The Private Ship General Mercer of Alexandria Pt. 1
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Carlyle House July, 2008 D OCENT D ISPATCH Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority For Cause and Profit: The Private Ship General Mercer of Alexandria by Jim Bartlinski Part 1 of 2 From Massachusetts waters. A number of these vessels were built by the to Georgia the port’s master shipwrights. Two designs unique to economies of Great the Chesapeake region were the single-masted sloops Britain and Her and two-masted schooners, renowned for their speed. estranged American Although the majority of these distinctive sloops and colonies were schooners were built as merchantmen to navigate the undeniably tied to the high seas engaging in international and coastal trade, sea. The majority of during time of war they were quickly pressed into colonial America’s service as privateers by resourceful merchant - population was situated shippers like Carlyle, looking to recoup wartime in and around maritime losses. mercantile centers like As a prominent merchant -shipper, landowner and Boston, Providence, member of Virginia’s aristocracy, Colonel Carlyle Philadelphia, Baltimore, relied heavily on the transatlantic trade for his Alexandria, Charleston livelihood. His Most Christian Majesty George III’s New London, Conn. 1776 and Savannah. The Royal Navy that once protected America’s sources of revenue of the inhabitants of these ports and transatlantic trade, now made every effort to surrounding areas were likewise linked to the sea. The suppress it. The blockade of the Virginia capes, the profession that was the impetus behind the growth of Chesapeake, and the Potomac during the fight for these mercantile ports along British-America’s Eastern independence by Great Britain’s naval forces Seaboard was that of the merchant -shipper, particularly threatened the way of life that the Colonel and his ones like the wealthy and well connected Alexandria, peers had worked so hard to establish. Therefore, Virginia merchant, Colonel John Carlyle, formerly of many entrepreneurial ship owners, merchants, and Carlisle, England. private citizens alike turned to the time-honored As a successful seaport merchant, Colonel Carlyle practice of privateering. Privateering was not only a dominated Alexandrian society. He served as a trustee means by which to keep the economies of Britain’s of the port and contributed much to the early economic former American colonies afloat, but it was for success of his adopted hometown. From 1753, when a patriotic (if not opportunistic) citizens a way to wage thirty-three year old John Carlyle established residence an economic war against His Majesty’s Empire. in Alexandria to his death in 1780, the town’s harbor Privateering was a unique blend of profit and had developed into an active port, from which tobacco, patriotism. For centuries European powers regularly flour, and sundry other cargoes were shipped and issued documents known as “Letters of Marqué and imports of every kind brought in. Alexandria’s large crescent bay was crowded with vessels of every design that were owned, manned, and fitted out by merchant - CARLYLE HOUSE shippers like Carlyle. From Alexandria’s ropewalk came hundreds of miles of rope to hoist the sails made Mary Ruth Coleman, Director in the town’s sail lofts that propelled the shallops, Jim Bartlinski, Curator skiffs, ships, brigs, and brigantines that plied her Sarah Arnold, Curator of Education Page 2 Docent Dispatch Reprisal” to private citizens. A letter of marqué the allure of prize essentially served as a license that made it lawful for money from privately owned vessels to attack enemy shipping. privateering was so Without the letter of marqué, these same activities enticing that the United were considered acts of piracy and subject to States Navy found it prosecution. When a privateer captured an enemy difficult to man its own vessel (known as a prize), an admiralty prize court had vessels. This lack of to approve the seizure. Then, the prize and its cargo Privateer Ship Rattlesnake willing sailors resulted were sold at public auction and the proceeds from its in American press sale were divided among the vessel’s owners, gangs combing the wharfs, taverns, and brothels of investors, captain, and crew of the privateer, according ports from Boston to Savannah, seeking “recruits” for to a pre-arranged contract. service in the navy of the thirteen United States. The term “privateer” was interchangeable. It could be For the first few years of the war, the Royal Navy used to identify the captain, a crew member, or the had the resources to combat most American privateer vessel itself. Typically a group of investors financed a activity. With the alliance between the fledgling privateer to run the Royal Navy’s blockade to deliver United States and France in 1778, and