Going Inīut a raid on Pettipaug would not be easy. That several vessels were now being armed and new privateers were being built there did not escape the Royal Navy’s attention. Pettipaug was already a well-known shipbuilding center. For the young United States with its extremely limited federal navy, privateering was an important part of the war effort.ĭespite the obvious risks, the building and financing of privateers represented a potentially lucrative investment opportunity while also serving the national cause. The captured vessels and their cargos were sold at auction and the profits split between the owners, the captain and crew, and the US government. These were privately owned warships meant to attack and capture British merchant ships on the high seas. Some began arming their vessels as privateers. In shipbuilding towns such as Pettipaug many hard-pressed merchant ship owners were unable to carry out the normal coastal and West Indies trade that their livelihoods depended on. The raid resulted in the single greatest loss of American shipping of the entire war.ĭuring the War of 1812 the British navy’s blockade of Long Island Sound nearly shut down commerce along the Connecticut coast. Before the raid was over they had torched 27 ships and taken or destroyed thousands of dollars’ worth of rigging materials. On a cold April night in 1814 a British raiding force rowed six miles up the Connecticut River to burn the privateers of Essex, then known as Pettipaug. By Jerry Roberts for Connecticut Explored
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