1787 — Dec, last week; crewmen from previously captured Maine sloop Squirrel murdered by Algerians–11

–11  Rowe. The Maritime History of Maine: Three Centuries of Ship…Seafaring.  1948, p. 71.

Narrative Information

Rowe: “In 1783 the sloop Squirrel of Saco, having sailed from Casco Bay, was some weeks out when she was overhauled by a corsair from the Algerian Mole.[1] She was captured and Captain Alexander Paine and his crew were taken into Algiers. Brought before the Dey, that had their choice of becoming Mohammedans or slaves. On their refusal to change their religion, he ordered that the captain and first mate be sent to the mines, and that the second mate and crew of eighteen by chained to the benches of a cruising galley armed with twenty=six eight-pounders. With no covering for their heads and but little for their bodies and on short allowances of bran bread and goat’s meat, they endured the sun and rain of the Mediterranean for nearly five years.

“In Christmas week of 1787, a French frigate of forty-eight guns commanded by John LeCotte engaged their vessel. Several broadsides were exchanged. At last the frigate was able to grapple the corsair. The Algerians, seeing that they were about to be taken, fell upon their prisoners with bayonets and cutlasses. They butchered them until they were overpowered by the French. Only seven remained alive. They were taken into Bordeaux, and when their wounds were healed, they were sent on to New York. Heere they arrived in February 1790. Immediately they set out on foot for Saco, begging their food on the way. They arrived home seven years after they had sailed. Captain Paine and the first mate remained in the mines.”

Source

Nichols, Adam. Icelanders in Algiers – Part 1 (webpage). 4-11-2022. Accessed 10-3-2023 at: https://corsairsandcaptivesblog.com/icelanders-in-algiers-part-1/

Rowe, William Hutchinson. The Maritime History of Maine: Three Centuries of Ship Building & Seafaring.  Gardiner, ME: Harpswell Press, 1948.

[1] The Mole is “a long, rocky causeway about 750 feet (230 meters) long—connecting…[ a] fortress with the city  and served as a breakwater to create a sheltered harbour.” (Adam Nichols. Icelanders in Algiers – Part 1.)