was never outsailed for the record from New +York to San Francisco. This splendid type of ship was to be found +on every sea, for the United States was still a commanding factor +in the maritime activities of South America, India, China, +Europe, and Australia. In 1851 its merchant tonnage rivaled that +of England and was everywhere competing with it. + +The effects of the financial panic of 1857 and the aftermath of +business depression were particularly disastrous to American +ships. Freights were so low as to yield no profit, and the finest +clippers went begging for charters. The yards ceased to launch +new tonnage. British builders had made such rapid progress in +design and construction that the days of Yankee preference in the +China trade had passed. The Stars and Stripes floated over ships +waiting idle in Manila Bay, at Shanghai, Hong-Kong, and Calcutta. +The tide of commerce had slackened abroad as well as at home and +the surplus of deep-water tonnage was world-wide. + +In earlier generations afloat, the American spirit had displayed +amazing recuperative powers. The havoc of the Revolution had been +unable to check it, and its vigor and aggressive enterprise had +never been more notable than after the blows dealt by the +Embargo, the French Spoliations, and the War of 1812. The +conditions of trade and the temper of the people were now so +changed that this mighty industry, aforetime so robust and +resilient, was unable to recover from such shocks as the panic of +1857 and the Civil War. Yet it had previously survived and +triumphed over calamities far more severe. The destruction +wrought by Confederate cruisers was trifling compared with the +work of the British and French privateers when the nation was +very small and weak. + +The American spirit had ceased to concern itself with the sea as +the vital and dominant element. The footsteps of the young men no +longer turned toward the wharf and the waterside and the tiers of +tall ships outward bound. They were aspiring to conquer an inland +empire of prairie and mountain and desert, impelled by the same +pioneering and adventurous ardor which had burned in their +seafaring sires. Steam had vanquished sail--an epochal event in a +thousand years of maritime history--but the nation did not care +enough to accept this situation as a new challenge or to continue +the ancient struggle for supremacy upon the sea. England did +care, because it was life or death to the little, sea-girt +island, but as soon as the United States ceased to be a strip of +Atlantic seaboard and the panorama, of a continent was unrolled +to settlement, it was foreordained that the maritime habit of +thought and action should lose its virility in America. All great +seafaring races, English, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Dutch, have +taken to salt water because there was lack of space, food, or +work ashore, and their strong young men craved opportunities. +Like the Pilgrim Fathers and their fishing shallops they had +nowhere else to go. + +When the Flying Cloud and the clippers of her kind--taut, serene, +immaculate--were sailing through the lonely spaces of the South +Atlantic and the Pacific, they sighted now and then the stumpy, +slatternly rig and greasy hull of a New Bedford whaler, perhaps +rolling to the weight of a huge carcass alongside. With a poor +opinion of the seamanship of these wandering barks, the clipper +crews rolled out, among their favorite chanteys: + + Oh, poor Reuben Ranzo, + Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo, + Oh, Ranzo was no sailor, + So they shipped him aboard a whaler, + Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo. + +This was crass, intolerant prejudice. The whaling ship was +careless of appearances, it is true, and had the air of an ocean +vagabond; but there were other duties more important than +holystoning decks, scraping spars, and trimming the yards to a +hair. On a voyage of two or three years, moreover, there was +always plenty of time tomorrow. Brave and resourceful seamen were +these New England adventurers and deep-sea hunters who made +nautical history after their own fashion. They flourished coeval +with the merchant marine in its prime, and they passed from the +sea at about the same time and for similar reasons. Modernity +dispensed with their services, and young men found elsewhere more +profitable and easier employment. + +The great days of Nantucket as a whaling port were passed before +the Revolution wiped out her ships and killed or scattered her +sailors. It was later discovered that larger ships were more +economical, and Nantucket harbor bar was too shoal to admit their +passage. For this reason New Bedford became the scene of the +foremost activity, and Nantucket thereafter played a minor part, +although her barks went cruising on to the end of the chapter and +her old whaling families were true to strain. As explorers the +whalemen rambled into every nook and corner of the Pacific before +merchant vessels had found their way thither. They discovered +uncharted islands and cheerfully fought savages or suffered +direful shipwreck. The chase led them into Arctic regions where +their stout barks were nipped like eggshells among the grinding +floes, or else far to the southward where they broiled in tropic +calms. The New Bedford lad was as keen to go a-whaling as was his +counterpart in Boston or New York to be the dandy mate of a +California clipper, and true was the song: + + I asked a maiden by my side, + Who sighed and looked to me forlorn, + "Where is your heart?" She quick replied, + "Round Cape Horn." + +Yankee whaling reached its high tide in 1857 when the New Bedford +fleet alone numbered 329 sail and those owned in other ports of +Buzzard's Bay swelled the total to 426 vessels, besides thirty +more hailing from New London and Sag Harbor. In this year the +value of the catch was more than ten million dollars. The old +custom of sailing on shares or "lays" instead of wages was never +changed. It was win or lose for all hands--now a handsome fortune +or again an empty hold and pockets likewise. There was Captain +W.T. Walker of New Bedford who, in 1847, bought for a song a ship +so old that she was about to be broken up for junk and no +insurance broker would look at her. In this rotten relic he +shipped a crew and went sailing in the Pacific. Miraculously +keeping afloat, this Envoy of his was filled to the hatches with +oil and bones, twice running, before she returned to her home +port; and she earned $138,450 on a total investment of eight +thousand dollars. + +The ship Sarah of Nantucket, after a three years' cruise, brought +back 3497 barrels of sperm oil which sold for $89,000, and the +William Hamilton of New Bedford set another high mark by stowing +4181 barrels of a value of $109,269. The Pioneer of New London, +Captain Ebenezer Morgan, was away only a year and stocked a cargo +of oil and whalebone which sold for $150,060. Most of the profits +of prosperous voyages were taken as the owners' share, and the +incomes of the captain and crew were so niggardly as to make one +wonder why they persisted in a calling so perilous, arduous, and +poorly paid. During the best years of whaling, when the ships +were averaging $16,000 for a voyage, the master received an +eighteenth, or about nine hundred dollars a year. The highly +skilled hands, such as the boat-steerers and harpooners, had a +lay of only one seventy-fifth, or perhaps a little more than two +hundred dollars cash as the reward of a voyage which netted the +owner at least fifty per cent on his investment. Occasionally +they fared better than this and sometimes worse. The answer to +the riddle is that they liked the life and had always the +gambling spirit which hopes for a lucky turn of the cards. + +The countless episodes of fragile boats smashed to kindling by +fighting whales, of the attack renewed with harpoon and lance, of +ships actually rammed and sunk, would fill a volume by themselves +and have been stirringly narrated in many a one. Zanzibar and +Kamchatka, Tasmania and the Seychelles knew the lean, sun-dried +Yankee whaleman and his motto of a "dead whale or a stove boat." +The Civil War did not drive him from the seas. The curious fact +is that his products commanded higher prices in 1907 than fifty +years before, but the number of his ships rapidly decreased. +Whales were becoming scarce, and New England capital preferred +other forms of investment. The leisurely old sailing craft was +succeeded by the steam whaler, and the explosive bomb slew, +instead of the harpoon and lance hurled by the sinewy right arm +of a New Bedford man or Cape Verde islander. + +Roving whaler and armed East Indiaman, plunging packet ship and +stately clipper, they served their appointed days and passed on +their several courses to become mere memories, as shadowy and +unsubstantial as the gleam of their own topsails when seen at +twilight. The souls of their sailors have fled to Fiddler's +Green, where all dead mariners go. They were of the old merchant +marine which contributed something fine and imperishable to the +story of the United States. Down the wind, vibrant and +deep-throated, comes their own refrain for a requiem: + + We're outward bound this very day, + Good-bye, fare you well, + Good-bye, fare you