“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.”
FOOTNOTES:
[24] The edition of 1800 of this popular compendium of knowledge bore on the title page: “A New Geographical, Historical and Commercial Grammar and Present State of the Several Kingdoms of the World. Illustrated with a Correct Set of Maps, Engraved from the Most Recent Observations and Draughts of Geographical Travellers. The Eighteenth Edition Corrected and Considerably enlarged. London. 1800.”
The work contained “Longitude, Latitude, Bearings and Distances of Principal Places from London” as one of its qualifications for use among mariners.
CHAPTER XI
PIONEERS IN DISTANT SEAS
(1775-1817)
The name of Joseph Peabody takes rank with that of Elias Hasket Derby as an American who did much to upbuild the commerce, wealth and prestige of his nation in its younger days. It may sound like an old-fashioned doctrine in this present age of concentration of wealth at the expense of a sturdy and independent citizenship, to assert that such men as Joseph Peabody deserve much more honor for the kind of manhood they helped to foster than for the riches they amassed for themselves. They did not seek to crush competition, to drive out of business the men around them who were ambitious to win a competence on their own merits and to call themselves free citizens of a free country. Those were the days of equal opportunities, which shining fact finds illustration in the career of Joseph Peabody, for example, who, during his career as a ship owner, advanced to the rank of master thirty-five of his fellow townsmen who had entered his employ as cabin boys or seamen. Every one of these shipmasters, “if he had the stuff in him,” became an owner of shipping, a merchant with his own business on shore, an employer who was eager, in his turn, to advance his own masters and mates to positions of independence in which they might work out their own careers.
During the early years of the nineteenth century, Joseph Peabody built and owned eighty-three ships which he freighted on his own account and sent to every corner of the world. The stout square-riggers which flew the Peabody house flag made thirty-eight voyages to Calcutta, seventeen to Canton, thirty-two to Sumatra, forty-seven to St. Petersburg, and thirty to other ports of Europe. To man this noble fleet no fewer than seven thousand seamen signed shipping articles in the counting room of Joseph Peabody. The extent of his commerce is indicated by the amount of duties paid by some of these ships. In 1825 and 1826, the Leander, a small brig of two hundred and twenty-three tons, made two voyages to Canton which paid into the Salem Custom House duties of $86,847, and $92,392 respectively. In 1829, 1830, and 1831, the Sumatra, a ship of less than three hundred tons, came home from China with cargoes, the duties on which amounted to $128,363; $138,480, and $140,761. The five voyages named, and all of them were made in ships no larger than a small two-masted coasting schooner of to-day, paid in duties a total of almost six hundred thousand dollars.