USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay > The shipping days of old Boothbay from the revolution to the world war : with mention of adjacent towns > Part 5
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The prisoners soon learned the armed vessel was named Le Bascar and manned by a crew of about one hundred composed of Frenchmen, Spaniards and 'Blacks,' as negroes were then called. To the Nabby's crew they appeared a motley looking lot, the negroes bareheaded and barefooted; the Spanish with long knives in their belts and others armed with cutlasses; the French officers better dressed, however, wearing swords with red silk sashes about their waists. In the eight- eenth century it was customary for mariners to wear their hair long in
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FRENCH SPOLIATIONS
braided pigtails, and oftentimes gold or silver earrings were in style too, so all in all the privateersmen and picaroons were a picturesque looking set of rogues and rascals.
After the vessels arrived at San Juan, Puerto Rico, called 'Saint John' by Alexander Reed, the prisoners were detained on board for a day or two, and much to their surprise they saw the sloop Betsey, of and from Wiscasset, brought in as a prize by a small old privateer boat called L' Infant,* which mounted one long gun and carried a crew of ten or fifteen, mostly Spaniards. The Betsey, though sloop-rigged, was a larger vessel than the Nabby and was owned by Moses Carlton jr. and com- manded by Captain Isaac Harrington with Stephen Perkins as mate. All had been treated like the crew of the Nabby. Both crews were turned on shore and left to shift for themselves. They were free to stroll about the town, and one day Reed noted that the guns and all the armament of Le Bascar were taken ashore and the vessel hove down for cleaning and repairing the bottom.
In port at the time was the American brig Juno, Captain Hathaway, and Reed, with a sailor's eye, noted the vessel and one day approached the master, explained his predicament and asked to ship with him. Willing to favor a fellow countryman in distress he granted the re- quest. From the brig's deck Reed noticed the cargo of the Nabby as it was hoisted on deck and taken ashore in boats, where Joseph Perkins recognized the rum puncheons and sugar hogsheads by their marks.
As the Juno was fitting out for the States Reed was kept busy on board, but now and then was granted liberty and thus kept in touch with his shipmates. He learned that Captain Clifford, Joseph Perkins and the master of the Betsey, in the absence of the American consul, had lodged a formal protest with the Spanish governor. They called at his palace and protested the seizure of their vessels and their detention in the port of a friendly nation. After Captains Clifford and Harring- ton made their statements Joseph Perkins, through the interpreter, boldly addressed the Governor, described the capture of the Nabby, named her home port, stated they were American citizens in destitute circumstances on account of seizure and detention of their vessel, and asked for aid for his countrymen and himself and in a manly way spoke
* L' Infant. So spelled in old records.
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
his mind freely. The Governor listened patiently and then talked with the interpreter. After some delay, perhaps taking time to consider the international aspect of the affair, he declined doing anything, but re- ferred the Americans to the owner or owners of the privateers. What effect the absence of the consul had on the adverse decision is prob- lematical.
According to Joseph Perkins the owner of the privateers was a man named Laffet, who owned a fine house near the centre of the town and conducted a large store and ship-chandlery, where the sails and rigging of the Wiscasset vessels were taken. Frequently there were large sales of private property at the store, evidently the plunder brought in by his privateers. To all of this, so the Americans declared, the Spanish gov- ernor was privy and shared in the spoil. One may ponder a moment and wonder if this man Laffet was not the celebrated French pirate, Jean Lafitte, who came to Louisana from the West Indies about the year 1800, made himself useful to General Andrew Jackson and served under him in the battle of New Orleans in 1815.
The Americans had been ashore about eight or ten days when the crew of Le Bascar became flush with money, having been paid off for the cruise. Several invited Joseph Perkins and Reed to a 'treat,' as the latter called it, and possibly some of the rum from the hold of the Nabby helped slake the thirst engendered in a warm climate. After the party one of the picaroons took Perkins home and gave him food and lodgings. On another occasion Reed met an officer of Le Bascar, who in broken English entered into conversation in a friendly way, saying they intended to take the mast from the Betsey for use as a mainmast for the privateer. It seems the captors bore no personal ill will toward the Americans.
Captain Clifford, unable to obtain any satisfaction from the Spanish authorities or recompense from Laffet, talked the matter over with his men and decided to buy the Nabby's boat and sail for Saint Thomas whence they could obtain passage home. The boat was purchased, but the plan came to naught because it was either stolen or went adrift. In some other way the shipmaster, perhaps with his crew, reached Saint Thomas and engaged passage for New York. Three months after the
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capture of the Nabby he made a written report of the outrage to the owners.