well. + We're outward bound this very day, + Hurrah, my boys, we're outward bound. + + + +CHAPTER X. BOUND COASTWISE + +One thinks of the old merchant marine in terms of the clipper +ship and distant ports. The coasting trade has been overlooked in +song and story; yet, since the year 1859, its fleets have always +been larger and more important than the American deep-water +commerce nor have decay and misfortune overtaken them. It is a +traffic which flourished from the beginning, ingeniously adapting +itself to new conditions, unchecked by war, and surviving with +splendid vigor, under steam and sail, in this modern era. + +The seafaring pioneers won their way from port to port of the +tempestuous Atlantic coast in tiny ketches, sloops, and shallops +when the voyage of five hundred miles from New England to +Virginia was a prolonged and hazardous adventure. Fog and shoals +and lee shores beset these coastwise sailors, and shipwrecks were +pitifully frequent. In no Hall of Fame will you find the name of +Captain Andrew Robinson of Gloucester, but he was nevertheless an +illustrious benefactor and deserves a place among the most useful +Americans. His invention was the Yankee schooner of fore-and-aft +rig, and he gave to this type of vessel its name.* Seaworthy, +fast, and easily handled, adapted for use in the early eighteenth +century when inland transportation was almost impossible, the +schooner carried on trade between the colonies and was an +important factor in the growth of the fisheries. + +* It is said that as the odd two-master slid gracefully into the +water, a spectator exclaimed: "See how she scoons!" "Aye," +answered Captain Robinson, "a SCHOONER let her be!" This +launching took place in 1718 or 1714. + + +Before the Revolution the first New England schooners were +beating up to the Grand Bank of Newfoundland after cod and +halibut. They were of no more than fifty tons' burden, too small +for their task but manned by fishermen of surpassing hardihood. +Marblehead was then the foremost fishing port with two hundred +brigs and schooners on the offshore banks. But to Gloucester +belongs the glory of sending the first schooner to the Grand +Bank.* From these two rock-bound harbors went thousands of +trained seamen to man the privateers and the ships of the +Continental navy, slinging their hammocks on the gun-decks beside +the whalemen of Nantucket. These fishermen and coastwise sailors +fought on the land as well and followed the drums of Washington's +armies until the final scene at Yorktown. Gloucester and +Marblehead were filled with widows and orphans, and half their +men-folk were dead or missing. + +* Marvin's "American Merchant Marine," p. 287. + + +The fishing-trade soon prospered again, and the men of the old +ports tenaciously clung to the sea even when the great migration +flowed westward to people the wilderness and found a new American +empire. They were fishermen from father to son, bound together in +an intimate community of interests, a race of pure native or +English stock, deserving this tribute which was paid to them in +Congress: "Every person on board our fishing vessels has an +interest in common with his associates; their reward depends upon +their industry and enterprise. Much caution is observed in the +selection of the crews of our fishing vessels; it often happens +that every individual is connected by blood and the strongest +ties of friendship; our fishermen are remarkable for their +sobriety and good conduct, and they rank with the most skillful +navigators." + +Fishing and the coastwise merchant trade were closely linked. +Schooners loaded dried cod as well as lumber for southern ports +and carried back naval stores and other southern products. +Well-to-do fishermen owned trading vessels and sent out +their ventures, the sailors shifting from one forecastle to the +other. With a taste for an easier life than the stormy, freezing +Banks, the young Gloucesterman would sign on for a voyage to +Pernambuco or Havana and so be fired with ambition to become a +mate or master and take to deep water after a while. In this way +was maintained a school of seamanship which furnished the most +intelligent and efficient officers of the merchant marine. For +generations they were mostly recruited from the old fishing and +shipping ports of New England until the term "Yankee shipmaster" +had a meaning peculiarly its own. + +Seafaring has undergone so many revolutionary changes and old +days and ways are so nearly obliterated that it is singular to +find the sailing vessel still employed in great numbers, even +though the gasolene motor is being installed to kick her along in +spells