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Captain John Crane, 1800 - 1815

<h2 id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</h2> FITTING FOR SEA.—WAR DECLARED.—OUT ON A CRUISE.—MY FIRST PRIZE.—OLD FRIENDS. "We'll ship a crew for each of these craft," said I, "a small crew, just enough for inland navigation, and we'll have three or four carpenters in each crew in addition. First one of us and then the other will get off up the North River; we're going to Albany, or anywhere else, for cargoes for New York, and we're working for small wages rather than lie idle. We'll use Haines and Herne to get our crews together, but won't take them into our secret at all, as there's no occasion to do so. "When we're on the North River we can haul up here and there for want of pilots or wind, or for any other reason that can be alleged, and that will give time for the carpenters to do what work is required to fit the clippers for their guns, and fix up quarters for the crew. An agent of the owners will go to one of the foundries at Troy or Hudson, or some other point,—perhaps he'd better go to two of them,—and negotiate for the guns, which we are to bring[210] down as freight. They should have carriages and all equipments complete, with the exception of the tackles, which we'll get in New York. We can take in most of our stores up the river, and get so nearly ready that we can go to sea at very short notice. All that will be needed will be to ship the balance of the crew, and there won't be any lack of men when war breaks out." David approved my plan, and so did the owners of the two schooners when we called on them the next day. It was carried out in nearly all its details during the latter part of the month of May and the first week of June. The schooners dawdled along the North River under all sorts of pretexts; on the 10th of June they had returned as far as the upper end of Manhattan Island, and anchored on the flats at the farther side of the great stream that forms the chief inland waterway of New York. Haines was my third mate, while Herne filled the same position with David. Our first and second mates were trusty men selected by the owners; they understood the business we were about to a certain extent, in fact, they were too intelligent not to suspect something; but they could both "stow their jaws" when occasion offered, and certainly this was an occasion. They had been told to mind their own business and say nothing, and they carried out their orders to the letter. [211] David and I left our craft at their anchorage in charge of the mates, and came in a sailboat to the city; we went straight to the office of the owners, and were taken to the inner room immediately. "Great things are happening," said the member of the firm to whom I have already referred; "our agent at Washington says war is absolutely certain within a fortnight. On the 1st of June, President Madison sent a message to Congress in which he went over the difficulties with Great Britain, pointing out the numerous insults and aggressions of that power upon us, and clearly showed the necessity of war. The message was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, and on the 3d of June, a majority of the Committee agreed upon a manifesto and reported it as a basis of a declaration of war. The next day (June 4), a bill which was drawn by Mr. Pinkney, the Attorney-General of the United States, declaring war to exist between the two countries, and was presented to the House of Representatives by Mr. Calhoun. Congress is now debating the subject with closed doors, but it is known that there is a majority in both Houses in favor of war, and the President will sign the bill as soon as it is passed." This was great, though not altogether unexpected, news, and I'm sure that as David and I looked at each other there were expressions of astonishment on our faces. [212] "We have relays of horses and riders between here and Washington," the gentleman continued, "and will have the news of the declaration of war as soon as any one can get it, and probably ahead of any one else. Our agent at Washington is sufficiently near the President to obtain his signature to your commissions immediately, so that you will not be delayed in getting to sea, and going to work on the enemy's commerce." Then he told us that a sloop loaded with all the supplies we wanted to complete our outfit would meet us at our anchorage, and that the men to fill out the crews were being engaged at one of the shipping offices close at hand. One member of the firm remained constantly at Paulus Hook, which is on the shore of New Jersey, opposite New York, to receive messages from Washington, and as soon as it was known that a state of war existed we would be notified. Well, the bill declaring war passed the lower House of Congress by a vote of seventy-nine to forty-nine. On the 17th it passed the Senate by a vote of nineteen to thirteen, and on the same day it was signed by the President. On the 19th of June Mr. Madison issued a proclamation which formally declared war against Great Britain, the second war of the United States for its independence. [213] The Revolution of 1776 began the struggle; but the object was not accomplished till the War of 1812 had put an end to British interference with our commerce, and the impressment of our citizens into British service. Protests and complaints were without effect; not only were adopted citizens of the United States taken to serve on British ships or in the army, but many native-born Americans were impressed to do duty under a flag which was not their own. Great Britain claimed that no subject could become an alien; "once a Briton always a Briton" was her motto. Our laws gave equal protection to the native and the adopted citizen, and therefore we stood by the Briton who chose to become a citizen with us, and had taken the necessary steps in that direction. Less than an hour after affixing his signature to the bill of Congress declaring war with Great Britain, the President signed the