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 com- pete 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. Danels sank two of the arrived in Baltimore as representative of barges before deciding to run the Syren the patriot government of Buenos Aires. aground. He then burned the Syren's upper With him Taylor brought six blank letters works and left the hull with the prize goods of marque and reprisal against Spanish sea- in the custody of the custom agents at Cape borne commerce.20 Taylor was only the first May. As he proceeded up to Delaware to of many agents from Buenos Aires, Mexico, Wilmington to get assistance, Danels saw Banda Oriental, and Venezuela who flocked the citizens of Cape May plunder his vessel. to Baltimore seeking experienced priva- To make matters worse, none of the four teersmen and vessels for service against enemy vessels taken by Danels on the Spain. John Danels may have seen employ- cruise ever reached an American port.16 ment in South America as an alternative to Before he could secure another com- the declining merchant service. His deci- mand, the Treaty of Ghent ended Danels's sion may also have been influenced by the career as a privateer. He returned to his fact that the Romp and the Orb, owned by home on Ann Street in Baltimore where he D'Arcy and Didier, were two of the first would reside for the next three years with patriot privateers outfitted in Baltimore.21 his wife and three children.17 Like most Sometime in late 1817, Danels commis- privateers, Danels returned to his prewar sioned the Ferguson shipyard in Baltimore occupation as a merchant captain. Initially, to construct a brigantine having a length of he must have enjoyed some success or per- 101 feet, a beam of 121/2 feet, a burthen of haps it was his wife's dowry that financed 285 tons, and pierced for twelve guns. On the building of the 150 ton schooner Eu- 25 March 1818 registration papers for this genia in late 1815. Records of the Baltimore vessel, now named the Vacunia, were filed Custom House list Danels as both owner at the Baltimore Custom House listing and master of the new vessel.18 It appears John Daniel Danels as owner and a John that Danels continued to carry cargo for Cox as master.22 In April of 1818, the Va- his former employers D'Arcy and Didier cunia cleared Baltimore for Teneriffe. Da- making passages to France, Haiti, and New nels, however, had no intention of sailing Orleans. In what must have been his first for Teneriffe. Like other former privateers voyage in the Eugenia, Danels assisted fel- of Baltimore—John Dieter, Daniel Chay- low Baltimorean Cornelius Driscoll in the ter, James Chayter, Thomas Boyle, James port of Le Havre, France, when Driscoll's Barnes, John Clark, and Joseph Almeida— vessel grounded and had to be abandoned. John Daniels sailed for the wars in South Driscoll's crew refused to unload the sink- America. Commodore John Daniel Danels of Baltimore 395 Danels' activities in South America ex- and reprisal from two separate govern- tended from 1818 until 1825 and may be ments was not legal according to interna- divided into two distinct categories. From tional law. Danels was later to claim he 1818 until 1819, Danels roamed the Atlan- returned the Buenos Airean commission to tic coast of South America as a privateer or Buenos Aires via a passing schooner. Offi- pirate depending upon one's point of view.23 cials in Buenos Aires claimed never to have From 1820 through 1825 Danels functioned received the documents and declared Da- as part of Simon Bolivar's fledgling navy nels a pirate. The exact reasons for Danels' blockading the coasts of Venezuela and Co- securing two commissions are uncertain. lumbia against Spanish shipping. Several possibilities do exist. Recent evi- When the Vacunia sailed from Baltimore dence gives the date of the Banda Oriental in April, 1818, John Danels was not aboard; commission as 14 February 1818, two but as the brigantine neared White Rocks months before Danels departed Balti- at the mouth of Rock Creek on the Patap- more.24 By accepting the commission in sco River, a pilot boat brought out Danels Baltimore, Danels would have been in vi- and he replaced Cox as captain. Cox re- olation of the Neutrality Act of 1817. The mained as first lieutenant. Danels pro- entire affair of the Buenos Airean commis- ceeded down the Chesapeake to the Atlan- sion may have been an attempt to somehow tic. Once at sea the canon were hauled from cover Danels' earlier violation of American the hold and the Vacunia became a ship of law. Another possibility is that for