Privateer Governor Thompkins

GOVERNOR THOMKINS  (named for New York governor during the war and future U.S. vice president)

Captain:  Joseph Skinner, Lewis Smith, Nathaniel Shaler

Commissioned:  8 November 1813

Captured

Out of New York, N.Y.

Owners:  Charles Bulkeley, then Frederick Jenkins and lastly Nathaniel Shaler, Peter Schenck, Martin Brett and Christopher Deshon.

Schooner, 250 tons

Crew:  120  Later 140

14 and then 15 guns

21 Prizes  (5)

--Brock-Perry

Privateer Nathaniel Shaler-- Part 2

From the New London Historical Society "Connecticut Privateers in the War of 1812."

Connecticut  masters and vessels figured as prominent privateers for New York as well.    The Middleton-built Anaconda, commanded by Connecticut-born Nathaniel Shaler took a number of prizes before she was captured off the North Carolina coast in 1813.  (It was later taken into British service as the HMS Anaconda.)

Shaler then commanded the New York privateer Governor Thompkins until he was lost overboard in 1814.

Reporting on an engagement  between the Governor Thompkins and a British frigate in 1813, Nathaniel Shaler  memorialized two of his black sailors who, though mortally wounded as before mentioned in my posts.

--Brock-Perry

Nathaniel Shaler, American Privateer Captain-- Part 1

From the New London County Historical Society "Privateers."

Nathaniel Shaler (1775-1814)

He was the commander of the Governor Tompkins who wrote about the two valiant black sailors under his command in the previous two posts.

Was born in Bridgeport, New Hampshire, although his family was from Bolton and the Connecticut River Valley.  he and his brother William (who became a prominent mariner and diplomat)  were quite young when they went to sea.

Nathaniel was master of the brig Aurora when she was seized  for trading in violation of Portuguese regulations in Para, Brazil, in 1803.  He replaced the wounded Guy Champlin of the New York privateer brig  General Armstrong, making a successful cruise in 1813.

He then took command of the New York privateer Governor Tompkins in 1814 and was lost at sea  during her cruise.

--Brock-Perry

The Story of Two Heroic Black Privateers-- Part 2: Even Dying, They Were Brave

Nathaniel Shaler had this to say about two of his sailors in that battle:

"The name of one of my poor fellows who was killed ought to be registered in the book of fame, and remembered with reverence as long as bravery is considered a virtue.

"He was a black man, by the name of John Johnson.  A twenty-four pound shot struck him in the hip, and took away all the lower part of his body.  In this state, the poor fellow lay on the deck, and several times exclaimed to his shipmates, 'Fire away, my boy: no haul a color down.'

"The other was also a black man, by the name of John Davis,  and was struck in much the same way.  he fell near me, and several times requested to be thrown overboard, saying he was only in the way of others.

"When America has such tars [sailors were often referred to as Tars back then], she has little to fear from the tyrants of the ocean."

--Brock-Perry

The Story of Two Heroic Black Privateers-- Part 1

From the U.S. Merchant Marine site "American Merchant Marine and Privateers in War of 1812.  This is the same site I used for the last six entries.

In a January 1, 1813. letter from Nathaniel Shaler of the privateer schooner General Tompkins,  to his agent:

"Before I could get our light sails in, and almost before I could turn round, I was under guns , not of a transport, but of a frigate! and not more than a quarter of a mile from her.... Her first  broadside killed two men, and wounded six others...  My officers conducted themselves in a way that would have done honor to a more permanent service...."

--Brock-Perry

A Follow Up on the U.S. Privateer Governor Thompkins

From Footnotes to War of 1812 Blockade by Thomas R. Bayles.

I'd never heard of this particular privateer. which I wrote about yesterday, so looked it up.  I found mention of it at several places.  According to yesterday's account, the ship had had a run-in with a British frigate while under a Captain Shaler and the actions of two black sailors helped save the outgunned American ship.

In this other account, the ship was under command of a Captain Smith and had captured several British merchant ships and was on the way back to New York when it encountered and fought a British brig-of-war.  The two ships fought until dark and the Thompkins had slipped away by morning, but had been severely damaged with 5 men killed or wounded.  Its bowsprit had been carried away by a 32-pdr. shot.

New York was blockaded upon arrival all the way to Sandy Hook, so the Governor Thompkins tried to make for New London and would have been captured except for a Daniel Winters on board who knew the way through the narrow, rock strewn Plum Gut connecting Long Island Sound and Gardiner's Bay.

Didn't Know That.  --Brock-Perry

Black Sailors Played a Key Role in War of 1812-- Part 2

Isaac Hull continued that they were "utterly insensible to danger and to be possessed with a determination to outfight the white sailors."

Blacks also comprised an important part of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's Lake Erie fleet.

Commodore Isaac Chauncey, over all commander on the Great Lakes, wrote, "I have nearly 50 blacks (on my ships) and many of them are among my best men."

Captain Nathaniel Shaler, commander of the privateer Governor Tompkins, was almost captured by a British frigate and lauded his black sailors John Davis and John Johnson.

Not So Forgotten.  --Brock-Perry