During the first two years of the War of 1812 bicentennial, our Naval History content has focused on the U.S. Navy’s blue-water and northern lakes operations during the conflict. But the sea service’s ships weren’t the only craft waging war on Britain. This issue features privateers—privately owned American vessels that preyed on British merchant ships and occasionally fought it out with the Royal Navy.
Frederick Leiner’s article, “Yes, Privateers Mattered,” presents an overview of the key role the speedy ships and the profit-driven privateering business played during the war. Leiner also explores a recent trend in War of 1812 naval historiography that ranges from discounting the importance of privateers to disregarding them.
The Prince de Neufchatel, one of the most celebrated American privateers, is the subject of “Obstinate and Audacious,” by Kevin McCranie. A “hermaphrodite,” with brig and schooner rigs, the ship made her investors and captain, Jean Ordronaux, rich before three powerful British frigates overhauled her in late 1814.
McCranie is the author of Utmost Gallantry: The U.S. and Royal Navies at Sea in the War of 1812 (Naval Institute Press, 2011), in which he writes: “Though responsible for the capture of the majority of British merchant vessels and even the occasional, bloody fight, a true analysis of [privateers’] actions would be a book unto itself.”
The General Armstrong, a privateer named after a Revolutionary War hero, is the main character in “A Daring Defense in the Azores,” by Navy Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Armstrong (no relation). He recounts how, when cornered by Royal Navy warships in Fayal Island’s harbor, the privateer’s outnumbered crew bloodied John Bull’s nose before scuttling their ship.
The Prince de Neufchatel and General Armstrong had storied privateering careers, but the same was not true of the Baltimore-built schooner Lynx. After receiving her “letter of marque” in July 1812, she was captured the following spring and put into Royal Navy service. But her spirit and sleek lines live on in the recreated Lynx, featured on this issue’s cover. Launched in 2001, the namesake is a living-history museum in which visitors can learn of the War of 1812’s maritime challenges as well as how to sail a tall ship. For more information, including the schooner’s sailing schedule, visit www.privateerlynx.com.
A century after the United States was engaged in its “second war of independence,” U.S. naval forces seized independent Mexico’s port of Veracruz. In “‘Take Veracruz at Once,’” Jack Sweetman relates the reasons for the April 1914 landing and explains how sailors and Marines swiftly captured the city.
The operation holds special meaning for Sweetman, whose many books about naval history include The Landing at Veracruz: 1914 (Naval Institute Press, 1968). His father, Quartermaster Third Class Arthur J. Sweetman, was a member of the landing force. “He was very forthcoming about his memories, read and commented on the chapters as they were written,” Sweetman said. The teenage sailor “regarded the landing as an adventure a young seaman should be prepared to take in stride,” the author said. After leaving the Navy, Arthur Sweetman joined the Army and in 1917 was among the first 100,000 Doughboys ashore in France.