some war. Still flying the American flag, the Va- reason Danels wanted a Buenos Airean cunia sailed for Buenos Aires arriving in commission more than a Banda Oriental late April of 1818. No vessels were attacked one. Banda Oriental was the less stable of by Danels on his outward voyage. the two governments. Upon arrival in the Danels anchored in the Rio de la Plata Rio de la Plata, Buenos Aires would only for fifteen weeks; during which time he gave give commissions against Spanish and not his sixty man crew the option of joining Portuguese shipping. Also Buenos Aires at him as a Buenos Airean privateer or going least attempted to exert some control over ashore. The entire crew elected to follow its privateers. This control may have been Danels. Danels next went through a rather unwanted and unexpected by Danels.25 complicated legal procedure that was to After clearing the mouth of the Rio de la forestall any violation of the various neu- Plata and announcing the Banda Oriental trality laws enacted by the Congress of the commission to the crew, Danels renamed United States. First Danels sold the Vacu- his vessel La Irresistible, the name which nia to the patriot government of Buenos supposedly appears on the February 1818 Aires. Then Danels had himself declared a commission. Danels cruised for a month citizen of Buenos Aires. Finally, he repur- and a-half in the western Atlantic. His chased the Vacunia changing her name to success among the unsuspecting Portu- Maipu. Both Danels and the brigantine guese merchant vessels was phenomenal as were now Buenos Airean and supposedly he plundered and sunk over twenty-six of could not violate American neutrality laws. them. Specie from twenty-four of the ves- Having obtained his Buenos Airean com- sels totalled $68,000. The Globo, bound mission against Spanish seaborne trade, from Bombay to Lisbon, with a cargo of Danels and Maipu finally put to sea on 15 spices and specie, netted Danels $30,000 in July 1818. specie and a cargo valued at $90,000. But After clearing the mouth of the Rio de la his most valuable prize was the Gran Para, Plata, Danels mustered his crew and an- Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon, with $300,000 in nounced that he also had a commission specie. Suddenly, John Danels became an from Banda Oriental, modern Uruguay, international figure. Already his name was signed by that country's revolutionary better known in Lisbon and Madrid than leader Jose Artigas, giving Danels authority his adopted hometown of Baltimore. to attack both Spanish and Portuguese sea- Using a loop-hole in the neutrality laws, borne commerce. Bearing letters of marque Danels and the Irresistible returned to Bal- 396 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE timore in September 1818. Danels claimed var's fledgling navy. Danels may have en- his brigantine was unfit and needed repairs. tered into these discussions because the day The neutrality laws permitted vessels from of the patriot privateer was drawing rapidly other nations engaged in war to refit in to a close. Pressure had been brought to American ports in an emergency situation. bear on the emerging nations in South Danels, of course, claimed the Irresistible America by both the United States and to be in danger of sinking. While waiting European powers to withdraw all letters of for his vessel to be repaired, Danels man- marque and reprisal. Too many of the so- aged to deposit his $488,000 prize money in called privateers had turned to out-right the Marine Bank of Baltimore. By mid- piracy. By late 1819 most of the revolution- October of 1818 the refit of the Irresistible ary governments had ceased to issue com- had been completed, and still bearing missions.26 Banda Oriental papers, Danels returned to While Danels and Arizmendi were nego- South American waters. tiating, the Buenos Airean privateer Creola From October 1818 until early March of arrived at Margarita and anchored next to 1819, Danels played havoc with the ship- the Nereyda and the Irresistible. Like Da- ping of all nations. He even boarded Amer- nels, the Creola captain was approached ican and British vessels searching for Span- with an offer to join Bolivar's fleet. The ish and Portuguese owned cargoes. Prize Creola crew, however, were from Baltimore cargoes and vessels were sold at St. Thomas and wanted to return home.27 One night the and Margarita Island. In March, however, Creola crew boarded the larger Irresistible, at latitude 8° south and longitude 30° west, surprised Danels' crew and took over the Danels was engaged by the