Feral Jundi

Today is the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, and I thought it would be cool to post his original paper on the concept of privateering, and why it should be used during the War of 1812.  I plan to link to this page often in the future, when ever I talk about the history of the concept and how important it was to the US strategy back then.

The other thing I wanted to point out is the article written in 1882 about the paper that Thomas Jefferson wrote, and the statistics the author presented. I have not seen these statistics before, and they are pretty interesting.  Of course the author of the article was certainly impressed with the concept of privateering and it’s effects on an enemy. The author made this point in the article, that really stuck out for me. That the British were certainly concerned about American privateers:

One at least of the London journals, the Statesman, foresaw the danger from privateers in 1812. When war was threatened, it said: “America cannot certainly pretend to wage a maritime war with us.  She has no navy to do it with.  But America has nearly a hundred thousand as good seamen as any in the world, all of whom would be actively employed against our trade on every part of the ocean, in their fast-sailing ships of war, many of which will be able to cope with our small cruisers; and they will be found to be sweeping the West India seas, and even carrying desolation into the chops of the Channel.”
All this, and more, the two hundred and fifty privateers accomplished.  They cruised in every sea, and wrought such havoc with British commerce as had never been known before.  Coggeshall’s history of the service enumerates about fifteen hundred prizes taken by them in the two and a half years of war, and these were not all of the captures by privateers alone; while the government war-vessels, in their cruises, added considerably to the number.  The fortunes of the privateers were of the most varied kind.  Some of them made long cruises without falling in with a single British merchantman of which they could make a prize.  Others took enough to enrich every man of the crew.

Very cool stuff and there is way more in this old, but extremely informative article. Check it out. –Matt

Thomas Jefferson On Privateering
July 4, 1812
“What is war?  It is simply a contest between nations of trying which can do the other the most harm.  Who carries on the war?  Armies are formed and navies manned by individuals.  How is a battle gained?  By the death of individuals.  What produces peace?  The distress of individuals.  What difference to the sufferer is it that his property is taken by a national or private armed vessel?  Did our merchants, who have lost nine hundred and seventeen vessels by British captures, feel any gratification that the most of them were taken by his Majesty’s men-of-war?  Were the spoils less rigidly exacted by a seventy-four-gun ship than by a privateer of four guns?  And were not all equally condemned?
War, whether on land or sea, is constituted of acts of violence on the persons and property of individuals; and excess of violence is the grand cause that brings about a peace.  One man fights for wages paid him by the Government, or a patriotic zeal for the defense of his country; another, duly authorized, and giving the proper pledges for good conduct, undertakes to pay himself at the expense of the foe, and serve his country as effectually as the former, and Government, drawing all its supplies from the people, is in reality as much affected by the losses of the one as the other, the efficacy of its measures depending upon the energies and resources of the whole.
In the United States, every possible encouragement should be given to privateering in time of war with a commercial nation.  We have tens of thousands of seamen that without it would be destitute of the means of support, and useless to their country.  Our national ships are too few to give employment to a twentieth part of them, or retaliate the acts of the enemy.  But by licensing private armed vessels, the whole naval force of the nation is truly brought to bear on the foe; and while the contest lasts, that it may have the speedier termination, let every individual contribute his mite, in the best way he can, to distress and harass the enemy and compel him to peace.”
The truth is, privateering is the most merciful part of war; for it damages the enemy by capturing property rather than by destroying life, and in so doing it throws the immediate burden upon the commercial community behind the armies, who have to a large extent the power of making war and peace without personal risk to themselves, and often exhibit a willingness to sacrifice the lives of soldiers with the greatest freedom, so long as their own property is secure.  Show them that their property is not secure in war, and you give them a strong motive for making peace.  In modern times, the men who are to risk their lives if war arises generally have little to say on the question whether there shall be a war; while those who are to risk their ships and cargoes, often have a determining voice.  The greater that risk, the less the probability of war.
When the great powers of Europe drew up and signed the Treaty of Paris in 1856, they abolished privateering, so far as they were concerned.  The lesser powers of Europe, and some of those on this continent, accepted the general invitation to join in the treaty.  The United States Government replied that it would join in it, provided a clause were inserted to the effect that private property on the high seas, if not contraband of war, should be exempt from seizure not only by privateers but by the public armed vessels of an enemy.  The great powers that originally made the treaty refused to insert any such clause; thereby confessing that their object was not to exempt private property from the burdens and derangements of war, but merely to control the mode of its seizure, and to secure for themselves with their large navies an advantage over nations that in time of peace have small navies or none at all.  So the United States retains to this day her right to send out privateers if she becomes involved in war with any maritime people.
