The ships and sailors of old Salem

by Ralph Delahaye Paine

FOOTNOTES:

[22] (July 18, 1774.) “Captain John Derby who carried to England the tidings of Lexington battle, appears at headquarters in Cambridge and relates that the news of the commencement of the American war threw the people, especially in London, into great consternation, and occasioned a considerable fall of stocks; that many there sympathized with the Colonies.” (Felt’s Annals of Salem.)

[23] “The American Merchant Marine,” by Winthrop L. Martin.

CHAPTER X
ELIAS HASKET DERBY AND HIS TIMES
(1770-1800)

Elias Hasket Derby, the son of Captain Richard Derby, and a brother of Captain John Derby, was the most conspicuous member of this great seafaring family, by reason of his million-dollar fortune, his far-seeing enterprise and his fleet of ships which traded with China, India, Mauritius, Madeira, Siam, Arabia and Europe. He was the first American to challenge the jealous supremacy of the East India, the Holland, the French and the Swedish chartered companies in the Orient. He made of commerce an amazingly bold and picturesque romance at a time when this infant republic was still gasping from the effects of the death grapple of the Revolution. He was born in 1739, went to sea as had his father and his grandfather before him, and like them rose to the command and ownership of vessels while still in his youth. As told in a previous chapter, he was the foremost owner of Salem privateers during the Revolution, and finding the large, swift and heavily manned ship created by the needs of war unfitted for coastwise and West India trade, he resolved to send them in search of new markets on the other side of the globe.

No sooner was peace declared than he was making ready his great ship, the Grand Turk, for the first American voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. The Grand Turk had been built in 1781 for privateering and as a letter of marque. She was of three hundred tons burden, the largest vessel built in a Salem shipyard until after the Revolution, and Elias Hasket Derby was proud of her speed, her beauty and her record. During the Revolution she mounted twenty-two guns and fought them handily. On her second cruise as a privateer she captured two rich prizes, took them into Bilboa, and more than paid for herself. Later the Grand Turk made several cruises in West India waters and, among other successes, captured a twenty-gun ship, the Pompey, from London.

This was the ship with which Elias Hasket Derby blazed a trail toward the Orient, the forerunner of his pioneering ventures to the East Indies. Of the methods and enterprise of Elias Hasket Derby, as typified in such voyages as this of the Grand Turk, one of his captains, Richard Cleveland, wrote in his recollections of the methods and enterprise of this typical merchant of his time:

“In the ordinary course of commercial education, in New England, boys are transferred from school to the merchant’s desk at the age of fourteen or fifteen. When I had reached my fourteenth year it was my good fortune to be received in the counting house of Elias Hasket Derby of Salem, a merchant who may justly be termed the father of American commerce to India, one whose enterprise and commercial sagacity were unequalled in his day. To him our country is indebted for opening the valuable trade to Calcutta, before whose fortress his was to be the first vessel to display the American flag; and following up the business, he had reaped golden harvests before other merchants came in for a share of them. The first American ships seen at the Cape of Good Hope and the Isle of France belonged to him. His were the first American ships which carried cargoes of cotton from Bombay to China, and among the first ships which made a direct voyage to China and back was one owned by him. Without possessing a scientific knowledge of the construction and sparring of ships, Mr. Derby seemed to have an intuitive faculty in judging of models and proportions, and his experiments in several instances for the attainment of swiftness in sailing were crowned with success unsurpassed in this or any other country.

“He built several ships for the India trade immediately in the vicinity of the counting house, which afforded me an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the building, sparring and rigging of ships. The conversations to which I listened relating to the countries then newly visited by Americans, the excitement on the return of an adventure from them and the great profits which were made, always manifest from my own little adventures, tended to stimulate the desire in me of visiting those countries, and of sharing more largely in the advantages they presented.”

The Grand Turk, “the great ship,” as she was called in Salem, was less than one hundred feet long, yet she was the first of that noble fleet which inspired a Salem historian, Rev. George Bachelor, to write in an admirable tribute to the town in which his life was passed:

“After a century of comparative quiet, the citizens of this little town were suddenly dispersed to every part of the Oriental world and to every nook of barbarism which had a market and a shore.... The reward of enterprise might be the discovery of an island in which wild pepper enough to load a ship might be had almost for the asking, or of forests where precious gums had no commercial value, or spice islands unvexed and unvisited by civilization. Every shipmaster and every mariner returning on a richly loaded ship was the owner of valuable knowledge.

