^{FN1 Ch2} Murdoch, History of Nova Scotia, vol. 3, p. 109.

^{FN2 Ch3} With the exception of a French naval squadron which raided ports in Newfoundland during September of 1796, French naval ships caused no problem for the British colonies in America. However, French privateers were busy. On my review of the readily available material, I have concluded that there were more French privateers plying their trade in Nova Scotian waters than there were Nova Scotian privateers plying the seas in the south. Perkins in 1797 made reference, on October 8th, to the "News of a privateer sloop being to the eastward of Halifax, that has skuttled 7 small vessels loaded with coals. The Linx Sloop of War is gone in quest of her." August 17, 1801, Liverpool: "The Schooner Grey Hound, Capt. James Gorham, arrived from Halifax ..." It is reported that "there is a number of French privateers at Boston." Incidently, Murdoch has a couple of paragraphs on French privateers. (Vol. 3, pp. 138-9.)

^{FN3 Ch3} The first, of several spectacular naval battles in the European theatre which occurred during this time period, was that of Admiral Howe's "Victory of the First of June, 1794." It confirmed that Britain was superior to all at sea.

^{FN4 Ch3} In 1797, there were naval mutinies between April and June at Spithead and the Nore.

^{FN5 Ch3} For a few months during the winter of 1800-01 there was formed a league against England; the league consisted of Prussia, Sweden, Denmark and Russia. This "was caused partly by the whim of Czar Paul [and] partly by two feelings then prevalent in the Courts of Europe, fear of France and jealousy of English naval power." [See George Macaulay Trevelyan, British History in the Nineteenth Century (London: Longmans, Green; 1924), p. 84.] With Nelson's capture of the Danish fleet at Copenhagen in April, 1801, this league against England shortly came to an end.

^{FN6 Ch3} See the writer's note on Prize Money.

^{FN7 Ch3} There were others. For example, Perkins made reference to the Brig Patty on May 10th, 1797. "... The Brig Patty, Thomas Parker, Master, sails for the West Indies. She is fitted with waist clothes and wooden guns, with one short 9 pounder. Looks warlike." Waist clothes: "Coloured cloths hung about the upper works of a ship as an adornment on occasions of ceremony, or on going into action, when they also served to screen the men aboard." (OED)

^{FN8 Ch3} This was Governor Wentworth whose son was named Charles Mary Wentworth.

^{FN9 Ch3} See entry of Aug. 1st, 1798, where Perkins set out the men who had shares in the Charles Mary Wentworth and who were to sail in her. See also entry of Aug 15th.

^{FN10 Ch3} A captain of a merchant vessel not so equipped, would comply with the orders of the captain of an armed and well handled vessel. If that meant that the hailed vessel was going to be boarded, then it was going to be boarded. There was no sense fighting a vessel that sported several cannon and carried fifty men, or so.

^{FN11 Ch3} "22 November: "I am very busy preparing the Privateers prizes."

^{FN12 Ch3} Fergusson wrote in his introduction to Perkins Diary (vol. 4, 1804-1812) that the Duke of Kent, as of 1805, had "20 carriage guns and four sixteen pounders."

^{FN13 Ch3} This is a bit of a tall story. Nevertheless, it is probably due to this accounting given by Perkins, that the Rover became the most famous of all the Nova Scotian privateers. See: Archibald Macmechan's The Ballad of "The Rover" and his Tales of the Sea (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1947); and see, Thomas Raddall's Saga of the Rover (Liverpool: Mersey Paper Mills, 1932) and The Rover; The story of a Canadian privateer (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1st Ed., 1958).

^{FN14 Ch3} As quoted by Murdoch in vol. 3 at pp. 198-200. See further, "Notes on Nova Scotian Privateers" NSHS, #13 (1908), p. 129.

^{FN15 Ch3} Murdoch, vol. 3, p. 226.

^{FN16 Ch3} On July 4th, 1803, Perkins reported on the number of vessels at Liverpool: One ship, 200 tons; 14 brigs, 1809 tons; 25 schooners, 1394 tons; and one sloop, 42 tons. Most of these from my reading of Perkins were engaged in fishing and in trading voyages. Only a few, such as the brig Rover, were fitted out as a privateer. Such a fitting out was expensive and there were no guaranties of return, indeed, a great risk of total loss.

^{FN17 Ch3} Liverpool has a very convenient sand bar which, on low tide locks fixed keeled sailing boats in and out. There is an outer harbour and the vessels would often anchor there and take the last provisions and men on before setting to sea.