commission which allowed David Taylor and John Crane, commanding the Hyacinth and the Marguerite, to prey upon British commerce. The commissions were brought by the messengers that bore the news of the declaration of war, and they were not long in reaching us after their arrival at Paulus Hook. All our stores were on board, and all our arms and powder. The guns were in their places; the[214] extra carpenters who had been retained on board under pay, in order to prevent their telling what we were about, were discharged and put ashore; and the complement of the crew was taken on at the anchorage to which we dropped down off the Battery. Everything was done so quickly that we were at sea before the news of the declaration of war was generally known in New York. I steered away to the eastward, while David took a southerly course. Before we separated we made a small wager as to who should take the first prize. He was in search of vessels plying between England and the West Indies; while I wanted those whose course was to or from Halifax. At daylight, on my third morning at sea, a sail was reported on the starboard bow. I scanned her through my glass, concluded she was what I wanted, and ordered all sail to be cracked on in her direction. The stranger did not change her course at all. She was a full-rigged ship, much larger than the Marguerite, and evidently a merchantman. We hung out the American flag, but she did not respond to the courtesy; it was manifest that her captain did not consider it worth his while to display his colors to such an insignificant craft as an American schooner. We could out-sail and out-maneuver the stranger. By my orders we ranged up abreast of her so as to[215] have the weather gauge, and when within hailing distance, I called out,— "What ship is that?" For fully a minute there was no answer, and then came the words,— "What ship is that?" This was a bit of impudence that angered and, at the same time, amused me. I held my temper and responded,— "The American privateer, Marguerite. Heave to, or I'll fire into you!" There was no response, either by word or action. The ship held on her course, and the Marguerite held to hers; but all the time she drew nearer the stranger, till the vessels were not more than a hundred yards apart. Then I ordered a blank shot to be fired across her bow; as she did not stop at this warning, we fired a shotted gun in the same direction. Still she kept on; and then I gave orders in a loud voice to make ready for a broadside. This brought the captain of the stranger to his senses. The English flag went fluttering to its place, the sails were hove aback, and a hoarse voice hailed, and asked what we wanted. "Send a boat on board!" was all the answer I chose to give. My men were at their guns, every[216]thing was ready for action, and what was more, the state of affairs on board the Marguerite was plainly discernible from the decks of the stranger. Her captain had probably reached the conclusion that any further discourtesy on his part would be followed by an order to fire. There was a light sea running, but it was not enough to make the launching of a boat at all dangerous. In a quarter of an hour a boat came from the strange vessel, bringing her first officer, who mounted to our deck and was met by me at the gangway. With an air of offended dignity, he announced that the ship was the Camperdown of London, for Halifax, and then asked, with still more offended dignity in his manner,— "What is the meaning of this?" "It means," I answered, "that the United States Government has declared war against Great Britain, and the Camperdown is the prize of the United States schooner Marguerite, a privateer commanded by Captain John Crane." "When was war declared?" he asked, his manner changing to one of surprise, although it was by no means bereft of its haughtiness. "On the 19th of June," I replied. "The Marguerite was ready for sea, and sailed immediately. Come aft," I added in a more friendly tone, "for I began to[217] pity the fellow, and I will show you the announcement of the declaration, and also my commission, to prove that you are not being imposed upon." He accompanied me to the cabin, and I showed him the papers that convinced him of the actual state of war between the two countries. As soon as he examined them he returned on board his ship, and the captain of the Camperdown came to make a formal surrender of his vessel. Resistance was useless, as she had only two small guns for signaling purposes, to oppose to our seven large guns, and a crew ready for battle, and considerably outnumbering hers. "We have been driven out of our course by contrary winds," said the captain, "or you would not have found us here." "But I might have found you farther to the north," I replied, "as it was my intention to run in that direction till I should be on the track of vessels from England to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland." Then, by way of consolation, I expressed my opinion that it was a great hardship that a declaration of war carried with it the right to make prizes of an enemy's ships on the sea the moment the declaration was made. "It seems to me," said I, "that it would be only fair and right that there should be a limit of time to enable all who are afloat to reach a safe harbor. But[218] we must take law and custom as we find them, not as we think they should be, and therefore the Camperdown is the prize of the Marguerite." The English captain acquiesced in my views; in fact, it was not easy for him to do otherwise, and then we proceeded to the arrangement for the transfer of the property from its former to its new holders. The prize I had taken was a valuable one. The ship was nearly new, and was named after the town in Holland where Admiral Duncan (afterwards Viscount of Camperdown) gained his great victory over the Dutch in 1797. She had an assorted cargo of goods intended for the colonies, and of the very kind that would be marketable in the United States; and in addition to the goods, she had about thirty