The Liverpool Packet
The most feared Canadian privateer vessel in the War of 1812 was The Liverpool Packet. She was sometimes given the moniker, “The Black Joke,” as she was actually an ex-slave ship taken by the Royal Navy just before the war. When the war started with the New American nation she was recommissioned as a privateer, a private warship authorized by the British government by a letter of marque. The Liverpool Packet quickly earned a reputation as a fast and successful raider off American ports such as Boston and Cape Cod.
But there were scary times for her, as well. The Packet was captured briefly by the Americans but was retaken in a raid by the British and returned to fighting under the Union Jack again.
(Ship silhouette copyright 1997 Dan Conlin Revised August 21, 2000)
The Liverpool Packet was owned by Enos Collins, John Allison and John Barss. Collins, it was claimed, went on to become the richest man in North American having parlayed his earnings into the founding of the first bank in Nova Scotia.
The success of this tiny 6-gun raider was not in the booty and ships taken – which was considerable – but in the fear and anger raised up and down the American coast.
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