One at least of the London journals, the Statesman, foresaw the danger from privateers in 1812. When war was threatened, it said: “America cannot certainly pretend to wage a maritime war with us.  She has no navy to do it with.  But America has nearly a hundred thousand as good seamen as any in the world, all of whom would be actively employed against our trade on every part of the ocean, in their fast-sailing ships of war, many of which will be able to cope with our small cruisers; and they will be found to be sweeping the West India seas, and even carrying desolation into the chops of the Channel.”
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PRIVATEERS
The War Of 1812
Between The United States of America And Great Britain
By Rossiter Johnson
Written In 1882
IN the naval operations of this, as of the preceding year, privateers played an important part.  A large number had been commissioned; during the entire war, the whole number set afloat was two hundred and fifty-one.  Fifty-eight of these belonged in the port of Baltimore, fifty-five in New York, forty in Salem, Mass., thirty-one in Boston, fourteen in Philadelphia, eleven in Portsmouth, N. H., and ten in Charleston, S. C.
These vessels were commonly small, or of moderate size, and were swift sailers.  They carried a few broadside guns; but the peculiar feature of their armament was a long gun, generally an eighteen-pounder, mounted on the deck and turning on a swivel, so that it could be instantly pointed in any direction, no matter what might be the position of the vessel.  This gun was called Long Tom.
These privateers not only captured merchant ships, but even fought with the smaller naval vessels of the enemy, and sometimes conquered them.  And they often had a double character, taking cargoes of merchandise for distant ports and at the same time being ready to fight on the way.
There was in 1812, as there has been since, more or less sentimental objection to privateering, which had come down from the days when privateers and pirates were the same.  The argument in favor of the system was set forth with great clearness by Thomas Jefferson, in an article published about a month after the war began.  He said:
“What is war?  It is simply a contest between nations of trying which can do the other the most harm.  Who carries on the war?  Armies are formed and navies manned by individuals.  How is a battle gained?  By the death of individuals.  What produces peace?  The distress of individuals.  What difference to the sufferer is it that his property is taken by a national or private armed vessel?  Did our merchants, who have lost nine hundred and seventeen vessels by British captures, feel any gratification that the most of them were taken by his Majesty’s men-of-war?  Were the spoils less rigidly exacted by a seventy-four-gun ship than by a privateer of four guns?  And were not all equally condemned?
War, whether on land or sea, is constituted of acts of violence on the persons and property of individuals; and excess of violence is the grand cause that brings about a peace.  One man fights for wages paid him by the Government, or a patriotic zeal for the defense of his country; another, duly authorized, and giving the proper pledges for good conduct, undertakes to pay himself at the expense of the foe, and serve his country as effectually as the former, and Government, drawing all its supplies from the people, is in reality as much affected by the losses of the one as the other, the efficacy of its measures depending upon the energies and resources of the whole.
In the United States, every possible encouragement should be given to privateering in time of war with a commercial nation.  We have tens of thousands of seamen that without it would be destitute of the means of support, and useless to their country.  Our national ships are too few to give employment to a twentieth part of them, or retaliate the acts of the enemy.  But by licensing private armed vessels, the whole naval force of the nation is truly brought to bear on the foe; and while the contest lasts, that it may have the speedier termination, let every individual contribute his mite, in the best way he can, to distress and harass the enemy and compel him to peace.”
The truth is, privateering is the most merciful part of war; for it damages the enemy by capturing property rather than by destroying life, and in so doing it throws the immediate burden upon the commercial community behind the armies, who have to a large extent the power of making war and peace without personal risk to themselves, and often exhibit a willingness to sacrifice the lives of soldiers with the greatest freedom, so long as their own property is secure.  Show them that their property is not secure in war, and you give them a strong motive for making peace.  In modern times, the men who are to risk their lives if war arises generally have little to say on the question whether there shall be a war; while those who are to risk their ships and cargoes, often have a determining voice.  The greater that risk, the less the probability of war.
