The Life of Commodore John Daniel Danels of Baltimore

For Flag and Profit: The Life of Commodore John Daniel Danels of Baltimore FRED HOPKINS W,ITH THE SIGNING OF THE TREATY the news of the beginning of the patriot of Ghent on Christmas Eve of 1814, the revolution in Caracas in 1810 to the United merchants and seamen of Baltimore had States.2 It was also fitting that the news of every reason to expect that the city would the patriot cause in South America came return to its prewar position as the fastest initially to Baltimore because that city growing center of seaborne commerce in proved to be most receptive in the ensuing America. For about a year Baltimore ap- years to the requests for aid from the var- peared to have regained her prewar status. ious patriot representatives. In addition to Slowly, however, the merchant fleets of Baltimore's long standing commercial re- Europe began to encroach upon Baltimore's lationship with South America, two addi- trade with the West Indies and South tional factors made her a haven for patriot America. The sleek clipper schooners of the activity. During the early nineteenth cen- Chesapeake could not compete with the tury, Baltimore was the center of Roman larger bulk carriers of the European na- Catholicism in the United States. Because tions. Between 1816 and 1819, the declining the patriot spokesmen were all Roman value of vessels coupled with falling freight Catholics, they found Baltimoreans a most rates and commodity prices caused the col- sympathetic audience to their pleas for aid. lapse of many of Baltimore's oldest mer- In addition, Baltimore in 1810 was much cantile firms. The decline of the mercantile like the city is today, having a wide variety houses left the city's ship masters and sea- of nationalities all living and working to- men with three choices of earning a liveli- gether. This situation also provided an at- hood: continue to engage in the diminishing mosphere more tolerant of the patriot rep- merchant service, enter the slave trade, or resentatives than many of the cities in the join the forces of the South American col- United States.3 onies in revolt against Spain. For captains From 1810-1812 Baltimore's merchants and seamen who had just concluded two and sea captains played both sides of the and one-half years of successful combat revolution in South America. The firm of against the world's greatest navy, the D'Arcy and Didier, for example, traded choice for many was easy. 4 arms with whichever side held the ports. Baltimore's trade relations with South For obvious reasons the revolutionary sit- America began in 1796 after Spain declared uation in South America was not of utmost war on Great Britain.1 The city was two concern to the citizens of Baltimore during days' sail closer to South America than other American ports to the northeast. For- the War of 1812. After the Treaty of Ghent, eign news in nineteenth-century United however, and with the establishment of States was closely linked with seaborne peace between the major European powers, commerce. Two Baltimore vessels brought Baltimore found herself at a disadvantage. Her sleek clipper schooners could not compete with the larger bulk carriers of the Dr. Hopkins is Associate Provost of the University of Baltimore and a member of the Society's Maritime European nations. Baltimore's trade with Committee. Europe was hindered because she was over 392 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE VOL. 80 No. 4, WINTER 1985 Commodore John Daniel Danels of Baltimore 393 two hundred miles further from Europe ance of hostilities prevented his appearance than the other major ports in northeastern in court.12 United States.5 Thus, the renewed pleas of While Danels was returning from Ber- the patriot representatives in Baltimore muda, his old employers, D'Arcy and Di- found willing ears when they requested not dier, were purchasing Rossie, Joshua Bar- only supplies but men and ships to help ney's successful privateer schooner. Com- overthrow the control of Madrid. In fact missioned as a letter-of-marque trader, the the port became so notorious for its activi- Rossie, with Danels in command, cleared ties in behalf of the revolutionaries that in Baltimore for Bordeaux in mid-December. 