“Rival merchants sometimes drove the work of preparation night and day when virgin markets had favors to be won, and ships which set out for unknown ports were watched when they slipped their cables and sailed away by night, and dogged for months on the high seas in the hope of discovering the secret well kept by owner and crew. Every man on board was allowed a certain space for a little venture. People in other pursuits, not excepting the merchant’s minister, intrusted their savings to the supercargo, and watched eagerly the results of their ventures. This great mental activity, and profuse stores of knowledge brought by every ship’s crew, and distributed, together with India shawls, blue china, and unheard of curiosities from every savage shore, gave the community a rare alertness of intellect.”

It was the spirit as is herein indicated that achieved its finest flower in such merchants as Elias Hasket Derby. When his ships took their departure from the Massachusetts coast they vanished beyond his ken for one or two years. His captains were intrusted with the disposal of the cargo to the best advantage. There was no sending orders by mail or cable. It was this continual sense of facing unknown hazards, of gambling with the sea and hostile, undiscovered shores that prompted those old shipmasters to inscribe on the title pages of their log books:

“A Journal of an Intended Voyage by God’s Assistance ... Cape Ann bore W.N.W. from whence I take my departure. So God send the good ship to her Desired Port in Safety. Amen.”

From a painting made by a Chinese artist at Canton, 1786

The Grand Turk, first American ship to touch at the Cape of Good Hope

When the Grand Turk made her first voyage to the Cape of Good Hope in 1784, commanded by Captain Jonathan Ingersoll, the scanty navigating equipment of his time is said to have consisted of “a few erroneous maps and charts, a sextant and a Guthrie’s Grammar.”[24] The Grand Turk made her passage in safety and while she lay in Table Bay, Major Samuel Shaw, an American returning from Canton, sent a boat aboard for Captain Ingersoll and later wrote of this Salem venture:

“The object was to sell, rum, cheese, salt, provisions and chocolate, loaf sugar, butter, etc., the proceeds of which in money with a quantity of ginseng, and some cash brought with him, Captain Ingersoll intended to invest in Bohea tea; but as the ships bound to Europe are not allowed to break bulk on the way, he was disappointed in his expectations of procuring that article and sold his ginseng for two-thirds of a Spanish dollar a pound, which is twenty per cent. better than the silver money of the Cape. He intended remaining a short time to purchase fine teas in the private trade allowed the officers on board India ships, and then to sail to the coast of Guinea, to dispose of his rum, etc., for ivory and gold dust; thence without taking a single slave to proceed to the West Indies and purchase sugar and cotton, with which he would return to Salem. Notwithstanding the disappointment in the principal object of the voyage and the consequent determination to go to the coast of Guinea, his resolution not to endeavor to retrieve it by purchasing slaves did the captain great honor, and reflected equal credit upon his employers, who, he assured me, would rather sink the whole capital employed than directly or indirectly be concerned in so infamous a trade.”

The Grand Turk returned by way of the West Indies where the sales of his cargo enabled her captain to load two ships for Salem. He sent the Grand Turk home in charge of the mate and returned in the Atlantic. During the voyage Captain Ingersoll rescued the master and mate of an English schooner, the Amity, whose crew had mutinied while off the Spanish Main. The two officers had been cast adrift in a small boat to perish. This was the first act in a unique drama of maritime coincidence.

After the castaways had reached Salem, Captain Duncanson, the English master of the Amity, was the guest of Mr. Elias Hasket Derby while he waited for word from his owners and an opportunity to return to his home across the Atlantic. He spent much of his time on the water front as a matter of course, and used to stand at a window of Mr. Derby’s counting house idly staring at the harbor.

One day while sweeping the seaward horizon with the office spyglass, the forlorn British skipper let fly an oath of the most profound amazement. He dropped the glass, rubbed his eyes, chewed his beard and stared again. A schooner was making across the bar, and presently she stood clear of the islands at the harbor mouth and slipped toward an anchorage well inside.

There was no mistaking her at this range. It was the Amity, his own schooner which had been taken from him in the West Indies, from which he and his mate had been cast adrift by the piratical seamen. Captain Duncanson hurried into Mr. Derby’s private office as fast as his legs could carry him. By some incredible twist of fate the captors of the Amity had sailed her straight to her captain.

Mr. Derby was a man of the greatest promptitude and one of his anchored brigs was instantly manned with a heavy crew, two deck guns slung aboard, and with Captain Duncanson striding the quarterdeck, the brig stood down to take the Amity. It was Captain Duncanson who led the boarders, and the mutineers were soon overpowered and fetched back to Salem jail in irons. The grateful skipper and his mate signed a crew in Salem, and took the Amity to sea, a vessel restored to her own by so marvelous an event that it would be laughed out of court as material for fiction.

