The War of 1812 Magazine Issue 21 January 2014 The Armed Merchant Schooner Raven An Operational History by Gary M. Gibson The Armed Merchant Schooner Raven An Operational History .................................................................. 1 Origin ........................................................................................................................................................ 2 Arming and Fitting .................................................................................................................................... 5 Manning .................................................................................................................................................... 6 Operational History 1813 .......................................................................................................................... 8 Operational History 1814 ........................................................................................................................ 11 Post-War ................................................................................................................................................. 12 Commanding Officers ............................................................................................................................. 13 Reference Abbreviations ......................................................................................................................... 13 The War of 1812 Magazine Issue 21 January 2014 Origin The United States Navy’s Armed Merchant Schooner Raven began life as the British merchant schooner Mary Hatt. When and where she was built is not known, but she was in service by the spring of 1810.1 The Mary Hatt was probably named after the mother of the brothers Richard and Samuel Hatt, or of Richard’s wife, or both. The Hatt brothers owned a farm, a store, a mill, a distillery and a potash works in Canada near the head of Lake Ontario. In 1803, they sent as many as 1,500 barrels of flour across the lake and down the St. Lawrence River to Quebec.2 Before the war, the Mary Hatt operated much as a tramp steamer would in a later century, going from place to place around Lake Ontario, wherever there was a cargo to be found. As she was a British-owned vessel, most voyages were probably between Kingston, York and Niagara. This was known, at the time, as the forwarding trade. As United States law at the time prohibited trade with Canada, the Mary Hatt’s visits to American lake ports would be few and likely unrecorded. Canadian lighthouse duty records refer to the Mary Hatt as just the Mary. There was another, smaller, Mary (35 or 36 tons as opposed to the Mary Hatt’s 51 ton entries) that complicates the situation. What is known about the Mary Hatt’s pre-war activity is shown in the following table.3 Date Arrived At Master Notes April to June 1810 Kingston Benjamin Monger Three arrivals July to September 1810 Kingston Benjamin Monger Three arrivals 20 July 1810 Niagara 17 August 1810 Niagara 20 September 1810 Niagara April to June 1811 Kingston George Miller One arrival July to September 1811 Kingston George Miller Two arrivals 9 July 1811 Queenston 25 August 1811 Queenston July to September 1812 Kingston George Miller Crew size was small, usually only a master, a mate and four or five hands. Just enough men to be able to safely navigate the schooner in all weather conditions. In the fall of 1812, her master was George Miller.4 The Mary Hatt was about average size for a Lake Ontario merchant schooner. According to the United States Navy, she could carry about 50 tons of cargo.5 This was a “tons burthen” measurement, an artificial calculation based on the beam and keel length of a merchant ship and not a measurement of the weight of the water displaced by the vessel as was common in the latter part of the nineteenth century.6 Dimensional 1 According to British lighthouse records, the Mary Hatt arrived at Kingston (recorded as just Mary) three times in the second quarter of 1810, each time with Benjamin Monger as master. The author thanks Walter Lewis for this information. 2 White, Patrick, Lord Selkirk’s Diary, pp.300-301. The Hatt family’s operations were quite extensive, the mill alone costing about £7,500 and they had “all the latest improvements of mechanism;” also the entry for Hatt, Richard, in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online (www.biographi.ca). 3 The author is indebted to Walter Lewis for this information. 4 Isaac Chauncey to John D. Vincent, 16 November 1812, CLB 3. 5 A Return of Vessels of War belonging to the United States upon Lake Ontario exhibiting their force in Guns and Men, 10 June 1813, AF, roll 76 frames 201-203. 