eamen of the
regular service.

The limitations of this work do not permit a complete account of the
work of the privateers during the war. Although an interesting
subject, and one of historical importance, but a few pages can be
devoted to it here. Properly treated, it would fill a volume; and,
indeed, one of the most noted privateersmen has left a narrative of
the exploits of the principal privateers, which forms a very
considerable tome. The fact that two hundred and fifty private armed
cruisers under the American flag captured or destroyed over sixteen
hundred British vessels will indicate the importance and extent of the
subject. For us a mere sketch of the exploits of some of the principal
privateers must suffice.

One of the first things to attract the attention of the reader, in the
dingy files of some newspaper of 1812-15, is the grotesque names under
which many of the privateers sailed. The grandiloquent style of the
regular navy vanishes, and in its place we find homely names; such as
"Jack's Favorite," "Lovely Lass," "Row-boat," "Saucy Jack," or
"True-blooded Yankee." Some names are clearly political allusions,--as
the "Orders in Council" and the "Fair Trade." The "Black Joke," the
"Shark," and the "Anaconda" must have had a grim significance for the
luckless merchantmen who fell a prey to the vessels bearing these
names. "Bunker Hill" and "Divided we fall," though odd names to sail
under, seemed to bring luck to the two vessels, which were very
successful in their cruises. "United we stand" was a luckless craft,
however, taking only one prize; while the achievements of the
"Full-blooded Yankee" and the "Sine qua non" were equally limited. Of
the "Poor Sailor," certainly little was to be expected; and it is with
no surprise that we find she captured only one prize.

Among the most successful privateers was the "Rossie" of Baltimore,
commanded by the Revolutionary veteran Capt. Barney, who left her,
finally, to assume command of the American naval forces on Chesapeake
Bay. She was a clipper-built schooner, carrying fourteen guns, and a
crew of one hundred and twenty men. The destruction wrought by this
one cruiser was enormous. In a ninety days' cruise she captured, sunk,
or otherwise destroyed British property to the amount of a million and
a half dollars, and took two hundred and seventeen prisoners. All this
was not done without some hard fighting. One prize--His Britannic
Majesty's packet-ship "Princes