Spanish brig- vessel. The Creola mutineers found crew- of-war La Nereyda. Danels's crew num- men aboard the Irresistible who also wanted bered about seventy and the Irresistible was to return to Baltimore. After permitting armed with twelve 18 pounder carronades; those crewmen to go ashore who wanted to La Nereyda carried a crew of 142 and was stay on Margarita Island, the mutineers cut armed with 18 cannons. After a short ex- the Irresistible's anchor lines and sailed out change, Danels boarded La Nereyda and of St. John the Greek Harbor. Although the took her as a prize. The Spaniards lost 38 Irresistible was no longer covered by her killed and 22 wounded. Banda Oriental letters of marque, the mu- At first Danels tried to sell his prize in tineers proceeded to stop and plunder ves- St. Thomas, but the citizens refused him sels of all nations. The mutineers had be- the right to land. Danels then sailed to come true pirates. Danels learned of the Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela mutiny the next day and immediately fol- where a patriot prize court did not ask too lowed in La Nereyda. many questions. The Irresistible and her By 15 April 1819, the Irresistible had Spanish prize arrived at Margarita Island made her way back to the Chesapeake Bay. on 22 March 1819. By 29 March, La Ner- Off the mouth of the Patuxent River a eyda had been condemned by the prize revenue cutter took the Irresistible into cus- court and sold at auction to a Venezuelan tody and quarantined the former privateer national named Antonio Franchesco. The at the Nottingham Custom House. Most of former Spanish brig was renamed Congress the crew managed to slip away but were de Venezuela and awarded Venezuelan let- later captured and put on trial in Rich- ters of marque and reprisal. A former lieu- mond, Virginia, for piracy. The ringleaders tenant of Danels, Henry Childs, was ap- were eventually hanged. Meanwhile Danels pointed her captain and Congress was fitted and the Nereyda had reached Baltimore. out as a privateer. Upon learning that the Irresistible was an- While the prize sale was being negoti- chored at Nottingham on the Patuxent, ated, Danels appears to have been holding Danels went to Nottingham, took his brig- discussions with General Juan Arizmendi, antine, and sailed back to Baltimore, much the liberator of Margarita Island, concern- to the consternation of the custom officials. ing the possibilities of joining Simon Boli- The recovery of the Irresistible appears Commodore John Daniel Danels of Baltimore 397 to have been the least of Danels' problems though Danels was not directly involved in upon his return to Baltimore. During the this trial, two of the ring-leaders, after next nine months he would be involved in being sentenced to hang, accused Danels of no fewer than five separate court cases murder. The condemned seamen testified related to his activities in South America. that during the Irresistible's second cruise Two of the cases would eventually reach Danels had stopped a British merchant ves- the Supreme Court. Upon his return in sel to search for Spanish owned cargo. After April of 1819, Danels discovered that Joa- the British captain had lowered his flag, quim Jose Vasquez, Consul General of the Danels had allegedly fired off a carronade. King of Portugal, had filed suit to recover The wad struck the British captain and the specie taken by Danels from the Gran killed him. Federal authorities brought Da- Para. The case was tried in U.S. District nels to trial in Baltimore before Judge Court for Maryland before Judge Theodor- Theodorick Bland. Danels's defense was ick Bland. Don Vasquez held that the Ir- that he had ordered the carronade not to resistible had been outfitted as a ship of war be fired, but his order had not been obeyed. to serve a foreign country by Danels in Judge Bland found Danels not guilty be- Baltimore, thereby violating various acts of cause accidents often occur in war-like sit- Congress relating to the neutrality of the uations.30 United States. Danels's lawyers argued that Danels's legal problems in Baltimore Danels had not become a privateer until he were just beginning. On 21 April 1819, six reached the Rio de la Plata and that he was days after Danels returned from Margarita now a citizen of Banda Oriental. Judge Island in La Nereyda, John B. Bernabeau, Bland decreed that Danels had violated the representing the King of Spain, filed suit neutrality laws and awarded the Gran Para in the District Court of Maryland to recover specie, worth $300,000, to Don Vasquez. La Nereyda. As