USRC James Madison:
A Rogue Cutter and the Coast Guard’s First POWs by William H. Thiesen and William J. Nelson
coast guard collection
n the above quote, Secretary Gallatin wrote to Boston’s customs collector regarding the proper use of revenue cutters. This letter was likely in response to the case of the rogue cutter James Madison, which had put to sea on an unsanctioned cruise to capture British merchantmen. It would be the cutter’s last patrol. In August 1812, just two months into the War of 1812, USRC James Madison’s captain, George Brooks, got word of a large British convoy sailing off the Georgia coast bound for England from Jamaica. With no official orders nor a letter of marque, he set sail on Thursday, 13 August, along with two privateers, the schooners Paul Jones and Spencer. They located the British vessels a week later and, according to newspaper reports, the Madison single-handedly “cut out” two cargo-carrying merchantmen, placed prize crews on the captured ships, and sent them into port. It remains unclear whether Brooks flew the official ensign of the US Revenue-Marine during this privateering venture.
A facsimile of the US Revenue-Marine ensign flown during the War of 1812. On Friday, 21 August, Brooks’s luck ran out. He ordered his men to attack the convoy a second time under cover of darkness but had mistaken the 32-gun frigate HMS Barbadoes for a large merchantman. According to reports, Brooks ordered his gunners to fire into the frigate and even tried to board the warship. After realizing 16
painting by peter rindlisbacher, coast guard art collection
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A Revenue Cutter cannot be expressly fitted and employed for the purpose of cruising against an enemy except under the 98th Section of the collection law in which case the Cutter must be placed under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy. —Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin, 28 December 1812
US Revenue Cutter James Madison depicted capturing an armed British merchant vessel on 23 July, just a few weeks before its ill-fated attack on HMS Barbadoes. his error, Brooks altered course and made haste with the frigate in pursuit. To increase their speed through the water, the cutter jettisoned two cannons and, after several hours, appeared to make good its escape. The wind died, however, and the British frigate deployed three longboats to tow the warship in pursuit of the cutter. Becalmed and facing an overwhelming enemy force of weapons and men, Captain Brooks surrendered. He struck his colors on Saturday morning between 8:00 and 10:00 am about 250 miles southeast of Savannah, Georgia. The two privateers that had initially joined him were never mentioned in contemporary accounts or Royal Navy reports and likely did not join in Madison’s cutting out activities. Later, the irony was probably not lost on President Madison when he learned the enemy had captured his namesake vessel. A second British warship, the 64-gun ship-of-the-line, HMS Polyphemus, joined the Barbadoes and sent a prize crew of twenty officers and men onboard the cap-
tured Madison. Meanwhile, the cuttermen were transferred to the two Royal Navy warships: four officers, the ship’s surgeon, and thirteen enlisted men were taken aboard the Barbadoes, and forty-six of Madison’s enlisted men were sent to Polyphemus. Before they could cross the Atlantic, a hurricane overtook the convoy, and the Barbadoes put in at Bermuda for repairs. Later, the frigate sailed to Boston with the four officers and surgeon on board, leaving the enlisted behind in Bermuda. Polyphemus came through the hurricane undamaged and continued her course to England with the remaining enlisted men from the Madison, sailing in company with the James Madison as a prize vessel and the rest of the convoy. The enlisted cuttermen from the Barbadoes were shipped from Bermuda to Nova Scotia. On 7 October 1812, the Royal Navy formally designated Madison’s captured crew as prisoners of war (POWs). In November, the British paroled Captain Brooks, his junior officers, and surgeon, placing SEA HISTORY 175, SUMMER 2021