In November, 1785, the Grand Turk was cleared, in command of Captain Ebenezer West for the Isle of France, but her owner had it in his mind, and so instructed his captain, to continue the voyage to Batavia and China. In June of 1787, she returned to Salem with a cargo of teas, silks, and nankeens; a notable voyage in seas when the American flag was almost unknown. Her successful commerce with Canton lent a slightly humorous flavor to the comment of the Independent Chronicle of London, dated July 29, 1785:

“The Americans have given up all thought of a China trade which can never be carried on to advantage without some settlement in the East Indies.”

Captain Ebenezer West who took the Grand Turk to the Orient on this voyage was a member of so admirable a family of American seamen and shipmasters that the records of the three brothers as written down in the official records of the Salem Marine Society deserves a place in this chapter.

“Captain Nathaniel West was born in Salem, Jan. 31, 1756, and died here December 19, 1851. His elder brother, Ebenezer, and his younger, Edward, as well as himself, were possessed of great energy and enterprise, and all three early selected the ocean for their field of action. Ebenezer was for nearly four years during the Revolution a prisoner of war, and was exchanged shortly before peace was proclaimed. He subsequently had command of E. H. Derby’s famous ship, the Grand Turk, and in her completed the second voyage by an American vessel to Canton, returning to Salem in 1786.

“Capt. Edward West, the youngest, was in command of his brother Nathaniel’s ship, Hercules, seized in Naples in 1809, and had the good fortune to obtain her release in order to transport Lucien Bonaparte and family to Malta, thus saving his ship from confiscation. He died at Andover, June 22, 1851, six months before his brother Nathaniel, at the age of ninety-one.

“In 1775, Nathaniel, at the age of nineteen, being in command of a merchant vessel in the West India trade, was captured by a British frigate, and was soon recognized by Capt. Gayton, her commander, as the son of an old friend, and was compelled to serve as midshipman on board a British seventy-four, under the command of Capt. Edwards. Of their personal kindness he often spoke in after life. Being on shore as officer of a press gang, he effected his escape in London, and made his way to Lisbon, where he embarked on board the Oliver Cromwell, a Salem privateer of sixteen guns, and returned to this port. On the passage, having been closely pursued for three days, he narrowly escaped being captured by a British frigate. Aware of his impending fate, if taken, he encouraged and stimulated the crew to the use of the sweeps, himself tugging at the oar, and by his energy and incessant diligence was mainly instrumental in saving the ship.

He made several cruises in the Oliver Cromwell and other armed vessels, and took many prizes. He participated with the famous Captain of the privateer Black Prince, carrying eighteen guns and one hundred and fifty men. On one occasion, with Capt. Nathaniel Silsbee as his Lieutenant, he put into Cork on a dark night and cut out and took away a valuable prize.

Capt. West subsequently embarked in commerce and pursued it with continued success until he had amassed a large fortune. He was among the pioneers in various branches of trade, the Northwest, China, East India, etc.—and knew their origin and progress through their various stages. In 1792, he built and despatched the schooner Patty, commanded by his brother, Capt. Edward West, and she was the first American vessel to visit Batavia. His ship Prudent (in 1805) was among the first of the very few American vessels that visited the Dutch Spice Islands, Amboyna, etc. His ship Minerva was the first Salem vessel to circumnavigate the globe, having sailed from here in 1800 for the N. W. coast and China. His ship Hercules, under his brother Edward’s command, on the conclusion of the war with Great Britain in 1815, was the first vessel to sail from the United States for the East Indies, under the terms of the treaty. The Hercules, built for Capt. West in 1805, was a few years since doing good service as a whaler out of New Bedford, and is, we believe, still in existence.

Nathaniel West

“His age so nearly approximated an hundred years that we may say he flourished during four generations of his race, in the most active and enterprising walks of life. In person, Capt. West was of fine figure, and of a majestic mien and gait. He never forgot the dignity which belonged to his years and station. He was a gentleman of the old school in manners and dress, and adhered with scrupulous tenacity to the costume of his early years. His physical powers were so little impaired, even in his extreme old age, that he was frequently seen driving along in his gig, or walking with vigorous and elastic step, until a very short time before his death; and many of our readers can recall his commanding and dignified appearance in our streets. He united in himself personal frugality, economy, and untiring industry; and his favorite maxim was, ‘without these none can be rich, and with these few would be poor.’”

When Mr. Derby decided to push out for a share of the East India commerce he sent his eldest son, Elias Hasket, Jr., to England and the Continent as soon as he was graduated from Harvard College. There the young man remained until he had become a linguist and had made a thorough study of the English and French methods of trade with the Far East. Having laid this thorough foundation for his bold venture, Elias Hasket, Jr., was now sent to India where he lived three years in the interests of his house, and firmly established an immensely profitable trade which for half a century was to make the name of Salem far more widely known in Bombay and Canton than that of New York or Boston. A little later the Derby ship Astrea was showing the American flag to the natives of Siam.

