by Roy Adkins
While trade was a major source of aggravation between Britain and America, the impressment of seamen raised equal concerns. Thousands of British seamen - including deserters from the British Navy - volunteered for service in American merchant ships, because pay and conditions were much better, with less likelihood of encountering a British press-gang. The Royal Navy believed that it had the right to board American and other neutral merchant ships, even on the high seas, in order to impress British citizens and take off deserters. To the Americans this was a violation of their sovereignty, a controversy that ‘constituted a part of the historic struggle for the establishment of the principle of the freedom of the seas’.18
If British seamen had been the only ones taken from American vessels, there might have been much less rancour, but many Americans were also taken. One problem was deciding who was an American, because at that time there was no especially distinctive American accent and anyone born before the declaration of independence in 1776 had once been a British subject. Certificates of citizenship were issued to many American seamen to prevent their being seized by press-gangs, but bogus protection documents were freely purchased, both in America and in major British seaports, so the Royal Navy tended to treat them all with suspicion.
Only a year before, in the spring of 1806, Lieutenant William Stanhope Lovell of the frigate Melpomene observed one case of bogus documents when they took ‘a very fine young seaman’19 from an American ship while they were moored off Messina in Sicily: ‘On being brought on board he produced his United States’ protection, and requested to be sent back to his ship . . . Having strong suspicion that he was an English subject, - notwithstanding the clamour raised by the Yankee master and consul, and the production of his protection; yet, from his not having any nasal twang when he spoke, and not using the general slang words of that country, such as “I guess,” “I calculate,” etc., - we kept him on board that night.’20 The following day the seaman admitted that he was a native of Swansea in Wales and described how he had bought a false protection when last in New York:I was told that by paying two dollars I could get a protection of citizenship, which would prevent my being pressed on board an English man-of-war. The way it was managed was this:- I was put into a large cradle made on purpose to hold men; I was then rocked by them for a minute or two, and afterwards taken before the proper authorities by the old couple, who made oath they had known me ever since I was in my cradle - no further questions were asked, the matter being quite understood between the parties, - I paid the fees, the protection was granted, and, having given the old folks two dollars for their trouble, I became a ‘registered American citizen,’ . . . in short, it is a regular trade, and hundreds of seamen that have protections got them in the same manner.21
Louis Simond, who had emigrated to America just before the French Revolution, travelled in Britain for many months during the Napoleonic Wars. He himself was a shipowner in America and was of the opinion that ‘it is notorious that nearly one half the crews of American ships sailing from southern ports, beginning at New York, were composed of British seamen. Every individual of them, however, most probably had protections; one-half of which were consequently false: how could it be expected that such documents as these should be respected?’22
Another problem was that America was happy to grant citizenship to immigrants, while Britain held the view that nationality could not be renounced unless by permission of that nation, so anyone born in the British Isles could not escape the obligation of serving in the navy simply by becoming a naturalised American citizen. Most Americans were not issued with protection certificates, and Britain thought it had the right to impress anyone without a protection who spoke English, resulting in thousands of Americans being mistakenly or deliberately impressed into the Royal Navy. It has been estimated that from the start of the war with France in 1793 to the outbreak of war with America, between eight and ten thousand American seamen were pressed into the Royal Navy, while others served as volunteers.