^{FN18 Ch3} 1803: 13 September, 1803, a strange brig that came in "proves to be a Spanish brig from Havana loaded with molasses, 200 punchions. Sent in by the Privateer Rover, Capt. Benjamin Collins." (Perkins.)

^{FN19 Ch3} Calendar Nova Scotia, 1802-1815 (PANS, 1936), see Governor Wentworth's report under entry of April 16th, 1804.

^{FN20 Ch3} See Appendix C, contained in "Notes on Nova Scotian Privateers," NSHS, #13 (1908), at p. 142. Vessels would go back and forth, from one flag to another. In this regard we note the entry of Simeon Perkins 1781: Perkins Diary: 09 October of 1781: "Two men belonging to the Chatham Man of War came to Town from Portmetway. They report that they belonged to a prize taken by the Chatham. She was a small sloop loaded with tobacco & had been at sea 8 months, had been taken & retaken 18 times."

^{FN21 Ch3} Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at p. 12.

^{FN22 Ch3} I have taken the image of the Liverpool Packet from http://www.qcis.ns.ca/history/privateer/packet.html

^{FN23 Ch3} Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at p. 32.

^{FN24 Ch3} NSHS, #13 (1908), p. 137; and see http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/L.HTM : 9/13/2005 Caleb Seely was born in 1787 at Saint John, N.B.; he died at Liverpool in 1869.

^{FN25 Ch3} Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at p. 27. "Enos Collins and the owners of the Liverpool Packet received [net] £21,614 from the Admiralty for the vessels their privateers had taken in the year 1812. (Ibid., p. 29.)

^{FN26 Ch3} See, C. H. J. Snider's Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at p 227. Snider, Under The Red Jack, at p. 227--8 listed Liverpool Packet's owners and her famous crew. Not all privateers returned a profit to their owners. Indeed, some cruises were financial disasters. Let us take, for example, the schooner Ann. She "was a fast sailing craft of fifty-seven tons, (she only listed 1 gun and 20 men) formally called the Busy ..." She had been brought into Halifax as a prize. She set sail in October of 1814 under the command of "Captain Randall McDonald with a crew of fifteen men; she had a general cargo aboard; her destination, Castine. "It was the intention of the captain after landing his cargo to cruise in Boston Bay, having obtained a letter of marque before leaving Halifax. While off Penobscot an English cruiser was sighted, and the mate suggested sending the crew below to avoid impressment by the cruiser, which suggestion was acted upon by the captain. In so doing the mate contrived that the several seamen who should remain on deck were Americans. The crew were no sooner below than the hatches were barred, the captain was seized and the schooner taken into an American port. Not one prize, in the prize list, is attributed to the Ann. (NSHS, #13 (1908), at Appendix D, p. 146-52 there is a list which is the list I refer to when I use the expression "prize list.")

^{FN27 Ch3} http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/L.HTM : 9/13/2005

^{FN28 Ch3} The Thomas was much larger than the Liverpool Packet (143 tons versus 67 tons) had more guns (12 versus 5), and more men (80 versus 45). This capture brought no shame on Captain Barss and the crew of the Liverpool Packet.

^{FN29 Ch3} NSHS, #13 (1908), p. 133. "... captured by the Thomas out of New Hampshire after 'a long chase ending a desperate battle.'" (http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/L.HTM : 9/13/2005) There is a letter dated July 14th, 1813, at Halifax, "from the firm of Collins and Allison to Lt.-Gov. Sherbrooke asking him to use his influence to have "Capt. Barss, of the privateer Liverpool Packet, released from prison and sent in the next cartel to Nova Scotia." (Calendar of Official Correspondence and Legislative Papers Nova Scotia, 1802-1815, (Halifax: PANS, Pub. #3, 1936), p. 292.) The capture of the Liverpool Packet and the imprisonment of Barss is dealt with in Murdoch, vol. 3, p. 345.

^{FN30 Ch3} The Shannon which I refer to is not the 38-gun British frigate. We shall come to describing this naval vessel in a future chapter. The privateer, Shannon, had a letter of marque issued to her on 4th September, 1813. She was another schooner, of 146 tons, with 5 guns and a normal compliment of 50 men. Her captain was Benj. Ellenwood and her owner was Snow Parker who was also the owner of the Retaliation.

^{FN31 Ch3} There were at the time three vessels called the Sherbrooke. The three of them were brigs. One of them, the smallest of them (187 tons) operated out of St. John. The other came up from the Barbadoes and was "commissioned at Halifax, August 27th, 1814. The one from the Barbados was 205 tons and carried eleven guns versus the subject of this sketch which was 273 tons and carried eighteen guns. [C. H. J. Snider's Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at p 146 & at p. 197.]