-Soon after Christmas the Juno set sail for Charleston and over sunlit waters Alexander Reed viewed the Wiscasset vessels for the last time. They lay under the guns of the fortress with men on the sloop engaged in unstepping the mast and close inshore was Le Bascar repairing and fitting out for a cruise. The brig sailed in ballast and had on board Captain Dobell and crew of brig Industry of Charleston, which had been captured by the French, who carried her into Puerto Rico and being unable to dispose of her, burnt both vessel and cargo.
A description of Charleston by a Mr. Thomas, as it appeared toward the close of the eighteenth century, reads in part:
Of the numerous vessels that crowded this great commercial mart, scarcely one in five bore the 'Stars and Stripes,' the flags of Hamburg, Brem- en, Altona and Lubeck were the most numerous; while the British, French, Dutch and an occasional Spanish or Portuguese made up the variety. A large proportion of the inhabitants exhibited as great a variety in their language as did the shipping in their colours.
On New Year's Day 1801, there was a fleet of 117 sail, exclusive of coasters, in the harbor and in a few days the brig Juno arrived after ten days' passage. As she sailed a month later for Honduras, it is likely Reed worked his way home in the schooner Harmony, advertised to sail for Boston in ten days.
Yellowed with age, a scrap of paper preserved by descendants reads:
Wiscasset January the 19-1802
this to Sartify that alexander Reed was Mate of the Schooner Nabby that had fourmely Belonged to moses Calton and he was on Board During the Voige untill She was Taken by the french
James Clifford Master.
A few later facts may be stated: In 1801 the Nabby arrived at Boston from the West Indies, and later was granted a certificate of registry which corresponds exactly with the original issued at Wiscasset, owned in Newburyport but how regained remains unknown. At the request of the former owners, in 1822 Alexander Reed and Joseph Perkins came to Wiscasset, a joyous reunion of old shipmates, the second meeting since
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
their days in the Indies, and gave depositions in the case of the Nabby before the commissioners appointed under the Spanish treaty. Alex- ander had continued seafaring, Perkins had removed inland during the War of 1812; and of the others Andrew Tilton and Joshua Frizzle were dead and John Gove's whereabouts unknown. James Clifford was living, in poor health and very feeble. Reed's affidavit ended:
I now recollect one circumstance which I wish to mention-that is, that before I left St. John I bought out of a shop there my own quadrant which I had in the Nabby, and which had been taken from me. I was enabled to do this from my earnings on board the brig Juno.
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CHAPTER IV
MARITIME INTERESTS - 1801-1815
I IN the spring of the year 1801, after the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, had been inaugurated, the keel of a ship of 234 tons was laid down on the bank of the Sheepscot in the village of New Milford. The vessel was owned by John Averill, the builder, and Abiel Wood jr. of Wiscasset, her home port. The ship was under ninety feet in length, had two decks, a square stern with no galleries, and no figurehead. From shipping data of that period it may be stated that the vessel had black-or yellow-painted sides and a white billethead with gilding. On the stern was the name and home port painted in white letters not less than three inches long, to conform to a statute ef- fective in 1792. To make the lettering conspicuous it was surrounded by a gilded or yellow molding on a black background, which gave a pleasing decorative effect. The bottom of the hull was painted red. The lower masts were painted a yellowish color, the mizzenmast was a single spruce stick. By late October the ship had been named President and launched, almost ready for sea.
The first master was Spence Tinkham, followed by J. Thompson Hilton, who employed the vessel in the Charleston and Liverpool trade. Later Captain Boyd of Wiscasset or vicinity took command, and in the fall of 1804 his ship was loading lumber, provisions and salt fish at a Wiscasset wharf for a 'vige to the West Injies.' Meantime young Alexander Reed, after his capture in the West Indies, had married in- to the Boyd family, and he shipped as mate with the Captain. The weather was unsettled, a September hurricane had swept southern coasts, and the ship remained in port. With a north wind and clearing weather she dropped down river, passed Hendrick's Head, filled away and stood out to sea.
They touched at Barbados and proceeded toward Martinique. Stand- ing off and on through a night of velvety blackness, at dawn of a bright November day the ship stood in toward the land where the rugged mountainous surface loomed high above the main-truck. She put in at Fort de France, a fine harbor on the western side of the island, and came to anchor near schooner Ranger, Captain Patterson, to sail for
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
Wiscasset in ten days. On going ashore, Reed found most of the inhabi- tants composed of half-castes and blacks. It was on this island that Jo- - sephine, wife of Napoleon, was born and during the year ship Pres- ident was there she was crowned Empress of France.