Although war with America did not start until 1812, a major incident occurred almost exactly five years earlier. In June 1807 British warships were lying in wait off Chesapeake Bay in the expectation of intercepting the two French warships, the Patriote and Éole, that had taken refuge there nearly a year before. The British ships had set up a blockade, and they regularly anchored in Hampton Roads while obtaining provisions and fresh water in the town of Norfolk. During one such revictualling, men had deserted from the frigate Melampus and the sloop Halifax and enlisted with the American frigate Chesapeake, so complaints were made to Vice-Admiral Sir George Berkeley, the commander of the British squadron, who was based at Halifax in Nova Scotia. In early June he issued an order to his captains to search the Chesapeake for deserters if the American frigate was met ‘at sea, and without the limits of the United States’.23 In turn Berkeley ordered that if the Americans made a similar demand, they should be allowed to search for any deserters, ‘according to the usages of civilized nations on terms of peace and amity with each other’.24
On 22 June, after months of delays, the Chesapeake sailed into the Atlantic at the start of an intended voyage to the Mediterranean to relieve the frigate Constitution, which had been away nearly four years. The Chesapeake had around four hundred crew and several passengers. In mid-afternoon the British frigate Leopard, under Captain Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, approached the Chesapeake and signalled that they had dispatches. Lieutenant Meade boarded the Chesapeake with Vice-Admiral Berkeley’s orders, which complained that while British ships were at anchor in Chesapeake Bay, ‘many seamen, subjects of his Britannic Majesty . . . deserted and entered on board the United States frigate called the Chesapeake, and openly paraded the streets of Norfolk, in the sight of their officers, under the American flag, protected by the magistrates of the town’.25
Captain James Barron of the Chesapeake refused to allow a boarding party, and after Meade left he ordered his officers to prepare for action. Before they could do so, the Leopard fired two shots across the American frigate’s bow and stern, followed by three broadsides from a distance of only 200 feet. The Chesapeake managed to fire just one gun in fifteen minutes and sustained much damage, with eighteen men wounded and three killed. When Barron surrendered, the Leopard ceased firing and sent a boat to the frigate. Although the Chesapeake had many British seamen, only four deserters could be identified, and they were taken off. Three were in fact Americans: John Strachan, Daniel Martin and William Ware. These men had volunteered for service in the Royal Navy, though before that they had been illegally pressed but returned to their merchant ships - only to desert to the Royal Navy.
The only man who was English was a thirty-four-year-old by the name of Jenkin Ratford, and he had deserted from the sloop Halifax and enlisted with the Chesapeake as John Wilson. He was now dragged from his hiding place and put on board the Leopard. Because the British declined to take the Chesapeake as a prize, the American frigate limped back to Norfolk, and on 1 July Stephen Decatur took over the command. The following day President Jefferson ordered all British warships to leave American waters.
Barron was later court-martialled and suspended without pay from the American Navy for five years. The court martial of the Melampus men and the deserter Ratford took place at Halifax on 26 August 1807. Vice-Admiral Berkeley ordered the three Americans to receive five hundred lashes each, but this punishment was never carried out, and instead they were held in prison, where one of them died, though the other two were eventually returned to the Chesapeake. Ratford ‘was found guilty of mutiny, desertion, and contempt, and hanged at the fore yard-arm of the Halifax, the ship from which he had deserted’.26
In America there was outrage at what had happened, the citizens of Norfolk rioted and war with Britain was demanded. Attempts were made to resolve the issue, but Britain refused to budge from the right to search American merchant vessels for deserters. Later in the year, on 16 October, the British government issued a proclamation that ordered all Briti
sh seamen engaged in the service of foreign vessels and states to return home and for all British naval officers to seize any such seamen, as well as reinforcing the right of impressment from foreign merchant vessels, but disclaiming the right to search naval ships of other nations, all of which increased the anger felt in America. The actions of Berkeley, though, were disowned, and he was recalled by the Admiralty. Fellow naval officers were horrified at what he had done, and Collingwood wrote from his ship, the Ocean, based off Syracuse in Sicily, that ‘the affair in America I consider as exceedingly improvident and unfortunate, as in the issue it may involve us in a contest which it would be wisdom to avoid. When English seamen can be recovered in a quiet way, it is well; but when demanded as a national right, which must be enforced, we should be prepared to do reciprocal justice. In the return I have, from only part of the ships, there are 217 Americans. Would it be judicious to expose ourselves to a call for them?’27 He added: ‘What should we say if the Russians were to man themselves out of English ships?’28
In Europe, the political landscape had changed again. On 14 June a Russian army had been defeated by Napoleon at the Battle of Friedland, and on 7 July Napoleon met the Russian Tsar Alexander I at Tilsit, a small town on the Polish-Lithuanian border. Here a peace treaty was signed between France and Russia, and it was obvious that with Russia under the sway of Napoleon the Continental System would soon begin to have a serious effect on Britain. Russia also agreed to give up its naval bases in the Adriatic to the French and vacate the Mediterranean. Of more immediate concern was one part of the treaty that was meant to remain secret - how France and Russia would divide up Europe between them with an aggressive application of the Continental System and the amalgamation of the French and Russian fleets. These were to be increased by more shipbuilding and by seizing the fleets of Portugal and Denmark, both neutral states.