When the great powers of Europe drew up and signed the Treaty of Paris in 1856, they abolished privateering, so far as they were concerned.  The lesser powers of Europe, and some of those on this continent, accepted the general invitation to join in the treaty.  The United States Government replied that it would join in it, provided a clause were inserted to the effect that private property on the high seas, if not contraband of war, should be exempt from seizure not only by privateers but by the public armed vessels of an enemy.  The great powers that originally made the treaty refused to insert any such clause; thereby confessing that their object was not to exempt private property from the burdens and derangements of war, but merely to control the mode of its seizure, and to secure for themselves with their large navies an advantage over nations that in time of peace have small navies or none at all.  So the United States retains to this day her right to send out privateers if she becomes involved in war with any maritime people.
One at least of the London journals, the Statesman, foresaw the danger from privateers in 1812. When war was threatened, it said: “America cannot certainly pretend to wage a maritime war with us.  She has no navy to do it with.  But America has nearly a hundred thousand as good seamen as any in the world, all of whom would be actively employed against our trade on every part of the ocean, in their fast-sailing ships of war, many of which will be able to cope with our small cruisers; and they will be found to be sweeping the West India seas, and even carrying desolation into the chops of the Channel.”
All this, and more, the two hundred and fifty privateers accomplished.  They cruised in every sea, and wrought such havoc with British commerce as had never been known before.  Coggeshall’s history of the service enumerates about fifteen hundred prizes taken by them in the two and a half years of war, and these were not all of the captures by privateers alone; while the government war-vessels, in their cruises, added considerably to the number.  The fortunes of the privateers were of the most varied kind.  Some of them made long cruises without falling in with a single British merchantman of which they could make a prize.  Others took enough to enrich every man of the crew.
The Surprise, of Baltimore, took twenty in a single month.  The True-Blooded Yankee was one of the most daring and most fortunate.  On one cruise she took twenty-seven prizes in thirty-seven days.  On the same cruise she captured a small island on the coast of Ireland, and held possession of it for six days.  She also took a small seaport town of Scotland, and burned seven vessels in the harbor.  A partial list of the spoils with which she was laden when she arrived in a French port, will give some idea of the business.  She had eighteen bales of Turkish carpets, forty-three bales of raw silk, weighing six tons, twenty boxes of gums, twenty-four packs of beaver skins, one hundred and sixty dozen swan skins, forty-six packs of other skins, a hundred and ninety hides, a quantity of copper, and various other articles.
The York, of Baltimore, after cruising on the coast of Brazil and through the West Indies, returned home with prizes valued at $1,500,000.
The Snapdragon, of Newbern, N. C., captured a brig with a cargo, mainly dry goods, worth half a million dollars, and got safely into port with her.
The Saucy Jack, of Charleston, took the ship Mentor; with a cargo valued at $300,000, and sent her into New Orleans; and a short time afterward the same privateer took a brig with $60,000 worth of dry goods.
The Yankee, in a cruise of a hundred and fifty days, scoured the whole western coast of Africa, taking eight prizes, and came home with thirty-two bales of fine goods, six tons of ivory, and $40,000 in gold dust; all together worth nearly $300,000.
The Leo, of Baltimore, captured an East India-man worth two and a half million dollars, which was recaptured by an English sloop-of-war, though not till the Leo had taken off $60,000 in bullion.
The Governor Tompkins, of New York, near the Madeira Islands captured the Nereid, with an assorted cargo valued at $375,000.
The St. Lawrence, with a cargo valued at over $300,000, was captured and sent into Portsmouth, N. H., where she was proved to be an English vessel, and condemned, though she had professed to be American.
Perhaps the most valuable single prize taken in the war was the Queen, captured by the General Armstrong, of New York.  She carried sixteen guns, and was not taken without a stubborn fight, in which her captain, first lieutenant, and nine men were killed.  She was valued at nearly $500,000, but on her way into port was wrecked off Nantucket.
One prize contained wine and raisins valued at $75,000; another, $70,000 worth of cotton; another, $20,000 worth of indigo; another, seven hundred tons of mahogany; another $70,000 worth of rum and sugar; another, $150,000 worth of gums, almonds, and beeswax; another, $23,000 in specie, and still another, $80,000 in specie.
All this looks very much like robbery, and in truth it was robbery, unless the war, on the part of the Americans, was justifiable.  But it is certainly more humane to conquer the enemy by robbing his merchants than by killing his men; and there can be no question that the exploits of these privateers did more to bring the war between England and the United States to an end, and prevent another one, than drawn battles, however gallantly fought, and futile expeditions against Canada.
