160 Naval War of 1812 



delphia, Boston, and Salem were not far behind; 

 and Charleston, Bristol, and Plymouth supplied 

 some that were very famous. Many were merely 

 small pilot-boats with a crew of 20 to 40 men, in 

 tended only to harry the West Indian trade. Oth 

 ers were large, powerful craft, unequalled for speed 

 by any vessels of their size, which penetrated to the 

 remotest corners of the ocean, from Man to the 

 Spice Islands. When a privateer started she was 

 overloaded with men, to enable her to man her 

 prizes ; a successful cruise would reduce her crew to 

 a fifth of its original size. The favorite rig was 

 that of a schooner, but there were many brigs and 

 brigantines. Each was generally armed with a long 

 24 or 32 on a pivot, and a number of light guns in 

 broadside, either long Q'S or short i8's or I2's. 

 Some had no pivot gun, others had nothing else. 

 The largest of them carried 17 guns (a pivotal 32 

 and 1 6 long I2's in broadside) with a crew of 150. 

 Such a vessel ought to have been a match, at her 

 own distance, for a British brig-sloop, but we never 

 hear of any such engagements, and there were sev 

 eral instances where privateers gave up, without 

 firing a shot, to a force superior, it is true, but not 

 enough so to justify the absolute tameness of the 

 surrender. 54 One explanation of this was that they 



64 As when the Epervier, some little time before her own 

 capture, took without resistance the Alfred, of Salem, 

 mounting 16 long nines and having 108 men aboard. 



