were most of the sons of rich merchants, he started out
at the age of 25 with a number of privateers, and for many years
returned flushed with prizes. To quote his appreciative biographer: "He
lived in a most magnificent style, having several country seats or large
farms with elegant summer houses and fine fish ponds, and all those
matters of convenience or taste that a British nobleman might think
necessary to his rank and happiness. His horses were of the choicest
kind and his coaches of the most splendid make." But alas! this gorgeous
career was abruptly dispelled when unfeeling British frigates and
gun-boats hooked in his saucy privateers and Tracy stood quite ruined.

Much more fortunate was Joseph Peabody. As a young man Peabody enlisted
as an officer on Derby's privateer "Bunker Hill." His second cruise was
on Cabot's privateer "Pilgrim" which captured a richly cargoed British
merchantman. Returning to shore he studied for an education, later
resuming the privateer deck. Some of his exploits, as narrated by George
Atkinson Ward in "Hunt's Lives of American Merchants," published in
1856, were thrilling enough to have found a deserved place in a gory
novel. With the money made as his share of the various prizes, he bought
a vessel which he commanded himself, and he personally made sundry
voyages to Europe and the West Indies. By 1791 he had amassed a large
fortune. There was no further need of his going to sea; he was now a
great merchant and could pay others to take charge of his ships. These
increased to such an extent that he built in Salem and owned
eighty-three ships which he freighted and dispatched to every known part
of the world. Seven thousand seamen were in his employ. His vessels were
known in Calcutta, Canton, Sumatra, St. Petersburg and dozens of other
ports. They came back with cargoes which were distributed by coasting
vessels among the various American ports. It was with wonderment that
his contemporaries spoke of his paying an aggregate of about $200,000 in
State, county and city taxes in Salem, where he lived.[42] He died on
Jan. 5, 1844, aged 84 years.

Asa Clapp, who at his death in 1848, at the age of 85 years, was
credited with being the richest man in Maine,[43] began his career
during the Revolution as an officer on a privateer. After the war he
commanded various trading vessels, and in 1796 established a shipping
business of his own, with headquarters at Portland. His vessels traded
with