USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island privateers in King George's war, 1739-1748 > Part 2
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CHAPTER II
THE Virgin Queen,-CAPTAIN HALL
Saturday, the first of September, 1739, marks an epoch in the history of Rhode Island privateering. On that day two sloops, the Virgin Queen and the Revenge sailed from Newport, the first privateers out of Narragansett Bay in King George's War.
The Virgin Queen was commanded by Capt. Charles Hall, who had been commissioned by the governor on August 29 with a "letter of marque and reprisal", and was owned by Capt. George Wanton and Company, the company being John Gidley and John Banister. Banister had a third interest. She was a vessel of 33 tons, mounted six carriage guns and six or eight swivel guns, carried 36 able men and was well fitted with small arms, ammunition and stores. It cost £2400 Rhode Island money to fit her out. She headed for the waters of the West Indies, where she planned to cruise, preying on Spanish commerce. She touched first at Turks Island about September 15 with the hope of getting more men for her crew, but failing in this, proceeded to Hispaniola, with the design of making a descent upon a small town called Puerto Plate. On October 7, she arrived off the town and anchored under the fort, pretending to be a neutral Dutch trader from Curacao. Captain Hall planned to make a land- ing under cover of darkness and to surprise the town at night. This was found impractical because the inhabitants, sus-
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pecting that they were pirates, kept a good watch both around the bay and at the fort. The Governor of the place being sick and understanding that they had a surgeon on board, sent word that he would like to have him come ashore and bleed him. Captain Hall acceded to this request and accordingly the ship's doctor, the quartermaster, Thomas Newton, and the linguister, as the interpreter was called in those days, went on shore and waited on the Governor the next morning. They informed him, apparently without any scruples about lying, that they had flour and other provisions to sell and invited him to come on board the Virgin Queen. Being ill, he declined the invitation, but after being bled, sent his lieutenant to make some purchases. As soon as the lieutenant, accompanied by some others of the inhabitants, came aboard the vessel, they were immediately seized and secured so they could not escape. Thereupon ten of the crew, with as little idea of courtesy as they had of truth, landed and leaving three to guard their boat, the remaining seven marched up to the fort in a friendly manner, surprised the garrision and took possession of the place. After dismounting the cannon, and raising the English flag on the fort, they went back to meet their comrades who had been reinforced by nine more men from the vessel. These nineteen men then boldly marched to the town. By this time the Spaniards were aroused and alarmed and a con- siderable number of them rapidly arming themselves pre- pared to defend their town. They shouted: "Come on Englishmen" in derision and fired upon the Rhode Island men, who continued to advance cheering all the while, until they got within pistol shot of the enemy, when ten of them dis- charged their small arms against the Spaniards with such effect that the latter began to retreat. Our men advanced firing until the enemy were entirely routed. Captain Hall lost not a man in the fighting, while the Spaniards lost three
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killed and one wounded at the taking of the fort and many during the attack on the town. Upon entering the town, the privateersmen plundered it of everything that was thought to be valuable. They looted the Spanish church of two gold candlesticks, and two silver candlesticks, together with about thirty pounds weight of other silver. The value of what they carried off was estimated as enough to yield each common sailor a share of a hundred pounds at least. They remained in the town all day, and burned every house, there being about two hundred in the town. In the evening they returned to their vessel and brought her alongside the fort, where they loaded on board the six large brass eight-pounder guns, (one account says six-pounders) that they had dismounted earlier in the day. They took as a prize a small schooner that lay in the harbor laden with a considerable quantity of brandy, and then sailed away to Turks Island, where the quartermaster left them. Captain Hall sailed to New Providence where he planned to join one Capt. Charles Walker and in consort with him, to make a descent upon some of the small towns and villages on the coast of Cuba. Quartermaster Newton returned via New York to Newport, where he arrived on December 8. Later it was reported that the gold candlesticks were silver with a gold finish, that only two of the cannon were brass, the rest being iron, and that the crew would only share about 50 pieces-of-eight per man. The owners' shares were said to have been shipped home via Boston. The Virgin Queen went to the Cuban coast where the crew, while manning and fitting a perriauger, sighted two Spanish launches. Cap- tain Hall's perriauger gave chase, capturing one of the Spanish vessels and driving the other ashore. The Spaniards landed their cargo and tried to defend it, holding Captain Hall's men off, until the Virgin Queen sailed up to their assistance, where- upon the Spaniards fled, leaving between 13,000 and 14,000
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pieces-of-eight, which Captain Hall seized and took into New Providence.