In a few days the brig Polly arrived from Portland with the news that the American brig Ceres had been spoken off shore in distress, having been boarded by a British man-of-war which pressed every man before the mast except one, leaving the master, mate and a hand for naviga- tion. In disposing of his cargo Captain Boyd found the market prices quoted: 'White pine, 25 dolls M; pitch pine, 36; scantling, 35 & 40 dolls. Provisions very low; molasses 46 sous per gallon.'
In December the Ranger dropped anchor at Wiscasset, and Captain Patterson saw seven newly constructed ships lying at the wharves. He reported: 'Left at Martinico, ship President of this port; brig Libra of Castine to sail in seven days for Boston.' It is probable that he brought the following letter, addressed to Captain Joseph Reed:
Honored Sir
Martinico, Port Royal, Nov. 17, 1804.
I take the pleasure to inform you that I am well at present, hoping that this will find you & the family the Same. We are now Very near all out, & expect to sail for Savannah in two or three weeks from this date, & whare we Shall go from there I do not now. We expect to take our cargo in two days from this date. Tread [trade] is very dull in the w. indies; from the Amer- icans I got but three dollars for my fish pr 100.
I expect to come home in the Spring If I Should live & do well wather the Ship comes or not; the Ship still leaks very bad. I hope everything is agree- able at home. I expect to carry Sugar & Cofee for my adventur to Savannah ware I hope to hear from home. And no more at present, but I have the pleasure to bee your dutyful Son & humble Sarvent. Alexander Reed
At sea on New Year's Day a severe gale was encountered, and several vessels with sail blown away were passed. One was bound to Savannah. Finally the voyagers arrived off Tybee, an island at the mouth of the Savannah River, which for years had had a lighthouse, a guide to the roadstead. At the river town Alexander wrote home:
Honored Sir
Savannah, January 19-1805
this is to inform you that I am well & hoping that these few lines will find you and the family the Same. had a long passage from martinico hear, one
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MARITIME INTERESTS
half of our crew people was sick with the yellow fever when wee Saild; one boy Died- Jame Manes; was 30 days on thir couse, Some time in 10 fathoms of water, Some times in more & other times in cite of the land & light house. wee was 30 days within 24 hours Sail of Savannah and could Not git in- heavy gales from the west-Ward. our Ship proved Veary favorable About leeking. our cargo cells well, hear the Ship is to be hove down And repared, and ware wee Shall Go from hear I du not now, but Wee expect to take freight for Europe.
thare was a heavy gale of wind hear the first of September last which over- flowed all the plantations, drove Ships up on dry land ware now the tide du not reach them; drove Stores & warfs all to peases; thare was nearly 1,000 people drowned, black & white.
If hay be Scase if you will bye a lode from Mr. brier I will pay him in april or may next, if I Should live And nothing happens.
I have the Pleasure to be your dutyfull Son,
Alexander Reed
The ship was careened by the river bank and may be visualized as she lay on her beam ends: Fresh running river water has disposed of part of the marine growth acquired at sea and one side of the hull has been cleaned, scraped and painted. Here and there are men calking seams with oakum. The vessel appears strongly constructed of seasoned white oak timber, the bow bluff-headed, while aft the poop-deck has a rise which takes in the mizzenmast and pump.
One day the Wiscasset brig Neptune slowly ascended the river chan- nel of eighteen miles to the town. Old shipmates fraternized and doubt- less Medford and West India rum intermingled within. Even then the maritime commerce of the place was important, and frequently fifty or more ships, exclusive of coasters, were in port, mostly from Europe and the West Indies. The local newspaper of the day states: 'Mrs. Flint Re- spectfully informs the Ladies of Savannah, that she has received her Liverpool fashions' and lists the sailing of 'the Lewis, President, Tippo Saib, Ann and the Hibernia, all for Liverpool.'
The Hibernia returned to Damariscotta, leaving the President load- ing for England. Later she arrived at Wiscasset. In June a child of Captain William M. Boyd died, and Captain Abner Baker took the ship for two years or until 1807. Afterward the vessel had several masters, and in the spring of 1816 arrived in Liverpool under a Cap-
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
tain Mckown. That summer a ship named President sailed from Liver- pool, put in at Cork and was condemned as unseaworthy. However, vessels had identical names and in 1818 a ship President, from Boston for the Northwest coast, was spoken: 'All well.'
