John Blankeley
John Blankeley
Birth 1837-12-23
On 7 Feb 1831 The Friendship of Salem, was attacked by pirates as it lay in the harbor at Kuala Batoo on the coast of Sumatra. Charles was ships Captain. The region, kn...
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On 7 Feb 1831 The Friendship of Salem, was attacked by pirates as it lay in the harbor at Kuala Batoo on the coast of Sumatra. Charles was ships Captain. The region, known today as the Ache province of Indonesia, was a center of the spice trade in the early nineteenth century and Charles was there to buy pepper (paying for it with gold and opium).
The pirates killed half of Charles’s crew of 17, but 4 of them escaped by jumping overboard and swimming for it 2 miles to a nearby island. Charles and some others were on shore, negotiating for the pepper, saw what was happening on the ship, and decided they’d better jump into a nearby rowboat and make a run for it themselves. They were pursued by spear-armed men in canoes and Friendship‘s Second Officer, John Barry, stood in the bow, swinging at them with a cutlass as the men rowed and Endicott steered the boat for the open sea.
Then, moving along the coast at night in the middle of a thunderstorm, after 9 hours and 25 miles of rowing, they landed at a harbor called Muckie at 1 am, exhausted. They found 3 other American ships also there for spice trading, the James Monroe of New York, the Palmer of Boston, and irony of ironies, the Governor Endicott of Salem. The captains of all 4 ships decided to join forces and try to recapture the Friendship.
On the morning of February 9, the 4 ships sailed into Kuala Batoo, at first offering to let the pirates go if only they would give back the Friendship. The pirates refused. The 3 spice-traders entered the harbor firing small cannons at the pirates still aboard the Friendship as well as at a villagers sympathetic to the pirates on shore. The villagers returned fire from small fortresses on the beach, and the pirates returned fire from the Friendship.
The Governor Endicott was able to bring its cannon broadside fire to bear on the closest fortress. Pouring fire into the small enemy battery made up of some six-pound cannon and several brass field pieces, the American fire dismounted the cannon in the fortress and destroyed the carriages for the field pieces.
Aboard the Friendship, the pirates mistakenly set fire to an open keg of powder, which exploded and killed a number of them and silenced their guns. The others left the Friendship in a boat and headed for shore.
Seeing the fleeing enemy, Charles led a three-boat boarding party, armed to the teeth with cutlasses, pistols, and muskets, and recaptured the Friendship. They were not able to retake their cargo valued at $12,000, however.
Then the Friendship made for America. Luckily, as they prepared to sail down the coast, the 4 crewmen who had escaped by swimming were paddled out to the James Monroe by friendly Malays.
Even before the Friendship reached Salem, word had spread about the encounter with pirates. As Charles put years later:
The intense interest and excitement caused by our arrival may still be remembered. It being nearly calm we were boarded several miles out by crowds of people, all anxious to learn the most minute particulars of our misfortune.
Word of the pirate attack and Captain Endicott’s retaking of his ship soon made it to Washington, D.C. Part of the reason for that was because one of Friendship’s owners was Massachusetts’ US Senator Nathaniel Silsbee, a former merchant seaman himself.
That August, the U.S. Navy’s newest warship, the 177-foot-long USS Potomac, with 42 guns and a crew of 480 sailors and Marines under the command of Commodore John Downes was sent to punish the pirates. Six months later, so now in 1832, when Downes landed a force of over 200 sailors and Marines on the shore at Kuala Batoo, the locals chose to fight rather than turn over the perpetrators of the Friendship attack. An hours-long battle ensued leading to 2 Americans killed and 11 wounded while inflicting 450 casualties among the enemy. Kuala Batoo’s rajah, considered the leader of the pirate attack, was killed and the village was burned to the ground.