But the exploits of the privateers did not consist solely in plundering unarmed merchantmen.  They were often pursued and attacked by British men-of-war, and some of the English packet-ships carried heavy guns, and would not surrender without a desperate fight.
The privateer schooner Governor Tompkins, a few days after the capture of the Nereid in December 1812, gave chase to what appeared to be a large merchantman.  But she proved to be a frigate in disguise, and a sudden squall sent the schooner under her guns before she could change her course.  The frigate opened fire at once, and her first broadside killed two men and wounded six.  It also blew up a box of cartridges and set fire to some pistols and tube-boxes in the companionway, all of which exploded and went flying in every direction.  The schooner’s little battery returned the fire, but her principal exertions were to get out of the way of her powerful antagonist.  A chase of two hours ensued, during most of which time the vessels were within gunshot and the firing was kept up.  The Tompkins threw overboard all the lumber from the deck, and two thousand pounds of shot, and got out her sweeps, and so escaped.  Her captain, Nathaniel Shaler, said in a letter describing the action: “The name of one of my poor fellows who was killed ought to be registered on the book of fame, and remembered with reverence as long as bravery is considered a virtue.  He was a black man, by the name of John Johnson.  A twenty-four-pound shot struck him in the hip, and took away all the lower part of his body.  In this state the poor, brave fellow lay on the deck and several times exclaimed to his shipmates, ‘Fire away, boys!  neber haul de color down!’  The other was also a black man, by the name of John Davis, and was struck in much the same way.  He fell near me, and several times requested to be thrown overboard, saying he was only in the way of the others.”
Captain Boyle, in the privateer Comet, of Baltimore, made a remarkable cruise, early in 1813, on the coast of Brazil and in the West Indies.  On the 14th of January he overhauled a Portuguese brig-of-war which was convoying three English merchantmen— a ship and two brigs—from Pernambuco.  Boyle informed the captain that he had no right to do anything of the sort, and that he should proceed to make prizes of them.  As the man-of-war insisted on protecting them, there was a fight — one vessel against four, for the merchantmen were heavily armed.  It began at half past eight o’clock in the evening, and was carried on by moonlight.  Every vessel had on a crowd of canvas.  The Comet ran alongside the ship and one of the brigs, and opened her broadside upon both of them.
The man-of-war then fired grape and round shot into the Comet, which returned the compliment, but stuck close to the merchantmen.  They frequently separated, to give the man-of-war a chance at the privateer, when the privateer would pour a whole broadside into them, and then turn his attention to the larger antagonist.  An hour after midnight, the ship, which had been badly cut to pieces and rendered unmanageable, struck her flag; and soon afterward the two brigs, which had been almost as badly damaged, surrendered.  All this while the man-of-war was hovering near and exchanging occasional broadsides with the Comet, till the moon set, and it became dark and squally.  One of the brigs had been taken possession of by Boyle; the other and the ship, assisted by the man-of-war, escaped him and made their way back to Pernambuco.  On the man-of-war the first lieutenant and five men were killed, and several wounded, the captain mortally.
On the 25th of the same month, the privateer Dolphin, Captain W. S. Stafford, cruising off the coasts of Spain and Portugal, fell in with a large ship and a brig, and fought them both.  The privateer carried ten guns, the ship sixteen, and the brig ten.  After a spirited action, in which the Dolphin lost four men, she captured both of them, and sent them home to Baltimore.  The same privateer, in November, was attacked just outside of Charleston harbor by five boats from an English man-of-war.  Captain Stafford tore one of the boats to pieces by a discharge of grape-shot, and as the other boats had employment enough in saving their unfortunate comrades, the attack failed.  The man-of-war then fired a broadside at the Dolphin and sailed away.
The privateer Lottery, Captain Southcomb, while at anchor in Chesapeake Bay, February 15th, was captured by nine British barges, in which were two hundred and forty men; but not till after a fight of an hour and a half, in which the six guns of the Lottery had made sickening havoc with the men in the crowded barges.  Captain Southcomb was badly wounded.