before, the presiding judge The decision upset Danels and the directors was Theodorick Bland. Although the Span- of the Marine Bank where the specie had ish case was similar to that of the Portu- been deposited. Supported by the Marine guese in that Bernabeau claimed violation Bank, Danels appealed the Bland decision of American neutrality laws, Bernabeau to the Circuit Court of Maryland, which further claimed that the entire Admiralty upheld Judge Bland. By 1822 the case had Court and sale proceedings on Margarita reached the Supreme Court where Chief Island were a hoax. Bernabeau challenged Jutsice Marshall affirmed the decree of the Danels's lawyers to produce a bill of sale Circuit Court.28 showing that the alleged Venezuelan na- At about the same time that Don Vas- tional, Antonio Franchesco, had actually quez was filing suit against Danels for the purchased La Nereyda. Danels was further Gran Para specie, William A. Swift was challenged to produce the orders from also filing a suit against Danels in Judge Franchesco that gave Danels permission to Bland's court on behalf of the King of have the brig commissioned as a Venezu- Portugal to recover the specie taken from elan privateer with Henry Childs as master. the Globo and the twenty-six other Portu- Danels's lawyers were able to do little to guese vessels plundered by the Irresistible. prove that Franchesco did purchase the Again, the decision went against Danels Spanish brig. Their best effort was a dep- and the Marine Bank. Danels appealed to osition from Henry Childs, who could the Circuit Court of Maryland but the dis- hardly be considered an unbiased source. trict court decree was upheld. This case did Once again Judge Bland found in favor of not reach the Supreme Court. the foreign claimants, and La Nereyda was While Danels was having problems in returned to the Spanish. As in the Portu- Baltimore, the federal government had guese cases, Danels appealed to the Circuit managed to capture most of the mutineers Court of Maryland. The attorneys repre- from the Creola and the Irresistible and senting Danels changed their tactics in the tried them for piracy before Chief Justice appeals procedure. Rather than deal at John Marshall in Richmond, Virginia.29 Al- length with the Franchesco situation, the 398 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE attorneys for Danels focused on the fact foreign flag and that Danels had violated that in several speeches in 1817 and 1818, the Neutrality Act of 20 April 1818 by President James Monroe had called the adding to the armament of Irresistible in situation in South America a civil war Baltimore during the period between the rather than a revolution. Because both par- first and second cruises of the brigantine.34 ties in a civil war are considered as equal, Judge Bland acquitted Danels of the 1818 no violation of United States neutrality charge because Danels proved he had not occurred when La Nereyda entered Balti- added to the Irresistible's armament, only more Harbor. A neutral can give aid to replaced it. Danels was also acquitted of belligerents of both sides in a civil war. The the 1817 charge because the Act of 1818 United States, therefore, had no right to had placed a limit on the length of time the confiscate Danels's prize. The attorneys for 1817 laws would be applicable. By the time Danels further argued that Danels could Danels had come to trial, this time period not be held in violation of the 1817 Neu- had expired. Elias Glenn had had enough trality Act because the 1818 Neutrality Act of Judge Bland and the Maryland Courts, put a time limit on the laws of 1817. By the he decided not to appeal the case any far- time Danels's case had been heard, these ther. Judge Bland was summoned to Wash- time limits had passed. The Court agreed ington by Secretary Adams to discuss his with the arguments of Danels's lawyers and apparent prorevolutionary sympathies. returned La Nereyda to him. The judge was able to clear himself. In 1823, however, the case was appealed Perhaps the pressure of too many law to the Supreme Court. On 8 March 1823 suits or perhaps because of arrangements Justice Joseph Story delivered the opinion made at Margarita Island in March 1819, of the Court that Danels had violated the John Danels sailed the Irresistible from various neutrality acts, that the President Baltimore in late 1819 or early 1820 to join was unclear in the civil war issue, that the Simon Bolivar's Admiral, Luis Brion, at Prize Court on Margarita Island had no Margarita.35 Upon arriving at Margarita, jurisdiction over a Banda