The Privateers of Liverpool

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 10 December 1927, Page 3

The Privateers of Liverpool

BHE reign of Elizabeth was the golden age of maritime adventure in • which the great Queen was regarded by sailors as their special friend, and hailed as the restorer of the glory of shipping. Her navy, with the assistance of wealthy merchants who built ships of war, »as able to muster 20,000 fighting m»n for sea service.

No less than 100 armed merchantmen joined the 20 ships of the Royal Navy, and did their bit to harass and defeat th ' Spanish Armada. Such public-spirited patriotism on the part of private individuals merited recognition and reward, which generally took the practical, remunerative and romantic form of ‘Tetters of marque” being granted to the proud owners, whereby their ships became privateers. In 1563 a vessel belonging to Sir Thomas Stanley, son of the Earl of Derby, brought a prize into the River Mersey amidst great rejoicings. This is the first mention of pri> steering in the annals of Liverpool. About the same time another priva■.eer, which had been fitted out by the licensed victuallers of Chester, capcured a French merchantman and brought her into port, whereupon, we ire told, the dipping "shot off co noble a peal of guns, so quick and fast one upon another, that the like was never heard in these parts of England and Wa!«*”

It was not, however, until the 18th century that privateering in Liverpool reached any considerable growth, writes C. Wye K*ndall, in "The Blue Peter.”

In 1744 there were four of these ihips, the Old Noll, the Terrible, the Thurloe and the Admiral Blake, all of which did good work and captured mveral valuable prizes from the ‘Tench.

It was at this period that Captain •’ortunatus Wright came into proniilence as the most famous British irivateersman of his day and the idol if Liverpool. When in command of he brigantine Fame, in the short ipace of a month he captured 16 French ships in the Levant, said to be vorth £400,000. History does not elate how much of this large sum ell to the lot of the privateersman. in 1747 this successful commander ■ntered into partnership with a disiagulshed colleague, Captain William tutchinson, founder of the Liverpool ’urine Society, principal water-bailiff

-.nd dockmaster of the port, author, nventor, and generally a most enterprising and public-spirited citizen. The two raised privateering and seamanship to a fine art at a time when the high seas were infested with every sort of predatory craft imaginable. Wright’s most dramatic exploits took place upon the renewal of war with France in 1756, when in command c-t the St. George, a little privateer of 12 guns and 80 men, which he built and equipped at his own expense.

Bls flrat encounter was with a Freni h ship of 16 guns and 280 men, which had been specially commissioned to bring his activities to an end by any means possible, fair or foul. In the event of success the French captain was to receive a sum of money double ‘he value of the Englishman’s ship, a pension of 3,000 livres per annum, tie Order of St. Louis and the command ct c. man-of-war.

The fight took place off Leghorn, from which port Wright had undertaken to convoy three small vessels as far as Gibraltar. Owing to the obstruction of lhe Tuscan authorities, who were the tools of France, the St. George’s armament was limited to tour guns and her crew to 25 men. The Frenchman had been cruising about some time waiting tor his prey. Nothing daunted, however, Fortunatus sailed out, accompanied by his three merchant ships, from which, upon clearing the port, he skilfully managed to transfer some extra guns, and 55 men, composed of Slavonians, Venetians, Italians and, strange to relate, a few Swiss.

After some manoeuvring for position, Wright gave battle on July 26, 1756, and in the presence of over 10,000 people lining the shore, silenced and put to flight his enemy in threequarters of an hour. Other attempts were made to cap-

ture the St. George, hut all to no purpose. For another year the little ship pursued her victorious career, taking rich prizes and even lighting enemy men-of-war; then the end came, Captain Fortunatus Wright, his crew and his ship, disappeared, never again to be seen. During the Seven Years’ War the French privateers became very active and inflicted great damage to Liverpool trade. The exasperated merchants finally retaliated by fitting out a number of their ships as privateers. Of these, the first to sail were the Revenge, the Mandarin and the Anson.

In a few weeks Captain Edward Fryer, of the Anson, returned with a French West Indiaman, worth £20,000. This, coupled with the successes of the other vet seis, created a boom in privateering. By 1760 the tonnage of Liverpool had exceeded that of Bristol, thus making the town the second port in ths kingdom. Fortunes were made out of privateers, the number of -which steadily increased to a fleet of just under 100 well-equipped ships. The shareholders in these piratical ventures were made up of all sorts ol people, and frequently included the ■whole crew 7, from the captain to the youngest powder monkey. War alone made privateering pos sible; its basis was plunder. While it lasted It was exceedingly profitable to tho shareholders in a ship com manded by a bold and skilful captail but there was another element in the business which is a wretched page ir the history of our overseas commerce. Many privateers, when not engaged m the occupation of taking prizes and fighting the enemy, used to carry slaves from Africa to America and the West Indies. The hideous traffic peeps out here and there. We are told, for instance that the Molly, Captain Kendall, had captured a valuable prize on her pas sage from Africa to Jamaica, with < good consignment of slaves, some oi whom had fallen sick and bee: thrown overboard during the middls passage. In this connection It is instructive to note that in the fashionable shop: of London and Liverpool silver collars and padlocks were sold for my lady’: blackamoor or lap-dog. As n rule, privateers were not largi vessels. They were built for speed and like our mystery ships in th< Great War, designed to deceive the enemy by their outward appearance

Captain William Hutchinson, to whoo we have already referred, tells us tlia “trading ships should be made t> look as big, powerful and warlike as possible in order to intimidate, bu privateers, on the contrary, to 100 l as little and defenceless and concea their power as much as possible til there is real occasion for it and then suddenly to make it known, to give the greater surprise, which I can say from experience may often give great advantages.” During the American War of Inde pendence many successful privateer:sailed out of the port of Liverpool One of thq most notable of their exploits stands to the credit of the Mentor, built and owned by Petei Baker, who bad started life as a poocarpenter. On October 28, 1778, tin: .’iontor captured the large French East Indiaman, Carnatic. This shi; was the richest prize ever brough into the port. The capture estab lished the fortune of Baker, who lived to become Mayor of Livernool. The seamanship of the privateei captains was remarkable for the fr<? quency with which they fought ships superior in armament to their own with a minimum of harm to them selves and a maximum of damage tithe enemy. Any man shipped on board a priva teer by virtue of the letter of marque was free from impressment, conse quently the most dashing and darin: sailors came out of their hiding places to serve in these ships. We are told by an authority on the subject that a true privateersman was “a sort of half-horse, half-alligator, with a streal: of lightning in his composition—some thing like a man-of-war’s man, bir much more like a pirate—generally with a superabundance of whisker as if he held with Samson that his strength was In the quantity of his hair."