of calm weather. The Gloucester fishing schooner, perfect +of her type, stanch, fleet, and powerful, still drives homeward +from the Banks under a tall press of canvas, and her crew still +divide the earnings, share and share, as did their forefathers a +hundred and fifty years ago. But the old New England strain of +blood no longer predominates, and Portuguese, Scandinavians, and +Nova Scotia "Bluenoses" bunk with the lads of Gloucester stock. +Yet they are alike for courage, hardihood, and mastery of the +sea, and the traditions of the calling are undimmed. + +There was a time before the Civil War when Congress jealously +protected the fisheries by means of a bounty system and +legislation aimed against our Canadian neighbors. The fishing +fleets were regarded as a source of national wealth and the +nursery of prime seamen for the navy and merchant marine. In 1858 +the bounty system was abandoned, however, and the fishermen were +left to shift for themselves, earning small profits at peril of +their lives and preferring to follow the sea because they knew no +other profession. In spite of this loss of assistance from the +Government, the tonnage engaged in deep-sea fisheries was never +so great as in the second year of the Civil War. Four years later +the industry had shrunk one-half; and it has never recovered its +early importance* + +* In 1882, the tonnage amounted to 193,459; in 1866, to 89,336. + + +The coastwise merchant trade, on the other hand, has been +jealously guarded against competition and otherwise fostered ever +since 1789, when the first discriminatory tonnage tax was +enforced. The Embargo Act of 1808 prohibited domestic commerce to +foreign flags, and this edict was renewed in the American +Navigation Act of 1817. It remained a firmly established doctrine +of maritime policy until the Great War compelled its suspension +as an emergency measure. The theories of protection and free +trade have been bitterly debated for generations, but in this +instance the practice was eminently successful and the results +were vastly impressive. Deepwater shipping dwindled and died, but +the increase in coastwise sailing was consistent. It rose to five +million tons early in this century and makes the United States +still one of the foremost maritime powers in respect to saltwater +activity. + +To speak of this deep-water shipping as trade coastwise is +misleading, in a way. The words convey an impression of dodging +from port to port for short distances, whereas many of the +voyages are longer than those of the foreign routes in European +waters. It is farther by sea from Boston to Philadelphia than +from Plymouth, England, to Bordeaux. A schooner making the run +from Portland to Savannah lays more knots over her stern than a +tramp bound out from England to Lisbon. It is a shorter voyage +from Cardiff to Algiers than an American skipper pricks off on +his chart when he takes his steamer from New York to New Orleans +or Galveston. This coastwise trade may lack the romance of the +old school of the square-rigged ship in the Roaring Forties, but +it has always been the more perilous and exacting. Its seamen +suffer hardships unknown elsewhere, for they have to endure +winters of intense cold and heavy gales and they are always in +risk of stranding or being driven ashore. + +The story of these hardy men is interwoven, for the most part, +with the development of the schooner in size and power. This +graceful craft, so peculiar to its own coast and people, was +built for utility and possessed a simple beauty of its own when +under full sail. The schooners were at first very small because +it was believed that large fore-and-aft sails could not be +handled with safety. They were difficult to reef or lower in a +blow until it was discovered that three masts instead of two made +the task much easier. For many years the three-masted schooner +was the most popular kind of American merchant vessel. They +clustered in every Atlantic port and were built in the yards of +New England, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia,--built by the +mile, as the saying was, and sawed off in lengths to suit the +owners' pleasure. They carried the coal, ice, lumber of the whole +seaboard and were so economical of man-power that they earned +dividends where steamers or square-rigged ships would not have +paid for themselves. + +As soon as a small steam-engine was employed to hoist the sails, +it became possible to launch much larger schooners and to operate +them at a marvelously low cost. Rapidly the four-master gained +favor, and then came the five- and six-masted vessels, gigantic +ships of their kind. Instead