During her career as a privateer she had sent safely into port twenty-seven British vessels, but her captures much exceeded this number. Six of her prizes were retaken on their way to America and many more were destroyed at sea. Her officers and crew divided more than one half million dollars in prize money. More than this, with an American navy so small that it could not hope to take the offensive against England’s mighty sea power, the America had played her part well in crippling that maritime commerce which was the chief source of English greatness. This beautiful ship never went to sea again. For reasons unknown and inexplicable at the present time, she was allowed to lay dismantled alongside Crowninshield’s wharf in Salem until 1831, when she was sold at auction and broken up. The Essex Register of June 16th of that year contains this melancholy obituary in its advertising columns:
“Hull, etc. of Ship America
AT AUCTION
On Thursday next at 10 o’clock,
(Necessarily postponed from Thursday)
Will be sold by auction at the Crowninshield Wharf,
The Hull of the Privateer Ship America,
very heavily copper-fastened, and worthy attention
for breaking up.
Also—about 1000 pounds of Powder,
consisting principally of cannon and musket
cartridges.
A quantity of old Iron, Rigging, old Canvas, Blocks
Spars,—a complete set of Sweeps with a variety of
other articles.
The sale will commence with the materials, June 16.
George Nichols, Auct’r.”
Long after the war Captain Chever, master of a merchant vessel, became acquainted in the harbor of Valparaiso with Sir James Thompson, captain of the British frigate Dublin. This man-of-war had been fitted out with the special object of capturing the America in 1813. While the two captains chatted together in cordial friendliness, Sir James Thompson fell to telling stories of his service afloat in chase of the famous Yankee privateer. “I was almost within gunshot of her once, just as night was coming on,” said he, “but by daylight she had outsailed the Dublin so devilish fast that she was no more than a speck on the horizon. And by the way, I wonder if you know who it was commanded the America on that cruise?” Captain Chever was glad to answer such an absurdly easy question as this, and his former foeman enjoyed the singular coincidence of this amicable meeting.
Even during the years of conflict the Yankee privateersman had more sympathy for than hatred of the prisoners whose ships they took or destroyed. Far more than the patriot landsman they could feel for these hapless victims of warfare on the seas, for they had suffered similar misfortunes at the hands of Englishmen, year after year. In an era of nominal peace the British navy alone had confiscated more American vessels than were captured from under the English flag by Yankee privateers in the War of 1812. And if the merciless ravages of such fleet sea hawks as the America beggared many a British skipper whose fate in no way touched the issue of the war, it should be remembered, on the other hand, that in every American seaport there were broken captains and ruined homes whose irremediable disasters had been wrought by British authority.
In order to gain a more intimate realization of the spirit of those times, it may be worth while to review a typical incident which befell Captain Richard Cleveland of Salem. In 1806 he was in command of the ship Telemaco in which he had staked all his cash and credit, together with the fortune of his friend and partner, Nathaniel Shaler. Their investment in ship and cargo amounted to more than fifty thousand dollars won after years of maritime risk and adventure in every sea of the globe.[43] He sailed from Rio Janeiro for Havana, and said of the prospects of this voyage in a letter to his wife:
“With what a series of misfortunes have I not been assailed for the past three years, and with what confidence can I now expect to escape the pirates in the West Indies? I expect to meet the British ships of war, but do not fear them, as my business is regular, and such as will bear the nicest scrutiny by those who act uprightly; but should I meet with any of those privateers the consequence may be serious as they respect the property of no one.”
In his published narrative Captain Cleveland made this additional comment: