USA > Maine > Sagadahoc County > Bath > History of Bath and environs, Sagadahoc County, Maine. 1607-1894 > Part 7
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Hazardous Voyages. - The ship Sally of 380 tons, owned by John Richardson, sailed from Bath in February, 1809, with two commanders, Captain Rowe, of Bath, and Captain Mackey, a Scotchman. She was laden with lumber for London. William Richardson, a brother of the owner, went in her as supercargo. She was compelled to run the fort at the mouth of the Kennebec, from which she was fired upon. Some of her rigging was cut away and a cannon ball went through a topsail, but she got safely to sea. The voyage to London was made successfully and her cargo was sold there at great profit. This was the beginning of the successful career of William Richardson, who subsequently became one of Bath's prominent and wealthy ship-builders and owners.
On the voyage out this ship had an adventure. The crew be- longed to Bath and vicinity and were intelligent men compared with what sailors are at the present day. When fairly at sea, knowing the ship had no papers and was in illicit trade, they calculated that they could take charge and did so, confining the officers below. Finally a compromise was entered into by which notes were given to the men for fifty dollars each, payable when the vessel shall have arrived at the port of her destination. When arriving, however, on the English coast William Richardson, on the pretext of being sick or for some other plausible reason, was set ashore at a remote place and was landed at some . eril in the high surf. From thence he made his way to London, and when the ship arrived he was all ready with officers of the law to arrest the crew for mutiny, which
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could be done under a special English law applying to vessels com- ing from a foreign port without legal papers. The men were let off by giving up the notes; some of them, after returning to Bath, did not relish being jeered about their unsuccessful escapade.
Brig Mary Jane. - Mark Langdon Hill and Thomas McCobb were partners under the firm of Hill & McCobb, doing business at Phipsburg Center, keeping a store, building and sailing ships. Hill married a sister of McCobb, and lived at their house while he was a single man and went to sea, commanding ships owned by the firm. They built at Hallowell and owned the brig Mary Jane. She was a low-decked vessel, square-rigged, and 156 tons burthen She was built expressly for the West India trade, to carry out boards, shingles, and scantling, and in exchange to bring back molasses, sugar, and rum. When the embargo law went into operation, the latter part of December, 1807, the Mary Jane was absent at sea and did not return till the spring of 1808, when she was put in full repair. . She had brought home a West India cargo, was met by the embargo, and was laid up all that season. In November, 1808, Capt. McCobb made up his mind that the Mary Jane should go to sea. He communicated this to Judge Hill, who owned one-half of the brig. The Judge left the whole matter to Capt. McCobb. He proceeded to load the Mary Jane with a cargo for the West India market, and fitted her for sea.
To command her needed a man of nerve and activity. He knew the sea captains of Bristol; his eldest sister was married to Capt. William Nichols and was living there. He sent for Capt. Thomas HI. Nelson of that town and he came. He was about thirty years of age, sharp and quick of action. The firm of Hill & McCobb transferred to him the vessel and cargo for $5,500, for which Nelson gave two notes, and the bill of sale was filed in the custom house in presence of Capt. Rowe and Parker McCobb, nephew of Thomas McCobb. Capt. Nelson took immediate command of the brig, had her sails brought from t1 warehouse and bent, and shipped a crew of home men. James Percy was mate, and James Cushing, Jr., second mate; both of these men afterwards became masters of West
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Indiamen. Capt. Robert P. Manson, Sr., of Parkers Island, was engaged as pilot, for which service he was paid fifty dollars, ten times the regular fee.
McCobb directed everything on shore. William Owen, a boat maker, made the gun carriages for her four cannon, and Joseph Morse, the village blacksmith, made the bolts for them. Six or eight pitchforks, gathered up in the neighborhood, were put on board to be used in case an attempt should be made to board the brig as she moved down the river. At that time towns were, by law, compelled to keep a certain amount of ammunition in store to be used in case of emergency. In Phipsburg it was stored in the basement of the meeting-house at the Center. It is in tradition that a supply for the brig was taken from this deposit.
