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4 - Challenges to a Young Nation(Part 3)
The War of 1812
The Enterprise was recommissioned at the Washington Navy Yard on April 8, 1811, under Master Commandant Johnston
Blakely. She sailed down the Patuxent River to take up her patrol between Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South
Carolina. On October 2, she returned to the Washington Navy Yard, where she was completely rebuilt and rerigged as a
16-gun brig. The Enterprise had completed her refit for less than a month when war was declared against Great
Britain on June 18, 1812.
At the time of the outbreak of the War of 1812, the Enterprise was enroute to New Orleans with Major General James
Wilkinson, commander of United States Army troops in that area. She returned to Portsmouth, New Hampshire in June 1813,
where Lt. William Burrows assumed command of the ship. The Enterprise then proceeded to patrol off the coast
of Maine in search of British privateers.
On September 5, 1813, she spotted a ship of war off shore and immediately gave chase. Her quarry turned out to be the
newly-built brig HMS Boxer. The two ships exchanged broadside cannon volleys, during which both Lt. Burrows and
the Boxer's Captain Samuel Blyth were killed. A second round of broadside volleys was exchanged, then the
Enterprise was able to cross the Boxer's bow and keep up continuous fire until the British ship
surrendered. Lt. Edward McCall, the Enterprise's senior surviving officer took the captured Boxer into
port at Portland, Maine, where a common funeral was held for the American and British captains. One stanza of
Longfellow's poem "My Lost Youth" pays tribute to the fallen men:
How it thundered o'er the tide! And the dead captains, as they lay in their graves o'erlooking the tranquil bay Where they in battle died...22
After repairs in Portland, the Enterprise and the brig Rattlesnake sailed for the Caribbean, where they
captured three ships. On February 25, 1814, the two American ships were forced to separate by a heavily armed ship of
war, and the Enterprise's crew had to throw most of her guns overboard in order to outsail their pursuer. The
Enterprise arrived at Wilmington, North Carolina on March 9, and spent the remainder of the war patrolling the
waters near Charleston, South Carolina.
After the end of the War of 1812, the Enterprise was again pressed into service in the Mediterranean from July
to November 1815, then patrolled along the northeastern United States coast until November 1817. On one trip between
New London, Connecticut and Newport, Rhode Island, she carried President James Monroe as a passenger.
On November 27, 1817, the Enterprise set sail for Charleston, South Carolina, from where she mounted operations
in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean against smugglers, pirates, and slave ships. On October 16, 1821, under command
of Lt. Lawrence Kearney, the Enterprise encountered five pirate ships in the process of plundering three American
merchantmen off the coast of Cuba. The pirates set fire to two of their vessels and tried to escape in the other three.
However, the Enterprise was able to capture all five ships. On December 21, she captured and burned a pirate
schooner and sent a landing party ashore at Cape San Antonio, Cuba to destroy a pirate base. On March 8, 1822, she
destroyed seven small pirate vessels, again near Cape San Antonio. The "Lucky Little Enterprise" ended her almost
quarter century of proud service on July 9, 1823, when she ran aground and broke up on Little Curacao Island in the West
Indies, without loss of life or injury to her crew.
At the time of the War of 1812, the Royal Navy had only one ship which carried the name Enterprise. This ship
was an Enterprise-class 28-gun 6th rate built in 1778 as the HMS Resource. She was renamed HMS Enterprise in 1807 and placed
under command of Lt. W.C. Barker. From that time until she was sold on August 28, 1816, she was stationed
at the Tower of London as a receiving ship for impressed men.
19th Century Slave Ships
Although the legacy of the name Enterprise is filled with voyages in defense of country, of adventure and
exploration, and of peaceful commerce, this legacy also contains voyages of shame and dishonor. These, of course, are
the voyages across the "middle passage" of the Atlantic made by slave ships of the 16th to 19th Centuries. At least
four ships named Enterprise are known to have been engaged in the trade of slaves -- African men and women either
taken as prisoners in tribal wars or kidnapped from their tribes in time of peace. During this period in history,
millions of Africans were taken from the Guinea coast to become slave laborers on the sugar plantations of the West
Indies and the American south.
Typical of the voyages of these slavers was that of the sailing vessel Enterprise that was owned by Thomas Leyland
& Co. of Liverpool, England. On July 18, 1803, the ship's owners wrote to her captain, Caesar Lawson, instructing him
to:
... make the best of your way to Bonny on the Coast of Africa. You will receive herewith an invoice of the Cargo on board her which you are to barter at Bonny for prime Negroes, Ivory, and Palm Oil. By Law this vessel is allowed to carry 400 Negroes, and we request that they may all be males if possible to get them, at any rate buy as few females as in your power, because we look to a Spanish market for the disposal of your cargo, where Females are a very tedious sale. In the choice of the Negroes be very particular, select those that are well formed and strong; and do not buy any above 24 years of Age, as it may happen that you will have to go to Jamaica, where you know any exceeding that age would be liable to a Duty of 10 pounds per head. While the slaves are on board the Ship allow them every indulgence Consistent with your own Safety, and do not suffer any of your officers or Crew to abuse or insult them in any respect.23 The ship's log notes that the Enterprise sailed from Liverpool on July 20, 1803, and while enroute to the African coast, detained the Spanish brig St. Augustine and captured the trader John, which was despatched to Liverpool with a prize crew aboard. The Enterprise arrived at Bonny on September 23 to begin acquiring its human cargo, and finally arrived at Havana, Cuba on January 9, 1804. Of the 412 Eboe slaves taken on at Bonny, 392 survived the "middle passage" and were sold, along with other cargo, for a net profit of 24,430 pounds Sterling. This kind of profit spurred many ship owners to engage in the cruel trade in human slaves, and available records report that during the 11 year period 1783 to 1793, 878 slave ships owned by residents of Liverpool imported almost 304,000 slaves who were valued at about 15 million pounds Sterling. If one considers that the slave trade was carried on for at least five centuries by slave ships sailing from many European and American ports, the full extent of the human tragedy, with which the name Enterprise is unfortunately associated, becomes apparent.
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| Copyright ©
1996-2008 Arnold E.
van Beverhoudt, Jr.
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