Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea

Part 1

Produced by K Nordquist, Sam W. and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

Famous Privateersmen AND ADVENTURERS OF THE SEA

Their rovings, cruises, escapades, and fierce battling upon the ocean for patriotism and for treasure

CHARLES H. L. JOHNSTON

Author of "Famous Cavalry Leaders," "Famous Indian Chiefs," "Famous Scouts," etc.

Illustrated

BOSTON THE PAGE COMPANY PUBLISHERS

FAMOUS LEADERS SERIES BY CHARLES H. L. JOHNSTON

Each one volume, large 12mo, illustrated, $1.50

FAMOUS CAVALRY LEADERS FAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS FAMOUS SCOUTS FAMOUS PRIVATEERSMEN FAMOUS FRONTIERSMEN

THE PAGE COMPANY 53 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.

Copyright, 1911, BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY (INCORPORATED)

All rights reserved

First Impression, November, 1911 Second Impression, November, 1914

THE COLONIAL PRESS C. H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. S. A.

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO THE HAPPY MEMORY OF

George Alfred Henty

THE MOST STIMULATING AUTHOR OF BOOKS FOR BOYS THAT THE PAST HALF CENTURY HAS PRODUCED, AND A WRITER WHO HAS KEPT ALIVE THE SPIRIT OF MANLY SPORT AND ADVENTURE WHICH HAS MADE THE ANGLO-SAXON PEOPLE A RACE OF WORLD CONQUERORS. MAY THEY NEVER RETROGRADE!

Thanks are due the Librarian of Congress, and particularly to Mr. Roberts of the Department of Prints, for numerous courtesies extended to the author during the compilation of this volume.

PREFACE

MY DEAR BOYS:--The sea stretches away from the land,--a vast sheet of unknown possibilities. Now gray, now blue, now slate colored, whipped into a thousand windrows by the storm, churned into a seething mass of frothing spume and careening bubbles, it pleases, lulls, then terrorizes and dismays. Perpetually intervening as a barrier between peoples and their countries, the wild, sobbing ocean rises, falls and roars in agony. It is a stoppage to progress and contact between races of men and warring nations.

In the breasts of all souls slumbers the fire of adventure. To penetrate the unknown, to there find excitement, battle, treasure, so that one's future life can be one of ease and indolence--for this men have sacrificed the more stable occupations on land in order to push recklessly across the death-dealing billows. They have battled with the elements; they have suffered dread diseases; they have been tormented with thirst; with a torrid sun and with strange weather; they have sorrowed and they have sinned in order to gain fame, fortune, and renown. On the wide sweep of the ocean, even as on the rolling plateau of the once uninhabited prairie, many a harrowing tragedy has been enacted. These dramas have often had no chronicler,--the battle was fought out in the silence of the watery waste, and there has been no tongue to tell of the solitary conflict and the unseen strife.

Of sea fighters there have been many: the pirate, the fillibusterer, the man-of-warsman, and the privateer. The first was primarily a ruffian and, secondarily, a brute, although now and again there were pirates who shone by contrast only. The fillibusterer was also engaged in lawless fighting on the sea and to this service were attracted the more daring and adventurous souls who swarmed about the shipping ports in search of employment and pelf. The man-of-warsman was the legitimate defender of his country's interests and fought in the open, without fear of death or imprisonment from his own people. The privateersman--a combination of all three--was the harpy of the rolling ocean, a vulture preying upon the merchant marine of the enemy to his country, attacking only those weaker than himself, scudding off at the advent of men-of-warsmen, and hovering where the guileless merchantman passed by. The privateersman was a gentleman adventurer, a protected pirate, a social highwayman of the waters. He throve, grew lusty, and prospered,--a robber legitimized by the laws of his own people.

So these hardy men went out upon the water, sailed forth beneath the white spread of new-made canvas, and, midst the creaking of spars, the slapping of ropes, the scream of the hawser, the groan of the windlass, and the ruck and roar of wave-beaten wood, carved out their destinies. They fought. They bled. They conquered and were defeated. In the hot struggle and the desperate attack they played their parts even as the old Vikings of Norway and the sea rovers of the Mediterranean.

Hark to the stories of those wild sea robbers! Listen to the tales of the adventurous pillagers of the rolling ocean! And--as your blood is red and you, yourself, are fond of adventure--ponder upon these histories with satisfaction, for these stalwart seamen

"Fought and sailed and took a prize Even as it was their right, Drank a glass and kissed a maid Between the volleys of a fight. Don't begrudge their lives of danger, You are better off by far, But, if war again comes,--stranger, Hitch your wagon to their star."

CHARLES H. L. JOHNSTON.

The bugle calls to quarters, The roar of guns is clear, Now--ram your charges home, Lads! And cheer, Boys! Cheer!