of the hundred-ton schooner of a +century ago, Hampton Roads and Boston Harbor saw these great +cargo carriers which could stow under hatches four and five +thousand tons of coal, and whose masts soared a hundred and fifty +feet above the deck. Square-rigged ships of the same capacity +would have required crews of a hundred men, but these schooners +were comfortably handled by a company of fifteen all told, only +ten of whom were in the forecastle. There was no need of sweating +and hauling at braces and halliards. The steam-winch undertook all +this toil. The tremendous sails, stretching a hundred feet from +boom to gaff could not have been managed otherwise. Even for +trimming sheets or setting topsails, it was necessary merely to +take a turn or two around the drum of the winch engine and turn +the steam valve. The big schooner was the last word in cheap, +efficient transportation by water. In her own sphere of activity +she was as notable an achievement as the Western Ocean packet or +the Cape Horn clipper. + +The masters who sailed these extraordinary vessels also changed +and had to learn a new kind of seamanship. They must be very +competent men, for the tests of their skill and readiness were +really greater than those demanded of the deepwater skipper. They +drove these great schooners alongshore winter and summer; across +Nantucket Shoals and around Cape Cod, and their salvation +depended on shortening sail ahead of the gale. Let the wind once +blow and the sea get up, and it was almost impossible to strip +the canvas off an unwieldy six-master. The captain's chief fear +was of being blown offshore, of having his vessel run away with +him! Unlike the deep-water man, he preferred running in toward +the beach and letting go his anchors. There he would ride out the +storm and hoist sail when the weather moderated. + +These were American shipmasters of the old breed, raised in +schooners as a rule, and adapting themselves to modern +conditions. They sailed for nominal wages and primage, or five +per cent of the gross freight paid the vessel. Before the Great +War in Europe, freights were low and the schooner skippers earned +scanty incomes. Then came a world shortage of tonnage and +immediately coastwise freights soared skyward. The big schooners +of the Palmer fleet began to reap fabulous dividends and their +masters shared in the unexpected opulence. Besides their primage +they owned shares in their vessels, a thirty-second or so, and +presently their settlement at the end of a voyage coastwise +amounted to an income of a thousand dollars a month. They earned +this money, and the managing owners cheerfully paid them, for +there had been lean years and uncomplaining service and the +sailor had proved himself worthy of his hire. So tempting was the +foreign war trade, that a fleet of them was sent across the +Atlantic until the American Government barred them from the war +zone as too easy a prey for submarine attack. They therefore +returned to the old coastwise route or loaded for South American +ports--singularly interesting ships because they were the last +bold venture of the old American maritime spirit, a challenge to +the Age of Steam. + +No more of these huge, towering schooners have been built in the +last dozen years. Steam colliers and barges have won the fight +because time is now more valuable than cheapness of +transportation. The schooner might bowl down to Norfolk from +Boston or Portland in four days and be threshing about for two +weeks in head winds on the return voyage. + +The small schooner appeared to be doomed somewhat earlier. She +had ceased to be profitable in competition with the larger, more +modern fore-and-after, but these battered, veteran craft died +hard. They harked back to a simpler age, to the era of the +stage-coach and the spinning-wheel, to the little shipyards that +were to be found on every bay and inlet of New England. They were +still owned and sailed by men who ashore were friends and +neighbors. Even now you may find during your summer wanderings +some stumpy, weatherworn two-master running on for shelter +overnight, which has plied up and down the coast for fifty or +sixty years, now leaking like a basket and too frail for winter +voyages. It was in a craft very much like this that your rude +ancestors went privateering against the British. Indeed, the +little schooner Polly, which fought briskly in the War of 1812, +is still afloat and loading cargoes in New England ports. + +These little coasters, surviving long after the stately merchant +marine had vanished from blue water, have enjoyed a slant of +favoring fortune in recent years. They, too, have