A Nantucketer's Influence on the Navy in the War of 1812

;6

BY RICHARD C. MALONEY

IN AN AGE when specifications and negotiations for defense equipment are enormously complicated and there is intense rivalry among contractors — and indeed, among various sections of the country — for the awarding of aircraft and shipbuilding contracts, it is interesting to read and analyze a letter written in 1813 by Nantucketer Jacob Barker, now in the collection of Nantucket's Peter Foulger Museum. The letter indicates, among other pertinent points, that though specifications for building a warship were relatively simple and could be described comprehensibly in a personal letter in 1813, the rivalries among shipbuilders and between sectional interests were perhaps as vigorous a hundred-and-sixty years ago as they are today.

Jacob Barker was one of the several versatile, talented men who derived from Nantucket in the 18th and early 19th centuries. His life story is worthy of a complete biography; but to put it briefly here, he was descended from the same ancestral stock as Benjamin Franklin,' and numerous references have been made to the close resemblence between portraits of the two men.2 Though he was born at Kennebec, Maine, on December 17, 1779, during during his parents' "temporary" visit to that area, he "returned" to Nantucket with his widowed mother and others of the family when he was six years old and spent his boyhood years on the island. Accordingly, he considered himself to be a Nantucketer.3

In manhood, Jacob Barker became the second largest shipbuilder of the nation; 4 he was, for a time, the most successful financier of his day; 5 and to a great extent he personally financed the cost of the War of 1812.6 He conducted his extensive business operations at various times in New York, Philadelphia, and New Orleans — and he suffered his share of financial difficulties. However, in 1813, his base was in New York, and it was from that city that he wrote, on May 17, a letter to the Hon. William Long, Secretary of the Navy, urging that contracts to build a sloop of war and a frigate be awarded to the shipbuilder brothers, Adam and Noah Brown, of New York.

The Brown brothers, with Henry Eckford, were the most efficient shipbuilders of that period.7 They had performed an extraordinary feat in building ships on the Great Lakes which enabled the American navy to control the lakes and prevent the British from invading the North and Northwest.

So it was, in January 1813, with the British fleet blockading most of the American Atlantic ports, that the Congress authorized the building of three 44-gun frigates and six 18-gun sloops of war,8 and Jacob Barker sought to persuade the Department

NANTUCKETER'S INFLUENCE ON THE NAVY

7

of the Navy to commission Adam and Noah Brown to build a portion of that fleet. Hence, his letter to the Honorable William Long, Secretary of the Navy:

New York 5 M° 17th 1813

Esteemed friend

I did not reach home until the 15th, when I had a full conversation with Adam & Noah Brown, who are willing to build a Sloop of war of the best white oak, locust & cedar of the description set forth in the contract of which thee furnished me a copy, in the same length of time or shorter if wished for, than that allowed for building the one at Baltimore; but they require five dollars pR ton more than was allowed for building that one, in other words they will build one in their building yard at fifty five dollars pR ton; or they will build her in their yard at something less. It is true they derive an advantage by building under cover, but not equal to the interest on the cost of their buildings and building lots; labourers will not work in stormy weather cheaper than in dry weather; it enables the contractor to despatch work quicker than when done in open air; and the work done under cover is much more durable; therefore the parties for whom the work is done, derive nearly the whole benefit of building under cover, which enables the builder to get jobs that he could not otherwise get; therefore when his house is occupied (and it will not contain more than one large vessel) he is deprived of that preference; so that there is a manifest reason why a builder should have a higher price for building a vessel under cover than for building her in open air. Browns think the price is too low, particularly when the tonnage is ascertained by the PhilA measurement, and the timber required is so much larger than is common for a vessel of similar description and it also being required to double bolt the floor timbers. But they are so desirous to build a vessel for gov1", that it may be known with what despatch & ability they can fulfill a contract as before stated; and they will give in a live oak transom; and if thee will give the necessary instruction to Doctor Bullers, they will execute the necessary papers & furnish satisfactory security. Thy answer by return of mail is requested, as the building house will not be occupied until I receive thy answer.

