The Tale of Luke Ryan:
On letters ofmarque and reprisal and the distinction between piracy and privateering.
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n the even ing of 16 April her stern chaser, but the Belle Poule was simply too fas t for rhe privateer. 178 1, off Sc. Abbs Head By five in the morning, Belle Poule just south of the Firth of Forth, rhe French privateer Calonne, was close enough to fire a broadside. commanded by Luke Ryan, captured Rya n responded by h auling his win d with rhe intent ro rake his rhe merchant brig Nancy of Aberdeen. T he Calonne was a ship of fo ur enemy. Patron turned parall el to rhe Calonne, and, for an hour, the hund red tons, with thirty-two guns and a crew of238 men , a privateer of two frigates exchanged broadsides unusual size and fo rce. France was with remarkably lirde damage. The allied with the U nited Stares in rhe delay enabled rhe slower-sai ling American Waroflndependence, and Berwick to approach, and with her arrival , Luke Ryan had no alternarhe Nancy appeared to be a valid prize. Captain Ryan preferred to rantive bur to strike his French flag and surrender to the Belle Poule. som rhe brig rather rhan incur the On d1e fo llowing day, when the risks and inconvenience of sending Belle Poule arrived at Leith road, her in to a French port, bur ir took Capta in Parron transferred his pristhree hours of haggling with Nancy's oners to Edinburgh Castle and imcommander, John Ramsay, before mediately fo rwarded a two-sentence the good Scots captain would agree dispatch to Philip Stephens, secreto bind his owners for payment of tary of rhe Admiralty, advising him the three hundred guineas Ryan deof rhe capture of rhe Calonne and manded. Afrer midnight, ransom paLuke Ryan. The reply arrived by pers were signed and the Nancy was express at midnight of26April. T he released, while Captain Ramsay reLords Comm issioners of the Admimained on board rhe Calonne as a "ransomer," or hostage, to ensure ralty were pleased and directed rhar Captain Parron should rake parpayment of the ransom notes. ticular care rhar Luke Ryan nor esT he transaction was barely completed when a c1y from the masthead Luke Ryan at the time ofhis trial, by an unknown artist, cape, "there being reason to believe rhar he is a subj ect of His Majesty. " of the Calonne reported rharrhe lights published in Hibernian magazine, 1782. Patton replied rhe following m ornof two vessels were to be seen at the entrance to the Firth of Forth. Ramsay remarked to Ryan that a ing rhar he had communicated their Lordships' instructions to few hours earli er he had passed a pair of whaleships on their way the Governor of Edinburgh Cas tle, who had take n action "by to th e Arctic for a summer's fishing. Ryan gave commands and which all possibility of escape will be prevented." Who was Luke Ryan rhat he should distract rhe atte nti on of the Calonne set off in pursuic. Luke Ryan had just made the rhe Lords of the Sea from their normal concerns wirh mighty bigges t misrake of his life. As the vessels began to close, the nearer of the two ships fleets and the fate of nations? [When rhe case came to trial, the expected charge of high appeared to Ryan to be a fa r north co untry merchantman. In fresh and squally wes terly winds, the Calonne came in fast under treason was transformed at the eleventh hour to one of piracy, the stranger's quarter. In rap id success ion, Ryan released a with a verdict rha r wo uld depend on Ryan 's place of birth-an broadside, called out to his quarry to heave to, and put overboard Irish pirate or a French privateer. Despite a lack of evidence to prove Ryan 's Iri sh birth, he was indicted by a grand jury for a boat with a boarding parry of thirteen men . T he strange r's reply came back through rhe darkness: rhe piracy, nor under rhe usual rules of piracy, bur through a statute unmistakable drum roll of a British man-of-war calling her crew adopted in 1688 to prevent E nglishmen from committing to battle quarters. Ryan instantly put over his helm and fled, depredations against English ships. Thar wo uld have appeared to settle matters, bur a change in the British government led to abandoning his boarding parry. T he Calonne's quany proved to be the seventy-four-gun ship- Ryan 's eventual release and five years of freedom until his death of-rhe-line Berwick, canying Captain Keith Stewart to Leith to of narural causes in 1789.J ass ume command of rhe North Sea Squadron of rhe Royal Navy. Farther up the firth, her escort, the thirty-six-gun frigate Belle This tale is excerpted from Donald Petrie's T he Prize Game, Poule, Cape. Philip Patton, saw the encounter and set off in published by Naval Institute Press. For a review and publication pursuic. As Belle Poule passed rhe flagship, Calonne began firing information, please see page 44.
SEA HISTORY 90, AUTUMN 1999
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