ally was with cargoes which
were at once costly and bulky, such as West India goods, sugars and
coffees. Even then specie, and light costly articles, were first
removed to the cruiser, where the chances for escape were decidedly
better. Recourse to burning to prevent recapture was permissible only
with enemy's vessels. If a neutral were found carrying enemy's goods,
a frequent incident of maritime war, she must be sent in for
adjudication; which, if adverse, affected the cargo only. Summary
processes, therefore, could not be applied in such cases, and the
close blockade of the United States coast seriously restricted the
operations of her cruisers in this particular field.

[Illustration: THE BURNING OF A PRIVATEER PRIZE.
_Drawn by Henry Reuterdahl._]

Examination of the records goes to show that, although individual
American vessels sometimes made numerous seizures in rapid succession,
they seldom, if ever, effected the capture or destruction of a large
convoy at a single blow. This was the object with which Rodgers
started on his first cruise, but failed to accomplish. A stroke of
this kind is always possible, and he had combined conditions unusually
favorable to his hopes; but, while history certainly presents a few
instances of such achievement on the large scale, they are
comparatively rare, and opportunity, when it offers, can be utilized
only by a more numerous force than at any subsequent time gathered
under the American flag. In 1813 two privateers, the "Scourge" of New
York and "Rattlesnake" of Philadelphia, passed the summer in the North
Sea, and there made a number of prizes,--twenty-two,--which being
reported together gave the impression of a single lucky encounter;
were supposed in fact to be the convoy for which Rodgers in the
"President" had looked unsuccessfully the same season.[222] The logs,
however, showed that these captures were spread over a period of two
months, and almost all made severally. Norway being then politically
attached to Denmark, and hostile to Great Britain, such prizes as were
not burned were sent into her ports. The "Scourge" appears to have
been singularly fortunate, for on her homeward trip she took, sent in,
or destroyed, ten more enemy's vessels; and in an absence extending a
little over a year had taken four hundred and twenty prisoners,--more
than the crew of a 38-gun frigate.[223]

At the same time the privateer schooner "Leo," of Baltimore, was
similarly successf