During October, Captain Hall in the Virgin Queen took a prize "to the value of more than all he had taken before" and appears to have carried her into Jamaica. From the proceeds of the sale of this vessel, his crew received a share of more than 1000 pieces-of-eight for each man. This is apparently the vessel which Banister refers to as having on board 40,000 pieces-of- eight.
Late in the year 1739 Captain Hall in the Virgin Queen captured a Spanish "canoe" laden with 20,000 pieces-of-eight, a decidedly rich haul, which he brought into New Providence in the Bahamas. Among the Spaniards captured in the canoe were some sailors belonging to a Spanish ship, which had a cargo of two million pieces-of-eight. Captain Hall imme- diately sailed in quest of this promising prize. He failed to fall in with this treasure ship, but during the cruise, met and seized on November 17, 19 and 20, a prize each, three in all. One was a richly laden Spanish sloop, with tissues, gold and silver brocades, Flanders lace, wrought plate, virgin silver and coin. The three prizes were valued in all at about £30,000 to £40,000. He convoyed this sloop into New Providence, and then sailed again in January on a third cruise. The crew shared about 300 pieces-of-eight per man and goods to the value of £4,000 were sent home to the owners. The "Boston Post-Boy" for March 24, 1740, states that Capt. Charles Hall "had taken a prize of 1,000 pieces-of-eight for a Breakfast". The Virgin Queen overhauled a vessel on which were two Spaniards, whose effects were demanded by Captain Hall, and with some reluctancy at last delivered over to him.
Captain Hall met with such extraordinary success that the owners of the Virgin Queen, George Wanton and Company,
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planned to have his statue finely cut out of a block of marble representing Captain Hall standing "upon a handsome pedistle with each foot upon a Spaniard's neck". Satisfied with their profits, the crew of the Virgin Queen broke up at New Providence, only 7 or 8 of them remaining with the sloop. Captain Hall recruited a new crew for the Virgin Queen and sailed on another privateering cruise. The "New York Gazette" says of them: "we wish them the same success, or better, than they have formerly had, for the honor of the English arms in general, but especially those of the place where they first fitted out, which have always proved terrible to and successful against the enemies of these Colonies." The "Post-Boy" said of Hall: "we can look upon him to be a match for any pickeroon Spaniard that dare venture out of their ports." On this cruise the Virgin Queen captured a Spanish schooner of small value and sent her into New Providence.
Returning from this cruise the Virgin Queen anchored at Crooked Island in the Bahamas, where Captain Hall hoped to be able to obtain a cargo that would make the northern voyage profitable. On March 28 Captain Hall, accompanied by Thomas Wyatt, company's quartermaster of the Virgin Queen, rowed over to a sloop commanded by Captain Cornett or Comett, a Frenchman, and negotiated with Monsieur Simoné, another Frenchman, in regard to the sale of some ambergris, that belonged to the Virgin Queen. Simone returned with them to the Virgin Queen and bought the ambergris at nine rials per ounce, agreeing to pay in goods which he had on board a privateer sloop, commanded by Captain Joseph Prue (or Price) of South Carolina. The three men then went over to Prue's sloop, probably the Sea Nymph, and stayed to dinner there. About nine o'clock in the evening, Capt. Charles Walker, commander of a New Providence privateer sloop
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called the Nassau anchored alongside Captain Prue's sloop. Walker said that he intended to sail again immediately and told Hall to send orders to the Virgin Queen to have her follow the Nassau. Hall replied "I'll carry her out myself". Shortly afterward Captain Hall got into his canoe to go to his sloop, but Wyatt delayed, and some words followed. Wyatt used "such saucy language" that Hall threatened to strike him, whereupon he jumped overboard, swam back to Prue's sloop and tried to climb up the cable. Hall pursued Wyatt and dragged him back into the canoe, which by this time was close alongside Prue's sloop. Wyatt struggled free from the clutches of Hall's men and jumped aboard the deck of Prue's vessel, shouting at the same time "You are a pirate". Imme- diately as if it had been a pre-arranged signal some of Prue's men jumped into Hall's canoe, seized him and told him that he was a prisoner. Hall and his men were confined over night on Prue's vessel. The next morning Captain Walker with some of his men rowed Hall's canoe over to the Virgin Queen, where he was received in a friendly fashion by the crew, who had no knowledge of the events of the preceding evening. Walker and his men seized the arms chest and overpowered the unsuspecting crew of the Virgin Queen, after which they sailed her over to the other sloops and anchored her between them.