IMPRESSMENT
It has been shown how American shipping suffered at the hands of the French, and now the page is turned to British aggression and impressment of seamen. During the Napoleonic wars England pa- trolled the seas with a fleet of about five hundred vessels continually in commission. To supply large crews for so many ships proved a diffi- cult undertaking, consequently the Crown resorted to the press gang, a proceeding not new by any means, for in 1728 a pamphlet, The Sailor's Advocate, contained an attack on the despicable system by Oglethorpe, later founder of Georgia. In England and her colonies a subaltern officer with a file of marines would seize almost any able-bodied man and press him for naval service. France pursued the same policy. For instance, a French youth was seized and placed aboard a frigate, came to America with the fleet and fought in a naval engagement during the Revolution. He never saw his home again. This was Thomas Davis, who settled at Hallowell and died there in 1844, aged eighty-five.
American commerce was largely with the West Indies, and British cruisers from naval bases there and at Halifax searched out vessels on the slightest pretext, pressing any likely sailor whom the officer fancied. Americans carried certificate of birth with individual description called a 'protection,' but usually it received scant attention. That this high-handed policy was not wholly approved in England is demon- strated in an excerpt from Cobbett's Register:
Our ships of war, when they meet an American vessel at sea, board her and take out of her by force any seaman whom our officers assert to be British subjects. There is no rule by which they are bound. They act at discretion, and the consequence is that great numbers of native Americans have been impressed, and great numbers of them are now in our navy . . . and when the British officer going on board is at once Accuser, Witness, Judge and Captor. The total number so held at any one time cannot, per- haps, be stated; but from statement published in America it appears that
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MARITIME INTERESTS
Mr. Lyman, the late consul here, stated the number, about two years ago, at fourteen thousand. That many of these men have died on board our ships; that many have been wounded; that many have been worn out in the service, there can be no doubt.
The exact number of Americans impressed was never determined, but perhaps a conservative estimate would be at least seven thousand. During the Constitution-Guerrière action ten Americans on the Eng- lish frigate were permitted to go below. In 1813 the Constitution cap- tured the Java and found thirteen impressed Americans on board; also that year the British packet Swallow was taken with official muster rolls of His Majesty's ships Moselle and Sappho, which contained the names and places of nativity of almost forty impressed Americans. The complement of a ship-of-the-line was even larger than that of a frigate, therefore an average of fourteen impressed Americans on each English ship makes the number indicated. It varied and probably increased.
Two cases relating to local seamen may be cited: Off Cape Ann in July of 1796 a British frigate overhauled the Newburyport brig Union and pressed two sailors, John Andrews of Wiscasset and Stephen Thompson (1771-1832), a native of Boothbay. Soon after a French cruiser appeared, and in the ensuing action near Georges Andrews was killed. He left a wife and six children.
On a summer evening in 1803 Captain Nathaniel Knight's schooner Harriet, of Boothbay, was lying at anchor in the roadstead of Saint Kitts. She was boarded by an officer of an English man-of-war who, find- ing Joseph Emerson, twenty-three, without protection papers, im- pressed him. A year later the ship returned to the island for supplies and anchored within a mile of shore. From a family history details of his escape are given:
One night with two others Emerson went down on the bobstay into the water and quietly swam to the beach in front of the town, which was walled in with broken glass set in the top. They surmounted it, climbed a mountainside and in the morning saw a searching party landed from the frigate. Later it was learned that a reward of one hundred dollars for their capture had been posted in the town. With little nourishment the men suffered chiefly from thirst, but remained hidden for four days or until the cruiser sailed.
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Then they descended to the hut of a friendly slave, who provided sustenance, and at the waterfront found an American brig about to sail for Portsmouth, near home. Furthermore, to quote the passage: 'He arranged with the captain to take out his clearing papers during the day, and not to sail until in the night, so that the sailors could come down in the evening. Emerson with the other two men went back to the mountains and waited until the negro returned and told them of the plan. After dark all came down, climbed the glassy wall and made their escape to the American vessel.'
While the American ship Galen lay at the Nore, river Thames, in 1804, Silvanus Snow, of Orrington on the Penobscot, was pressed by an officer of the Zealand. Neither did his protection avail him nor was ac- cess to the American consul permitted. Instead Snow was drafted on the Acteon, which was captured by the French and taken to Spain, where he was imprisoned for nine months. Exchanged as an Englander, he was sent to the fleet and served under Nelson at Trafalgar, then on other ships until 1811, when Snow escaped at the island of Minorca. He returned home on the Nobleboro-built ship Monk.