been in demand, +and once again there is money to spare for paint and cordage and +calking. They have been granted a new lease of life and may be +found moored at the wharfs, beached on the marine railways, or +anchored in the stream, eagerly awaiting their turn to refit. It +is a matter of vital concern that the freight on spruce boards +from Bangor to New York has increased to five dollars a thousand +feet. Many of these craft belong to grandfatherly skippers who +dared not venture past Cape Cod in December, lest the venerable +Matilda Emerson or the valetudinarian Joshua R. Coggswell should +open up and founder in a blow. During the winter storms these +skippers used to hug the kitchen stove in bleak farmhouses until +spring came and they could put to sea again. The rigor of +circumstances, however, forced others to seek for trade the whole +year through. In a recent winter fifty-seven schooners were lost +on the New England coast, most of which were unfit for anything +but summer breezes. As by a miracle, others have been able to +renew their youth, to replace spongy planking and rotten stems, +and to deck themselves out in white canvas and fresh paint! + +The captains of these craft foregather in the ship-chandler's +shops, where the floor is strewn with sawdust, the armchairs are +capacious, and the environment harmonizes with the tales that are +told. It is an informal club of coastwise skippers and the old +energy begins to show itself once more. They move with a brisker +gait than when times were so hard and they went begging for +charters at any terms. A sinewy patriarch stumps to a window, +flourishes his arm at an ancient two-master, and booms out: + +"That vessel of mine is as sound as a nut, I tell ye. She ain't +as big as some, but I'd like nothin' better than to fill her full +of suthin' for the west coast of Africy, same as the Horace M. +Bickford that cleared t'other day, stocked for SIXTY THOUSAND +DOLLARS." + +"Huh, you'd get lost out o' sight of land, John," is the cruel +retort, "and that old shoe-box of yours 'ud be scared to death +without a harbor to run into every time the sun clouded over. +Expect to navigate to Africy with an alarm-clock and a +soundin'-lead, I presume." + +"Mebbe I'd better let well enough alone," replies the old man. +"Africy don't seem as neighborly as Phippsburg and Machiasport. +I'll chance it as far as Philadelphy next voyage and I guess the +old woman can buy a new dress." + +The activity and the reawakening of the old shipyards, their +slips all filled with the frames of wooden vessels for the +foreign trade, is like a revival of the old merchant marine, a +reincarnation of ghostly memories. In mellowed dignity the square +white houses beneath the New England elms recall to mind the +mariners who dwelt therein. It seems as if their shipyards also +belonged to the past; but the summer visitor finds a fresh +attraction in watching the new schooners rise from the stocks, +and the gay pageant of launching them, every mast ablaze with +bunting, draws crowds to the water-front. And as a business +venture, with somewhat of the tang of old-fashioned romance, the +casual stranger is now and then tempted to purchase a +sixty-fourth "piece" of a splendid Yankee four-master and keep in +touch with its roving fortunes. The shipping reports of the daily +newspaper prove more fascinating than the ticker tape, and the +tidings of a successful voyage thrill one with a sense of +personal gratification. For the sea has not lost its magic and +its mystery, and those who go down to it in ships must still +battle against elemental odds--still carry on the noble and +enduring traditions of the Old Merchant Marine. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +As a rule, American historians like McMaster, Adams, and Rhodes +give too little space to the maritime achievements of the nation. +The gap has been partially filled by the following special works: + +Winthrop L. Marvin, "The American Merchant Marine: Its History +and Romance from 1620 to 1902" (1902). This is the most nearly +complete volume of its kind by an author who knows the subject +and handles it with accuracy. + +John R. Spears, "The Story of the American Merchant Marine" +(1910), "The American Slave Trade" (1901), "The Story of the New +England Whalers" (1908). Mr. Spears has sought original sources +for much of his material and his books are worth reading, +particularly his history of the slave-trade. + +Ralph D. Paine, "The Ships and Sailors of Old Salem: The Record +of a Brilliant Era of American Achievement" (1912). A history of +the most famous seaport of the Atlantic coast, drawn from +log-books and other manuscript collections. "The Book of Buried +Treasure: Being a True History of the Gold, Jewels, and Plate of +Pirates, Galleons, etc." (1911). Several chapters have to do with +certain picturesque pirates and seamen of the colonies. + +Edgar S. Maclay, "A History of American Privateers" (1899). The +only book of its kind, and indispensable to those who wish to +learn the story of Yankee ships and sailors. + +J. R. Hutchinson, "The Press Gang Afloat and Ashore" (1914). This +recent volume, written from an English point of view, illuminates +the system of conscription which caused the War of 1812. + +Nothing can take the place, however, of the narratives of those +master mariners who made the old merchant marine famous: + +Richard Henry Dana, Jr., "Two Years Before the Mast" (1840). The +latest edition, handsomely illustrated, (1915). The classic +narrative of American forecastle life in the sailing-ship era. + +Captain Richard Cleveland, "Narrative of Voyages and Commercial +Enterprises" (1842). This is one of the fascinating +autobiographies of the old school of shipmasters who had the gift +of writing. + +Captain Amasa Delano, "Narrative of Voyages and Travels" (1817). +Another of the rare human documents of blue water. It describes +the most adventurous period of activity, a century ago. + +Captain Arthur H. Clark, "The Clipper Ship Era" (1910). A +thrilling, spray-swept, true story. Far and away the best account +of the clipper, by a man who was an officer of one in his youth. + +Robert Bennet Forbes, "Notes on Ships of the Past" (1888). Random +facts and memories of a famous Boston ship-owner. It is valuable +for its records of noteworthy passages. + +Captain John D. Whidden, "Ocean Life in the Old Sailing Ship +Days" (1908). The entertaining reminiscences of a veteran +shipmaster. + +Captain A. W. Nelson, "Yankee Swanson: Chapters from a Life at +Sea" (1913). Another of the true romances, recommended for a +lively sense of humor and a faithful portrayal of life aboard a +windjammer. + +There are many other personal narratives, some of them privately +printed and very old, which may be found in the libraries. +Typical of them is "A Journal of the Travels and Sufferings of +Daniel Saunders" (1794), in which a young sailor relates his +adventures after shipwreck on the coast of Arabia. + +Among general works the following are valuable: + +J. Grey Jewell, "Among Our Sailors" (1874). A plea for more +humane treatment of American seamen, with many instances on +shocking brutalities as reported to the author, who was a United +States Consul. + +E. Keble Chatterton, "Sailing Ships: The Story of their +Development" (1909). An elaborate history of the development of +the sailing vessel from the earliest times to the modern steel +clipper. + +W. S. Lindsay, "History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient +Commerce," 4 vols. (1874-76). An English work, notably fair to +the American marine, and considered authoritative. + +Douglas Owen, "Ocean Trade and Shipping" (1914). An English +economist explains the machinery of maritime trade and commerce. + +William Wood, "All Afloat." In "The Chronicles of Canada Series." +Glasgow, Brook and Co., Toronto, 1914. + +J. B. McMaster, "The Life and Times of Stephen Girard, Mariner +and Merchant," 2 vols. (1918). + +The relation of governmental policy to the merchant marine is +discussed by various writers: + +David A. Wells, "Our Merchant Marine: How It Rose, Increased, +Became Great, Declined, and Decayed" (1882). A political treatise +in defense of a protective policy. + +William A. Bates, "American Marine: The Shipping Question in +History and Politics" (1892); "American Navigation: The Political +History of Its Rise and Ruin" (1902). These works are statistical +and highly technical, partly compiled from governmental reports, +and are also frankly controversial. + +Henry Hall, "American Navigation, With Some Account of the Causes +of Its Former Prosperity and Present Decline" (1878). + +Charles S. Hill, "History of American Shipping: Its Prestige, +Decline, and Prospect" (1883). + +J. D. J. Kelley, "The Question of Ships: The Navy and the +Merchant Marine" (1884). + +Arthur J. Maginnis, "The Atlantic Ferry: Its Ships, Men, and +Working" (1900). + +A vast amount of information is to be found in the Congressional +Report of the Merchant Marine Commission, published in three +volumes (1905). + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg etext of The Old Merchant Marine. + diff --git a/old/mrmrn10.zip b/old/mrmrn10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e3ba211 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mrmrn10.zip |