.
. . he refused to tell his name, but the sailors knew he
was from Saint Domingue. When they wanted him to do
something they would yell, ‘Domingue, vous!’ or
‘Dominique, You!’ (de
Grummond, 17)
This tale of a seven-year-old stowaway, who
became a cabin boy because the ship on which he sailed had
traveled too far from port, explains how Dominique Youx1
got his nickname. Whether it is a true account or the
product of an imaginative writer’s mind is unknown. Several
documents
that he signed or that concerned him show his name as
Frédéric Youx, while some histories give his Christian name
as Alexandre Frédéric, identifying him as the eldest brother
of Jean and Pierre Laffite.2 To
further complicate the question of his name, Charles
Etienne Arthur Gayarré3
mentions in his Histoire de la Louisiane (1847) that
Americans called Youx “Johnness”.
As with
many pirates, the Laffites included, Youx’s early life is an
enigma. Most resources cite Haiti as his place of birth in
1775. Stanley Clisby Arthur4
is more precise: Port-au-Prince, San Domingo, April 14,
1771. Included in the Laffite family papers that he
consulted, one person wrote: “foxy Oncle Youx had the
reputation of telling the truth one day but would lie the
next.”(Gentleman, 227). He may have gone to
France to serve as a gunner in Napoleon’s
army. He may have returned to Saint-Domingue in 1802
with General
Victor Leclerc. According to a letter in volume five
of The Laffite Society Chronicles, one
member and his associates located evidence in France placing
Dominique, as well as the Laffite brothers, in Baracoa, Cuba
in 1798.
Beginning in late 1805, however, Dominique’s
name appears in documents housed at the Archives de France in Paris. Records
from the prize courts located in the West Indies mention him
as the captain of la Superbe, a privateer
owned by Monsieur Jacques Plaideau. Youx
and fellow corsairs captured three American vessels – Jane, a brigantine, and two schooners, Eliza and Eleanor5
– which were condemned as lawful prizes then sold in Cuba.
On 27 November 1492, Christopher
Columbus discovered a natural harbor on the northeastern
coast of Cuba. The Indians called it Baracoa,
although the Spanish changed the name to Neustra Señora de
la Asunción de Baracoa in 1511 when Diego Veláquez
established the island’s first settlement and capital there.
Sailors used El
Yunque, the anvil-shaped mountain rising 1,885 feet
above Baracoa, as a landmark because they could see it from
miles away at sea. The city’s remoteness made it difficult
to govern the entire island so the capital was moved to Santiago
de Cuba. Baracoa’s isolation, however, made it a haven
for corsairs and illegal traders. During the Haitian
revolution (1791-1803), many citizens fled the French
colony for Baracoa. The corsairs, who attacked ships from
America and Sweden bound for Saint-Domingue with cargo for
the rebels or carrying African slaves, took their captures
to Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe or Saint-Domingue. Once the
Admiralty courts judged the ships as lawful prizes, the
corsairs sent the vessels to Cuba to be sold. Youx sold his
prizes in Baracoa.
The next archival mention of Dominique Youx
concerns the loss of his privateer, la Superbe, in 1806. According to authorities
for the Ministère de la Marine (French
Admiralty) in Saint-Domingue, the corsairs captured two
prizes (la Vipre6
and the Exchange), but the privateer was so
badly damaged in a battle at sea that she sank with the
ships’ papers confiscated from the captured vessels. Their
loss prevented Youx from proving to the court that they were
legitimate prizes. The register containing this information
also revealed the following:
.
. . he and his officers escaped from the disaster to his
house in Baracoa . . . he did not know how to sign his
name (this information is clearly written in the margin
of the document). (Feuillie, 2)
While the French document doesn’t identify
the vessel that attacked Dominique’s ship, the London
Gazette7
published the following item from the Admiralty on 27
December 1806.
His Majesty’s Sloop Drake, at Sea,
27th October
1806.
SIR,
I HAVE much Pleasure in
reporting to you the Capture of the French Schooner
Privateer La Superbe of Fourteen Guns (Two Nine-Pounders and Twelve
Six-Pounders) and Ninety-four Men, commanded by M.
Dominique Houx, by Lieutenant Fitton in His Majesty’s
Schooner Pitt.
This Officer meeting La
Superbe off Cape Nicholas Mole on the 24th,
after an arduous Chace with Sweeps, got within Gun Shot,
and commenced a running Fight, which he continued with
little Intermission, and in almost every Direction until
the 26th, when at Nine A. M.