6 Now often referred to as “Builder’s Old Measurement” or BOM, the calculation multiplied the keel length “for tonnage” by the square of the vessel’s beam (both in feet) and the product divided by 190 (188 in British service). This calculation was also used Page 2 The Armed Merchant Schooner Raven – An Operational History The War of 1812 Magazine Issue 21 January 2014 information, with length, keel and beam based on other merchant schooners of similar tonnage, is shown in Table 1 Length on deck about 56 feet Beam about 18 feet Probable Tonnage 50 tons Table 1 – Estimated Dimensional Information for the Raven It is not known whether the Mary Hatt was a topsail schooner (square top and sometimes topgallant sails on the fore and often the main masts) or if she had a “pure” schooner rig. The latter allowed for a smaller crew size as all sails could be worked from the deck. Most of the schooners purchased by the navy in 1812 that did not have square topsails (e.g. Collector) had them added when they were converted to armed merchant schooners. it is not known if this was done for the Mary Hatt or if she was so-rigged when she was purchased. Shortly after the outbreak of war in June 1812, the naval officer commanding on Lake Ontario, Lieutenant Melancthon Taylor Woolsey, informed Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton that he had received word that the British government had taken over the Mary Hatt and had armed her with four small cannon.7 There is no evidence that supports this claim, and it is doubtful the Mary Hatt had any armament on board while she was in merchant service. If she was ever armed, all guns had been removed by November 1812.8 On Saturday, 7 November 1812, Commodore Isaac Chauncey’s flagship, the 18-gun brig Oneida, and six armed merchant schooners sailed from Sackets Harbor. Chauncey’s object was to intercept the British Provincial Marine warships which, he understood, “have gone up the lake with troops to reinforce Fort George.”9 at the time for warships, although such vessels carried no cargo. For warships, it was of value only as a means to compare their relative sizes. 7 Melancthon T. Woolsey to Paul Hamilton, 10 July 1812, NAUS, RG 45, SNLRO, 1813 vol 3 item 16, roll 12. 8 The Mary Hatt was unarmed when she was captured by the Americans in November 1812. 9 Isaac Chauncey to Paul Hamilton, 6 November 1812, SNLRC, 1812 vol 3 item 167 roll 25; Isaac Chauncey to Daniel D. Tompkins, 7 November 1812, CLB 3. The Armed Merchant Schooner Raven – An Operational History Page 3 The War of 1812 Magazine Issue 21 January 2014 Map of Northeastern Lake Ontario On 10 November 1812, the squadron chased the Provincial Marine corvette Royal George into Kingston Harbor and that afternoon fired on the British vessel but without result. That night, while the rest of the squadron anchored off Four Mile Point, intending to resume the attack in the morning, the armed merchant schooners Growler and Julia patrolled the Lower Gap as guard boats. About 11 p.m. a vessel was seen in the moonlight to windward about three kilometers away. As only the whereabouts of the Royal George was known, this could have been the 14-gun Earl of Moira. After clearing for action and firing an alarm gun to warn Chauncey, the Growler approached the strange vessel. She turned out to be the Mary Hatt, which was heading for Kingston, quite unaware of the American squadron’s presence. The Growler came alongside the Mary Hatt and captured the schooner without resistance. Her master, George Miller, and her crew were taken on board and replaced with men from the Growler. About daybreak the wind freshened and it became impossible to make any progress to windward. The Mary Hatt was drifting further and further downwind, back towards Kingston. At this point, Commodore Chauncey ordered the Growler to convoy the Mary Hatt through the Kingston Channel, around the foot of Long Island (now Wolfe Island), then down past Gravelly Point and back into the lake. There, the Mary Hatt would be ordered to make it to Sackets Harbor the best way she could while the Growler sailed west to rejoin the rest of Chauncey’s squadron near the Ducks Islands. After a delay of most of a day near the foot of Long Island caused by atrocious weather, the Growler reentered the lake and, about 8 p.m., sent the Mary Hatt on her way to Sackets Harbor. The Mary Hatt arrived safely and spent the remainder of the year at anchor in Sackets Harbor. Shortly after he returned to Sackets Harbor, Commodore Chauncey wrote his brother-in-law, James Heard, in Page 4 The Armed Merchant Schooner Raven – An Operational History The War of 1812 Magazine Issue 21 January 2014 New York City, and appointed him prize agent.10 Two weeks later, Chauncey asked shipwright Henry Eckford to examine the Mary Hatt and report his opinion of her value.11 On 29 December 1812, the case of the Mary