The secret treaty was known almost instantly in Britain, and the government realised that it must act quickly to pre-empt Napoleon’s plan. The more dangerous threat lay with the Danish fleet, and within weeks seventeen battleships and twenty-one frigates commanded by Admiral Lord Gambier sailed for Copenhagen as the first wave of an expeditionary force, while other battleships, frigates and transports for twenty-five thousand troops under Lieutenant-General Lord Cathcart were assembled. Once again Britain was threatening force against a nominally neutral country for much the same reasons that Copenhagen had been attacked by Parker and Nelson in 1801. If Napoleon gained control of Denmark, Britain would be excluded from essential trade with the Baltic states, and the Danish fleet could be used to renew the possibility of invading Britain.
Barely one step ahead of the military, with a ring of British ships already in place around the Island of Zealand, the British diplomats met the Danish Crown Prince to demand ‘whether Denmark intended to declare for or against England, as its neutrality, owing to the violent measures adopted by France, could no longer be acknowledged’.29 The Prince is said to have declared ‘that he would consider every power as his enemy that should attempt to violate his neutrality’.30 The lessons of 1801 had been taken to heart, and not only had the expedition been dispatched more quickly this time, but it did not rely on naval fire-power alone. Troops were landed and quickly laid siege to the city of Copenhagen to back up British demands that the Danes surrender their fleet and naval stores. Charles Chambers, a surgeon on board the fireship Prometheus, noted the disembarkation of the troops in his diary entry for 16 August:At 2 this morning, the Troops began to land, which occupied all the forenoon. They made a very grand appearance on the beach, and an appropriate spot being selected, of course met with no opposition from batteries, &c. This portion of the Country is one of the finest I ever beheld, and considerably surpasses in rusticity that . . . in the neighbourhood of Elsineur; the woods have a great similitude to those of Radway in Warwickshire, but are more extensive, and there are some celestial cottages situated in various parts of them. I felt for the disconsolate inhabitants on the disembarkation of the Troops, many of whom I afterwards saw marching over the hills, and in the heat of the day sitting down under the shade of the trees in a state of tranquillity that could scarcely be expected, when reflecting on the serious and awful purport of their errand.31
The reserve troops were commanded by Major-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had travelled with an entourage of servants and his own supplies, which by now were running low, and Chambers related that ‘it having been intimated to Captain Parker [of the Prometheus] that Sir Arthur Wellesley was getting short of provisions, he very liberally sent him some wine, hams, &c., on shore for his use’.32 He added:An order has been given by Admiral Gambier to fit out a small captured Danish sloop as a fire-ship, to send in to destroy their floating battery should an opportunity avail, the entire superintendence of which is entrusted to Captain Parker, who is to have the management of her when she is burnt. As she is rigged out with part of the Prometheus’s combustibles, we have denominated her the Young Prometheus. A poor dog was found in her, which unhappily fell overboard, and with much difficulty I saved its life by employing a man who had much trouble to haul it in; the sensible animal evinced its gratitude by a peculiar attachment [to Chambers].33