Oriental prize, Danels sold the Irresistible to Brion along and finally that there was definitely a ques- with the food and military supplies in her tion as to the sale of the vessel to Fran- hold. The Irresistible was renamed the Ur- chesco. The decree of the Circuit Court was dameta and added to Brion's fleet of reversed.31 twenty-seven small vessels.36 Before selling Danels, in addition to the two prize cases, the Irresistible, however, Danels had cap- was brought before the District Court of tured two Spanish vessels, the Ceres and Maryland by United States Attorney Elias the Diligencia. The Ceres was used by Gen- Glenn on charges of violating the Neutral- eral Arizemerdi for the defense of Margar- ity Acts of 1817 and 1818. Pressure to pros- ita; while the Diligencia, with Danels most ecute Danels came from Secretary of State likely in command, became part of Brion's John Quincy Adams who had received fleet. The Diligencia was one of fifteen ves- notes from the Portuguese and Spanish sels sent by Bolivar to cover the landing of Ambassadors requesting Danels be placed General Mariano Montilla at Rio Hacha in on trial.32 Adams also wanted to use the an effort to surround the Spanish forces at trial to showcase, for the various revolu- Maracaibo. After Brion's fleet shelled Rio tionary leaders, the fallacies in their pri- Hacha for half a day, Montilla made a vateering laws. In addition Adams wanted successful landing and eventually joined in to bring to light the questionable activities the siege of Maracaibo. Brion lost five ships of the prize courts on Margarita Island.33 in the attack, but Danels seems to have Glenn brought the Danels Case to trial come through unscathed.37 before Judge Theodorick Bland. The two Danels returned to Margarita in late specific charges against Danels were that summer of 1820 and somehow purchased he had violated the Neutrality Act of 3 two small merchant vessels in which he March 1817 by fitting out a vessel of war carried food and munitions to patriot forces in the United States for service under a at Angostura on the Orinoco River. One of Commodore John Daniel Danels of Baltimore 399 Danels' vessels was taken by the Spanish smaller than Danels's, consisted of a frig- as it entered the Orinoco; the second vessel ate, a corvette, and three smaller vessels. made a safe passage and was then leased to The two squadrons met at 3:00 P.M. and the patriot forces. battled at pistol shot range until sundown. Returning to Margarita, Danels pur- Danels's corvettes Carabobo and Maria chased with his personal funds the brigan- Francesca battled Laborde's frigate Sabina tine Vencedor and two schooners, the Vol- to a draw. The patriot brigantine Indepen- untario and the Centella. With these three dencia was badly mauled by the Spanish vessels now leased to the combined navies corvette Ceres and was saved only by the of Venezuela and Colombia, Danels joined courage of her crew and captain. Laborde's in the blockade of Cumana and La Guaira vessels managed to force the surrender of after the Spanish defeat at Carabobo on 24 two of Danels's corvettes and to kill forty June 1821. Danels served under the com- patriots while taking three hundred pris- mand of General Jose Bermudez until Cu- oners. The Spanish suffered only seventeen mana surrendered. With his three vessels wounded.39 Danels was court martialed for Danels then moved on to blockade La the loss of the two corvettes, but he an- Guaira where he helped impede the evacu- swered the charges against him in such a ation of the Royalist forces. As a result of way that he was totally absolved and re- his services at Cumana and La Guaira, stored to active duty. Laborde's fleet ran Danels applied for and was granted Vene- into Puerto Cabello and refitted before con- zuelan citizenship and the rank of commo- tinuing its voyage to Lake Maracaibo. From dore in Bolivar's navy. 8 May 1823 until 24 July the opposing fleets During the summer and fall of 1822, Da- of Colombia, under the command of Jose nels returned to Baltimore as an agent of Padilla, and Spain, under the command of the Colombian and Venezuelan navies with Angel Laborde, manoeuvred within the orders to purchase a 30-gun corvette for no confines of Lake Maracaibo. While the more than 80,000 pesos. Unable to find a fleets fought on the lake, patriot infantry suitable vessel at a given price in Baltimore, attacked the Spanish garrison. By 3 August Danels journeyed to Philadelphia and fi- 1823 the Spanish had had enough and sur- nally New York before finding a suitable rendered. Puerto Cabello held out until No- ship. Danels finally purchased the 497 ton vember before its garrison too surrendered. ship Hercules from David Leavitt.38 After Colombia at last was free from Spanish renaming the ship Bolivar, Danels sailed control. Danels, however, does not appear for Venezuela, arriving in late October of to have taken part in these final victories. 