Captain Endicott remained a hero in the Salem merchant community, and as late as the 1850s, still gave speeches recounting the pirate attacks on his ship. From his extensive voyages on the coast of Sumatra and the Straits of Malacca, he was one of the first Americans to publish sailing directions and created the first formal chart of those waters for American captains. However, he never returned to Southeast Asia.
Life of Charles Moses Endicott
Charles was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, the second son and third child of Captain Moses Endicott and Anna Towne Endicott. He was a lineal descendant of Governor John Endecott in the 8th generation. His father died on a voyage in Havana when Charles was only ten years old.
Charles was educated at Phillips Andover Academy and at Mr. Tappen’s school in Salem. Then he entered the accounting firm of his uncle, Samuel Endicott, in Salem, where he stayed 2 years. After that he went to the counting house of William Ropes in Boston, where he was the principal clerk and bookkeeper until 1812. But instead of going to college it was decided he should follow in his father’s footsteps and go into shipping.
In 1812, Pickering Dodge of Salem sent him to St. Petersburg, Russia on the brig George Little. He got to St. Petersburg about the time war broke out between Russia and England, which detained him in St. Petersburg, but he returned to Boston in 1813 by way of Sweden.
After the War of 1812 was over he was sent on his first voyage to Sumatra and Calcutta for the spice trade aboard the ship Herald of Salem, returning in 1818. Upon his return he was made ship’s captain and made two more voyages to Sumatra aboard the brig to buy pepper. He returned home to Salem in 1820.
He then continued the pepper trade mostly from 1822-1834 and it was during one of these trips, in 1831, that the events described above happened.
He was known as an excellent mathematician and it is said that few were equal to him in being able to calculate his ship’s position at sea. He made a chart of the West cost of Sumatra that was widely used by American ship masters. He was a consultant to the well-known early American mathematician Nathanial Bowditch of Salem who is remembered for his work in ocean navigation.
In the spring of 1835, Charles was appointed to cashier at the Salem Bank. He continued at the bank until he resigned in 1858.
He was well versed in family genealogy and wrote articles about it for various publications concerning not only his line from Governor Endecott but also the Jacobs, Peabody, and Osgood families. His “Memoir of Gov. Endicott” was self-published in 1847. He was made a corresponding member of the New England Genealogical Society in the same year.
His son Ingersoll Bowditch Endicott was in the Union Army during the Civil War (see the Civil War chapter).
The pirates killed half of Charles’s crew of 17, but 4 of them escaped by jumping overboard and swimming for it 2 miles to a nearby island. Charles and some others were on shore, negotiating for the pepper, saw what was happening on the ship, and decided they’d better jump into a nearby rowboat and make a run for it themselves. They were pursued by spear-armed men in canoes and Friendship‘s Second Officer, John Barry, stood in the bow, swinging at them with a cutlass as the men rowed and Endicott steered the boat for the open sea.
Then, moving along the coast at night in the middle of a thunderstorm, after 9 hours and 25 miles of rowing, they landed at a harbor called Muckie at 1 am, exhausted. They found 3 other American ships also there for spice trading, the James Monroe of New York, the Palmer of Boston, and irony of ironies, the Governor Endicott of Salem. The captains of all 4 ships decided to join forces and try to recapture the Friendship.
On the morning of February 9, the 4 ships sailed into Kuala Batoo, at first offering to let the pirates go if only they would give back the Friendship. The pirates refused. The 3 spice-traders entered the harbor firing small cannons at the pirates still aboard the Friendship as well as at a villagers sympathetic to the pirates on shore. The villagers returned fire from small fortresses on the beach, and the pirates returned fire from the Friendship.
The Governor Endicott was able to bring its cannon broadside fire to bear on the closest fortress. Pouring fire into the small enemy battery made up of some six-pound cannon and several brass field pieces, the American fire dismounted the cannon in the fortress and destroyed the carriages for the field pieces.
Aboard the Friendship, the pirates mistakenly set fire to an open keg of powder, which exploded and killed a number of them and silenced their guns. The others left the Friendship in a boat and headed for shore.
