Captured by Danish Privateers

Captured by Danish privateers and taken to Copenhagen, Denmark, where ship and cargo were condemned under the decrees of Napoleon; stripped of everything but clothing and left friendless among a strange people; enduring a tedious and perilous passage to Prussia, with the vessel leaking so badly that it was barely kept from sinking till they reached the wharf; making a voyage to Ireland that was “replete with trials and sufferings” under a hard, cruel captain—such were a few of the experiences through which he passed as a youth.SHM 51.4

At Liverpool, England, he was captured by a “press gang,” and for two years and a half was compelled to work in the British navy. When war broke out between England and the United States in 1812, he and other Americans demanded that they should be treated as prisoners of war. They were sent to Dartmoor Prison, where they remained till the close of the hostilities.SHM 52.1

While in Dartmoor Prison, Mr. Bates formed an intimate acquaintance with a Mr. Davis. They spent many hours together, talking over their desperate situation. Observing the ruinous habits of their fellow prisoners, they mutually agreed that, if liberated, they would avoid the dreadful habits of intemperance and seek for a standing among sober, reflecting men.^{1Several years afterward, when docking in New York as master of his own vessel, Captain Bates met this Mr. Davis among the day laborers who applied for work discharging the ship’s cargo. Mr. Davis admitted, with sadness of heart, that he had lacked the moral courage to reform. Mr. Bates regarded the difference in their stations in life as one of the rewards of his own temperate life.}SHM 52.2

After six and a half years of untold suffering and hardship, the young man returned to his home, with a few old, worn clothes as his only reward for his services. Of the meeting with his father, he says:SHM 52.3

“My father had been told by those who thought they knew, that if ever I did return home, I would be like other drunken man-o’-war sailors. He was away from home on business when I arrived, but returned in a few days. Our meeting overcame him. At length he recovered and asked me if I had injured my constitution. ‘No, father,’ I replied, ‘I became disgusted with the intemperate habits of the people I was associated with. I have no particular desire for strong drink,’ or words to this effect, which very much relieved his mind at the time.”—Ibid., 99, 100.SHM 52.4