[9] See Captain Luther Little’s story of the Protector’s fight with the Admiral Duff. Chapter VI, Page [109].
[10] (impatient)
CHAPTER V
JONATHAN HARADEN, PRIVATEERSMAN
(1776-1782)
The United States navy, with its wealth of splendid tradition, has few more commanding figures than Captain Jonathan Haraden, the foremost fighting privateersman of Salem during the Revolution, and one of the ablest men that fought in that war, afloat or ashore. His deeds are well-nigh forgotten by his countrymen, yet he captured one thousand cannon in British ships and counted his prizes by the score.
Jonathan Haraden was born in Gloucester, but as a boy was employed by George Cabot of Salem and made his home there for the remainder of his life. He followed the sea from his early youth, and had risen to a command in the merchant service when the Revolution began. The Massachusetts Colony placed two small vessels in commission as State vessels of war, and aboard one of these, the Tyrannicide, Jonathan Haraden was appointed lieutenant. On her first cruise, very early in the war, she fought a king’s cutter from Halifax for New York. The British craft carried a much heavier crew than the Tyrannicide, but the Yankee seamen took her after a brisk engagement in which their gunnery was notably destructive.
Soon after this, Haraden was promoted to the command of this audacious sloop of the formidable name, but he desired greater freedom of action. A Salem merchant ship, the General Pickering, of 180 tons, was fitting out as a letter of marque, and Haraden was offered the command. With a cargo of sugar, fourteen six-pounders and forty-five men and boys he sailed for Bilboa in the spring of 1780. This port of Spain was a popular rendezvous for American privateers, where they were close to the British trade routes. During the voyage across, before his crew had been hammered into shape, Haraden was attacked by a British cutter of twenty guns, but managed to beat her off and proceeded on his way after a two hours’ running fight.
He was a man of superb coolness and audacity and he showed these qualities to advantage while tacking into the Bay of Biscay. At nightfall he sighted a British privateer, the Golden Eagle, considerably larger than the Pickering, and carrying at least eight more guns. Instead of crowding on sail and shifting his course to avoid her, he set after her in the darkness and steered alongside. Before the enemy could decide whether to fight or run away Haraden was roaring through his speaking trumpet:
“What ship is this? An American frigate, Sir. Strike, or I’ll sink you with a broadside.”
The British privateer skipper was bewildered by this startling summons and surrendered without firing a shot. A prizemaster was put on board and at daylight both vessels laid their course for Bilboa. As they drew near the harbor, a sail was sighted making out from the land. All strange sails were under suspicion in that era of sea life, and Captain Haraden made ready to clear his ship for action even before the English captain, taken out of the prize, cheerfully carried him word that he knew the stranger to be the Achilles, a powerful and successful privateer hailing from London, carrying more than forty guns and at least a hundred and fifty men. The description might have been that of a formidable sloop of war rather than a privateer, and the British skipper was at no pains to hide his satisfaction at the plight of the Yankee with her fourteen six-pounders and her handful of men.
At the sight of an enemy thrice his fighting strength, Captain Haraden told the English captain: