Back Aa

Captain John Crane, 1800 - 1815

<h2 id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</h2> TROUBLE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND ALGIERS.—THE WAR WITH FRANCE.—WHAT OUR NAVY DID.—FROM GIBRALTAR TO MARSEILLES. "The first time our government ran against Algerine pirates," said Haines, "was in 1785, when they captured two vessels from the United States, and sold their crews—twenty-one men altogether—into slavery. The President set about getting these men released just as soon as he heard of the capture of the ships. The diplomatic agents of the United States in Europe were instructed to make arrangements in that direction; but the Dey of Algiers believed that he had found a new mine of wealth, and demanded an enormous price for the ransom of the unhappy sailors." "Did our government pay it?" I asked, as Haines paused. "No, they did not," was the reply; "they determined that they would not establish a precedent for such exorbitant demands. In France there was a religious society called the Mathurins, that was estab[121]lished hundreds of years ago for the purpose of releasing Christian captives who were held by the infidels. Our government employed the chief of the Mathurins to negotiate the liberation of our men, but he didn't succeed. Several other attempts were made, but the Dey refused to come down in his price, because he thought the Americans would pay anything rather than let their citizens be slaves, or, at any rate, their white citizens, as we had plenty of negro slaves in our country and thought that kind of slavery was all right. "Well, the thing dragged along a good while. Our government appropriated forty thousand dollars to ransom those men. One after another two commissioners were appointed to negotiate the business, but each of 'em died before he got to Algiers. "Before the negotiations for these twenty-one men were concluded, ten more American ships had been captured, and more than a hundred sailors sold from them into slavery. It was not till 1795 that we brought the miserable business to an end, and got the release of the prisoners by paying eight hundred thousand dollars in cash, with a promise of an annual tribute of twenty-five thousand dollars, and a ship-of-war worth one hundred thousand dollars." "Do you mean that we were to give them a ship-of-war every year?" I asked. [122] "Oh, no," replied Haines; "not a ship-of-war every year, but a single one as soon as we could build her, after giving the eight hundred thousand dollars down." "Oh, I understand," I answered. "Why didn't we take that eight hundred thousand dollars and build ships-of-war with it, and then go and blow the Algerines sky high?" "That's what we ought to have done," said Haines, "and it's a big shame we didn't do it. What we did every other nation of Europe had been doing, and some of them for hundreds of years. It is like paying a chicken thief five dollars a month to let alone robbing your hen-roost." "Well, if we've been paying twenty-five thousand dollars a year to the Dey of Algiers to let us alone, how is it that he is capturing our ships now?" "We were not very prompt in making our payments, I believe," Haines answered; "and besides, them pagans don't pay any attention to their treaties. They make an agreement that is to last five or ten years, and get a certain amount of money; but when they've used that money up and want more they go to capturing our ships again, and simply tell us that they are out of money and must raise it somehow. "I'm getting off the track a little," said Haines, after a pause, "as I promised to tell you how we[123] owe our present navy to the Algerine pirates. The capture of our ships was a very bad blow to American commerce, as it drove the American flag out of the Mediterranean, and limited our trade altogether to the West Indies. Matters had come to a very bad state. Mr. Humphreys was appointed Commissioner for the United States in 1793, to negotiate with the Dey of Algiers. He was treated with great contempt by that chief of pirates, and what do you suppose the beggar said when he talked with the American about the business?" "I don't know, I'm sure," was the reply of all of us. "Well, he said, 'If I were to make peace with everybody what should I do with my corsairs? They would take off my head for the want of other prizes, not being able to live on their miserable allowance.' "Mr. Humphreys did not waste any time in writing to President Washington and telling him what the barbarian scoundrel said, and he added this comment at the end of his letter. 'If we mean to have a commerce we must have a navy to defend it.' "Well, the President in his next message to Congress suggested that we must have a navy, and he gave his reasons for the suggestion. I disremember 'em exactly; but the substance of 'em was that the United States would never have any rank among na[124]tions if she had the reputation of weakness. We would be sure to be insulted if we hadn't the strength to hit back, and the only way we could have peace was to let everybody know we were always ready to fight. "Congress took the words of the President in good part," Haines continued, "and passed a bill authorizing the building of six frigates, four of them forty-four gunners, and the two thirty-six gunners; and that's the way we owe our navy to the Algerine pirates. Would you believe it, there were a good many members of Congress who opposed building the navy, and thought it would be better and cheaper to make a trade with the Dey of Algiers by paying him ransom and tribute money instead of spending our money on ships. They made a clause in the bill appropriating a million dollars toward buying a peace with the Dey, and in case they did so, the building of the ships was to be stopped. "And that's just what happened. In 1795 we made a treaty of peace with this sea-robber which cost the government a million of dollars, as I've already told you about. They stopped work on the ships, but they were pretty well along by that time; and when, in 1797, we got into trouble with France and things looked very squally, it didn't take a great while to finish the ships and get them ready for sea." [125] "How did the trouble with France come about? Please tell me." "As