The brick store at the Center at this day is the same that was built by McCobb in 1806 and occupied by Hill & McCobb. The brig was moored at the end of the wharf that stood where is the present wharf. Although effort was made to keep the movement secret, it became known, and at night-fall there was quite a gather- ing of people at the store. To prevent the curious from going on board the vessel, guards were stationed at the head of the wharf. Parker McCobb afterwards said that as many as thirty men stood ready to aid and assist if called upon.
As there was universal dissatisfaction all along the New England coast at the restrictions of the embargo act, the general government had made preparations to enforce it. Accordingly special officers were employed by the collector at Bath to prevent breaches of the law during the embargo and non-intercourse, and particularly at the time the Mary Jane sailed. Among these officers was Col. Andrew Reed, whose residence was about a mile below the Center. He had in use a custom house boat, which was lying at his wharf on that eventful night, and men were sent down to cut a hole in her bottom to prevent her being used against the movements of the brig.
After the fort had failed in preventing the ship Sally from going to sea, Gen. Wingate, the 'lector of Bath, had fitted up a cutter, He appointed Capt. John Lane, a Bath
mounting six 6 pounders.
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man, commander of this vessel, who with necessary officers and twenty-nine men had taken charge of the same and anchored her in a position to command the passage of the river, at the upper end of Parkers Flats on the west side and opposite the house of Custom House Officer Andrew Reed, about one mile below the place where the Mary Jane lay at the wharf. Capt. Lane being acquainted with Capt. McCobb, and knowing his intrepidity and daring, kept a sharp lookout for the Mary Jane should she attempt to go to sea.
In December, 1808, the Mary Jane was loaded. Capt. McCobb asked for no clearance at the custom house. He armed the brig with four four pounders, two on each side. He also fitted up small spars on each quarter and along the sides and bows of the brig to . obstruct boarders. He enlisted twelve daring and bold men, in addi- tion to the crew, to convey the brig to sea. Capt. McCobb was the chief and leader. Parker McCobb was second in command. The men were all residents of the town. Not one of them weighed less than two hundred pounds. They were armed with guns and bayonets.
When these men arrived at the Center, according to appointment, they proceeded to the house of M. L. Hill, where McCobb boarded, and were invited to go in and take " something to drink," according to the custom of the times, and to eat supper, to which all sat down.
It had been arranged that as soon as the Mary Jane had got outside, the twelve men were to leave her and land, and for this purpose a reach boat, pulled by six oars, had been provided to make their way from the brig to the land.
It was determined that the brig should pass down the river to the sea at night, and everything was got in readiness. The extra crew, before they went on board, disguised themselves by blacking their faces, with the exception of Peter Carey, who was a mulatto of gigantic size and strength. Capt. McCobb said to Peter that he need not use the blacking brush on his face, as his natural color needed no paint. The night on which the Mary Jane left the wharf for sea was dark and gloomy, the wind blowing heavily from the north. Every man was on board and at his quarters. The guns were loaded and shotted.
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· The account of the passage of the brig down the river is given in the language of men on board of her: "At midnight, on January 2, 1809, the brig was cast off from the wharf, made sail, every man at his post, and passed down the river. As the brig came near the cutter, an officer hailed the brig, and receiving no answer fired across her bows without effect. The cutter then opened fire on the brig. Capt. McCobb returned the fire, and so for a mile or more the two vessels kept up a running fire with their great guns, the brig firing two shot to the cutter's one. No small arms were used on either side, and no attempt was made to board the Mary Jane by the crew of the cutter. Capt. Parker McCobb said afterwards that it was his opinion that no fifty men could have carried the Mary Jane, on her passage to sea. Notwithstanding the efforts of Capt. Lane, the brig safely passed down the river without any material injury. One of her round shot struck the cutter. No one was killed or wounded on either side."
When the brig came opposite the fort, the cannon not being in position, she was fired into with small arms, which did no damage excepting a little to sails and rigging. The brig returned the fire with cannon and muskets. The brig took passage between Seguin and Parkers Island, hauled her wind as near the land as was con- venient, and Capt. McCobb, with his gallant volunteers, took to their boat, with their arms, and landed safely below Harmons Harbor, in Georgetown, early in the morning. Here the volunteers partially washed their faced at the house of James Williams. They crossed the island on foot to Butlers Cove, opposite the residence of Judge Hill, where boats were ready to receive them and carry them over the river. When they arrived, it took much warm water to restore their faces to their natural color. A warm breakfast awaited them at the house, and they were paid for their services.