How fortunes were won in those brave days may be learned from the record of young Derby’s activities while in the Far East. In 1788 the proceeds of one cargo enabled him to buy a ship and a brigantine in the Isle of France (Mauritius) in the Indian Ocean. These two vessels he sent to Bombay to load with cotton. Two other ships of his house, the Astrea and the Light Horse he filled with cargoes at Calcutta and Rangoon, and sent them home to Salem. Then he returned in still another ship, the brig Henry.

When the profit of these several transactions were reckoned it was found that more than $100,000 had been earned by this little fleet above all outlay. Soon after his return young Derby sailed for Mocha, an Arabian port in the Red Sea, to pick up a cargo of coffee. The natives had never heard of America, and the strange vessel was a nine days’ wonder.

In 1788 Mr. Derby decided to send a ship for a direct voyage to Batavia, another novel commercial undertaking. While the purely business side of these enterprises is not thrilling, it holds a certain interest as showing the responsibilities of the shipmasters upon whose judgment depended the results of the voyage. For this first American voyage to Batavia, the instructions of the captain and supercargo from the owner, Mr. Derby, read as follows:

“Salem, February, 1789.

“Captain James Magee, Jr.,

“Mr. Thomas Perkins (supercargo)

“Gents: The ship Astrea of which James Magee is master and Mr. Thomas Perkins is supercargo, being ready for sea, I do advise and order you to come to sail, and make the best of your way for Batavia, and on your arrival there you will dispose of such part of your cargo as you think may be the most for my interest.

“I think you had best sell a few casks of the most ordinary ginseng, if you can get one dollar a pound for it. If the price of sugar be low, you will then take into the ship as much of the best white kind as will floor her, and fifty thousand weight of coffee, if it is as low as we have heard—part of which you will be able to stow between the beams and the quintlings, and fifteen thousand of saltpeter, if very low; some nutmegs, and fifty thousand weight of pepper. This you will stow in the fore peak, for fear of its injuring the teas. The sugar will save the expense of any stone ballast and it will make a floor for the teas, etc., at Canton.

“At Batavia you must if possible, get as much freight for Canton as will pay half or more of your charges; that is, if it will not detain you too long, as by this addition of freight it will exceedingly help the voyage. You must endeavor to be the first ship with ginseng, for be assured you will do better alone than you will if there are three or four ships at Canton at the same time with you....

“Captain Magee and Mr. Perkins are to have five per cent. commission for the sales of the present cargo and two and one-half per cent. on the cargo home, and also five per cent. on the profit made on goods that may be purchased at Batavia and sold at Canton, or in any other similar case that may arise on the voyage. They are to have one-half the passage money—the other half belongs to the ship. The privileges of Captain Magee is five per cent. of what the ship carries on cargo, exclusive of adventures. It is ordered that the ship’s books shall be open to the inspection of the mates and doctor of the ship, so that they may know the whole business, as in case of death or sickness it may be of good service in the voyage. The Philadelphia beer is put up so strong that it will not be approved of until it is made weaker; you had best try some of it first.

“You will be careful not to break any acts of trade while you are out on the voyage, to lay the ship and cargo liable to seizure, for my insurance will not make it good. Be very careful of the expense attending the voyage, and remember that a one dollar laid out while absent is two dollars out of the voyage. Pay particular attention to the quality of your goods, as your voyage very much depends on your attention to this. You are not to pay any moneys to the crew while absent from home unless in a case of real necessity, and then they must allow an advance for the money. Annexed to these orders you have a list of such a cargo for my own account as I at present think may do best for me, but you will add or diminish any article as the price may be.

“... Captain Magee and Mr. Perkins—Although I have been a little particular in these orders, I do not mean them as positive; and you have leave to break them in any part where you by calculation think it for my interest, excepting your breaking Acts of Trade which I absolutely forbid. Not having to add anything, I commit you to the Almighty’s protection, and remain your friend and employer,

“Elias Hasket Derby.”

The captain was expected to “break his orders in any part,” if he could drive a better bargain than his employer had been able to foresee at a distance of ten thousand miles from the market. Merchants as well as navigators, the old-time shipmaster found compensation for these arduous responsibilities in the “privileges” which allowed him a liberal amount of cargo space on their own account, as well as a commission on the sales of the freight out and back. His own share of the profits of two or three voyages to the Far East might enable him to buy and ship and freight a vessel for himself. Thereafter, if he were shrewd and venturesome enough, he rose rapidly to independence and after a dozen years of the quarterdeck was ready to step ashore as a merchant with his own counting house and his fleet of stout ships.

