Edward Pasteur, Captain of the Snap Dragon (1813-14)

The 6-gun schooner Snap Dragon, Captain E. Pasteur (also commanded by Captains O. Burns and N. Graham), was far more successful than either of the above (1), taking two barks, five brigs, and three schooners. In August and September, 1813, she captured the brigs Good Intent, Venus and Happy, the bark Reprisal, and the schooner Elizabeth. All of these vessels were destroyed at sea after the more valuable portions of their cargoes had been taken out, except one which was given up to the prisoners. The Snap Dragon also took the brig Ann, with a cargo of dry goods worth half a million dollars. These goods had been purchased by American merchants with the expectation of smuggling them into the United States. In the following September the Snap Dragon captured the brig Jane, which being in ballast, was given up to the prisoners. In April, 1814, this privateer seized two vessels – the Linnet, laden with fish and oil, and another, a schooner with a cargo of mahogany, which was sent into Beaufort.


(1) Wilmington, in the course of the war, sent out three privateers. The 5-gun schooner Hawk, Captain W. H. Trippe, got to sea in March, 1814, with a complement of sixty-eight men. She made only one prize, the schooner Phoebe, laden with rum and molasses, which was sent into the privateer’s home port. On April 26, 1814, the Hawk was captured by the British frigate Pique while off Silver Keys. Another 5-gun schooner from Wilmington, the Lovely Lass, Captain J. Smith, of the United States Navy, got to sea in 1813 with a complement of sixty men, and in March sent into New Orleans a schooner valued at ten thousand dollars. On the following May 4th this privateer fell in with the British cruiser Circee, and after a hard chase of nineteen hours, in which the privateer threw overboard four of her guns, she was taken. On this cruise the Lovely Lass had been out forty days.

Source: Maclay, Edgar Stanton, A History of American Privateers, New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1899, pp. 321, 322.

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