It is a story Homeric, almost incredible in its details and so often repeated that it can be only touched upon in this brief chronicle.

The leader was a kindly featured man who wore a tall hat, side-whiskers, and a tail coat.

His portrait might easily have served for that of a New England deacon of the old school.

No trace of the swashbuckler in this Captain Samuel Reid, who had been a thrifty, respected merchant skipper until offered the command of a privateer.
Touching at the Azores for water and provisions in September, 1814, he was trapped in port by the great seventy-four-gun ship of the line Plantagenet, the thirty-eight-gun frigate Rota, and the warbrig Carnation.

Though he was in neutral water, they paid no heed to this but determined to destroy a Yankee schooner which had played havoc with their shipping.