The brig arrived safely at Demerara, where the vessel and cargo were sold at a high price. Capt. Nelson died there.
Ever after this event the McCobbs freely acknowledged the running of the Mary Jane out of the river as an illicit voyage, and believed themselves justifi. in the act, on the ground that the gov-
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ernment had no right to institute a measure that, in its effect, would sequester their property without just compensation.
The Sloop Adoniram. - During the summer of 1808, while the embargo was in force, Mark L. Hill and Thomas McCobb char- tered of Benjamin Emmons of Parkers Island the fifty ton sloop Adoniram for a voyage to the West Indies, and Thomas Oliver of Phipsburg was placed in command. A quantity of cured fish was sent across the river from the warehouse of Hill & McCobb to where the sloop lay at Emmons wharf, and placed on flakes there to be thoroughly aired before being put on board the vessel.
The small schooner Washington was employed to take one hun- dred barrels of flour from the store of Hill & McCobb, in the night time, and proceed to the mouth of the river on a Sunday morning, where she lay off and on until the succeeding Sunday, when the Adoniram, having taken the fish aboard at Emmons' Wharf, came out of the river, and lying alongside of the schooner the flour was transferred on board of her. The sloop lay off and on at the mouth of the river, waiting for the schooner Washington to bring out to her additional freight, but there was such an excitement on shore that it was rendered difficult to bring anything more to the sloop, and the effort was abandoned. Capt. Oliver then received a letter from his employers, directing " me to lay off south five leagues from the island of Monhegan, and wear an ensign at the peak, in order that the Adoniram might be known by those who were to bring out to her in boats from Boothbay the remainder of the cargo. We accordingly lay there about one week, and in the course of that time about two hundred quintals of fish were brought to us in two small vessels, when we sailed for Demerara. We accordingly arrived at that port and sold both vessel and cargo for cash, and after remaining there thirty days, I received the pay in British and other gold," which was brought home by the captain in a bag, delivered to its owners, and weighed at Hill & MeCobb's store (C'apt. Oliver's affidavit).
The Schooner Thre Friends. - During the winter of 1810 and isit, the non-intercourse act then being in force, Capt. John
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Mereen of Phipsburg was employed by Hill & McCobb to take command of the schooner Three Friends, which had been chartered of Gilmore Percy and others, and "take a cargo of lumber to Demerara, dispose of it there, and collect the proceeds of the sales of the brig Mary Jane and her cargo, which had been sold in that port in 1809." Having received verbal orders and instructions, Capt. Mereen sailed on the voyage, sold his cargo, and made the collection required, and returned with a cargo of rum and molasses, which was entered at the custom house as from an unprohibited port, and landed at Hill & McCobb's wharf in Phipsburg Center in May, 1811 (Mereen's affidavit).
It appears that Nathaniel Green, managing owner, with Simeon Colby, Humphrey Purington, William Frost, and Daniel Baker, all of Topsham, the other owners of the schooner Tobias, William Farrin, captain, was on a voyage from Bath to Bermuda, ostensibly cleared for St. Bartholomew's, a neutral port.
Joseph F. Wingate was collector of the port of Bath from 1820 to 1824. He appears to have been interested in a voyage of the schooner Abigail, James Merryman, captain, in company with Abraham Hammett, chartered from Thomas Skolfield of Harpswell, in November, 1813, to take a cargo of merchandise from Bath to the West Indies and return. The port made having been Bermuda, it was an enemy's port and was illicit trade. The schooner made a successful voyage, and on her arrival home must have been entered as coming from a neutral port (vide Wm. King).
Joseph F. Wingate was also interested with others in a voyage of the brig Leander on an illicit West India voyage in 1813, going to Antiqua, a British port. On her arrival home she was made to hail from a neutral Spanish port.
Feb. 14, 1814. "A number of vessels were complained of for having traded at Bermuda, an English port, they having recently arrived with sugars; Messrs. Green, J. F. Wingate, Benjamin Ames, Robinson, K-g, and others interested " (vide Zina Hyde).
The Adjustment. - "Jan. 16, 1809. News of a law requiring bonds for every loaded vessel, coastwise as well as foreign voyages.