1817 during a debate on a neutrality bill, By 17 January 1813, Danels and the Rossie John Randolph stated that the proposed were in Plymouth, England as a prize to legislation was actually a peace treaty be- the frigate Dryad of the Rochefort squad- tween Spain and Baltimore.6 The seamen ron.13 and merchants of Baltimore were charac- Once again Danels was exchanged and terized as either pirates or patriotic priva- returned to New York on 9 November 1813. teers depending upon which side of the Thus far he had shown little of the ability South American situation a person took his and luck that was to make him famous in stand. The most successful and controver- South America. Meanwhile the Royal Navy sial of these "sailors of fortune" was John had successfully blockaded the Chesapeake Daniel Danels of Oldtown, Baltimore. Bay, so D'Arcy and Didier, like many other Born on 19 December 1783 in Maine,7 Baltimoreans engaged in privateering, Danels, like many other seamen and mer- moved their base of operations to New York chants, appears to have been drawn to Bal- City. In early 1814 Danels took command timore in the early days of the nineteenth in New York of the D'Arcy and Didier century by the increasing opportunities for letter-of-marque trader Delille. His first trade and employment. The records of the voyage was an uneventful round-trip from Baltimore Custom House indicate that in New York to Bordeaux. Returning to sea the years immediately preceding the War in the spring of 1814 in the Delille, Danels of 1812, Danels served as a merchant cap- sailed from New York to Bordeaux, and to tain for the house of John Netherville New Orleans before returning to New York D'Arcy and Henry Didier, Jr.8 This firm on 13 May 1814. He experienced his first had extensive business connections in real success as he captured five small ves- France, Haiti, South America, and New sels and fought a successful ninety-five Orleans. Little is known about Danels's minute engagement with the British letter- personal activities during these prewar of-marque brig Surprise off Cuba. As he years except that in about 1811 he married returned to New York, Danels was chased an emigre from Santo Domingo named Eu- by a blockading frigate but managed to genia, whose dowry was her weight in gold.9 outrun his antagonist.14 With the outbreak of war, Danels was After the Delille's return to New York, one of the first to sail from Baltimore bear- D'Arcy and Didier decided to refit the ing commission number six in the letter- schooner as a six gun privateer and re- of-marque trader Eagle bound for Haiti in named her Syren. On 5 June 1814, Danels July, 1812.10 Danels returned to Baltimore and Syren left New York for the English in September and immediately cleared for Channel. A gale off Sandy Hook carried St. Barts.11 While returning to the Chesa- away her bowsprit and the Syren put back peake in November, the Eagle was captured to New York. When the Syren again de- by the British ship of war Sophie and taken parted on 12 June, Danels was not on to Bermuda for condemnation. Danels was board. Under the command of Danels's for- exchanged, but the Eagle's owner, John mer first mate, the Syren sailed for Euro- Randall, objected to seizure of his vessel as pean waters. After a successful cruise, it had carried a British trading license. which included the capture of H.M.S. Randall appealed the seizure all the way to Landrail off Gibraltar, the Syren returned the Admiralty in London, but the continu- to New York on 16 August 1814.15 By mid- 394 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE September with Danels in command, the ing ship, and Danels was one of the Amer- Syren again headed for the English Chan- ican captains in port who went to Driscoll's nel. Within two months Danels had aid.19 stopped several British vessels and the Sy- Sometime between 1815 and late 1817, ren's hold was filled with $50,000 in prize Danels returned to privateering, this time goods. Upon returning to the coast of the on the side of the former colonies of Spain United States, Danels decided to land at in South America. What exactly brought Philadelphia rather than New York or Bal- about this decision may never be known. timore. Within fifteen minutes after pick- Perhaps like many other Baltimore cap- ing up a pilot off Cape May, Danels found tains and shipowners, Danels was unable himself aground and the Syren's rudder to compete with the foreign bulk carriers. broken. Danels managed to refloat his From his former employers, D'Arcy and schooner and with a jury-rigged rudder, Didier, Danels may have learned of the sailed back to Cape May where he anchored larger problems faced by merchants now for the night. As the Syren rode at anchor, that there was peace in Europe and the the pilot and several of the crew stole the neutrality of the United States was no longboat and fled ashore. The next morning longer an advantage in commercial enter- a fourteen-gun schooner and several barges prises. Also in early 1816, Thomas Taylor, from the British blockading squadron at- a former resident of Wilmington, Delaware, tacked the Syren.

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