The Boston Patriot printed Joseph Cand's pathetic complaint:
My brother John Cand, of Woolwich in the District of Maine, was pressed on board His Majesty's frigate Macedonian on the tenth of June, 1810, from the ship Mount Vernon of Wiscasset, and was killed on board the Mace- donian in the battle with the United States, Commodore Decatur. A dis- consolate wife and child are in mourning and in sorrow, for the loss of a husband and parent, on whom they were dependant.
Impressment was one of the causes of the War of 1812 and, even more than the war itself, engendered hatred and bitterness toward England felt for generations on the coast of Maine; now happily eradi- cated since the late war, when it is better understood that the peace of the world rests largely in the hands of the English-speaking race.
THE EMBARGO
This unwise measure, an act of retaliation against France and Eng- land for interfering with our foreign commerce and seamen, was sent to Congress in December 1807, by Thomas Jefferson, and en- acted in a few days. It was designed to preserve American shipping
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ACTION BETWEEN THE 'ENTERPRISE' AND THE 'BOXER'
VI aneric riva
ARMED BRIG
FULL-RIGGED SHIP
THE BRITISH BRIG 'BOXER'
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MARITIME INTERESTS
from French decrees and British orders in council, also to force them, through self-interest, to cease violating our neutrality; the Presi- dent's message containing the words: 'If, therefore [our ships] on leaving our harbours, we are certainly to lose them, is it not better as to the vessels, cargoes and seamen, to keep them at home?' The act pro- hibited exportation of cargoes either in American or foreign bottoms, and authorized district collectors of customs to seize specie or freight believed intended for exportation.
The coastwise service was not affected at first by the embargo, conse- quently masters frequently cleared their loaded vessels for domestic ports and sailed for the West Indies, maintaining they were blown off their course and had to put in for repairs or stores. A case in point was the Bangor bark Ploughboy, John and Stephen Perkins master and mate respectively. She cleared at Newport in October 1808, with pro- visions for Castine, but was 'blown off' and touched at Antigua, West Indies, arriving at Castine late in February 1809, and held to account for irregularity in custom house. Although the embargo was evaded, shipping fell away, and vessels lay idle and rotting at the wharves in Boothbay and Wiscasset. 'Dame Commerce,' to quote Henry Clay's words, was seriously affected. The exports of Massachusetts including the District of Maine, estimated at $40,000,000 in 1807, amounted to little the next year.
Protest meetings were held in all principal seaport towns in Maine, bitterly denouncing Jefferson for 'abolishing foreign commerce and substituting the coasting trade.' At the Boothbay celebration of the 'Fourth' in 1808, local speakers declaimed against the unpopular meas- ure, and John McClintock offered the toast: 'The Embargo, Oh, may it speedily depart with honour on its wings and every true American our freedom sing!' At a town meeting the following August 'called by the Selectmen for the purpose of taking into consideration the expedi- ency of petitioning the President of the United States, requesting him .. . to suspend, in whole or in part, the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbours of the United States and . . . to lay the same before Congress at an early period; did unanimously vote in favor of petitioning; there was no vote against it, tho' one per- son, a tide wairer, spoke in opposition.' A petition was drawn up,
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THE SHIPPING DAYS OF OLD BOOTHBAY
unanimously approved and a committee chosen to transmit a copy to the President. Signs were not wanting that Congress was heeding pub- lic clamor; in February 1809 thirty-two loaded vessels lay at Wiscasset ready for sea on removal of the embargo. At the legal Boothbay town meeting on the fourteenth of that month 'holden for the purpose of taking into consideration the alarming situation of our country, and to adopt any measures which might be thought expedient for the preserva- tion of the lives, liberties and property of our fellow citizens,' a resolu- tion was offered: 'That we consider the restrictions of the coasting trade, occasioned by the preceeding and late acts [enforcement act passed January 1809], laying an embargo on all ships and vessels navigating our bays and rivers as being contrary to the constitution and extremely oppressive on the sea coast in the District of Maine.' The town voted that Edmund Wilson, town clerk, Captains David G. Bowles and Wil- liam M. Reed, John McClintock and Amasa Piper 'be a Committee of Safety to correspond with other similar committees in other towns.' Public opinion together with lax enforcement combined to produce repeal in March 1809, when, to the relief of the Federalists, Jefferson's term expired.
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