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March 15. News of the partial repeal of the embargo, and vessels begin to sail for foreign ports, England and France excepted " (vide Zina Hyde).
April 27, 1809. News of the amicable adjustment of differences between this country and England and France, giving us the same advantages we might have had before the commencement of the seventeen months' embargo. But in July of the same year a vessel arrived at Boston, bringing the news that the English government had repudiated that adjustment, declaring that her Orders in Coun- cil were to be in force as before, with the understanding that American vessels that had sailed on voyages relying upon the certainty of the adjustment would not be molested. To this trouble with England there was added the persistent impressment of Amer- ican seamen by Great Britain for use in its navy.
Then followed the Non-Intercourse Act of May, 1809, of Congress, interdicting all commercial relations with English ports. As trade .with the West India ports of that nation was of vital importance to our commercial marine, this restriction bore heavily upon the owners of Bath vessels. It continued until the com- mencement of the war with Great Britain, June 2, 1812.
"July 13, 1812. This day receive a decree of Napoleon Bona- parte that the Berlin and Milan decrees are repealed, which decree is dated 1811, but has never before come to the public knowledge; at the same time have a rumor of a change of the British ministry and the repeal of the Orders in Council " (vide Zina Hyde).
To the disadvantage of having all legitimate trade with English ports cut off during the war, were added two embargoes of limited duration placed upon not only foreign but coastwise vessels.
King and Ames Controversy. - In connection with illicit voyages of Bath vessels during the existence of restriction measures put in force by the general government, a notable controversy took place in 1824 between some leading men of Bath. Nathan Ames and Joseph F. Wingate were nominated to the United States Senate for appointment to government offices by President Monroe in 1823. They calculated upon the aid of General King to secure their
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confirmations, but failed to obtain his influence. The rejection of Ames by the Senate was unanimous. Wingate received only one vote. It was said by General King that their defeat was occasioned " for their having been engaged in trade with the enemy during the war, as well as for other reasons."
Ames determined on revenge upon King, and was seconded by Wingate. Soon after reaching home from Washington they entered upon the crusade. It was the age of pamphlets; newspapers were few and small in size. In 1824, an anonymous pamphlet appeared that was known to be the joint work of Ames and Wingate. In it King was charged with having been concerned in illicit trade during the time of the embargo, non-intercourse, and war of 1812. These men had obtained affidavits from captains who had sailed on these voyages in vessels belonging in whole or part to King. These documents strongly implicated King as having been engaged in illegitimate trade. These were printed together with copies of letters to his captains, and consequently gave color to the state- ments of the captains. It was charged that vessels would clear for a neutral port, but went direct to a prohibited port, when, having sold and discharged cargo, proceeded to one of these neutral ports and took out clearance papers for Bath, or in some instances pur- chase at the port of discharge clearance papers purporting to have been granted at a port not interdicted. In some instances a vessel would have on board Swedish papers and flags of different nations to use in emergencies.
On these voyages the vessels took out cargoes of boards, spars, staves, shingles, potatoes, and live stock, returning with West India products and coin. Boards were bought at Bath for about $8.oo a thousand and sold at the West Indies for from $60 to $1oo a thou- sand, and potatoes about $7.50 a barrel; large quantities of these latter were raised on the King farm, 450 barrels being shipped at one time. 'The rum and molasses brought the high prices prevailing during the embargo, non-intercourse, and war.
The pamphlet stated that one of the vessels was the brig Two Sisters, owned by Samuel Veazie, Humphrey Purington, Daniel
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Baker, Jonathan Baker, and Nathaniel Green of Topsham, Peter H. Green of Bath, and Clement Martin of Harpswell, loaded at Kings wharf, and took on board a large quantity of potatoes in 1813 for a West India port. These potatoes came from Gen. King's farm, and as he assisted in putting them on board the vessel, as well as the other portions of her cargo, and directing matters generally, it was charged that the vessel was loaded on his account. The brig cleared for a neutral port, but according to testimony of her captain sold her cargo at a British port.
