Captain Samuel A. Whitney (aged 30), of the ship Hiram, writing to his agents in Liverpool, from Fort Royal, Martinique, on the 22nd of November, 1800, gives the following account of events in real life, that have a foretaste of Stevensonian romance about them.
I have a very unpleasant account to give you of the Hiram, which, after being
- twice taken and retaken, - arrived here the 13th inst.[November] after being one hundred
and two days at sea; the circumstances are these:
Capture On the 13th September [1799], being
in long. 55. and lat. 30. I was overtaken by a French sloop of war brig,
called La Curieuse, Captain Ratlett, from Cayenne [18 9-pounder
guns], on a cruise of two months,
and then to France, who after an examination of my papers, pronounced the
greater part of my property to be English. They then took out all my people,
(except my brother[Harry aged 17], one green hand, and a boy of 12 years of age), and put on
board two officers and eight men, and ordered us for Cayenne, and after
keeping us company for two days, and robbing us of a lower yard, a cask of
water, a ship glass, and sundry small matters, they left us. I, on first
discovering her to be French, went below, loaded my pistols, and hid them away
in a crate of ware, which if I had not done I should have lost them, for no
less than three different times was my trunk searched, my brother's chest and
the cabin all over, and they were as cautious as though they read my determination
in my face. The officers would not allow the men to go off deck at any time,
and they ate, drank and slept on deck themselves, never suffering but one at a
time to go off deck; therefore, I found I had no other chance but to engage
them openly by daylight. I directed my brother to have a couple of handspikes
in readiness, and when he saw me begin, to come to my assistance.
Recapture Therefore, at four o'clock on the afternoon of the fourth day after being taken, I secured my pistols in my waistbands, went on deck, and found the Prize-master asleep on the weather hen-coop, his mate at the wheel, and their people on different parts of the main deck, my brother and man on the lee side of the windlass. Under the circumstances I made the attempt, by first knocking down the mate at the wheel. The prize-master jumped up so quick that I could get but a very slight stroke at him. He then drew his dirk upon me, but I closed in with him, sallied him out to the quarter rail and hove him overboard, but he caught by the main sheet, which prevented his going into the water. By this time I had the remaining eight upon me, two of whom I knocked backwards off the quarter deck; by this time my people got aft with handspikes, and played their parts so well that I was soon at liberty again. I then drew a pistol and shot a black fellow in the head, who was coming to me with a broad axe uplifted, the ball cut him into the skull bone and then glanced, but it stunned him and amazed all the rest, who had no suspicion of my having pistols. By this time, the mate whom I first knocked down, had recovered and got a loaded pistol out of his trunk, and, apparently, fired it directly in my man's face, but the ball missed him. The prize-master got on board again and stabbed my brother in the side, but not so bad as to oblige him to give out until we had got the day. In this situation we had it pell mell for about a quarter of an hour, when at last we got them a-running, and followed them so close, knocking down the hindermost as we came up with them, until part made their escape below. The rest then began to cry for mercy, which we granted on their delivering up their arms, which consisted of a discharged horseman's pistol, a midshipman's dirk, a broad axe, a handsaw, and two empty junck bottles[stout bottles made of thick dark-colored glass]. We then marched them all aft into the cabin and brought them up, one at a time, and after examining for knives, etc., we confined them down forward.
By this time it was quite dark, and my brother was obliged to give out, and lay in extreme pain for forty-eight hours, expecting every moment to be his last, but he afterwards recovered astonishingly, and was soon able to keep his watch. My man got so drunk that I could not keep him awake at night, so that there was only my little boy and I to work the ship, watch the French, and attend my brother. I kept a French lad upon deck, the only one that was not wounded, and kept him at the wheel all night. The weather was extremely fine and the Frenchmen quite peaceable, so that I met with little difficulty. Thus we kept possession of her for ten days, when we had reached within two or three days sail of Savannah, being in the long. of 75.
Capture: On the 27th September, was again overtaken by a French privateer, from Guadaloupe, who, without any ceremony of examining papers (only to find out the contents of my packages) came immediately on board, broke open the hatches, and filled the deck with bales, trunks, cases, etc., and after examining for the most valuable goods, sent them on board the privateer. As her cruise was nearly at an end, having sent off their men, they hove overboard all their empty water casks and lumber of all kinds, and filled themselves as full as an egg out of us, not leaving room for their people to sleep below. They were two days at work upon us. They then took out my brother, man and boy, (leaving me on board) and all the former French crew, except four men, and put on board eleven more of their own men, and after plundering me of part of my cloaths, brass hanging compass, carpenter's tools, spare cordage, deep-sea line, and many other like stores, they left us, ordering us for Guadaloupe.
Captain Whitney's first work now was to destroy, or put out of order, all their nautical instruments. His own quadrant he was master of himself, and he kept a dead reckoning, so that he knew something of their position. After sailing about a week, the crew grew uneasy, and the officers lost confidence in themselves, and applied to their prisoner to navigate the ship. He told them that he would do so, and gave them his word that he would do all in his power that they should be well treated! Finally, they gave him the command. He shaped his course for Savannah, as nearly as he could, and in a few days had the inexpressible joy of seeing the land, and feeling the land breeze. In twenty-four hours, he should have been in, had not the lieutenant called the men aft, and telling them what an everlasting disgrace it would be to him, persuaded them to let him again have command. Twice they foiled him in this way. Twice he had made his port, and twice they took all hope from him; and when they turned from land the second time, he told them, in pretty strong language, that they might take the ship and go to perdition, for he would have no more to do with them; and then he went below.
In a day or two after this, as he was lying in his berth, he heard a great noise on deck, and as he rolled over, the ship came round within half cable-length of the shore, and not a soul but himself knew where they were. It was Bermuda. He then made up his mind that he would advise a little, and directed them how to shape their course for Guadaloupe, meaning all the time to bring up at Martinique [British colony near to Guadaloupe which was a French colony], and in this he was pretty successful. After being 46 days in their hands, it was about eight o'clock in the morning, when the lieutenant came below, and told him they had made a large ship, that they must be near Guadaloupe, and before morning, would be in. Captain Whitney laughed to himself, to see how nicely they were caught, but said nothing, till they were so near that there was no chance for escape. He then said to the lieutenant, 'You had better have gone to the United States; you are a prize to the English.' The lieutenant was perfectly dumb for a moment. He saw what must take place; and as they got ready a barge from the ship, he begged, when they hailed, to say, 'an American ship'. 'I will', Captain Whitney replied, 'but I will also add, a prize to the French', which he did, and the reply from the barge was, 'We shall be most happy to relieve you'.
Recapture The frigate HMS Unite [Captain Harvey, 36 12-pounder guns, captured from the French in 1796, built 1787 Rochefort as Gracieuse] was alongside them, so the Frenchmen aboard were taken. The English took possession and claimed the Hiram as a capture from the French, but Capt. Whitney argued that he, himself, recaptured the ship by running her into port under their guns. The case was taken into their Court of Admiralty, where an award of money was made to the frigate. This sum Captain Whitney paid, shipped a new crew, and, after three months at Port Royal, brought his vessel safely, in convoy, into Savannah in 1801.
From the History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque with an
Account of the Liverpool Slave Trade, 1744-1812 GOMER WILLIAMS.
Liverpool Privateers
The above report also contains some input from a Book "Incidents in the Life of Samuel Whitney" by Henry A Whitney and other Whitney family manuscripts.