Sailing Ships And Privateers.
Not checked with Broadcast copy: "SAILING SHIPS AND PRIVATEERS" 2/3 No. 2. a talk by Capt. R. H. Davis TRANS: THURSDAY 10TH APRIL 1952. 7.15 - 7.30 p.m. ANNOUNCER: This is the Northern Ireland Home Service. "Sailing Ships and Privateers". Here is Captain R. H. Davis to give the second of a series of three talks. Captain Davis ......... CAPT. DAVIS: In 1776, shortly after our American Colonies had declared their independence, a bill was passed in the English Parliament granting Letters of Marque and Reprisal against all vessels belonging to the thirteen colonies, and from that time onwards it was a ding dong struggle - American naval ships and privateers capturing British ships and vice versa. Later on we had a combination of enemies when France, Spain and Holland, all maritime countries, joined in the struggle against us. The Americans had the advantage of being able to send their prizes into any continental belligerent port, while the only ports open to us were our own. All parties were debarred from getting a prize condemned while she was in a neutral port. In later years there was an interesting law case; it was really a test case, in which a Belfast ship owner claimed that his ship, which was taken into a neutral port by a privateer, was unlawfully condemned as a prize. In 1798 the Belfast ship "Hannah" was seized on the coast of Norway by a French privateer and carried into Christiansand, a neutral port, where she was condemned and sold by an alleged French Consular Court of Admiralty. She was purchased by a Mr. Issacson of Christiansand who, some two years afterwards, loaded her with a cargo of timber for Belfast, where she was seized at the suit of Mr. Wood, her original owner. The case was of much interest in the Mercantile world and on its decision the fate of many others of a similar nature depended. The hearing extended over two years and was finally determined in His Majesty's Court of King's Bench in Ireland, judgement being given in favour of the plaintiff, Mr. Wood. But to return to the 1770's. With only, as a rule, a skeleton crew on board, a prize ship was easy game when on its passage to port it was intercepted by an enemy ship, and it was nothing unusual for an owner to hear by one mail that his ship had been taken by the enemy and a few mails later to hear that she had been re-taken. The first Belfast ship to be taken by an American privateer was a snow named the "Jenny". A snow was a vessel with a rig slightly different from a brig. The "Jenny" arrived in Belfast in December 1776 and reported that when bound from the Barbadoes to Belfast she was captured by an American privateer who took all the crew out of her except her master and a lad, and with her prize crew on board she was sent to Providence, Rhode Island. When off Long Island she fell in with a King's frigate which retook her and carried her into New York, at that time in our hands. About this same time another Belfast vessel arriving in Dublin from Antigua, reported that she had been chased and boarded by the "Surprisal", a privateer of eighteen guns, belonging to Philadelphia. The Captain of the Belfast ship was taken on board the privateer and after his ship's papers had been examined, the Captain of the "Surprisal", told the Belfast Captain that he would not distress him, because he said he was sure an Irishman would not distress him, and after being on board about an hour the Belfast Captain was given back his papers, his ship and cargo was released and he was returned to his own vessel with best wishes for a safe passage. The privateer Captain may well have been an Irishman himself who knew that nowhere in this country was there so much sympathy with the Colonists as in the North of Ireland. His decision may have been influenced by the fact that many of the rebels were of Ulster birth or descent. An extraordinary case of a ship being retaken was that of the brig "Loyalty". The vessel belonged to Belfast and was taken by a French privateer in 1778. All the crew was taken out with the exception of two boys, Robert McClelland and Robert Horseman and a prize crew of thirteen Frenchmen were put on board to take her into Martinique. Thirteen in this case proved an unlucky number for the Frenchmen. On the second day, the prize crew made free with the contents of the Captain's spirit locker and all hands became gloriously drunk. When they were all below in the cabin having a good time, a sail appeared on the horizon. The two boys quietly closed and secured the cabin scuttle and then brought the ship to the wind to await the approaching vessel. Fortunately she turned out to be a small British privateer belonging to Antigua. The stranger in turn put a prize crew on board and carried her into one of the Leeward Islands where the Frenchmen were sent to a prison camp. - 4 - Another vessel that was handed back to her master, almost at our own door, was a vessel named the "Industry". On her arrival at Belfast in September 1779 her master made a deposition to the effect that North of the entrance to Strangford Lough he was boarded by a boat from the