In 1793, Captain Jonathan Carnes of Salem was looking for trade along the Sumatra coast. Touching at the port of Bencoolen, he happened to learn that wild pepper might be found along the northwest coast of Sumatra. The Dutch East India Company was not as alert as this solitary Yankee shipmaster, roaming along strange and hostile shores.

Captain Carnes kept his knowledge to himself, completed his voyage to Salem, and there whispered to a merchant, Jonathan Peele, that as soon as possible a secret pepper expedition should be fitted out. Mr. Peele ordered a fast schooner built. She was called the Rajah, and carried four guns and ten men. There was much gossiping speculation about her destination, but Captain Carnes had nothing at all to say. In November, 1795, he cleared for Sumatra and not a soul in Salem except his owner and himself knew whither he was bound. The cargo consisted of brandy, gin, iron, tobacco and dried fish to be bartered for wild pepper.

For eighteen months no word returned from the Rajah, and her mysterious quest. Captain Carnes might have been wrecked on coasts whereof he had no charts, or he might have been slain by hostile natives. But Jonathan Peele, having risked his stake, as Salem merchants were wont to do, busied himself with other affairs and pinned his faith to the proven sagacity and pluck of Jonathan Carnes. At last, a string of signal flags fluttered from the harbor mouth. Jonathan Peele reached for his spyglass, and saw a schooner’s topsails lifting from seaward. The Rajah had come home, and when she let go her anchor in Salem harbor, Captain Jonathan Carnes brought word ashore that he had secured a cargo of wild pepper in bulk which would return a profit of at least seven hundred per cent. of the total cost of vessel and voyage. In other words, this one “adventure” of the Rajah realized what amounted to a comfortable fortune in that generation.

There was great excitement among the other Salem merchants. They forsook their desks to discuss this pepper bonanza, but Captain Jonathan Carnes had nothing to say and Mr. Jonathan Peele was as dumb as a Salem harbor clam. The Rajah was at once refitted for a second Sumatra voyage, and in their eagerness to fathom her dazzling secret, several rival merchants hastily made vessels ready for sea with orders to go to that coast as fast as canvas could carry them and endeavor to find out where Captain Carnes found his wild pepper. They hurried to Bencoolen, but were unsuccessful and had to proceed to India to fill their holds with whatever cargoes came to hand. Meanwhile the Rajah slipped away for a second pepper voyage, and returned with a hundred and fifty thousand pounds of the precious condiment.

There was no hiding this mystery from Salem merchants for long, however, and by the time the Rajah had made three pepper voyages, the rivals were at her heels, bartering with native chieftains and stowing their holds with the wild pepper which long continued to be one of the most profitable articles of the Salem commerce with the Orient. It was a fine romance of trade, this story of Captain Carnes and the Rajah, and characteristic of the men and methods of the time. For half a century a large part of the pepper used in all countries was reshipped from the port of Salem, a trade which flourished until 1850. During the period between the first voyage of Captain Carnes and 1845, the Salem custom house records bore the entries of almost two hundred vessels from the port of Sumatra.

While Sumatra and China and India were being sought by Salem ships, Elias Hasket Derby in 1796 sent his good ship Astrea on a pioneer voyage to Manila. She was the first American vessel to find that port, and was loaded with a rich cargo of sugar, pepper and indigo, on which twenty-four thousand dollars in duties were paid at the Salem Custom House.

To carry on such a business as that controlled by Elias Hasket Derby, enlisted the activities of many men and industries. While his larger ships were making their distant voyages, his brigs and schooners were gathering the future cargoes for the Orient; voyaging to Gothenburg and St. Petersburg for iron, duck and hemp; to France, Spain and Madeira for wine and lead; to the West Indies for rum, and to New York, Philadelphia and Richmond for flour, provisions, iron, and tobacco. These shipments were assembled in the warehouses of Derby wharf, and paid for in the teas, coffee, pepper, muslin, silks and ivory which the ships from the far East were bringing home. In fourteen years Mr. Derby’s ships to the far Eastern ports and Europe made one hundred and twenty-five voyages, and of the thirty-five vessels engaged in this traffic only one was lost at sea.

In one of the most entertaining and instructive chapters of “Walden,” Thoreau takes the trouble to explain the business of a successful shipping merchant of Salem. The description of his activities may be fairly applied to Elias Hasket Derby and his times.