thousand dollars worth of British gold and silver coin. I was very well satisfied with my prize, and it is unnecessary to state that my crew was elated at our success, though many of them were disappointed that we had gained our victory without a fight. "Never mind, my lads," said the mate, when he overheard some of the men murmuring; "you'll get your stomachs full of fighting before the war is over." The captain of the Camperdown said he had twelve passengers on board, including two British officers with their families and servants, and two civil[219]ian passengers. It had been arranged that the crew would be transferred to the Marguerite and detained in the hold as prisoners, their place being taken by a prize-crew from the schooner to work the Camperdown into New York. The officers of the ship would also be prisoners, according to the rules of war, but what should be done with the passengers? "They will be more comfortable on board the ship," I suggested, "than in our restricted quarters here. They can remain there on condition that the gentlemen give their parole of honor not to take part in or countenance any effort to retake the ship." "I'm sure they will readily agree to that," replied the captain; "they are gentlemen in every sense of the word, and nothing more need be said on that point." My second mate went with a prize-crew to take charge of the prize, and as rapidly as it could be done the crew of the Camperdown was transferred to the Marguerite and confined below. After the transfers had been completed, I went on board the ship to see the passengers and take the paroles, which they had sent word they would readily give on condition of being allowed to remain on the ship. As I stepped on the deck of the ship, I heard expressions of astonishment in feminine tones; as I turned my attention in the direction of the sounds,[220] there was occasion for me to show astonishment too. In the group of passengers near the entrance of the after cabin was Captain Graham with his wife and two daughters. Under the circumstances, they were just at that moment very glad to see me; in fact, they were far more willing to be captives in my hands than in those of a total stranger. We had a cordial greeting on both sides, and I was introduced to their fellow-passengers. "There will be no difficulty about your paroles," I said with a smile, as soon as the formalities were over; "and I will see that your private property is carefully respected." Then, after a little conversation referring to their personal comfort on the way to New York, I went to the cabin and wrote a letter to the owners of the Marguerite, telling briefly how and where I had known the Graham family, and asking that every possible courtesy be shown to them on my account. I had no opportunity for a chat with Mrs. Graham and her daughters, and it was much to my disappointment that I felt obliged to shorten my stay on board. Mrs. Graham asked for Haines; and on learning that he was my third mate on the Marguerite, she expressed such a desire to see him that I hailed the schooner, and told him to come aboard the ship immediately. [221] He came, and was as much surprised as I had been at meeting the Graham family. He blushed as much as it was possible for a sun-browned face like his to blush, and his manner was decidedly awkward. He remained only a few moments, leaving the ship shortly before I did, and taking with him the second mate of the Camperdown, who had been supervising the transfer of the crew. When it came my turn to go I had a hearty farewell from my old friends, whom I especially commended to my second mate, and in their hearing instructed him to see that they were well cared for during the voyage, and promptly landed on reaching New York. Hardly had I cast off from the ship before she filled away on her course for New York, bearing proudly aloft the "Stars and Stripes," and below our national banner the Red Cross of St. George. My crew gave three cheers as the Camperdown sailed away; and then we turned our attention to the horizon, which we scanned in search of other possible prizes. Nothing was in sight, and so I ordered the men to be drilled at the guns. In fact, they had been drilled pretty constantly ever since they came on board; there were enough man-o'-war's-men on board to give the necessary instructions to the rest, and I was surprised and pleased at the quickness with[222] which they became proficient in their duties. At the time we met the Camperdown, and the men were beaten to quarters, they stood in their places like veterans; and I am confident they would have given an excellent account of themselves if it had been necessary to fight a battle. Towards nightfall we sighted a sail on the larboard bow, and made in its direction; but darkness came on before we had got within signaling-distance. As well as we could make out she was a fishing-schooner, and, if so, would be of no great value as a prize, though of sufficient consequence to be taken and sent to port, provided, of course, she was British in nationality. The next morning the sail was nowhere to be seen. She had changed her course in the night, and disappeared, but whether through any fear of us or not we were unable to say. Soon after breakfast Haines came aft, and reported to me that several of the prisoners were ready to swear allegiance to the American flag, and wanted to be allowed to go to work with the crew, instead of being confined below. That they should prefer the deck to the hold was no more than natural, and I told Haines to bring them aft and I would talk with them. "There are ten or twelve of them, sir," said Haines; "shall I bring them all at once?" [223] "No," I answered; "you may bring four of them: they will be enough for the present." In due time Haines came with four of the prisoners. I had my suspicions concerning them, but endeavored to appear utterly unsuspecting as I questioned them. <hr class="chap" /> [224] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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