Liverpool Packet

''Liverpool Packet'' was originally the American slave ship ''Severn'', built at Baltimore and captured in 1811. She became a privateer schooner from Liverpool, Nova Scotia, that captured 50 American vessels in the War of 1812. American privateers captured ''Liverpool Packet'' in 1813, but she failed to take any prizes during the four months before she was recaptured. She was repurchased by her original Nova Scotia owners and returned to raiding American commerce. ''Liverpool Packet'' was the most successful privateer vessel ever to sail out of a Canadian port.

Canadian privateer

''Liverpool Packet'' was built at Baltimore and rigged as a Baltimore Clipper style schooner. captured the schooner in August 1811. The Halifax Vice Admiralty Court, under Chief Justice Alexander Croke, condemned ''Severn'' as an illegal slave ship as both Britain and the United States had recently outlawed the Transatlantic Slave Trade.Stewart (1814), pp.284–6. The court then ordered her sold at auction and Enos Collins and other investors purchased her in October 1811. They renamed her ''Liverpool Packet'', although she sometimes bore the nickname ''Black Joke'', the name of several 18th century slave ships. At first her owners used the small and fast schooner as a packet ship carrying mail and passengers between Halifax and Liverpool, Nova Scotia.

War of 1812

Upon the outbreak of the War of 1812, the owners of ''Liverpool Packet'' quickly converted her to a privateer. Under the command of Joseph Barss Jnr, she captured at least 33 American vessels during the first year of the war. His strategy was to lie in wait off Cape Cod, snapping up American ships headed to Boston or New York.

Captive

She was a menace to New England shipping until the Americans captured her in 1813. On 10 June the privateer schooner ''Thomas'' of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Captain Shaw, master, mounting twelve guns and manned with a crew of one hundred men, encountered ''Packet''. ''Thomas'' chased her for about five hours but light winds prevented ''Liverpool Packet'' from escaping.

''Liverpool Packet'' struck her colours but then as the Americans came alongside the two vessels ran into each other. As the British ran up to push the vessels apart, the Americans, fearing they were going to be boarded, boarded ''Liverpool Packet''. Firing broke out that killed three Americans. American anger over their earlier losses to the ''Packet'' resulted in poor treatment of Barss, who languished in jail for months on a diet of bread and water until he was exchanged for American prisoners held in Halifax.

In American hands she was briefly renamed ''Young Teaser's Ghost'', after the recently destroyed American privateer '' Young Teazer''. Failing to take any British prizes, she was renamed again as ''Portsmouth Packet''. Under this name and under the command of Captain John Perkins, she had a short, unsuccessful career failing to capture a single prize for the Americans.

Recaptured

On 5 October 1813, and recaptured ''Liverpool Packet'', then sailing under the name ''Portsmouth Packet'', off Mount Desert Island, Maine, after a chase of thirteen hours. At the time, the privateer schooner was armed with five guns, carried a crew of 45, and had sailed from Portsmouth the previous day.

The recaptured schooner was brought into Halifax where her original owners repurchased her and restored the name of ''Liverpool Packet''. She was registered there in 1813.Library and Archives Canada – Ship registrations 1787–1966: Item 38624: LIVERPOOL PACKET.
/ref>

Under a new captain named Caleb Seeley, she captured fourteen prizes before the year ended. In 1814, she captured additional prizes in May and June. Then in August, she took two prizes while acting in concert with while they were sailing off of Bridgeport and New York. ''Liverpool Packet'' continued to work often with British naval vessels right to the war's end.

Fate

Her owners registered ''Liverpool Packet'' at Nova Scotia on 6 January 1816. At some point thereafter, her owners sold her in Kingston, Jamaica; her subsequent fate is not known.

The War of 1812 was the last time the British allowed privateering. The practice was coming to be seen as politically inexpedient and of diminishing value in maintaining Britain's naval supremacy. The Treaty of Paris in 1856 banned privateering. However, the United States did not sign the treaty because the Americans saw their large merchant marine as a potential source of privateers in case of war.

Post script

In all, ''Liverpool Packet'' had taken 50 prizes in her brief but successful career. Her captures helped launch the great fortune of Enos Collins. Two steamships from her old homeport of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, were named in her honour in the 20th century.

Notes

Citations

References

*Conlin, Dan (1999) "A Slave Ship Made Captive: The Schooner Severn", ''Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society'', Vol. 2, pp. 203–212.
*Kert, Faye. ''Prize and Prejudice''.
*Leefe, John. (1978) ''The Atlantic Privateers: their story – 1749-1815''. (Petheric Press; Nimbus Publishing).
*Snider, C.F.J. (1928) ''Under the Red Jack:Privateers of the Maritime Provinces of Canada in the War of 1812''. (London: Martin Hopkinson & Co.)
*Stewart, James (1814) ''Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of Vice-Admiralty at Halifax, in Nova Scotia: From the Commencement of the War in 1803 to the End of the Year 1813, in the Time of Alexander Croke, Judge of that Court''. (J. Butterworth).

External links

Dan Conlin Profile of the privateer schooner ''Liverpool Packet''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liverpool Packet
Packet boat
Ships built in Baltimore
War of 1812 ships of Canada
Tall ships of Canada
Individual sailing vessels
Schooners
Privateer ships of the United Kingdom
Conflicts in Nova Scotia
Military history of Nova Scotia
Baltimore Clipper
Slave ships of the United States