“To oversee all the details yourself in person; to be at once pilot and captain, and owner and underwriter; to buy and sell and keep the accounts; to read every letter received, and write or read every letter sent; to superintend the discharge of imports night and day; to be upon many ports of the coast almost at the same time—often the richest freights will be discharged upon a Jersey shore; to be your own telegraph, unweariedly sweeping the horizon, speaking all vessels bound coastwise; to keep up a steady dispatch of commodities for the supply of such a distant and exorbitant market; to keep yourself informed of the state of the markets, prospects of war and peace everywhere, and anticipate the tendencies of trade and civilization. Taking advantage of the results of all exploring expeditions using new passages and all improvements in navigation; charts to be studied, the position of reefs and new lights and buoys to be corrected, for by the error of some calculator the vessel often splits upon a rock that should have reached a friendly pier; universal science to be kept pace with, studying the lives of all great discoverers and navigators, great adventurers and merchants, from Hanno and the Phœnicians down to our day; in fine, account of stock must be taken from time to time, to know how you stand. It is such a labor to task the faculties of a man—such problems of profit and loss, of interest, of tare and tret, and gauging of all kinds in it, as demand a universal knowledge.”

There is to-day nothing at all comparable with the community of interests which bound all Salem in a kinship with the sea and its affairs. Every ship for China or India carried a list of “adventures,” small speculations entrusted to the captain or supercargo, contributed by boys and girls, sweethearts, brothers, mothers and wives. In the log of Mr. Derby’s ship, the Astrea, for a voyage to Batavia and Canton are the following “memoranda” of “adventures,” which were to be sold by the captain and the profits brought home to the investors:

“Captain Nathaniel West. 15 boxes spermacetti candles. 1 pipe Teneriffe wine.”

“James Jeffry. 1 cask ginseng.”

“George Dodge. 10 Dollars. 1 pipe Madeira wine.”

In searching among the old logs for these “adventures,” the author found “on board Ship Messenger of Salem, 1816”:

“Memorandum of Miss Harriet Elkin’s Adventure.

“Please to purchase if at Calcutta two net bead with draperies; if at Batavia or any spice market, nutmegs, and mace, or if at Canton, Two Canton Crape shawls of the enclosed colors at $5 per shawl. Enclosed is $10. Signed.

“Henrietta Elkins.”

William Gray

Elias Hasket Derby

“Memorandum of Mr. John R. Tucker’s Adventure.

“Mr. C. Stanley, Sir:

“I hand you a bag containing 100 Spanish dollars for my adventure on board the ship Messenger which please invest in coffee and sugar, if you have room after the cargo is on board. If not, invest the amount in nutmegs, or spice as you think best. Please do for me as you do for your own, and oblige your obt.

“John R. Tucker.

“To Edward Stanley, master.”

Captain Stanley kept an itemized record of his transactions with Mr. J. Tucker’s one hundred Spanish dollars, and it may be interesting to note how such an “adventure” was handled to reap profits for the waiting speculator in faraway Salem. The captain first bought in Batavia ten bags of coffee for $83.30, which with boat hire, duty and sacking made the total outlay $90.19. This coffee he sold in Antwerp on his way home for $183.75. Arriving at Salem he paid over to Mr. Tucker the sum of $193.57, or almost one hundred per cent. profit on the amount of the “adventure.” This is enough to show why this kind of speculative investment was so popular in the Salem of a century ago.

The same ship carried also “Mrs. Mary Townsend’s adventure,” to wit:

“Please to purchase lay out five dollars which I send by you, Vizt:

“One Tureen 14 by 10 Inches, China. One Nett bead and you will oblige.”

Almost every household of Salem had its own menfolk or near kinfolk on the sea, not in the offshore fisheries, nor in the coastwise trade where the perils of their calling might be somewhat atoned for by the frequent visits of these loved ones. The best and bravest men of Salem were in the deep-water, square-rigged vessels which vanished toward the Orient and to the South Seas to be gone, not months but years on a voyage.

After open hostilities had fairly begun between France and the United States, in 1798, our ports began to send out privateersmen and the merchants’ fleets sought refuge. Elias Hasket Derby, with a revival of his bold Revolutionary spirit, decided to risk a cargo of sugar and coffee to meet the urgent demands of the Mediterranean ports. For this particular mission he built the ship Mount Vernon, a notable combination of commercial and naval fitness. She was the last venture of this great merchant, and with characteristic enterprise he took the chances of evading the French and the Algerine pirates with a cargo whose profits would be enormous if the Mount Vernon could make the passage in safety. This fine ship was only one hundred feet long, but she carried fifty men and twenty guns. She was built for speed as well as fighting ability, and she made Cape Vincent on her outward passage in sixteen days from Salem. Her voyage was a brilliant success, although her owner died before she came home. The Mount Vernon on this one voyage paid to the Derby estate a profit of one hundred thousand dollars on a total investment for ship and cargoes of $43,000. The letter book of the Mount Vernon for this notable voyage in the history of the American merchant marine tells how she fought her way across the Atlantic. Captain Elias Hasket Derby, junior, was in charge of the vessel, and he wrote his father as follows:

“Gibralter, 1st, August, 1799.