Prue then took Hall back to the Virgin Queen, but would not let him go into the round house. Captain Walker then demanded the key of Hall's chest, but the latter refused to give it up. Walker ordered his men to go below, bring the chest up and to carry it on board the Nassau. Hall shouted that the chest should not leave the Virgin Queen except over his dead body, and ordered Walker's men not to touch it at their peril. With an oath Prue shouted that both the chest
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and Captain Hall would go on the Nassau, and as he shouted he grabbed hold of Captain Hall. Two of Prue's men joined in the attack and Captain Hall was thrown about the deck several times in the scrimmage. At last "they got him across the yards over the gunnel" and held him so tight that he could not stir, while Captain Prue took the key out of his pocket, and gave it to Captain Walker. Then they threw Captain Hall head-foremost into the canoe and carried him on board the Nassau, together with three of the crew of the Virgin Queen. When they reached the Nassau, Wyatt punched Captain Hall in the head, after which Hall was put in irons. At sunset Captain Walker forced Captain Hall to sign a paper, the contents of which he had not read, and then let him go back to his sloop. Prue and Walker immediately set sail and disappeared, carrying with them Thomas Wyatt, a negro named Ben, who belonged to the Widow Courant of New Providence, over 500 pieces-of-eight, that belonged to the Virgin Queen, and also the ambergris, for which Simoné had not paid.
Thomas Wyatt, John McCarthy, Samuel Robins, John Brown, Ben Courant (a negro slave belonging to Widow Courant) and two Indians, Samuel and Joshua, served on the Virgin Queen at this time.
After the disastrous affair at Crooked Island, the Virgin Queen sailed north for her home port, Newport, where she arrived at ten o'clock in the evening of April 14, 1740.
Captain Hall was recommissioned on May 6, immediately beat up for volunteers and refitted for another cruise. On Tuesday, May 15, 1740, he sailed again from Newport in the Virgin Queen, which now mounted 8 carriage guns and IO swivels and carried a crew of 40 men. She touched at New York on May 19, where she remained until June 5, when she sailed south in consort with the sloop Stephen and Elizabeth,
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20 (carriage and swivel) guns, 110 men, Captain Langdon, in quest of Spanish treasure on sea or shore. They fought a Spanish privateer of 14 guns for four hours, but could not board her on account of the high seas, after which they touched at Charleston, S. C., whence they sailed on July 11, 1740.
The Virgin Queen and the Stephen and Elizabeth cruised in consort and arrived off the Cuban coast towards the last of July. They coasted along the southeast shore of the island and found the wreck of a Spanish privateer which they plun- dered, carrying off six carriage and eight swivel guns, before the wind blew up such high seas that they were forced to abandon the prize. Thence they sailed to Santiago de Cuba and took several perriaugers. On August 8, they entered a river, landed men, and attacked a small town, but were repulsed by the Spaniards. After this they took a small schooner, and then went to the Windward Passage to cruise. At nine in the evening of August 16 they came athwart a large Spanish sloop of 80 tons, which fired several guns at the privateers, but finding them too strong for her, surrendered. She was bound from Cape Francois for Cartagena with supplies for the galleons, being "very rich and deeply loaded". with cordials, wine, claret, brandy, etc., and had 50,000 pieces- of-eight. Hall and Langdon carried these prizes into Charles- ton on August 30, where they were condemned and sold, and a division made of the spoils. Hall's crew at first refused to sail with him again, but finally decided to do so. The Virgin Queen sailed from Charleston in September, and cruised along the coast of Cuba. Having had some more trouble with his crew, Hall put in to Jamaica, where he complained about his men to Admiral Vernon, who took advantage of this dis- agreement to add to the forces under his command. The Admiral may well have had a private grudge against Captain Hall of which the latter was probably ignorant, as he certainly
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was innocent of any plan to hurt the Admiral. The "London Gazetteer" some six months earlier had published an account of Captain Hall's exploits at Puerto Plate and then proceeded to draw an ironical parallel between the success of the immortal Captain Hall and the action of Admiral Vernon at Porto Bello; and humorously asserted that the Common Council of London was preparing an Address to His Majesty upon the wonderful achievement, that the glorious Captain Hall was to receive the freedom of the city in a gold box and was also intended to represent them in the ensuing Parliament. Admiral Vernon smarting under this recent attack by his political enemies at home, was only too glad to find the unsuspecting Captain Hall in his power. He forthwith impressed into His Majesty's service, before January 8, 1740-I, not only all of the crew of the Virgin Queen, but also Captain Hall himself and the sloop. He agreed to allow Captain Hall £Io Jamaica money per month for himself and £60 Jamaica money per month for the use of the Virgin Queen. The Rhode Island privateer sloop became a tender to the fleet and was added to the division under Commodore Lestock, which sailed from Port Royal, Jamaica on January 24, 1740-I, on the unfortunate expedition against Cartagena, the Spanish stronghold on the north coast of South America. Thus ended the career as a privateer of the sloop Virgin Queen, the first Rhode Island privateer to sail in King George's War. Her part in the disastrous repulse before the great fortress of Cartagena belongs to the annals of the British Navy.
