QUARANTINE BLOG # 593

November 13, 2021

One of the Americans on the Maria was 18-year-old James Leander Cathcart, a veteran of the American Revolution. 

James Leander Cathcart

Cathcart enlisted at the age of 12 and served on board the frigate Confederacy until it was captured by the British. He spent 2 ½ years in British prison ships until he and a friend escaped. But nothing he had experienced in British prisons had prepared him what he now faced: eleven years of slavery in Algiers.

His journal, kept in minute detail during those eleven years – and published in 1899 by his daughter Jane Newkirk (The Captives: Eleven Years a Prisoner in Algiers) details those years.

Cathcart was relatively lucky. The Dey, whose whim was law in Algiers, had first pick of each new slave shipment, and he was one of five of the Maria’s crew chosen for palace work. 

The Dey, Hassan Bassar

Seaman Cathcart was fitted out in an elegant silk uniform trimmed with gold and was assigned to take care of the lions, tigers, and antelopes that lived in the palace garden. These rich garments and the other rich accoutrements, served to impress visiting potentates and foreign ambassadors with the wealth and power of the Dey.

Food, however, was scarcely better than that served to the slaves who were forced into hard labor and chained at night in rat-infested prisons: one plate of thin stew, and a bowl of sour milk twice a day. Slaves occasionally picked fruit from the garden trees, or caught a pigeon; but they did so at the risk of torture.

The Continental Congress sent John Lamb, to negotiate for the release of the 21 captured Americans. The Dey demanded an exorbitant ransom and Lamb attempted to negotiate on his own. 

John Lamb

Lamb was authorized to offer the Dey only $4,200 in ransom. The dey demanded $50,000 and stubbornly refused to lower his price. He reminded Lamb he was not anxious to dispose of the Americans. They were needed for work and were the best slaves he had. 

Lamb raised the offer $10,000 and then to $30,000. The Dey again refused it. Finally, on April 7, Lamb agreed to meet the Dey’s demands but said it would take about four months to raise the cash. The Dey’s only answer was, in effect, that if the money were not forthcoming very shortly, the price would rise.

Lamb did not keep his promise to return to Algiers in four months. For reasons that have never been adequately explained, he remained in Spain, resigned his commission, and never even told the American government he had agreed in its name to pay the Dey of Algiers $50,000.

James Cathcart’s story continues to have moments of near normalcy and times of outright despair.

After a year of the relatively comfortable job of caring for the Dey’s exotic animals, Cathcart was moved to the supervisor of public works. Next he became assistant to the minister in charge of prisons.

In succession, Cathcart was assigned to the carpenter’s shop, then to the marina, then to a high ranking minister as his personal valet, responsible for preparing the minister’s meals and caring for the provisioning of the minister’s house. For the first time since he was captured, Cathcart was well-fed and he was paid a small salary.

Shortly two better positions opened. The first was that of “coffeegie,” [translated from the original Starbucks, it means “barista”] whose function was to make coffee and hand it to the intendant of the marina and his visitors.  

Shortly thereafter, three clerks of the Bagnio Gallera – the prison where the Americans were kept – died, and Cathcart was appointed to one of these positions.

Cathcart’s skills and abilities did not go unnoticed and in March, 1794, he was made the personal assistant of the Dey, and would play a major roll in securing his own  freedom, and the other Americans held by the Algerian pirates.

Before we move into the negotiations for the American ransom, we need to note that as the clerk of the Bagnio Galleria, Cathcart was able to purchase a tavern connected with the prison.  Before he was freed in 1796, Cathcart would own three taverns. 

No known connection, but he could have been the inspiration for an American establishment in next-door Casablanca, Morocco.

Before the captives from the Maria and the Dauphin would be ransomed, 11 more American ships, and more than 100 additional American captives – starting in 1793 – would be seized by the Barbary Pirates.

In 1794, stung by this increasing attack on American ships, Congress created the U.S. Navy and authorized the construction of six warships with a budget of $300,000.

Negotiating for the release of the hostages, America had incredible bad luck with the men they sent to negotiate.

As already mentioned, John Lamb concluded negotiations on his own, without benefit of Congress, sailed for Spain, resigned his commission and never told Congress of the deal he had struck.

Following Lamb, Admiral John Paul Jones was appointed consul for Algiers, but died in Paris, never having reached his post.

Admiral John Paul Jones

Incidently, one of the enduring urban legends about John Paul Jones is that he died penniless and alone in Paris and his body was submerged in alcohol in a lead coffin, the embalming and funeral arrangements arranged by a generous Parisian.  

Well, Jones was buried in a lead coffin, submerged in alcohol, but he was not penniless, nor was he alone. Friends and servants found his body, and carried him to a cemetery which had belonged to the French royal family. The coffin et al was provided by a French admirer against the day America would want to reclaim his remains. When his body was returned in 1906, he was honored with a fleet of four cruisers and seven battleships. President Teddy Roosevelt gave the memorial address and his remains were re-interred in a bronze and marble sarcophagus at the Naval Academy Chapel.

His sarcophagus is guarded around the clock by midshipmen at the Naval Academy

Thomas Barclay was designated Jones’ replacement, but he died in Lisbon, never having reached his post.

Then Joseph Donaldson, Jr., asked permission to meet with the Dey. A treaty was finally signed, with Donaldson agreeing – after more than 30 hours of back and forth negotiations – to pay $585,000 to ransom the American captives. The Dey’s original demand was $2.2 million.

Joseph Donaldson, Jr.

On January 10, 1797, 115 Americans were finally freed, some of them after 11 years of captivity.

Next time, Ransom Completed.

👉  Today’s close is from crosswalk.com

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.  His love endures forever.  Give thanks to the God of heaven.  His love endures forever” (Psalms 136:1, 26).

Our thanks arises from the nature of God and his glory and goodness.  The steadfast reason we give thanks is because God is good and his love is inexhaustible, beyond decay, and never ending.

My Prayer: O great Lover of my soul, thank you for sending Jesus as the demonstration of your love.  I love you Father.  I love you for who you are and what you have done.  I love you for what you have promised.  I love you for the blessings you shower upon me.  I love you for giving me hope.  I love you because you first loved me.  I love you because you are worthy of all love.  But I confess that my love is not as strong as yours, so please, fill me with your love by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Through Jesus I lift my heart to you.  Amen.

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