Sep 24, 2020 - Sale 2546

Sale 2546 - Lot 231

Price Realized: $ 715
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
"PRIVATEER LAUNCHED. I CUT MY EYE BY BREAKING THE BOTTLE." (WAR OF 1812.) Abraham Colby. Diary of a Massachusetts sloop captain describing privateer activity on the coast. [54] manuscript diary pages. 4to, stitched; worn, one leaf detached, minor dampstaining. In modern cloth slipcase. 2 May 1812 to 3 January 1813
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Additional Details

Abraham Colby (1785-1865) of Salisbury, MA was the master of the sloop Priscilla, which made regular runs from Newburyport, MA up the Kennebec River to Augusta, ME to collect lumber. He begins to take note of the developing war in mid-August of 1812, noting the arrival of a privateer on 16 August and "a fast appointed by the president" 4 days later. He noted "2 prizes arived to N[ewbury]port" on 10 September. With shipping disrupted, he sold his sloop on 7 October; that same day he wrote "The ship Commerce a prize to the Decatur arived at the bar," and 4 days later "news of Fort Detroit retaken." He suffered a wound for the cause on 19 November: "The Salisbury privateer launched. I cut my eye by breaking the bottle." On 7 December he celebrated the first captured British warship ever brought into an American harbor: "News of the U.S. frigate takeing a English frigate called the Macedonia rated 38 mounting 49 guns." Further notes on his observations are available on request.
Colby did not sign this diary, but noted his own 27th birthday on 25 November 1812, and the second birthday of his son Samuel S. Colby on 9 December.