Admiral Vernon also impressed into His Majesty's service the New York privateer Stephen and Elizabeth, commanded by Captain Langdon. He justified these actions in part by a somewhat overdrawn picture of the disorder and lack of discipline on American colonial privateers. He wrote: "The
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Commission is given to the Captain for whose good Behavior, according to his Instructions, the Owners give Bond; but the whole Power of the Sloop, and Direction of all her Proceedings, lie in a Person call'd the Company's Quarter Master, whom they always choose for being the profligatest Fellow in the Crew; and tho he in Reality directs all, no one is Security for his good Behaviour. And it is surprising any one can submit to such a wretched Situation to be Captain of a Privateer, lorded over by the Company's Quarter Master supported by the Crew, who have chosen him for their Champion; and 'till the Constitution is altered, I fear they will generally prove a Nursery of Pirates." The Admiral's fears were not justified by subsequent events, and the tone of his letter reminds one strongly of the bitter and largely false accusations of Bello- mont, Fletcher, Dudley and Randolph, a half century earlier, reflecting the contempt, dislike and jealousy of the Crown officers toward the American colonials.
Meanwhile Banister had become dissatisfied with Captain Hall over the division and remittance of prize money, and so on January 14, 1740-I, commissioned Capt. John Cane to go to Jamaica and replace Captain Hall in the command of the Virgin Queen. He also authorized Daniel Vanburg of Jamaica to sell the Virgin Queen, if he could get £400 for her. On October 19, 1741, Banister wrote that he had sold his interest in the Virgin Queen to Captain Wanton and that the sloop was now owned by Wanton, Gidley and Grant.
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CHAPTER III
THE Revenges OF NEWPORT
Capt. James Allen, Senior, was commissioned on Aug. 28, 1739, the first Rhode Island privateersman in this war. He commanded the privateer sloop Revenge, and sailed from Newport on Saturday, September 1, 1739, the day that the Virgin Queen, Captain Hall, sailed. The Revenge was a very fine new vessel of 80 tons, mounted with 10 carriage guns and Io swivel guns, and was owned by Capt. John Brown and Peleg Brown of Newport. She carried a crew of 76 stout able men, most of them sailors, and was well supplied with small arms, ammunition and stores necessary for her voyage. Like the Virgin Queen, she headed southward for the West Indies, seeking Spanish ships.
In October or November, the Revenge captured a Spanish trader with 10,000 pieces-of-eight and a cargo of the same value. During this cruise she sailed into the Bay of Honduras, where she met with a schooner, neither vessels showing any colors, although the Revenge was flying a pennant. The Revenge closed up on the other vessel and fired three shots at her. One went close by the stern, the second cut the after clue of the schooner's foresail and the third skimmed her quarterdeck, passing under her boom. The schooner, who was well armed and perhaps a privateer, replied by firing a broadside into the Revenge. Captain Allen stood away a little, but finding the damage not serious, tacked and pursued the
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schooner. The latter was carrying a "bay boat" lashed on one side, so had only the other side clear for action. She likewise came about in order to be at no disadvantage and to have her clear side presented to the Revenge. Captain Allen's vessel easily outsailed the schooner. As he again approached the schooner they hailed him, but their hail was either unheard or disregarded. Allen lay his vessel alongside the schooner and poured a broadside into her that killed one of her men, cut her shrouds, rigging, and mainmast, and beat down one of her swivel guns. The schooner returned a broadside, shooting the Revenge "between wind and water, through and through". Captain Allen then hoisted his colors, the English jack, and tacked again. The schooner also tacked and ran so close to the Revenge that her skipper, Captain Williams, could recognize Captain Allen, whom he knew. The two captains exchanged reports of their skirmish and parted company. The schooner was the Whalebone from New England.