On the 11th of March the privateer General Armstrong, Captain Guy R. Champlin, of New York, encountered, off Surinam, what she supposed to be an English privateer.  The Armstrong bore down upon her, fired the starboard broadside, wore ship and gave her the larboard broadside, and was then about to attempt boarding, but found out that the enemy was a frigate, carrying twenty-four guns.  The battle lasted three quarters of an hour, when the Armstrong succeeded in getting away.  Captain Champlin, badly wounded, lay on the cabin floor, directly over the magazine, with a pistol in his hand, when he overheard some talk about striking the colors.  He immediately ordered the surgeon to go on deck and tell the men that if any one of them dared to strike the colors, he would discharge his pistol into the magazine and blow them all up together.  In his log-book he wrote: “In this action we had six men killed and sixteen wounded, and all the halyards of the headsails shot away; the fore-mast and bowsprit one quarter cut through, and all the fore and main shrouds but one shot away; both mainstays and running rigging cut to pieces; a great number of shot through our sails, and several between wind and water, which caused our vessel to leak.  There were also a number of shot in our hull.”
The privateer Young Teazer met a singular fate.  In June she was chased by a British man-of-war.  Her lieutenant had been once captured, and released on parole, and had gone into the service again without waiting to be exchanged.  When he saw a probability of another capture, he seized a firebrand and ran into the cabin, and in another moment the vessel was blown to fragments, and every man on board perished, except seven sailors who were standing on the forecastle.
The privateer Wasp, carrying two guns, had a battle of nine hours’ duration, on the 31st of July, with the British war-schooner Bream, of ten guns.  For the last forty-five minutes the action was at close quarters, and the Wasp then surrendered.
In August the privateer Decatur, carrying seven guns, Captain Dominique Diron, was cruising in the track of West India traders, when on the 5th she encountered the English war-schooner Dominica, of sixteen guns, and after a bloody battle captured her.  It was at first a running fight, the Dominica firing frequent broadsides, and the Decatur answering with her Long Tom and volleys of musketry.  After several futile attempts to board, Captain Diron succeeded in forcing his bowsprit over the enemy’s stern, and sending the jib boom through her mainsail.  The next moment, while a part of his crew kept up the musketry fire, the remainder rushed on board the Dominica, and a hand-to-hand slaughter at once began.  Men were cut down with swords, and shot with pistols, till the deck was covered with the dead and wounded.  The English crew did not surrender till their captain, G. W. Barrette, was killed, all the other officers except the surgeon and one midshipman either killed or wounded, and altogether sixty men disabled.  Of the Decatur’s men, five were killed and fifteen wounded.
The Globe privateer had a desperate fight, on the 3rd of November, with two heavily armed packet brigs.  Broadside after broadside was exchanged at the distance of a few yards, and the brigs were compelled to strike.  But when the Globe hauled alongside to take possession of one of them, she raised her colors again and fired a broadside; after which both brigs sailed slowly away, while the Globe, which had lost twenty-three men, was too badly crippled to follow.
The privateer Saratoga, of four guns, captured the English mail packet Morgiana, which carried eighteen guns, by boarding. There was an obstinate defense, and two of the packet’s men were killed and five wounded, while the Saratoga lost three killed and seven wounded.  During the fight the mail was thrown overboard.
Near the Canary Islands a British sloop-of-war decoyed the privateer Grampus under her guns, and then suddenly opened her ports and gave her a whole broadside at half pistol-shot.  This discharge killed the captain and one man and wounded several others, and damaged the rigging badly, so that the Grampus escaped with difficulty.
On Monday, the 5th of July, the Yankee, a fishing-smack, was fitted out in New York harbor to capture by stratagem the British sloop-of-war Eagle.  A calf, a sheep, a goose, and three fishermen were placed conspicuously on the deck, while below were concealed forty men armed with muskets.  She then sailed down the bay.  The Eagle overhauled her, and ordered her to report to the Commodore.  Suddenly, at the signal word “Lawrence,” the forty men appeared, leveled their muskets across the deck of the Eagle, and with one volley killed three of her men and drove the others below.  She struck without firing a gun, and as she was taken up the harbor she was greeted by the cheers of a multitude of people who were on the Battery, celebrating Independence Day.
While an American fishing-smack was thus capturing a British sloop-of-war in the harbor of New York, on the other side of the ocean the London Evening Star was just saying: “The American navy must be annihilated; her arsenals and dockyards consumed.  The American merchant-vessels ought perhaps to be permitted to arm against the pirates of the Mediterranean or the Ladrones of China; but, like certain places of entertainment in England, they ought to be compelled to exhibit in large letters, on their main-sails, Licensed to carry guns, pursuant to a British act of Parliament.”
Story here.