1882. Danels remained in Colombian service In early November of 1822 Danels was until 1824 at which time he requested a placed in command of an eight vessel pension and permission to return to Balti- squadron with orders to patrol the waters more. Plans for a combined Colombian- between the Spanish stronghold at Puerto Mexican naval attack on Havana had come Cabello and Curacao, to deny entrance of to naught, and Danels saw his services were any merchant vessels to Puerto Cabello and no longer in demand. As a gesture of good- to intercept any Spanish convoys bound for will Danels agreed to cancel approximately Maracaibo. During this period Danels man- 50,000 pesos owed to him by Colombia for aged to capture the Spanish corvette Maria the services of his vessels, supplies pur- Francesca, which was added to his squad- chased for the army and fleet, and expenses ron. incurred on his trip to Baltimore. This ges- On the afternoon of 1 May 1823, Danels ture gained Danels his discharge from Co- spotted a large Spanish squadron off Puerto lombian service. Cabello. Under the command of Angel La- During the entire time Danels was in borde, this force was heading for Lake Ma- South America, his wife and family re- racaibo in order to support Spanish troops mained in Baltimore. The family residence holding the last major city in Colombia and was now 53 Albemarle St. and would re- Venezuela. Laborde's squadron, although main so until the commodore's death in 400 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE 1855.40 In all John and Eugenia Danels 7. Records ofthe Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, would raise seven children: John (b. 1812), Maryland, September 8, 1981. 8. Records ofthe Collector of Customs at Baltimore, Lewis (b. 1815), Eugenia (b. 1820), Eliza- Record Group 36, Entrances and Clearances beth (b. 1825), Simon Bolivar (b. 1826), (Washington, D.C.: Legislative, Judicial, and Fis- Joseph (b. 1827), and Placetta (b. 1830).41 cal Branch, National Archives and Records Ad- An eighth child, James (b. 1816), is men- ministration). tioned in the Danels will42 but does not 9. Maryland Historical Society, Four Generations of Commissions: The Peale Collection of the Mary- appear in any census reports after 1830. land Historical Society (Baltimore, Maryland: After his return from South America, very Schneidereith and Sons, 1975), pp. 170-171. little is heard of John D. Danels in the 10. Naval Records Collection, Record Group 45, Navy Baltimore press. Eugenia's death on 8 De- Privateer Records (Washington, D.C.: Military cember 185143 was noted in the Baltimore Projects Branch, National Archives and Records Administration). American as the passing of a woman who 11. Records of the Collector of Customs at Baltimore. spent her entire life assisting the poor and 12. Letter by John Randall, Maryland Historical So- needy of Baltimore. The notice ofthe Com- ciety, Manuscripts Division, Vertical File, Danels' modore's death on 29 October 1855 was Folder. 13. Baltimore American, March 12, 1813. even shorter than Eugenia's, noting only 14. Ibid., May 16, 1814. his service in the cause of freedom in Co- 15. Niles' Weekly Register (Baltimore), September 10 44 lombia and Venezuela. and October 29, 1814 [hereafter cited Niles']. Danels, however, did not die fully satis- 16. Ibid., January 7, 1815. fied in the way he had been treated by 17. Baltimore Directory, 1816-1818 (Baltimore: En- och Pratt Free Library, Microfilm Dept.). Colombia and Venezuela regarding some 18. Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and outstanding debts. The Commodore's will Navigation, Record Group 41, Baltimore Certifi- mentions unsettled claims that had been cates of Registry (Washington, D.C.: Industrial begun to be adjudicated in 1845 by James and Social Branch, National Archives and Rec- Buchanan and were still outstanding. Da- ords Administration), December 17, 1815. 19. Report of Cornelius Driscoll, January 13, 1816, nels still claimed that Venezuela and Co- Maryland Historical Society, Manuscripts Divi- lombia owed him $300,000 for vessels and sion, Joseph Despeaux Papers, MS.260. Trans- cargoes supplied to these nations between lated by F.E. Chatard, M.D. 1819 and 1820. The Department of State 20. Samuel F. Bemis, Early Diplomatic Missions from had worked out an agreement under which Buenos Aires to the United States (Worcester: 1940), pp. 29-30. Colombia and Venezuela each would pay 21. Garitee, Private Navy, p. 224. 