BROWN. 51 



9. MOSES BROWN. 



MOSES BROWN was born at Salisbury, Massachusetts, January 23, 1742. 

 He received a limited education and at 15 years of age was apprenticed to 

 Captain William Coffin, of a merchant vessel. Thereafter his life was, he says, 

 "a single, continuous, uninterrupted voyage." In his second year at sea Captain 

 Coffin intrusted him to sell Coffin's schooner Sea Flower in the West Indies, and the 

 next year the Sea Nymph at St. Christopher's. During 1761, in the schooner 

 Phoebe, he fought two French privateers and was shot in the arm. He continued 

 his mercantile voyages until the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, when, being 

 found in Venice, he made a pretended sale of his ship, loaded her with currants 

 for London, and sold her there for 800. Sailing for the Dutch West Indies, he 

 made his way eventually to Philadelphia and overland to New York, where he 

 offered his services to the navy. He sailed for the West Indies in April 1777, in 

 command of the brig Hannah, but he was captured by the British and put in a 

 prison-ship in Rhode Island. After being exchanged, he was given command (in 

 August 1777) of the cruiser General Arnold. He had various adventures. His 

 crew conspired to kill him and take the ship to Halifax, but failed. In trying out 

 the guns one burst and killed and injured several men. He fought against the British 

 ship Gregson, of double his strength. The English lost 18 men in the battle, but 

 the ship got away. On May 20 the English privateer Nanny was sunk by him 

 and her captain sent to Cadiz, while Brown escaped in sight of eight British ships- 

 of-the-line and frigates. Next he captured the George, but she was recaptured by 

 the British, and a little later the General Arnold was captured by the English ship 

 Experiment, 50. guns, and Captain Brown was placed aboard a prison-ship at 

 Savannah, Georgia, from which he was exchanged in November. From 1780 

 to 1783 he commanded the privateer Intrepid and was instructed to bring dry goods 

 from France, which he did. For the following fifteen years he was captain of 

 various merchant craft. Owing to an extension of privateering, a national navy 

 was established, and when the merchants of Newburyport built the Merrimac for 

 the government, Captain Brown was placed in command of her and during the 

 next three years captured four French vessels. Upon his inauguration Jefferson 

 disposed of nearly half of the vessels of the navy, including the Merrimac, and 

 Brown returned to merchant ships. He died of apoplexy at sea in 1804. 



Brown was first of all a born sailor a lover of the sea and doubtless a 

 nomad. He was 47 years at sea and made 65 voyages, some of them two years long. 

 He married Sarah Coffin, of Newburyport, doubtless of maritime stock, and his 

 sons William and Joseph both made sea voyages. His son Moses (like William) 

 was lost at sea. 



Brown was a brave fighter, like his father who was in the French War. His 

 courage is evinced in the anecdote that while a prisoner on the English ship Experi- 

 ment he toasted George Washington. He was quietly religious like his mother 

 (Dorothy Pike), was fond of children and enjoyed telling stories to them. He 

 was known to his crew as "Gentleman Brown"; he maintained good discipline 

 and had a good feeling for his crew; was averse to flogging and kept his ship 

 neat and his men temperate. 



