Yankee Privateer

Come listen and I’ll tell you

how first I went to sea

to fight against the British

and earn our liberty

we shipped with Cap’n Whipple

who never knew a fear

the captain of the Providence

the Yankee Privateer

We sailed and we sailed

And we made good cheer

There were many pretty men

On the Yankee privateer

The British Lord High Admiral

He wished old Whipple harm

He wrote that he would hang him

At the end of his yard arm

“my lord” wrote Cap’n Whipple back,

“it seems to me it’s clear

that if you want to hang him

you must catch your Privateer.”

We sailed and we sailed

And we made good cheer

For not a British frigate

Could come near the Privateer

We sailed to the south’ard

And nothing did we meet

Til we found three British frigates

And their West Indian fleet

Old Whipple shot our ports

As we crawled up near

And he sent us all below

On the Yankee Privateer

So slowly we sailed

We dropped back to the rear

And not a soul suspected

The Yankee Privateer

At night we put the lights out

And forward we ran

And silently we boarded

The biggest merchantman

We knocked down the watch

And the lubbers shook for fear

She’s a prize without a shot

To the Yankee Privateer

We sent the prize north

While we lay near

And all day we slept

On the bold Privateer

For ten nights we followed

And ere the moon rose

Each night a prize we’d taken

Beneath the lion’s nose

When the British looked to see

Why their ships should disappear

They found they had in convoy

A Yankee Privateer

But we sailed and we sailed

And we made good cheer

Not a coward was on board

Of the Yankee Privateer

The biggest British frigate

Bore round to give us chase

But though he was the fleeter

Old Whipple wouldn’t race

Till he’d raked her fore and aft

For the lubbers couldn’t steer

Then he showed them the heels

Of the Yankee Privateer

Then we sailed and we sailed

And we made good cheer

For not a British frigate

Could come near the Privateer

Then northward we sailed

To the town we all know

And there lay our prizes

All anchored in a row

And welcome were we

To our friends so dear

And we shared a million dollars

On the bold Privateer

We’d sailed and we’d sailed

And we made good cheer

We all had full pockets

On the bold Privateer

Then we each manned a ship

And our sails we unfurled

And we bore the Stars and Stripes

O’er the oceans of the world

From the proud flag of Britain

We swept the seas quite clear

And we earned our independence

On the Yankee Privateer

Then landsmen and sailors

Let’s give one more cheer!

Here is three times three

For the Yankee Privateer!

Among the most successful of the Yankee privateers was the Providence, and her most famous exploit was performed in July, 1779, when she attacked a fleet of merchantmen,under convoy of a ship of the line and some cruisers, and captured ten prizes, nine of which, valued at over a million dollars, were got safely to Boston. The Providence was commanded by Abraham Whipple, the hero of the Gaspe exploit and of a hundred others.

--- Poems of American History, by Burton Egbert Stevenson 1908