Part 2

CONTENTS

PAGE PREFACE vii

CARLO ZENO: HERO OF THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC 1

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE: ROVER AND SEA RANGER 23

SIR WALTER RALEIGH: PERSECUTOR OF THE SPANIARDS 53

JEAN BART: THE SCOURGE OF THE DUTCH 83

DU GUAY-TROUIN: THE GREAT FRENCH "BLUE" 113

EDWARD ENGLAND: TERROR OF THE SOUTH SEAS 137

WOODES ROGERS: THE BRISTOL MARINER 153

FORTUNATUS WRIGHT: THE MOST HATED PRIVATEERSMAN OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA 173

GEORGE WALKER: WINNER OF THE GAMEST SEA FIGHT OF THE ENGLISH CHANNEL 199

JOHN PAUL JONES: THE FOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN NAVY 239

CAPTAIN SILAS TALBOT: STAUNCH PRIVATEERSMAN OF NEW ENGLAND 283

CAPTAIN "JOSH" BARNEY: THE IRREPRESSIBLE YANKEE 299

ROBERT SURCOUF: THE "SEA HOUND" FROM ST. MALO 319

LAFITTE: PRIVATEER, PIRATE, AND TERROR OF THE GULF OF MEXICO 341

RAPHAEL SEMMES: DESPOILER OF AMERICAN COMMERCE 373

EL CAPITAN 393

RETROSPECT 397

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE "AGAIN THE CANNON MADE THE SPLINTERS FLY" (See page 273) Frontispiece

ZENO'S FLEET 18

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE 28

DRAKE'S GREATEST VICTORY ON THE SPANISH MAIN 44

YOUNG RALEIGH AND A COMPANION LISTENING TO TALES OF THE SPANISH MAIN 55

SIR WALTER RALEIGH 60

JEAN BART 86

"JEAN BART LED HIS BOARDERS OVER THE SIDE OF THE DUTCH VESSEL" 108

Part 3

COMBAT BETWEEN DU GUAY-TROUIN AND VAN WASSENAER 135

"'LEFT US ENGAGED WITH BARBAROUS AND INHUMAN ENEMIES'" 146

"THE BOARDERS WERE REPULSED WITH GREAT SLAUGHTER" 193

ACTION BETWEEN THE "GLORIOSO" AND THE "KING GEORGE" AND "PRINCE FREDERICK" UNDER GEORGE WALKER 231

AMERICAN PRIVATEER TAKING POSSESSION OF A PRIZE 239

"BEGAN TO HULL THE 'DRAKE' BELOW THE WATER-LINE" 261

"THEY SWARMED INTO THE FORECASTLE AMIDST FIERCE CHEERS" 277

"TALBOT, HIMSELF, AT THE HEAD OF HIS ENTIRE CREW, CAME LEAPING ACROSS THE SIDE" 289

AMERICAN PRIVATEER CAPTURING TWO ENGLISH SHIPS 298

"SURCOUF SCANNED HER CAREFULLY THROUGH HIS GLASS" 336

RAPHAEL SEMMES 376

"THE MEN WERE SHOUTING WILDLY, AS EACH PROJECTILE TOOK EFFECT" 386

CARLO ZENO

HERO OF THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC

(1344-1418)

"Paradise is under the shadow of swords."--MAHOMET.

CARLO ZENO

HERO OF THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC

(1344-1418)

Zeno, noble Zeno, with your curious canine name, You shall never lack for plaudits in the golden hall of fame, For you fought as well with galleys as you did with burly men, And your deeds of daring seamanship are writ by many a pen. From sodden, gray Chioggia the singing Gondoliers, Repeat in silvery cadence the story of your years, The valor of your comrades and the courage of your foe, When Venice strove with Genoa, full many a year ago.

The torches fluttered from the walls of a burial vault in ancient Venice. Two shrouded figures leaned over the body of a dead warrior, and, as they gazed upon the wax-like features, their eyes were filled with tears.

"See," said the taller fellow. "He has indeed led the stalwart life. Here are five and thirty wounds upon the body of our most renowned compatriot. He was a true hero."

"You speak correctly, O Knight," answered the other. "Carlo Zeno was the real warrior without fear and without reproach. He has fared badly at the hands of the Republic. But then,--is this not life? Those most worthy seem never to receive their just compensation during their living hours. It is only when they are dead that a tardy public gives them some recognition of the great deeds which they have done, the battles which they have fought, and the honor which they have brought to their native land. Alas! poor Zeno! He--the true patriot--has had but scant and petty praise."

So saying the two noble Venetians covered the prostrate form of the dead warrior--for they had lifted the brown robe which enshrouded him--and, with slow faltering steps, they left the gloomy chamber of death.

Who was this Venetian soldier, who, covered with the marks of battle, lay in his last sleep? Who--this hero of war's alarms? This patriotic leader of the rough-and-ready rovers of the sea?

It was Carlo Zeno,--a man of the best blood of Venice,--who, commanding fighting men and fighting ships, had battled strenuously and well for his native country.

Continue reading Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea free in the Wunder reader →