Captain Edward Moor, of the “Fame”
A privateer commander of the best type was Captain Edward Moor, of the Fame, hailing from Dublin. His vessel carried 20 six-pounders and some smaller pieces, and a crew of 108 men. It was in August 1780, when he was cruising off the coast of Spain and the northern coast of Africa, that he received news of the departure of five ships from Marseilles, bound for the West Indies: all armed vessels, and provided with fighting commissions of some kind—letters of marque, as they are styled.
Being a man of good courage, and not afraid of such trifling odds as five to one, Moor went in search of these Frenchmen; and on August 25th he was lucky enough to sight them, off the coast of Spain. As dusk was approaching he refrained from any demonstration of hostility, but took care, during the night, to get inshore of the enemy.
At daybreak they were about six miles distant, and, upon seeing the Fame approach in a businesslike manner, they formed in line to receive her.
Adopting similar tactics to those of George Walker in attacking eight vessels—perhaps purposely following the example of a man who had such a great name, and whose exploits were sure to be known among privateersmen10—Moor bade his men lie down at their guns, and not fire until he gave the word.
At half-past six they were within gunshot, and the Frenchmen opened fire; but the Fame swept on in silence until she was close to the largest ship; then they blazed away, and in three quarters of an hour she surrendered. Without a moment’s delay Moor tackled the next in size, which also shortly succumbed. Putting an officer and seven men on board, with orders to look after both ships—what glorious confidence in his men!—he went after the others, which were now endeavouring to escape; only one succeeded, however, though one would have imagined that, by scattering widely, they might have saved another. These two fugitives made no further resistance, and Captain Moor thus got four ships, to wit—Deux Frères, 14 guns, 50 men; Univers, 12 guns, 40 men; Zephyr (formerly a British sloop-of-war, according to Beatson’s “Memoirs”), 10 guns, 32 men; and Nancy, 4 guns, 18 men—a total of 40 guns and 140 men, against his 26 guns and 108 men. The Frenchmen certainly ought to have made it hotter for him; but probably their crews were not trained, and Moor evidently had his men well in hand, just as Walker had.
He took his prizes into Algiers, where he landed the prisoners, who gave such a good account of the kind and generous treatment they had received from their captors that the French Consul-General at Algiers wrote a very handsome letter to Moor, expressing in the strongest terms his appreciation of his conduct.
This Edward Moor was evidently one of those commanders like Walker and Wright; a gentleman by birth and instinct, combining the highest courage with refinement of mind and humanity; he would have been well employed in the Royal Navy.