Browns are also very anxious to build a frigate, which they can put afloat by new year, if they commence immediately; they have a complete Keel on hand; they have also 4000 feet Live Oak, an abundance of cedar & Locus (sic) & can obtain any quantity of Jersey Oak; & they can obtain 500 tons Carolina Yellow Pine, that

Jacob Barker

NANTUCKETER'S INFLUENCE ON THE NAVY 9

quantity being here for sale on board a Ship; therefore I think the very best materials may be had without the least delay for building a first rate frigate, which Browns will build at the price pR at Baltimore, say sixty three dollars pR ton, with an allowance for the value of such timber as may be ordered in lieu of Oak timber. It is understood that they furnish a Bowsprit but no masts or Spars in the contract; this price they also consider too low & I have had much difficulty in getting them to agree to it. The advantages to be anticipated from making a contract with Browns is so manifest that it is not necessary for me to call thy attention to them, such as expedition, good materials, faithful workmen; and when the frigate is completed, she is in a place from which she can be sent to sea; and I very much doubt if one can be got to sea from Baltimore or PhilA during the war; when at Baltimore I understood the Keels of those to be built were not laid and that they could not be commenced until the British left the mouth of the Patapsco to enable the parties to get the timber round from a distant place, so that I apprehend thee will be disappointed at that place.

With esteem I am Thy R- f(Sig.) Jacob Barker

Hon: William Jones

SecY of the Navy

Washington City

Within a month after Jacob Barker's letter to the Secretary of the Navy, contracts were let for some of the vessels that had been authorized by the Congress. The Brown brothers were engaged to build one sloop of war, the Peacock. Five other sloops were to be built at Washington, Baltimore, Boston, and Newburyport, while the building of three frigates was assigned to Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.9

As Jacob Barker had predicted, none of the sloops or frigates built in the southern ports was able to evade the British blockade of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays and get to sea during the war. Sloop Peacock, built in New York by Adam and Noah Brown, proved to be the most successful of the three ships that did see active service. She was "a fast ship in heavy weather and was considered an ideal sloop of war." 10 On April 27, 1814, under the command of Lewis Warrington, she captured the British brig Epervier (18 guns) off Florida. The prize carried a cargo of £25,000 in gold bullion, which was shipped successfully through the blockade into Savannah. Later Peacock staged a daring raid into the Bay of Biscay.11

So it was that Jacob Barker, son of a prominent Nantucket

10

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Quaker though he was, played his important part in getting to sea one of the most successful of United States Navy ships in the War of 1812.

FOOTNOTES '• The Penn Monthly, Dec. 1972: "Jacob Barker and Benjamin

Franklin were descended from the same ancestral stock;

Jacob being third cousin in the paternal, and fourth cousin in in the maternal, line, to Benjamin Franklin." 2 Ltr. from Abraham Barker to Wm. F. Barnard, Pres. Nant.

Hist. Assoc., Sept. 4, 1900; p. 2. "The resemblance between the portrait of Dr. Franklin and that of Jacob Barker is very great." 3 Ibid, p. 2: "Jacob's father . . . moved with his family from

Nantucket at the commencement of the revolution in 1772, to Swan Island, Kennebec. . . . Jacob was born there on the 17th. December, 1779 (the hard winter), where his father died on the 26th of April, 1780. . . . (His mother) returned with her family to her native island in April 1785." 4 Ibid., p. 3: "Next to William Gray of Salem my father Jacob

Barker was the largest shipowner in the United States. . . .

In the appointment of commanders for his vessels he usually selected those from Nantucket." 5 Description of Sarah Folger Barker (Jacob Barker's mother) "Written at Cotuit. Dec. 25th. 1853. By Phebe Fish." — "(Jacob) has been called the greatest 'Financier in America'."

Document in the Peter Foulger Museum collection. 6 The Penn Monthly, Dec. 1872, p. 645: "No man of that day (1814) worked so hard to preserve the credit and honor of the country. Had the promised conditions of the loan — (Barker had offered to provide $5 million of the Treasury's proposed $10 million loan) — been fulfilled, Jacob Barker would have been able to furnish the means for the entire conduct of the war (of 1812)." 7 Chapelle, Howard I., "The History of the American Sailing

Navy," p. 307: "From a naval shipbuilding point of view, the outstanding men of the War of 1812 were Eckford and

Browns, Adam and Noah." 8 Ibid. p. 256. 8 Ibid. ,0- Ibid. p. 260. i S - R o s c o e & F r e e m a n , " P i c t u r e H i s t o r y o f t h e U . S . N a v y " : 111. No. 374, PEACOCK TAKES EPERYIER; Artist Thos.

Birch; courtesy N. Y. Historical Society, and text.