The Caroline (built circa 1812 - captured 1815)
MSA SC 5496-050708
American Privateering Schooner, Baltimore City, War of 1812
Biography:
Based in Baltimore City, the 129-ton, 78-foot schooner Caroline sailed the Chesapeake Bay and the Caribbean as a privateering vessel during the War of 1812.1 Worth $10,000 at the time of her purchase in July 1812,2 the Caroline would have had "the sleek lines, light spars, and spread of sails that were the marks of a speedy Baltimore Clipper."3 Captain Joseph Almeda commanded the ship from October 27, 1813 to May 1814.4 Almeda, a Portuguese immigrant, earned a reputation as "one of the most able and resourceful of Baltimore privateersmen."5
With ten guns and seventy-two men, the Caroline captured at least four ships, ten brigs, five schooners, and five sloops: a total of twenty-four vessels.6 These included the British brig Criterion and the "traitorous" schooner Carlscrona in 1813; the British brigs Elizabeth and Experience and the Russian bark Joachim in 1814; and the British brig Stephen in 1815.7 Other captures included the Drake, the Fanny, the Jason, the Jasper, the Mariner, the Osiris and the Abel.8 In many cases, Captain Almeda confiscated the ship's cargo, burned or ransomed the vessel, or sent it to the nearest U.S. port to be used as a cartel ship.9 For instance, the following entry in the Caroline's log described the capture of a "traitor ship" in the West Indies:
Nov. 20th [1813]— Fell in with the American sloop Osiris, Driggs, from Martinique, bound to St. Bartholomew, with a cargo of molasses. Capt. Driggs, taking the Caroline for a British cruiser, showed his British license to Captain Almeda, at the same time informed him, that he had supplied Commodore [Robert] Oliver, of his Majesty's ship Valient, of New London, with a quantity of potatoes and apples, for which he was paid, and that he had no doubt if he fell in with an American privateer he should be hung. Put Mr. Canoning and a prize-crew on board the Osiris, and ordered her for the first American port.10In May 1814, Job West succeeded Almeda as the Caroline's captain.11 The switch in captains resulted from a change in the Caroline's ownership, although it is unclear which of her eleven owners or her numerous investors had changed. However, her co-owners included Captain Joseph Almeda, the Fells Point ship chandler James Ramsay, the Fells Point shipbuilder Joseph Despeaux,12 and the Baltimore and Pittsburgh merchant Michael Tiernan.13
The Caroline continued her privateering career under Captain
West for another eight months. Then, in January 1815, British forces captured
the
Caroline and its cargo in the Chesapeake Bay.14 The
exact fate of the
Caroline is unknown, although Michael Tiernan
claimed $3,217.37 for his part in the schooner and its "equipments." On
July 31, 1827, Tiernan received $2,110.61 in compensation.15
Unfortunately, the Secretary of State recorded the case's disposition as
missing by 1827, but noted that the Caroline had served as a "highly
successful privateer."16
1. Jerome R. Garitee. The
Republic's Private Navy: The American Privateering Business as Practiced
by Baltimore During the War of 1812 (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University
Press, 1977) 118.
Henry Clay.
The
Papers of Henry Clay. Vol. 6 (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky,
1981) 255.
George Coggeshall.
History
of the American Privateers, and Letters-of-Marque, During Our War with
England in the Years 1812, '13, and '14 (New York, NY: George P. Putnam,
1861) 160 and 317.
John Philip
Cranwell and William Bowers Crane. Men of Marque: A History of Private
Armed Vessels out of Balitmore During the War of 1812 (New York, NY:
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1940) 210, 213.
2. Garitee 111.
3. Qtd. in Robert Malcomson.
Historical
Dictionary of the War of 1812 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006) 84.
Leo Block.
To
Harness the Wind: A Short History of the Development of Sails (Annapolis,
MD: Naval Institute Press, 2003) 94.
4. John E. Hall. "Joseph
Almeida, Captain of the American Privateer Schooner, v. Certain Slaves."
American
Law Journal 5(1814): 459-464.
Cranwell and
Crane 210, 402.
5. Qtd. in William Armstrong Fairburn. Merchant Sail. Vol. 2 (Center Lovell, ME: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, 1955) 894.
6. Col. J. Thomas Scharf.
The
Chronicles of Baltimore: Being a Complete History of "Baltimore Town" and
Baltimore City (Baltimore, MD: Turnbull Brothers, 1874) 363-366, 370.
Cranwell and
Crane 210
7. Coggeshall 160 and 317.
Cranwell and
Crane 145, 212, and 213.
Fairburn 845.
Edward Stanton
Maclay.
A History of American Privateers (New York, NY: D. Appleton
and Company, 1899) 236.
8. Cranwell and Crane 377.
Maclay 424-425.
9. Cranwell and Crane 211 and
377.
Maclay 424-425.
10. Qtd. in George Coggeshall.
History
of the American Privateers, and Letters-of-Marque, During Our War with
England in the Years 1812, '13, and '14 (New York, NY: George P. Putnam,
1861) 160.
Cranwell
and Crane 210.
William
S. Dudley, ed. The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History. Vol.
2 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Goverment Printing Office, 1992) 137.
Lieut.
George Foster Emmons.
The Navy of the United States, from the Commencement,
1775 to 1853 (Washington, D.C.: Gideon & Co., 1853) 172.
11. Garitee 35, 36, 85, 124, and 200.
Cranwell
and Crane 210, 402.
12. Garitee 198-199, 264, and 257-259.
Cranwell
and Crane 215 and 375.
13. Clay 81.
14. Ibid.
15. Michael Tiernan, No. 4. RG 76.
Records of Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitration. Records of
the Mixed Claims Commission: Miscellaneous Records. Ca. 1814-28, 7 vols.,
entry 185. Vol. 4 of 11. National Archives, College Park.
Docket of
Claims Prepared for the Domestic Claims Commission/, compiled 1826-1826/
ARC Identifier 1172798/MLR Number PI 177 188. 3 and 4.
U.S. House
of Representatives.
Reports of Committees of the House of Representatives.
Vol. 1 (Washington, D.C.: Cornelius Wendell, 1857) 6.
16. Clay 81.
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