General King rejoined in 1825 with a pamphlet that was both vigorous and plausible. In this he proceeded to show the unrelia- bility of the statements made by masters who had been in his employ, two of whom, he averred, stole both vessels and cargoes, having sold them and kept the proceeds. He made a point in the fact that the captains of these vessels took oath at the custom house on arrival home that the vessels had been to neutral ports, and in their affidavits testified that their voyages had been to interdicted ports, and that, if their employer was guilty, they were equally or more so, as it was they who took the false oaths. A number of these captains, whose affidavits, criminating Gen. King, had been published in the Ames pamphlet, gave subsequently affidavits to King retracting their previous statements.
General King in his pamphlet states that: "Among his other enterprises during the war Nathan Ames, his accuser, made a voyage to Bermuda in the schooner Ovarian; on his return, his ves- sel and part of the cargo were seized. Ames stated that Joseph F. Wingate and Samuel Winter were equally interested with him. Ames obtained witnesses to swear that he went to St. Bartholomew's, and on this evidence the vessel was restored. Years subsequently, during the investigation of this business, Harold and others testified that they saw Ames at Bermuda on this same voyage."
General King states in his rejoinder that: "For several months previous to the embargo, presuming that the country would be en- gaged in war either with France or Great Britain, I did not send any of my vessels to sea, so that when the embargo commenced I
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had at the port of Bath, loaded for foreign voyages, the following vessels: Ships, Reserve, Resolution, Vigilant, Reunion, United States; brigs, Ann, Huron, Valerius (not loaded), Harmony; in all, 2,475 tons. These vessels remained in port during the whole of the embargo, as it was a measure of our government to coerce the several nations of . Europe who were violating our neutral rights; no one ever heard any complaint from me, although the actual loss, at the most moderate calculation of charter, was $5,558 per month, being more than $185 a day, exclusive of interest on money on the amount of cargoes from Dec. 22, 1807, to May, 1809.
" When the war commenced in June, 1812, between the United States and Great Britain, I had at the port of Bath, and which arrived there within sixty days of that time, four ships and three brigs. These were all the vessels which I had at the time, and they all remained in port during the war, with the exception of the brigs Huron & ' Valerius, and they were all the vessels which I was owner of gering the war."
General King's general defence was. " In conducting my mercantile business I was influenced, by the advice of the best informed political men, that, as soon as Congress assembled, the non-intercourse system would be abandoned by a declaration of war against France or England, or by adopting some other measure. Availing myself of this information, I gave my vessels a direction accordingly. The information in regard to a declaration of war proved correct, with the exception of its not having been declared as soon as was contemplated. The Reunion, which returned before the war, was seized and condemned for having been to a prohibited port; no claim was made on my part; the vessel was sold and I was the purchaser."
That the General was not injured by these assaults upon his con- spicuous career is shown in that, four years later, he was appointed collector of customs for the port of Bath, which office he held the regular term of four years, to 1834.
In Ames' pamphlet a like assault was made on the then collector, M. L. Hill, as was that upon General King, to which he replied in
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about the same manner as did King. Ames published affidavits of captains who had been in Hill & McCobb's employ, implicating Hill as having been engaged in illicit voyages of the ships of the firm, to which Hill rejoined, publishing affidavits of retraction by these captains, together with explanations. But he was then collector of the port, and his enemies succeeded in inducing the United States government to order an investigation, which was held at the Bath hotel, resulting in his losing his office and the appointment of John B. Swanton. The change in no way affected the standing of Judge Ilill in the community in which he was always a conspicuous and esteemed member.
The subsequent career of Nathan Ames proved him unworthy of the government office he sought to obtain, and that he was capable of resorting to crooked ways to compass his ends, for it is on reliable record that it was only the high esteem in which his accom- plished wife was held by all who knew her that saved him from state prison. It was he who recklessly shot Lieut. Baker on " Meet- ing-house Hill" when aiding in the inspection of a company of cavalry during the war of 1812, and there were not a few in Bath who at the time believed him guilty of something more than mere carelessness.
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BATH IN THE WAR OF 1812.
When the war with Great Britain commenced in June, 1812, the military composing the Bath contingent was in a state of good efficiency. There were two companies of infantry, an independent light infantry, a rifle company, and one of artillery. They were not called into actual service until early in 1814, when movements of English cruisers began to threaten the seacoast of Maine. Fortifi- cations at the salient points were not plentiful. At the mouth of the Kennebec River there was a small fort garrisoned by a company of United States troops.
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