near as I can remember," said Haines, "this was the way of it,— "France and England were at war, and the French government took offense at a treaty we had made with Great Britain. They issued a secret order authorizing French ships-of-war to capture neutral ships in the West Indies, if they were found carrying supplies to British ports. The French cruisers, under this authority, began to seize American ships, and treated their crews with great cruelty. We had felt very friendly to the French down to that time, owing to the way they helped us during the Revolution, but they acted so badly that we didn't feel so well afterward. Next they issued a decree which almost amounted to a declaration of war, and I don't believe you can guess what it was." "I have read somewhere," I said, "that the French not only authorized the capture of American ships trading between the United States and Great Britain and its colonies, but declared further that any American found on board of a hostile ship, though placed there without his consent by impressment, should be hanged as a pirate! Wasn't that it?" "Yes, it was," said Haines; "just think of it! British ships were constantly impressing American[126] seamen. Suppose an English war-ship with impressed Americans on board should be captured by a French cruiser; those Americans were liable to be hanged as pirates! Did you ever hear of anything so outrageous?" "Certainly I never did," I answered; "it's difficult to believe that such an order was possible. Did the United States declare war against France after that?" "They didn't do it in the regular form of a declaration," said Haines; "but they sent out war-ships as fast as they could get them ready, with orders to capture French ships, and at the same time they passed a law for raising a land-force to defend our seaports. A good many French privateers were fitted out to capture American ships, and American privateers to capture French ships. As fast as we could get our war-ships ready we sent them out, and the fighting very soon became lively. The frigates United States, Constitution, and Constellation were the first to get to sea, and the Constellation captured a French cruiser a few days after she sailed. She was the first vessel captured in the war, and, in fact, the first ever captured by the navy of the United States. "There's a funny thing about that cruiser," continued Haines, and I listened attentively to hear what he was saying; "she was called Le Croyable, that's what I think it was, and carried fourteen guns; she[127] was taken into port, where she was condemned by a prize-court, and added to the United States navy. They named her the Retaliation, and sent her out with two other small ships to cruise in the West Indies. "One day they sighted two ships that they thought were British, and sailed up within shooting distance. They discovered their mistake when it was too late; what they had thought to be English ships turned out to be Frenchmen, and big ones too. The French ships captured the Retaliation, and the other two started to sail away. One of the big French ships started after them, and she was one of the fastest sailers in the world. "Captain Bainbridge of the Retaliation had been taken on board the other French ship as a prisoner. When he got there the French captain asked him the strength of the two ships that were running away. He promptly answered, 'Twenty-eight twelve-pounders, and twenty nine-pounders,' which was more than double what their armament really was. The French captain immediately signaled to the other Frenchman to give up the chase and come back. As the one who signaled was the senior officer the other one was obliged to obey his orders, which he did very reluctantly, as he had got near enough to the American ships to see that they were very much inferior to him, and he was pretty certain to capture them." [128] "Didn't they punish Captain Bainbridge for telling such a falsehood?" I asked. "No, not at all," said Haines; "you know the old saying, 'All's fair in love and war;' they used a few hard words about him, and then the French captain complimented him on the success of his deception and asked him to take a glass of wine. The trick was by no means a new one, either on sea or on land. "There was another hard-fought battle in February, 1800," continued Haines, "between Commodore Truxton's ship, the Constellation, thirty-eight guns, and a French ship called the Vengeance, of fifty-two guns. It began at eight o'clock in the evening and lasted till one in the morning. The ships sailed along side by side all that time, and kept firing broadsides into each other. The rigging of the Constellation was so cut away that her mainmast fell overboard, and just before that happened the French ship sheered off and disappeared in the darkness. The Constellation had fourteen men killed and twenty-five wounded, while the Vengeance had fifty killed and one hundred and ten wounded. Her captain said that he had lowered his flag twice during the engagement, endeavoring to surrender, but the American hadn't discovered it." Haines further told me that from the beginning to the end of the war about fifty ships, large and[129] small, were captured by American privateers. The frigates and other war-ships made a good many captures; and, on the other hand, the French ships took a considerable number of American craft. Just as he told me this, there was a commotion outside of the room where we were, and the same officer whom I have mentioned as wearing so much uniform appeared at our door, accompanying the keeper of the jail. The keeper unlocked the door, and opened it, and then we were called into the corridor of our prison. The officer questioned us as to whether we belonged to the crew of the Washington, and we promptly answered that we did. "You'd better go back to your ship at once," said he; "and if you come ashore again try to behave yourselves. If you get into trouble here a second time you may not get off so easily. That's all; you can go now." We didn't stop to thank him; and, in fact, we could hardly have done so had we thought of it, as he turned on his heel and walked away the instant he pronounced the last word of his little speech that I have quoted. We were only