“E. H. Derby, Esq., Salem:

“Honored Sir: I think you must be surprised to find me here so early. I arrived at this port in seventeen and one-half days from the time my brother left the ship (off Salem). In eight days and seven hours were up with Carvo, and made Cape St. Vincent in sixteen days. The first of our passage was quite agreeable; the latter light winds, calm, and Frenchmen constantly in sight for the last four days. The first Frenchman we saw was off Tercira, a lugger to the southward. Being uncertain of his force, we stood by him to leeward on our course and soon left him.

“July 28th in the afternoon we found ourselves approaching a fleet of upwards of fifty sail, steering nearly N. E. We run directly for their centre; at 4 o’clock found ourselves in their half-moon; concluding it impossible that it could be any other than the English fleet, continued our course for their centre, to avoid any apprehension of a want of confidence in them. They soon dispatched an 18-gun ship from their centre, and two frigates, one from their van and another from the rear to beat towards us, being to windward.

“On approaching the centre ship under easy sail, I fortunately bethought myself that it would be but common prudence to steer so far to windward of him as to be a gunshot’s distance from him; to observe his force, and manoevering. When we were abreast of him he fired a gun to leeward and hoisted English colors. We immediately bore away and meant to pass under his quarter, between him and the fleet, showing our American colors. This movement disconcerted him and it appeared to me he conceived we were either an American sloop of war or an English one in distress, attempting to cut him off from the fleet. While we were in the act of wearing on his beam, he hoisted French colors and gave us his broadside.

“We immediately brought our ship to the wind and stood on about a mile, wore towards the centre of the fleet, hove about and crossed on him on the other tack about half grape shot distance and received his broadside. Several of his shot fell on board of us, and cut our sails—two round shot striking us, without much damage. All hands were active in clearing ship for action, for our surprise had been complete.

“In about ten minutes we commenced firing our stern chasers and in a quarter of an hour gave him our broadside in such a style as apparently sickened him, for he immediately luffed in the wind, gave us his broadside, went in stays in great confusion, wore ship afterwards in a large circle, and renewed the chase at a mile and a half distance—a manoever calculated to keep up appearances with the fleet and to escape our shot. We received seven or eight broadsides from him, and I was mortified at not having it in my power to return him an equal number without exposing myself to the rest of the fleet, for I am persuaded I should have had the pleasure of sending him home had he been separate from them.

“At midnight we had distanced them, the chasing rocket signals being almost out of sight, and soon left them. We then kept ourselves in constant preparation till my arrival here; and indeed it had been very requisite, for we have been in constant brushes ever since. The day after we left the (French) fleet we were chased till night by two frigates whom we lost sight of when it was dark. The next morning off Cape St. Vincent in the latitude of Cadiz, were chased by a French lateen-rigged vessel apparently of 10 or 12 guns, one of them an 18-pounder. We brought to, for his metal was too heavy for ours, and his position was to windward, where he lay just in a situation to cast his shot over us, and it was not in my power to put him off. We of course bore away, and saluted him with our long nines. He continued in chase till dark and when we were nearly by Cadiz, at sunset, he made a signal to his consort, a large lugger whom we had just discovered ahead. Having a strong breeze I was determined to pass my stern over him if he did not make way for me. He thought prudent so to do.

The ship Mount Vernon, owned by Elias Hasket Derby, in her fight with a French fleet

“At midnight we made the lights in Cadiz city but found no English fleet. After laying to till daybreak, concluded that the French must have gained the ascendency in Cadiz and thought prudent to proceed to this place where we arrived at 12 o’clock, popping at Frenchmen all the forenoon. At 10 A. M. off Algeciras Point were seriously attacked by a large latineer who had on board more than 100 men. He came so near our broadside as to allow our six-pound grape to do execution handsomely. We then bore away and gave him our stern guns in a cool and deliberate manner, doing apparently great execution. Our bars having cut his sails considerably he was thrown into confusion, struck both his ensign and his pennant. I was then puzzled to know what to do with so many men; our ship was running large with all her steering sails out, so that we could not immediately bring her to the wind and we were directly off Algeciras Point from whence I had reason to fear she might receive assistance, and my port (Gibralter) in full view.

“These were circumstances that induced me to give up the gratification of bringing him in. It was, however, a satisfaction to flog the rascal in full view of the English fleet who were to leeward. The risk of sending here is great, indeed, for any ship short of our force in men and guns—but particularly heavy guns.