American privateer "Black Prince" which carried a crew of a hundred and thirty men. Before bringing him on board the privateer, the officer in charge of the boat relieved the deponent of ten guineas in gold, some silver, his watch and buckles and a quantity of wearing apparel. He was detained on board for nearly three hours and was then allowed to return to his ship, and he arrived in Belfast at five o'clock the same day. While on board the Black Prince, off the Copelands, she took a sloop bound from Liverpool to Larne which was ransomed for two hundred guineas, she then continued north and was observed passing Larne at 3.00 p.m. In her next voyage, on her arrival at Cork, the "Industry" reported that the Belfast privateer "Amazon" had arrived off Madeira for a supply of provisions was was (sic) forced to sea again by the violence of the weather and had not returned before the "Industry" had sailed. The "Black Prince", which I have mentioned, for a while played havoc in the channel with our shipping. She was commanded by a man named Patrick Dowling and it was said that both he and the majority if his crew belonged to Rush in County Dublin. Early in March 1780 both he and his ship were much in the news. A letter was received in Dublin from Holyhead reporting that two of the mail packets, the "Hillsborough" and the "Bessborough", were taken by the "Black Prince" and a consort named the "Princess" which accompanied her. The letter stated - 5 - that it was believed that the privateer intended landing at Rush with her plunder. The authorities on receipt of the letter at once called out the volunteers from four different Corps. The Merchant Corps were joined by detachments from the Dublin Goldsmiths, the Liberty, and the County Volunteers, three hundred men in all marched for Rush at midnight, and on arrival there surrounded the town when it was found that owing to a heavy South West Gale blowing, the privateer had been unable to make the harbour. Apparently there was many renegades serving in enemy privateers a number of which carried Letters of Marque from both France and America and fought under whichever flag suited. In October 1781, a letter was received by the owners of a Belfast ship - a cartel ship named the "Statesman" - which had carried French prisoners of war to a channel port. The letter said - "This place is full of privateers, the greater part of whose crews are English or Irish". Further on the letter went on to say that a sailor from one of the privateers had told the writer that his vessel was being prepared for service in the Irish channel where they hoped to make their fortune by capturing some of the Belfast linen ships. A linen ship would certainly have been a valuable prize as mention is made that on occasions these little ships had a cargo valued at a hundred thousand pounds. In addition to linens they sometimes had bullion on board. The statement of the captain of the cartel ship as to English and Irish crews being on board was verified when less than three moths afterwards, the Stag frigate brought into Dublin a large cutter privateer named the Anti-Briton that had been fitted out at Dunkirk. She was commanded by John Kelly, a native of Rush, and there were twelve ransomers on board to the amount of sixty thousand pounds. In all, ninety-eight persons were taken out of her and all but seven were lodged in Newgate on the charge of being traitors. But to return to Belfast ships. On the 21st April, 1781, the Belfast ship, "Eleanor", sailed from the Cove of Cork for the Barbadoes and within twenty-four hours was taken off Cape Clear by the American privateer "Junius Brutus" belonging to Salem. She was fitted with twenty guns and had a crew of a hundred and fifty men. In the next few days the "Junius Brutus" captured three other vessels, two of them belonged to Newry and were also bound to the Barbadoes. Not wanting to be troubled with too many prisoners, the captain of the "Eleanor" and a number of others were given a boat to carry them ashore and they all landed safely at Crookhaven. In September of this same year, 1781, our friend of the "Black Prince", Patrick Dowling turned up again. This time he was in command of a privateer flying French colours, the "Fantasie", and although only eight days out from Dunkirk had already taken seven prizes, among them the Belfast brig "Bell" appears to be one of the last Belfast ships taken before the declaration of an uneasy peace which lasted for ten years. Owing to the approach of this peace, in January 1783, orders were received at Belfast to suspend all recruiting, and a few weeks afterwards a hundred and fifty men who had joined the navy at Belfast were paid off, and already Belfast ships were being advertised for New York and Philadelphia. On the 21st February our local press published the King's Proclamation, dated the 14th of the cessation of arms with the States General of the United Provinces and the United States of America. ANNOUNCER: Captain R. H. Davis will give the third and last account of "Sailing Ships and Privateers" on Wednesday next, 16th April, at five minutes past seven.Close