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_{Caleb Seeley, Queen’s County Museum, Liverpool N.S.
Source: (QCM)}Caleb Seeley was one of the most successful privateer Captains in Canadian history.

Seeley was born in August 1787 in Saint John, New Brunswick, and rose to prominence during the War of 1812 as one of the war’s most successful privateers.

In August 1813, Nehemiah Merritt and others from Saint John acquired a letter of marque for the schooner Star, and Seeley’s career took off.

Privateers are often thought of in the same light as pirates, but despite their shadowy beginnings, by the War of 1812 they had developed into a “legitimate … and effective weapon against an enemies maritime trade.” Privateers were not only a weapon of economic warfare, but more importantly they served as a means for individuals to serve their country and benefit themselves in the process.

_{Source: Painting of the Liverpool Packet}Seeley was twenty-six years old when he took command of Star: tall, handsome and every bit the gentleman. During a short 22-day period in the summer of 1813, Seeley and the Star captured three small American ships. These produced meagre earnings, but Seeley decided to invest them in part ownership of the Nova Scotia based privateer, the Liverpool Packet.

The Liverpool Packet was already a famous ship when Seeley bought into her. A Baltimore Clipper, she had been captured before the war by the Royal Navy in the slave trade. As a privateer, Liverpool Packet was sleek and fast. By the spring of 1813 under Captain Joseph Barrs she had captured thirty three ships – and then was captured herself by the Americans. Barrs and his crew were paroled on condition that they not fight again. So when the Royal Navy recaptured the Liverpool Packet in October 1813, its original owners and Seeley bought her from the Prize Court. Seeley was appointed Captain and the Liverpool Packet – Canada’s most success and famous privateer -- went back to sea.

_{Caleb Seeley, Queen’s County Museum, Liverpool N.S.
Source: (QCM)}Seeley continued to flourish as a privateer while in command of the Liverpool Packet. During his first cruise Seeley operated off Cape Cod for a month. In four days, he captured “prizes worth an estimated $100,000.” Seeley was so effective in fact, that he captured fourteen prizes in eleven months during a time when American ships were hard to find.

Earning the respect of both friend and foe, Seeley distinguished himself for his “courage, fairness in the treatment of prisoners, and gentlemanly manner.” Many of the ships he stopped at sea were allowed to carry on their business, as he often had neither “the men nor the inclination to take them.”

By the time the war ended in late 1814 Barrs and Seeley had captured prizes worth $1 million dollars.

In October 1814, Seeley settled in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, and became a successful ship owner and “pillar of the local community.” Seeley died on Valentine’s Day 1869 at 82 years old.

Despite his short tenure at sea, Caleb Seeley earned a reputation as “one of the most successful privateer captains in Canadian history.”