Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay: From the Colonial Era to the Oyster Wars by Jamie L. H. Goodall

Author:Jamie L. H. Goodall [Goodall, Jamie L. H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, Maritime History & Piracy, United States, State & Local, Middle Atlantic (DC; DE; MD; NJ; NY; PA), General
ISBN: 9781439669099
Google: zB3GDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2020-02-24T23:56:52.872263+00:00

GEORGE R. ROBERTS

One of the men who served as a gunner on the Chasseur during its famous blockade of England in August 1814 was a free black man named George R. Roberts. Captain Boyle noted that Roberts “displayed the most intrepid courage,” and he said that he was later “highly thought of by the citizen-soldiery” of Baltimore.119 Roberts was even one of the few defenders of Baltimore who had his portrait taken by a photographer. Before serving on the Chasseur, Roberts was a member of Captain Richard Moon’s privateering ship called the Sarah Ann. Some of the Sarah Ann’s investors included James Ramsey, the proprietor of the best chandlery and grocery in Fell’s Point, and John Craig, another grocer who also owned several scows.

While Roberts was serving on the Sarah Ann in the Caribbean, the crew took a British ship that was carrying sugar and coffee. The battle only lasted for three hours, despite the fact that the Sarah Ann only had one gun to fire against the ten aboard the British Elizabeth. The crew of the Sarah Ann delivered the Elizabeth to Savannah, Georgia, before returning to sea, where in September 1812, they came across HMS Statira. Roberts was among six American seamen who were accused of being British subjects, taken prisoner and brought to Jamaica in irons when the Sarah Ann was captured. The men denied being British, and Captain Moon even remarked about Roberts: “I know him to be native born of the United States and of which he had every sufficient document, together with his free papers. He entered on board the Sarah Ann at Baltimore, where he is married.”120 Moon and his men retaliated, seized twelve British subjects and put them “into close confinement to be detained as hostages.” Ultimately, the prisoners were exchanged. Afterward, in November 1812, Roberts arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, before eventually returning to Baltimore.121

It is unknown what Roberts’s profession was after he served on the Chasseur, but he did become a local hero and was allowed to participate as one of the Old Defenders of Baltimore of 1814 during the parades that commemorated the anniversary for many years. According to one of the local newspapers upon Roberts’s death in 1861:

Though laboring under the weight of so many years, his carriage was erect, and he never appeared on parade except in uniform, and it was one of his highest aspirations to still be considered one of the defenders of his native city should the necessity have arrived to take up arms in its defense. The deceased was one of the crew under the command of Captain Thomas Boyle, of this city, in the privateer Chasseur, when Captain Boyle declared the coast of Great Britain under blockade. He served during the war under several commanders, and generally at sea, and he had in the service many hair-breath [sic] escapes.122

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