What Happened To
The Snap Dragon?
Olway Burns* famed privateer made
history during’ the Hair of 1812. and
then she vanished.
Ifi; KITH P. BAR
ВОН К
Almost every North Carolinian has
heard of Otway Burns. Some may even
recall the name of his War of 1812
privateer Snap Dragon. Burns' re¬
mains lie in the Old Burying Grounds
at Beaufort, a cemetery listed in the
National Register of Historic Places.
But what happened to his famous ves¬
sel?
Bums and the Snap Dragon took
more than 40 English vessels and cap¬
tured 300 English sailors and officers.
Cargoes he seized from British mer¬
chantmen supplied eastern Carolinians
with the goods formerly obtained from
England in peacetime.
It was the war at sea and exploits of
privateersmen like Burns that won the
War of 1X12. our Second War of Inde¬
pendence. Our military operations on
land were largely failures.
The Snap Dragon, a two-topsail
schooner, was built in Maryland in
1808 just south of Annapolis, on a
tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. On
the bay. shipbuilders turned out the
type of swift sailing craft that brought
grief to Great Britain, mistress of the
seas. Here were constructed what
came to be known as Baltimore clip¬
pers. among the fastest vessels afloat,
they spread the fame of American
shipbuilders and seamanship.
The 90-foot Snap Dragon, sleek of
hull, fore-and-aft rigged with square
topsails, was like many of her sister
craft. Their large sail area gave them
tremendous advantage in light winds.
In a fair breeze, nothing afloat could
catch them. By comparison. British
Navy vessels and merchantmen were
clumsy.
Burns commanded the Snap Dragon
on three cruises. The first lasted six
months, from September 1812 to Feb¬
ruary 1813. The second was of short
duration, ten weeks in the summer of
12
1813. The third was almost three
months long, from the latter part of
January to mid-April 1814.
Prize of War
Edgar Stanton Maclay. noted Naval
historian, says the vessels and cargoes
captured by Bums were valued at $4
million, no small amount in those days.
The only pay that ow ners of the vessel,
her officers and crew received was that
shared after prizes and cargoes were
sold.
Bums did not command the Snap
Dragon on her fourth cruise. The days
at sea. on a vessel that w as almost con¬
stantly as wet as a fish, had taken their
toll. His rheumatism was so painful
that he stayed ashore.
The Snap Dragon's owners, men of
means from New Bern and other east¬
ern North Carolina towns, found
another captain, William Richard
Graham, from Virginia. Some of the
crewmen under Burns signed up again,
for with Burns they had made small
fortunes.
Good fortune was not to be their lot.
however, under Graham. The Snap
Dragon was captured June 30. 1814.
thirty-three days after she sailed from
Ocracoke. Graham was cruising off
Nova Scotia, in the vicinity of Cape
Sambro light, hoping to intercept a
convoy from Jamaica when taken by
the British sloop. HMS Martin.
The Snap Dragon was sent into
Halifax where the court of Vice-
Admiralty declared her a prize of war.
How many times had British vessels.
This model
0»
the topsoil schooner "Seep Drooon", built occordmg to plons obtoined from the Smithwmon
Institution by L'«dr. John S. MocCormock, USCG (ret.) is owned by Mr. and Mrs J. O. Borbour, Jr., and .son
loon to the Hompton Moriner”s Museum, in Beaufort. (Photo by Clifton Guthrie)
THE STATE, November i960