“It is absolutely necessary that two Government ships should occasionally range the straits and latitude of Cadiz, from the longitude of Cape St. Vincent. I have, now while writing to you, two of our countrymen in full view who are prizes to these villains. Lord St. Vincent, in a 50-gun ship bound for England, is just at this moment in the act of retaking one of them. The other goes into Algeciras without molestation.

“You need have but little apprehension for my safety, as my crew are remarkably well trained and are perfectly well disposed to defend themselves; and I think after having cleared ourselves from the French in such a handsome manner, you may well conclude that we can effect almost anything. If I should go to Constantinople, it will be with a passport from Admiral Nelson for whom I may carry a letter to Naples.

“Your affectionate son,
“Elias Hasket Derby.”

That the experience of Captain Elias Hasket Derby, Jr., in the Mount Vernon was not an unusual one is indicated by the following letter written by Captain Richard Wheatland and published in a Salem newspaper of 1799 under these stirring headlines:

“A sea Fight gallantly and vigorously maintained by the Ship Perseverance, Captain Richard Wheatland of this port against one of the vessels of the Terrible Republic. The French Rascals, contrary to the Laws of War and Honor, fought under false colours, whilst the Eagle, true to his charge, spreads his wings on the American flag.”

“Ship Perseverance,
“Old Straits of Bahama, Jan. 1, 1799.

“Dec. 31st. Key Romain in sight, bearing south, distance four or five leagues. A schooner has been in chase of us since eight o’clock, and has every appearance of being a privateer. At one o’clock P. M. finding the schooner come up with us very fast, took in steering sails, fore and aft and royals; at half-past one about ship and stood for her; she immediately tacked and made sail from us. We fired a gun to leeward and hoisted the American ensign to our mizzen peak; she hoisted a Spanish jack at main-top masthead and continued to run from us. Finding she outsailed us greatly, and wishing to get through the Narrows in the Old Straits, at two o’clock P. M. we again about ship and kept on our course. The schooner immediately wore, fired a gun to leeward, and kept after us under a great press of sail. At half-past two she again fired a gun to leeward, but perceiving ourselves in the Narrows above mentioned, we kept on to get through them if possible before she came up with us, which we effected.

Elias Hasket Derby mansion (1799-1816)

Prince House. Home of Richard Derby. Built about 1750

“At three o’clock finding ourselves fairly clear of Sugar Key and Key Laboas, we took in steering sails, wore ship, hauled up our courses, piped all hands to quarters and prepared for action. The schooner immediately took in sail, hoisted an English Union flag, and passed under our lee at a considerable distance. We wore ship, she did the same and we passed each other within half a musket. A fellow hailed us in broken English and ordered the boat hoisted out and the captain to come on board with his papers, which he refused. He again ordered our boat out and enforced his orders with a menace that in case of refusal he would sink us, using at the same time the vilest and most infamous language it is possible to conceive of.

“By this time he had fallen considerably astern of us; he wore and came up on our starboard quarter, giving us a broadside as he passed our stern, but fired so excessively wild that he did us very little injury, while our stern-chasers gave him a noble dose of round shot and lagrange. We hauled the ship to wind and as he passed poured a whole broadside into him with great success. Sailing faster than we he ranged considerably ahead, tacked and again passed, giving us a broadside and a furious discharge of musketry which they kept up incessantly until the latter part of the engagement.

“His musket balls reached us in every direction, but his large shot either fell short or went considerably over us while our guns loaded with round shot and square bars of iron, six inches long, were plied so briskly and directed with such good judgment that before he got out of range we had cut his mainsail and foretopsail all to rags and cleared his decks so effectively that when he bore away from us there were scarcely ten men to be seen. He then struck his English flag and hoisted the flag of the Terrible Republic and made off with all the sail he could carry, much disappointed, no doubt, at not being able to give us a fraternal embrace.

“The wind being light and knowing he would outsail us, added to a solicitude to complete our voyage, prevented our pursuing him; indeed we had sufficient to gratify our revenge for his temerity, for there was scarcely a single fire from our guns but what spread entirely over his hull. The action which lasted an hour and twenty minutes, we conceive ended well, for exclusive of preserving the property entrusted to our care, we feel confidence that we have rid the world of some infamous pests of society. We were within musket shot the whole time of the engagement, and were so fortunate as to receive but very trifling injury. Not a person on board met the slightest harm. Our sails were a little torn and one of the quarterdeck guns dismounted.

“The privateer was a schooner of 80 or 90 tons, copper bottom, and fought five or six guns on a side. We are now within forty-eight hours sail of Havana, where we expect to arrive in safety; indeed we have no fear of any privateer’s preventing us unless greatly superior in force. The four quarterdeck guns will require new carriages, and one of them was entirely dismounted.

“We remain with esteem,
“Gentlemen,
“Your Humble Servant,
“Richard Wheatland.”