“Ship ahoy. What ship is that?”
“The English armed ship Terror,” answered the Salem captain.
“Where are you bound?”
“Just inside the Cape for safety.”
“Safety from what?” asked the guileless Englishman.
“A whole fleet of damned Yankee privateers.”
“Where are they?”
“They bear from the pitch of the Cape, about sou’east by East, four leagues distant.”
“Aye, aye, we’ll look out for them and steer clear,” returned John Bull, and thereupon with a free wind he stood out to sea leaving the Brutus to lay her course without more trouble.
Not all the Salem privateers were successful. In fairness to the foe it should be recorded that one in three, or fifty-four in a total of one hundred and fifty-eight privateers and letter of marque ships were lost by capture during the war. Many of these, however, were scarcely more than decked rowboats armed with one gun and a few muskets. But of the four hundred and forty-five prizes taken by Salem ships, nine-tenths of them reached American ports in safety.