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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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