Captain Thomas Tingey’s 5 November 1798 instructions to Lt. Archibald McElroy provide important information on early naval recruitment.1, 2 Once fully manned the USS Ganges was to patrol the Windward Passage between Haiti and Cuba in order to protect American shipping in the area and to capture or destroy French vessels of war or pirates.3 Surprisingly, as scholar Lauren McCormack has noted, we know little about how sailors were recruited during the first years of the United States Navy.4 Two of our best sources of information are from advertisements placed in Boston newspapers in May 1798 by Captain Samuel Nicholson of the newly constructed frigate USS Constitution see, http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/constitution-decklog-1.html
1. Naval Documents Related to the Quasi – War between the United States and France , Vol. II, pp. 7-8, editor Dudley Knox (U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington DC, 1935), pp 7-8
2. McElroy, Archibald. Appointed Lieutenant, 11 May, 1798, Discharged 10 May, 1801,Officers - Continental & US Navy/Marine Corps 1775-1900 Naval History and Heritage Command, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/o/officers-continental-usnavy-mc-1775-1900.html
3. Brown, Gordon S. The Captain Who Burned his Ships Captain Thomas Tingey, USN, 1750 -1829 (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md, 2011), pp.27-28
4. McCormack, Lauren. “Food and Drink in the U.S. Navy, 1794 to 1820” USS Constitution Museum, 2018, https://www.usscm.org/publications/us-naval-recruiting-during-the-war-of-1812.pdf.
Captain Tingey had received orders from the Secretary of the Navy to get the Ganges ready for sea after completing his complement of men, stores and ammunition and put to sea by the beginning of December 1798.5 During this period the U.S. Navy had no centralized recruitment service or record keeping for enlisted personnel. Each naval vessel or shore station was responsible for enlisting the necessary seamen and petty officers to fill out the requisite crew. There were no permanent recruitment offices, ships like the USS Constitution and the USS Ganges often made arrangement with the owner of a local pubic house, or pub, like that run by Lewis Albertus. Here Lt. McElroy was expected to set up a temporary recruitment center or “Rendezvous” as they were then known. Tingey knew from past experience such establishments near the waterfront were places chosen by seafarers to lodge while in port, there they could eat, drink and congregate and with the addition of pitchers of “punch” these made ideal recruiting centers... ”6
5. Philadelphia Gazette, 12 November 1798, (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), p. 3.
6. Sharp, John G.M., The Deck Log of the Frigate USS Constitution 1803-1815, Part I. http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/constitution-decklog-1.html
Notwithstanding this seemingly official prohibition, it is clear that blacks maintained a consistent presence in the US Navy throughout the Early Republic and especially during the War of 1812. Though the U.S. Navy officially forbid recruiting officers to enlist black or mulatto sailors, yet this order was never strictly enforced. Black sailors certainly served on naval vessels, especially during the War of 1812, but since muster rolls did not record race, exact numbers are not known. Recent estimates by naval historians conclude that, on average, 15-20% of navy manpower during the War of 1812 was black. Blacks served as ordinary or able seaman, indicating that they were experienced sailors. Others, however, worked as servants, stewards or cooks. A life at sea offered skill-building opportunities and steady pay to black men, advantages that were hard to come by on shore.7
7. Charles E. Brodine Jr., Michael J. Crawford and Christine F. Hughes Ironsides! The Ship, the Men and the Wars of the USS Constitution, Fireship Press p.50 and The USS Constitution Museum https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/history/crew/war-of-1812/james-bennett
John G.M. Sharp, 27 August 2024
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TranscriptionPhiladelphia, November 5th 1798
SIR
Having appointed you to recruit a Crew for the United States Ship of War Ganges under my command You will forthwith engage the house of Lewis Albertus, or other public house suitable for the occasion, and endeavor to procure able seamen, not exceeding at present, the number of forty, at seventeen dollars per month, and engaged agreeably to serve twelve months, having for your guidance the following instructions namely,
1st. – You must be careful to recruit none but sound and healthy persons (for which the Doctor will be sent to attend you) and observe that no indirect or forcible means be used to induce them to enter into the service.
2nd. – No Negroes or Mulattoes are to be admitted, and as far as You can judge, You will exclude all of a suspicious character. Be careful also to give a decided preference to all native Americans.
3rd. – You are to avoid an advance of money if possible until the men are got on board; but should you find it impracticable to procure them on this condition, You may pay them two months advance - In this case, you will take care to obtain sufficient security to resort to in the event of desertion, before the time of the advance is worked out.
4th. – Take a regular account of the name & station of each recruit together with a description of his person and his usual place of residence, so that he may be identified at any future period.
5th. – Every man you ship, must take the oath agreeably to the form given you – You must have the shipping Articles wherein the Name, Station, & pay of each man must be entered – It will be necessary to have this business done with exactness to avoid confusion – The form of the Bond to be signed by the sureties is already delivered to You. Take care that these sureties are persons of good and responsible characters before you accept them and do not let one person be security for too many of your people.
6th. – I shall furnish you with money for this business, and you are to obeserve that you will be allowed besides your pay and rations - Two Dollars for each recruit, &c &c in short of every expense of attesting, furnishings, ribbon punch &c &c in short of every expense, but that of their conveyance to the Ship – In this latter You must observe the strictest economy, as extravagant charges will not be allowed, and no one will be allowed without a proper voucher for the payment.
7th. – Forty Eight hours will be allowed for each person after signing to prepare necessities &c and everyone who fails to render himself on board in that time, You must have immediate recourse to his security for the return of his advance.
As I wish to bring the Ship up immediately, should 15 or 20 good men present direct, that would proceed down for the purpose of bringing her up to, receive them with assurance that they shall be paid their advance, immediately on the Ship anchoring before the town, and be allowed to make their arrangements.I am Sir &c, &c T. T. [Thomas Tingey]
To Lieut. Archibald McElroy
1st of the Ganges88. Naval Documents Related to the Quasi – War between the United States and France, Vol. II, pp. 7-8, editor Dudley Knox (U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington DC, 1935), pp. 7-8.
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12 March 1806, Commodore Thomas Tingey wrote to Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith to endorse the application for employment of ship joiner, Adam Kaizer. Kaizer had served with Tingey aboard the USS Ganges and later served with Commodore William Bainbridge as a carpenter's mate in the ill-fated USS Philadelphia. On October 31, 1803, in Tripoli harbor while giving chase and firing upon a Libyan navy ship, the Philadelphia ran aground on an uncharted reef two miles (3 km) off Tripoli Harbor.
Unable to get free of the reef, Commodore Bainbridge ordered holes drilled in the ship's bottom, gunpowder dampened, sails set afire, and all other weapons thrown overboard before he surrendered. Tripoli officials enslaved the American officers and men as war captives. The officers and men of the USS Philadelphia were than imprisoned in Tripoli for nineteen months, then released in June of 1805. The enlisted men like Adam Kaizer were often subjected to brutal treatment.
On 14 March 1806, Robert Smith replied to Tingey and signaled his approval to hire Adam Kaizer as a ship joiner at Washington Navy Yard at 1.80 per diem.
Tingey to Smith re Ganges crew 12 March 180699. Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy from Captains, Tingey to Secretary of the Navy, Robert Smith,
12 March 1806, 1 Jan 1806 - 21 May 1806, Volume 4, Letter number 47.* * * * * *
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