^{FN32 Ch3} C. H. J. Snider's Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at p. 143.

^{FN33 Ch3} This seems to be her size, guns and compliment as is set forth in the text of the article found in the NSHS, but the table found at pp. 142-5 at the end of this article does throw a little doubt on this, where at one point she is described, "187 tons, 10 guns and 30 men?" I am afraid there has been some confusion as there were three Sherbrookes operating at the time.

^{FN34 Ch3} C. H. J. Snider's Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at p. 143.

^{FN35 Ch3} NSHS, #13 (1908), p. 133, though the "prize list" shows 18.

^{FN36 Ch3} Fergusson's Glimpses of Nova Scotia (Halifax: PANS, No. #12, 1957).

^{FN37 Ch3} C. H. J. Snider's Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at p 197.

^{FN38 Ch3} See, Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at p. 148; and see, NSHS, #13 (1908), pp. 136-7.

^{FN39 Ch3} C. H. J. Snider's Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at p 154.

^{FN40 Ch3} NSHS, #13 (1908), p. 136.

^{FN41 Ch3} For more information on American Privateers, see Mahan's Sea Power in its Relations to The War of 1812 (London: Sampson, Low, Marston, 1905), Vol. 2, pp. 221-37. Mahan there deals with: Rattlesnake of Philadelphia; Sourge and Governor Tompkins of New York; Leo, Comet, Kemp and Chasseur of Baltimore; Saucy Jack of Charleston; and Blooded Yankee which was outfitted at Brest with American backers.

^{FN42 Ch3} In 1778, we read Perkins Diary: 29 May, Fri -- "... Mr. Peter Collins comes in her [a shallop] from Portmetway, and says he was taken by five privateers at LeHave, last Wednesday, and his vessel burned. ... He was allowed to take out what he called his own. Then the schooner stripped and burned." During June of the same year, a party of "armed ruffians" from an American privateer ransacked McNutt's home on McNutt Island at Shelburne and carried away everything of value. V.P. Seary, in his short essay, "Nova Scotia During the American Revolution" [The Dalhousie Review, Vol. 4, No. 3 (1924)] gives a number of accounts of where the people of Western Nova Scotia were to suffer at the hands of American privateers. Interestingly enough, as Seary pointed out, though these privateers came on shore to rob the locals, the locals at different times were more than willing to help these "rebels" in getting back to their home ports in New England. On August 28th, 1781, Annapolis Royal was captured and plundered by American privateers. On July 1st, 1782 Lunenburg was sacked by Americans. For a short accounting of these raids in 1781-2, see "Notes on Nova Scotian Privateers" NSHS, #13 (1908), p. 123; and see Shirley B. Elliott, Nova Scotia Book of Days, A Calendar of the Provinces's History (Halifax: N.S. Govern't, 1979).

^{FN43 Ch3} In 1770, a practice of sheathing the bottoms of ocean going sailing vessels with a copper alloy was established. [See Conrad Gill's Merchants and Mariners of the 18th Century (London: Edward Arnold, 1961), p. 63.]

^{FN44 Ch3} Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at pp. 117-8.

^{FN45 Ch3} June 27th, 1813: "The American privateer Young Teazer, having been chased into Mahone Bay, one of the crew blew her up, six only out of thirty-six saved; another account says six out of one hundred." (Haliburton, vol. 1, p. 291.)

^{FN46 Ch3} "Hogue was chasing the American armed schooner Young Teazer, Captain Dobson, when the quarry blew up as she was on the point of being taken with the loss of all on board except for seven on the forecastle. It turned out that her first lieutenant, one Johnson, had been captured while commanding the Old Teazer of New York and had been released after giving his parole. Instead of waiting for an exchange he had entered in another privateer and was fearful of being retaken by the British. A sailor who saw him go below to the powder magazine with a lighted coal shouted a warning and then saved his own life by jumping overboard." (http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/H2.HTM : 3/18/2005) See accounts: Murdoch, vol. 3, p. 360-1; Haliburton, vol. 1, p. 291; NSHS, #13 (1908), p. 135; "Young Teazer, The Making of a Myth" NSHQ, Vol. #6:4 (1976); Calendar of Official Correspondence and Legislative Papers Nova Scotia, 1802-1815 (Halifax: PANS, 1936) at p. 292.)

^{FN47 Ch3} Under The Red Jack (Toronto: Musson, n.d.) at p. 128.

^{FN48 Ch3} http://www.ccs.ednet.ns.ca/student_work/7ss/history/JeremyE/teazer.html