he seas, destroying a vast amount of the enemy's property; and, while
accomplishing their end by enriching their owners, did, nevertheless,
much incidental good to the American cause. Seldom has the business of
privateering been so extensively carried on as in the War of 1812. For
this the reason lay in the rich bait offered by the world-wide
commerce of Great Britain, whose fleets whitened every known sea.
Privateering must ever be a weapon wielded by the weaker nation
against the stronger. And Congress, in the very Act by which it
declared war, authorized the President to issue letters of marque and
reprisal to private armed vessels.

The declaration of war had hardly been made public, when the hundreds
of shipyards from Maine to Savannah resounded with the blows of
hammers and the grating of saws, as the shipwrights worked, busily
refitting old vessels, or building new ones, destined to cruise
against the commerce of John Bull. All sorts of vessels were employed
in this service. The Atlantic and Gulf Coasts fairly swarmed with
small pilot-boats, mounting one long gun amidships, and carrying crews
of twenty to forty men. These little craft made rapid sallies into the
waters of the Gulf Stream, in search of British West Indiamen homeward
bound. Other privateers were huge three-masters, carrying heavy
batteries, and able to outsail any of the enemy's ships. On leaving
port for a long cruise, these vessels would carry enormous crews, so
that captured vessels might be manned and sent home. After a
successful cruise, such a privateer returned to port seldom bringing
more than one-fifth of the crew with which she had set out. But the
favorite rig for a privateer was that of the top-sail schooner,--such
a rig as the "Enterprise" carried during the war with France. The
famous shipyards of Baltimore turned out scores of clean-cut,
clipper-built schooners, with long, low hulls and raking masts, which
straightway took to the ocean on privateering cruises. The armament of
these vessels generally consisted of six to ten carronades and one
long pivot-gun, going by the pet name of "Long Tom," mounted
amidships. The crew was usually a choice assortment of cut-throats and
seafaring vagabonds of all classes,--ready enough to fight if plunder
was to be gained, but equally ready to surrender if only honor was to
be gained by fighting. Yet history records a few actions in which the
privateersmen showed a steadiness and courage worthy of s