Spain a year their cargoes to foreign markets and bring back goods later, the vessels of His Royal Majesty’s Navy were to America. If, during the voyage, the privateer spread thin. American privateers were able to take happened to capture an enemy vessel, they were to be advantage of the reduced British naval presence in its taken back to the United States or to a neutral port, waters. Together with the ability to use French and to condemned as a prize, and sold. The government or some extent Spanish ports throughout their respective investors that granted the original letter of marqué empires, American privateers and naval vessels alike would receive the lion’s share of the spoils. had the capacity to attack George III’s naval and When the Revolution began the American colonies commercial fleets in their home waters. According to were in no position to defy British rule of the seas. By statistics compiled by the United States Merchant 1776, the already battle tested Royal Navy had proven Marines, from 1775 to 1783 the Continental/United itself to be the world’s dominant maritime power. At States Navy consisted of only 64 vessels with no point in the conflict did the American naval forces American privateers adding another 1,697. The have adequate resources to confront His Majesty’s American Navy had an arsenal of 1,246 guns aboard Navy on its own terms. To circumvent this imbalance its vessels; the privateers had 14,872. The American of naval power, George III’s rebellious colonies turned Navy captured 196 enemy vessels during the war to privateering. On March 23, 1776, Congress compared to the privateers 2,283. It is estimated that responded to the situation by issuing general “Letters- American naval forces inflicted upwards of £66 of-Marqué and Reprisal,” making all British shipping, million of damage to British shipping, causing armed or unarmed, liable to capture by American insurance rates to skyrocket 30 to 50 percent during the vessels. A month later Congress resolved to send to conflict. The London Spectator candidly admitted: each of the “United Colonies” blank letters of marqué “The books at Lloyds will recount it, and the rate of signed by the President of Congress to be issued to assurances at that time will prove what their [American anyone willing to be commissioned a privateer. privateers] diminutive strength was able to effect in the During the war it had been estimated that sixty-four face of our navy, and that when nearly one hundred Virginia vessels sailed under letters of marqué issued pennants were flying on our coast. Were we able to by Congress. The individual states also issued their prevent their going in and out, or stop them from own letters of marqué to entrepreneurial private taking our trade and our storeships even in sight of our citizens to harass British shipping. garrisons? Besides, were they not in the English and In late 1776, the unbridled zeal for sailing under a Irish Channels, picking up our homeward bound trade, letter of marqué caused one Bostonian to write - “the sending their prizes into French and Spanish ports to spirit of privateering has got to the highest enthusiasm: the great terror of our merchants and shipowners?” almost every vessel from 20 tons to 400 is fitting out In contrast the British had 800 privateers, compared here.” The same scene was repeated in every port to the 1,697 American privateers in service during the along America’s east coast. As it might be imagined, Revolution. Military and naval historian Angus Page 3 Docent Dispatch Konstam points out in his work Privateers and Pirates enterprise. Not unlike George and Lund Washington, 1730-1830, that His Majesty’s privateers were it would not have been bad business for a merchant primarily “coastal vessels, designed to capture enemy like Carlyle to invest in such a scheme. According to shipping in the English Channel,” not on the high the memoirs of Commodore Joshua Barney (a naval seas. Therefore, British privateers did not have the hero of the Revolution and War of 1812) edited by same damaging effect on the economies of the his daughter -in-law Mary Chase Barney in 1832, as a thirteen United States as did their rebel counterparts nineteen -year-old lieutenant in February 1779, he on that of Great Britain’s. It was the blockade of the shipped aboard a privateer fitting out in Alexandria. American coast by the men-of-war of His Majesty’s In Barney’s memoirs the vessel was to carry “a cargo Royal Navy and the actions of the Loyalist privateers of tobacco … to Bordeaux.” A native of Baltimore that impeded commerce. Evidence of this appears in and known as a skilled and brash sailor, Barney was the March 12, 1779 issue of the Virginia Gazette barely sixteen when he began his service to his printed by John Dixon and Thomas Nicolson of Country. Owing to his success against the Royal Williamsburg.