In ship and prison

by William P. Chipman

We sailed the following day, making several cruises during the next three months, running sometimes as far north as Halifax, and again south as far as Jamaica. The wonderful success of Captain Tucker still attended him, and we captured many prizes, some of which were of great value.

Then came a cruise so remarkable that it has been exceeded by no naval commander; so remarkable that I hesitate to tell of it here lest the readers may think I exaggerate. Yet it is but a faithful recital of facts.

We left port on a bright November morning, and before night sighted a small brig, coming up from the south. We gave chase and overhauled her without difficulty. At our first shot she hove to, and I went off to her. She proved to be the Lord Hyde from the West Indies and bound for Halifax with a cargo of sugar valued at three thousand pounds. A midshipman was put in command of her, and she was sent in to Boston.

We changed our course after parting with the prize and ran to the eastward. The following morning we discovered a large ship a few miles away, and as we approached her we found she carried sixteen guns. This was suggestive of a valuable cargo, and as she showed a disposition to fight, we cleared our decks and prepared for action. A broadside poured into her, however, brought her to terms, and upon boarding her we found she was the Alliance, from Liverpool to Charleston, with a cargo of wine, brandy, and dry goods inventoried at forty thousand pounds.

The next day was a Sabbath, and proved to be on our part a day of rest. But the following day made up for it, as it brought us two prizes. The first was a letter of marque brig of fourteen guns, bound from Antigua to Quebec laden with rum and molasses, and valued at seven thousand pounds. The second was a sloop from Saint Eustatia to Halifax with three hundred hogsheads of sugar worth six thousand pounds.

We cruised all day Tuesday to the west and south, and it was nearly night before we sighted any sail. There was a bright moon, however, and we could follow her almost as well as in the day time. Before midnight we had captured her. She proved to be the brig Venture, from Madeira to New York with one hundred and fifty pipes of Madeira wine and a miscellaneous cargo, valued at ten thousand pounds.

Our next prize cost us a struggle, and the loss of several men. We had run to the northward all the forenoon, when our lookout at the masthead called out that there was a large armed ship on our weather bow. We changed our course to overhaul her, and soon found she was nearly our match as a sailer. For four hours we strove to come up with her, and I do not know as we should have done so then had not the stiff breeze carried away her fore-topmast.

Finding she could not escape us, she now prepared for a fight, and as she carried twenty guns and a large crew, she was no mean antagonist. Captain Tucker attempted several times to grapple with her, desiring to throw a boarding party on her deck, but she avoided him every time, and poured a broadside into us. We returned the fire, and both vessels had received considerable damage when a mistake by the Englishman’s pilot caused her to foul with us. Here was the opportunity for which we had been looking, and in another minute our boarders poured over her rail and down her deck.

The British commander was plucky, and not until a score of his men were killed and he himself was wounded, did he strike his flag. We then found the vessel was the Dean Swift, from London to New York, with a cargo of dry goods which invoiced thirty thousand pounds, besides four thousand barrels of provisions, and fifty puncheons of rum.

Thursday we had worked off to the southward and about noon ran in with the brigantine Boyd, from Jamaica for Quebec, and laden with sugar, coffee, and tobacco, and valued at fifteen thousand pounds.