too willing to go back to the ship, and hurried to the landing place as fast as we could go. We gave a boatman a shilling to take us to the Washington, and you can believe we scrambled up[130] the side in a hurry. We reported to the mate, who was on duty at the time, and he gave us a sharp ratting for over-staying our liberty on shore. I endeavored to explain matters, that our liberty had been mostly passed in jail, at which he smiled and ordered us to go below. Captain Dawson was ashore at the time we got back, and didn't return for several hours. Soon after he came back he sent for Haines to come aft and tell the story of our experience. None of the rest of us were sent for, and we were somewhat solicitous as to the treatment Haines would receive. The captain heard his story; and when Haines explained that we had been set upon and provoked by the English sailors with whom we got into the fight, and also that we had done our full share of the knocking down before we were arrested, the captain appeared quite satisfied, and did not make any reproof of us for over-staying our liberty. He did say, however, that he thought it would be well for us to heed the advice of the British officer—and not go on shore again. Then he told Haines to "go forward," and we heard nothing more about the matter. We remained four or five days at Gibraltar, taking in water and fresh provisions, repairing a few damages resulting from the gale I have told[131] about, and also disposing of a part of our cargo to good advantage. There were no docks where we could lie, and our cargo was unloaded into lighters which came alongside. Two or three times we got into wordy altercations with the lighter men; and if order hadn't been maintained by the captains of the lighters and our own officers, I think we might have indulged in some hand-to-hand fighting. The men on the lighters were mostly English, and as we were all Americans you can readily understand that it would have been quite easy to provoke a fight. After all our arrangements had been completed, I supposed we would sail away at once; but to the surprise of all the crew we continued to lie at our anchorage. The captain didn't choose to tell us why we were delaying; and, of course, we couldn't ask him. We lay there the next day and the next, and then the reason for our delay became apparent. An English cruiser got up sail and proceeded out of the harbor. When she began operations for leaving port, we followed her example, and left our anchorage not many minutes after she had left hers. As she reached the end of the peninsula she turned to the eastward, and we followed her example. It then became plain to all of us that we were sailing in her company, and she would protect us from any further attack by the Algerines. [132] England was then at peace with Algiers, having made a truce with the Dey, the real object being to concentrate the attacks of the pirates upon the French, and also to break up American commerce in the Mediterranean. The Dey had ordered his people not to plunder any ship bearing the English flag. I've no doubt it caused them many a pang in their hearts to see a large and apparently valuable ship sailing by, and they forbidden by the orders of their ruler to capture it. We were headed for Marseilles; and for a considerable part of the way the coast of Spain and of southern France was in sight. We saw two or three corsairs from the Barbary coast. Whenever they were sighted the British war-ship slackened her speed, so that we easily closed in upon her, and were literally under her protection. The maritime force of Algiers at that time consisted of four frigates with an aggregate of one hundred twenty-four guns, one polacca with eighteen guns, one brig of twenty, four xebecs with an aggregate of one hundred sixty-eight guns, three galliotas or galiots with four guns each, and sixty gunboats. The vessels were all manned at the rate of twelve men for each gun. Tunis had at the same time twenty-two corsairs, mounting from four to twenty-two guns each. So, you see, those Barbary coast pirates had a large fleet of ships; and,[133] bear in mind, I've not included the fleets of Morocco and Tripoli, which were equal to about half of the combined force of Algiers and Tunis. I ought to explain, perhaps, that a polacca is a vessel with three short masts, without tops, caps, or cross-trees to the upper yards. A xebec is a small three-masted vessel used in the Mediterranean; and a galliota is a vessel with one mast, and has from sixteen to twenty seats for rowers. This sort of vessel is very useful for piratical purposes, as it can be propelled at a fair speed by means of oars when the weather is calm, which is impossible with a ship of the ordinary build of England or the United States. As the piratical craft always carry plenty of men they can use the oars to great advantage. We got to Marseilles without trouble, though our convoy left us when we were just within sight of land. It was fortunate that we did not encounter a French fleet while on the way from Gibraltar to Marseilles, else we might have lost our convoy and been left to take care of ourselves. Ordinarily, when either the French or the English ships ventured out of port at that time they went in fleets of considerable size, for the double purpose of offense and defense. Several ships together could make themselves reasonably sure of capturing any straggling vessel of the enemy; and in case of at[134]tack by an enemy's fleet they might possibly cut some of the ships off singly, even though the enemy's fleet was stronger than their own number. I presume it was in order to avoid drawing an attack from the French that our British convoy turned away at the time he did. Moreover, there was little chance that the Algerine corsairs would venture very near the French coast for fear of capture, and therefore we were fairly safe. We sold our cargo to good advantage at Marseilles, and very quickly obtained a return one. As soon as we could make ready after our cargo was completed, we hauled out of Marseilles and headed for the Straits of Gibraltar. <hr class="chap" /> [135] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

1 of 2

2 of 2

Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.