Another of Captain Haraden's exploits was the capture of "a homeward-bound king's packet from one of the West India islands," under very dramatic circumstances, the American captain, his watch in one hand and a lighted match in the other, with only a single round of ammunition remaining, giving the battered Britisher five minutes in which to surrender. But surely some less vague relation is due before such a story can be accepted--the name of the packet, her force, the date, latitude and longitude, and so forth.
However, Captain Haraden was, no doubt, a fair specimen of a very fine class--the Salem skippers--and Americans have every cause for being proud of him.
Upon the declaration of war with England in 1812 Americans naturally inaugurated at once a vigorous privateering campaign.
War was declared on June 18th, and by the end of the month two privateers had put out from Salem, and a dozen more were almost ready for sea; while New York had sent out, by the middle of October, twenty-six vessels, mounting some three hundred guns, and manned by more than two thousand men.
On July 10th occurred a curious episode, quite impossible in these days, when the earth is tied up in every direction with telegraph cables. The British man-of-war schooner _Whiting_ was lying in Hampton Roads; her commander, Lieutenant Maxey, ignorant of the declaration of war, was in his boat, going on shore, when the American privateer _Dash_, Captain Carroway, arrived upon the scene. Carroway, better informed, seized the English commander and his boat, and, running alongside the _Whiting_, called upon the officer in charge to surrender--which he did.
The American Government, however, in view of the English captain's ignorance of the commencement of hostilities, ordered the _Whiting_ to be returned. A similar incident is said to have occurred in the case of the _Bloodhound_, an English sloop of 12 guns, captured by the 8-gun privateer schooner _Cora_. Neither of these events is chronicled by British naval historians.
One of the most daring and skilful privateer captains during this war was Thomas Boyle. His first command was the _Comet_, a staunch, fast-sailing schooner, and he lost no time in getting to work, starting upon his first cruise in July 1812, within a month of the declaration of war.