Later Captain Allen fell in with a privateer from Jamaica and the two cruised together off the north coast of South America. They captured a vessel laden with 50 tons of gun- powder, which was being sent from the neutral Dutch island of Curacao to the Spanish port of Cartagena. Captain Allen, in company with the Jamaica privateer, captured two more Spanish prizes, "richly laden, of a considerable value, (lately belonging to poor Jack)". Jack seems in this case to have been used as a derisive epithet similar to Dago. They also used at this time "Jack Spaniard" as a term of derision. Three more prizes, making six in all, fell into their hands. The most valuable of these prizes, a French vessel carrying powder for Cartagena, and which the French captain offered to ransom for "80,000 dollars", was lost upon one of the keys. The Revenge and the three prizes reached Jamaica early in or before March 1739-40, where Captain Allen cleared £20,000
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from these prizes. The Revenge convoyed the northbound fleet of merchant vessels from Jamaica to New England in the spring of 1740, arriving at Newport on May 24, 1740. Captain Allen captured a prize on his first cruise that was sent into New Providence where £103-4-I was received from its sale. Banister's negro, Culfs, seems to have served on this voyage and received £54-2-6 as his share of the prize money.
The exploits and profits of Captain Hall and his crew had greatly enthused the youths of Newport, so that when Captain Allen sailed on his next voyage he had to turn ashore Io or I2 men who wanted to go, because his company of 80 stout able men had been completed. Captain Allen's commission is dated June 9, and the Revenge sailed from Newport on Thursday, June 19, 1740, again steering southward to cruise in West Indian waters. Frank, one of Penelope Pelham's negro slaves, was one of the crew.
John Banister of Newport was associated with John Brown in the ownership of the Revenge at this time, and Captain Allen owned a quarter share of the vessel. On his second cruise in the Revenge, Captain Allen captured the large French sloop Postillion, 100 tons, which hailed from St. Domingo. She had a cargo of gold, silver, tortoise shell and ammunition, had been trading with the enemy, and was sent into Newport by the Revenge, where she arrived on October 23, 1740. About the middle of September, when off Cape Tiburon, the Revenge spoke a fleet of nine English storeships and a Guineaman under convoy of two men-of-war. The Revenge arrived at Newport on October 20.
Captain Allen was succeeded in the command of the Revenge by Capt. Elisha Berry, who was commissioned on Nov. 19, 1740. Capt. Robert Gibbs served under Captain Berry on the Revenge on this voyage, and Jacob Lane was
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company's quartermaster. They cruised in West Indian waters, and captured an American schooner hailing from Sandwich, that had been captured by the Spaniards, less than a month before. They carried her into St. Christopher, where the Court allowed them half the vessel's value as salvage. Captain Berry then took on a skilled pilot, and the Revenge set out on another cruise in quest of two Spanish vessels, that were said to have very valuable cargoes. She may have captured them, for she soon took two Spanish prizes into Jamaica. One was a "fine Bermuda built sloop", which she convoyed into Port Morant, before January 8. The other seems to have been a sloop of 80 tons, laden with cocoa, which netted a share of frooo each for the common sailors. The Revenge was at Kingston, Jamaica, on March 23, 1740-I, and sailed before the end of the month. After a cruise of six weeks, she touched at Charleston, S. C., and arrived at Newport before the end of April.
George Fox was commissioned captain of the privateer sloop Revenge, 80 tons, on May 15, 1741. She was still owned by Brown and Banister, and may have been the vessel de- scribed as "Captain John Brown's privateer", which was in Newport harbor on May 16, 1741, and fired 66 guns in the celebration of Admiral Vernon's victory at Cartagena.
The sloop Revenge, Captain Fox, on June 26, 1741, captured a Spanish sloop of 20 tons, which was sent to Philadelphia, and there re-registered as the Rebecca in November. When off the coast of Caracas near Buenayre, the Revenge overhauled and captured a fine Bermuda-built sloop of about 40 tons called the Triton. She convoyed her to Newport, where the two vessels arrived on Friday morning, July 24. On the voyage north- ward they sighted early in July, off Donna Maria Bay near the west end of Hispaniola, a fleet of eleven English men-of-war.
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