While Chambers acquired a pet dog, the bombardment of Copenhagen was intensifying, and the next day he had a grandstand view of the conflict. His diary entry for 23 August recorded the awesome sight:Sunday morning at 10 o’clock a firing commenced and proved far more tremendous than any yet experienced; the enemy began, and in less than 10 minutes it became general with the navies and armies. More grandeur and magnificence could not possibly be displayed: the elements appeared at war with each other, and the incessant roaring of guns, mortars, &c., resembled . . . an unremitted peal of thunder, the repeated echo of which baffles all description. I wish it to be understood the Prometheus this day was only a spectator . . . I therefore from our quarter-deck beheld, in cool blood, the desperate proceedings of each party. From the windmill battery, lately erected by our soldiers, they fired red-hot shot, the distinct hissing of which through the air was awful indeed. Our mortar-boats sallied forth to lend their assistance, but were shortly obliged to return, being unable to cope with the enemy’s heavy metal, especially of Copenhagen Crown Battery, the most formidable one of all. I saw several of our shells burst over the city and blockships, and two fell apparently very near one of the large spires. We could plainly perceive where shot and shells dropped on both sides; those which fell in the water produced an extraordinary splashing, and those on shore raised immense clouds of dust; the chief of them appeared very well directed . . . Some of Mr. Congreve’s pyrotechnic rockets were let off at the town, though it was generally supposed the distance too great for them to do execution. I saw two stick in the beach which burnt a considerable time. Including the standard of wood to which they are attached the same as common rockets, the weight of each is 32 lb.; they make a most curious noise as they traverse the atmosphere, by far more audible than the hissing of shells or red-hot shot. The action continued till 4 in the afternoon, when the firing of each party ceased, as if reciprocally; however, wishing to act as an impartial umpire, I must confess our ships appeared unable to maintain the contest longer, and I fear sustained no inconsiderable injury. The cutter from which the rockets were discharged, was repulsed in a very short time. Congreve was not in her himself, which some attributed to sagacity on his part. In the afternoon, a stag was conveyed past the Prometheus in a boat, which I presume was taken from some park on shore, and sent as a present by the military officers to Admiral Gambier.34
Day after day bombardment and counter-bombardment continued, as the British grip tightened around the city, and the Danes held out in hope of the siege being broken by a relieving army. On board ships such as the Prometheus, which were not directly involved in the fighting, life went on as normal. On the 29th Chambers recorded: ‘A general order has been issued stating that a Danish vessel laden with oranges and lemons being detained by the Fleet, any O
fficers desiring to procure some for their refreshment may obtain them at the rate of £1 12 0 per chest, the price of which in England I fancy would be nearly double that sum. Our lower deck was whitewashed this morning, which gave it a much neater and lighter appearance than before.’35
It was on this day that the only real battle between two large forces of troops took place - Danish troops were moving in to break the siege, and the British reserve under Wellesley decisively defeated them at Kioge, which left Copenhagen completely at the mercy of the besiegers. The next day Chambers wrote: ‘At 3 P.M. the following Telegraph communication was conveyed to us from the Admiral’s ship . . . “General Wellesley has gained a complete victory and taken 1 General, 64 officers, 1,200 prisoners and 12 cannon and was pursuing the enemy flying.” I understand Sir A. Wellesley’s Brigade were sent after a detachment of Danes to the number of 7,000 in the direction of Elsineur, the chief of whom consisted of armed peasantry, and I presume were not partial to the smell of gunpowder, as Sir A.W.’s force consisted of only 2,000 but the flower of the Army.’36 Without a break Chamber’s diary entry continued with more mundane news: ‘Had a most excellent turkey for dinner which came from Sweden and cost no more than 4 shillings. Congreve the rocket maker is become the jest of the whole Fleet, insomuch that every person is sporting wit upon him, some have conferred on him the appellation of Commodore Squib, &c. ; he appears determined to make himself conspicuous, as he wears a white hat and coat; consequence [desire for celebrity] seems his leading characteristic, which cannot be wondered at with a salary of £2,000 per annum for an invention which hitherto has proved futile.’37