28.5 percent ofthe claim and Danels would 22. Record Group 41, Baltimore Certificates of Reg- surrender his claim to the remainder.45 Ten istry, March 25, 1818. years later the claim still had not been 23. For the period of 1818-1820, this paper is based mainly on the following court records: U.S. vs. La settled. Irresistible, Swift vs. J.D. Danels, J.D. Danels vs. The services rendered by John Daniel Vasques, Bernabeau vs. Nereyda, Admiralty Danels to cause of South American freedom Docket of U.S. District Court for Maryland and were officially honored at the 5 July 1959 the Appeals Docket of the U.S. Circuit Court for graduation ceremonies at the Escuela Na- Maryland, Record Group 21 (Philadelphia: Gen- eral Archives Division) and Letters of Elias Glenn val de Venezuela. to John Q. Adams, Miscellaneous Letters of the Dept. of State, Record Group 59, Microcopy 179, REFERENCES roll 44 (Washington, D.C.: Diplomatic Branch, 1. Jared Sparks, "Baltimore" North American Re- National Archives and Records Administration), view, XX (1825), 99-183. March 1—June 30, 1819. 2. Baltimore American and Daily Commercial Adver- 24. Rene W. Purest, Montevideo, Uruguay, personal tiser, June 4, 1810. letter, September 17, 1983, to Dr. Lawrence A. 3. Laura Bornholdt, "Baltimore as a Port for Span- Larsen, Baltimore, MD. ish-American Propaganda, 1810-1823" (Ph.D. 25. Anjel J. Carranza, Campanas Navales de la Repub- diss., Yale, 1945), pp. 24-25. lica Argentina (Tomo III: Buenos Aires: 1916), pp. 4. Jerome R. Garitee, The Republic's Private Navy 32-44. Translated by Rosemary Pool. (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University 26. Bornholdt, "Baltimore as a Port," p. 216. Press, 1977), p. 220. 27. Niles', August 7, 1819. 5. Robert G. Albion, Rise of the Port of New York 28. J.B. Scott (ed.), Prize Cases Decided in the United (New York: Scribners, 1939), p. 36. States Supreme Court (Vol. II: New York: Oxford 6. Baltimore Patriot, January 30, 1817. University Press, 1923), pp. 1209-1218. Commodore John Daniel Danels of Baltimore 401

29. Miles', August 7, 1819. borde Restrepo, Ayudante General de la Armada 30. Niks', December 11, 1819. Nacional. Transcriptions translated by Rosemary 31. Scott, ed. Prize Cases, pp. 1236-1271. Pool and Gloria Lane. 32. Correa da Serra to J. Q. Adams, Notes from the 36. William A. Morgan, "Sea Power in the Gulf of Portuguese Legation, Record Group 59, Micro- Mexico and the Caribbean during the Mexican copy 57, roll 1, December 1, 1818; and Luis de and Colombian Wars of Independence, 1815- Onis to J. Q. Adams, Notes from the Spanish 1830" (Ph.D. diss., University of Southern Cali- Legation, Record Group 59, Microcopy 59, roll 8, fornia, 1969), p. 356. April 21, 1819 (Washington, D.C.: Diplomatic 37. Alfred Hasbrouck, Foreign Legionaires in the Lib- Branch, National Archives and Records Admin- eration of Spanish South America (New York: istration). Columbia University Press, 1928), pp. 177-185. 33. J. Q. Adams to Elias Glenn, Domestic Letters of :w Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and the Department of State, Record Group 59, Mi- Navigation, Record Group 41, New York Certifi- crocopy 40, roll 15 (Washington, D.C.: Diplomatic cates of Registry, September 26, 1822. Branch, National Archives and Records Admin- 39 Morgan, "Sea Power," p. 367. istration), June 5, 1819. 40 Baltimore Directory, 1855. 34. Glenn to Adams, Record Group 59, Miscellaneous 41 Dielman-Hayward File, Maryland Historical So- Letters of the Department of State, May 23,1819. ciety. 35. For the period of 1820-1825, this paper is based 42 Probate Records of Baltimore City, Folio 531, mainly on the following documents: Excerpts from Book 26, March 8,1855. Maryland State Archives, Ramon Azpurua, Biografia de Hombres notables Annapolis. de Hispanoamericas (Vol 3: Caracas: Imprenta 43 Green Mount Cemetery Records. Nacional, 1877), pp. 273-275. excerpts transcribed 44 Baltimore American, October 30, 1855. by Maria Elena Bermudez of the Republica de 45 Letter, Ellis to Buchanan, Dispatches from U.S. Venezuela Biblioteca National. Also excerpts from Ministers to Venezuela, General Letters of the the Archivos de la Armada de Colombia, Bogata, Department of State, Record Group 59, Micro- transcribed by Captain de Fragata Antonio La- copy 79, roll 8, Letter 7, May 13, 1845.