Seeing the fleeing enemy, Charles led a three-boat boarding party, armed to the teeth with cutlasses, pistols, and muskets, and recaptured the Friendship. They were not able to retake their cargo valued at $12,000, however.
Then the Friendship made for America. Luckily, as they prepared to sail down the coast, the 4 crewmen who had escaped by swimming were paddled out to the James Monroe by friendly Malays.
Even before the Friendship reached Salem, word had spread about the encounter with pirates. As Charles put years later:
The intense interest and excitement caused by our arrival may still be remembered. It being nearly calm we were boarded several miles out by crowds of people, all anxious to learn the most minute particulars of our misfortune.
Word of the pirate attack and Captain Endicott’s retaking of his ship soon made it to Washington, D.C. Part of the reason for that was because one of Friendship’s owners was Massachusetts’ US Senator Nathaniel Silsbee, a former merchant seaman himself.
That August, the U.S. Navy’s newest warship, the 177-foot-long USS Potomac, with 42 guns and a crew of 480 sailors and Marines under the command of Commodore John Downes was sent to punish the pirates. Six months later, so now in 1832, when Downes landed a force of over 200 sailors and Marines on the shore at Kuala Batoo, the locals chose to fight rather than turn over the perpetrators of the Friendship attack. An hours-long battle ensued leading to 2 Americans killed and 11 wounded while inflicting 450 casualties among the enemy. Kuala Batoo’s rajah, considered the leader of the pirate attack, was killed and the village was burned to the ground.
Captain Endicott remained a hero in the Salem merchant community, and as late as the 1850s, still gave speeches recounting the pirate attacks on his ship. From his extensive voyages on the coast of Sumatra and the Straits of Malacca, he was one of the first Americans to publish sailing directions and created the first formal chart of those waters for American captains. However, he never returned to Southeast Asia.
Life of Charles Moses Endicott
Charles was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, the second son and third child of Captain Moses Endicott and Anna Towne Endicott. He was a lineal descendant of Governor John Endecott in the 8th generation. His father died on a voyage in Havana when Charles was only ten years old.
Charles was educated at Phillips Andover Academy and at Mr. Tappen’s school in Salem. Then he entered the accounting firm of his uncle, Samuel Endicott, in Salem, where he stayed 2 years. After that he went to the counting house of William Ropes in Boston, where he was the principal clerk and bookkeeper until 1812. But instead of going to college it was decided he should follow in his father’s footsteps and go into shipping.
In 1812, Pickering Dodge of Salem sent him to St. Petersburg, Russia on the brig George Little. He got to St. Petersburg about the time war broke out between Russia and England, which detained him in St. Petersburg, but he returned to Boston in 1813 by way of Sweden.
After the War of 1812 was over he was sent on his first voyage to Sumatra and Calcutta for the spice trade aboard the ship Herald of Salem, returning in 1818. Upon his return he was made ship’s captain and made two more voyages to Sumatra aboard the brig to buy pepper. He returned home to Salem in 1820.
He then continued the pepper trade mostly from 1822-1834 and it was during one of these trips, in 1831, that the events described above happened.
He was known as an excellent mathematician and it is said that few were equal to him in being able to calculate his ship’s position at sea. He made a chart of the West cost of Sumatra that was widely used by American ship masters. He was a consultant to the well-known early American mathematician Nathanial Bowditch of Salem who is remembered for his work in ocean navigation.
In the spring of 1835, Charles was appointed to cashier at the Salem Bank. He continued at the bank until he resigned in 1858.
He was well versed in family genealogy and wrote articles about it for various publications concerning not only his line from Governor Endecott but also the Jacobs, Peabody, and Osgood families. His “Memoir of Gov. Endicott” was self-published in 1847. He was made a corresponding member of the New England Genealogical Society in the same year.
His son Ingersoll Bowditch Endicott was in the Union Army during the Civil War (see the Civil War chapter).