Cape Maize bearing N. N. W. Six Leagues, they were
discovered from the Tops of the Ship I command, and it
was then that I witnessed with the greatest Satisfaction
a display of Skill and Bravery supported for Four Hours
and an Half, which entitles the Parties to the greatest
Praise. The Two Schooners within Pistol Shot kept up a
constant Fire. La Superbe seeing us to
Leeward, made many Manoeuvres to escape, but was as
often foiled, Lieutenant Fitton carefully preserving the
Weather Gage, and it was not until after a desperate
Resistance, until she was in a sinking State, and when
our fortunate Leeward Position prevented further flight,
that the Frenchman ran his Vessel upon the Rocks in Ocoa
Bay and deserted her, accompanied by those of his Men
who were not either killed or dangerously wounded in the
Action.
I cannot help repeating how much I am gratified
in describing the Merits of this Affair, and in thus
bearing Testimony to the Credit which Lieutenant Fitton,
his Officers and Men have acquired, by the Stile in
which they fought and captured this notorious Robber.
In La Superbe’s Hold were found Four Men already dead of their
Wounds, and Three whose State affords little Hope; they
allow that Fourteen fell in the Action, and from the
Appearance of the Decks much Blood must have been shed.
The Pitt
has suffered in her Sails and Rigging, and had Two Men
badly, and Six slightly wounded; and I am happy to add
that we succeeded in getting the Prize off.
I am, &c.
(Signed) R. Nicholas
James Richard Dacres, Esq;
Vice-Admiral of the White, Commander in Chief, &c.
&c. &c. (Issue 15987,
1680-1681)
Could
Dominique
Houx, the notorious French robber, be Dominique Youx?
Possibly. He lost la Superbe in a naval
battle. Ocoa Bay is part of the Dominican Republic, which
was called Santo Domingo at this time, and lies about
forty-seven miles west of the capital (also called Santo
Domingo), and Youx could have gotten to Saint-Domingue
(Haiti) either by going overland or waiting until the coast
was clear and hitching a ride on another vessel. Later naval
histories, however, identify Dominique Houx as Dominique
Diron, “not only a daring and experienced
privateersman, but he was a perfect freebooter. He detained
American as well as English vessels (two schooners which he
had sent into Baracoa were Americans); and, where he wanted
a cause to capture, was never without one to pillage. . . .
Among the papers found on board the Superbe,
was a list of captures, English, Spanish, and American, made
by Dominique, to the amount of 147,000L.
sterling.” William James’ description, which appears in
volume four on page 269 of his Naval
History
of Great Britain 1793-1827
(1837), might easily describe Dominique Youx, who lost
the papers that would identify la Vipre and
the Exchange as American.8
On 29 July 1807, Dominique Youx aided
Captain Luis Arrúe, in the defense of Baracoa against the
British.9
Although the Governor of Jamaica refused to lose men
in a fight against the privateers who frequented the Spanish
port, Captain Tait of the Royal Navy decided to go against
those wishes. He received orders to take the army’s 99th
Foot from the Bahamas to Bermuda aboard HMS Chichester,
a store-ship. Four officers and eighty-seven men, who had
been recuperating at the hospital in Nassau, came aboard,
then Tait asked permission from the Governor of the Bahamas
to attack Baracoa. He, too, denied the request, but Tait
chose not to heed those commands. With the assistance of a
privateer, the two ships set sail for Cuba where Tait
disembarked his passengers, along with some marines, with
orders to capture the battery that prevented the Chichester and privateer from getting too
near the port. The soldiers came under heavy fire from nine
cannon and a large contingent of infantry. Driven back to
the beach, they surrendered because the boats had returned
to the Chichester. The captured soldiers
spent one month as prisoners until they were exchanged.
Thirteen men died in this failed endeavor. Another twenty or
so were wounded.
In 1810 Dominique learned that a junta had
severed ties with the Spanish government in Cartagena de
Indias, New Granada. He sailed there and acquired a letter
of marque with the signatures of Presidente-Gobernader
Manuel Rodriguez Torices and Secretary of War Joseph
Axnazola y Vonay. Youx also received a code of conduct that
outlined the regulations and rules for privateering.
Although history is mute about the precise
date on which Dominique Youx fell in with Jean and Pierre
Laffite at Barataria, he enters the archival records of New
Orleans in September 1812. The previous month “The Great
Louisiana Hurricane of 1812”10 ravaged the
city with such force that many residents later compared it
to the storms of 1831, 1856, and 1860. An article in the 21
August 1814 issue of the Orleans Gazette
recounted:
On
Wednesday
night last (19th) about 10 o’clock, a gale commenced
occasionally accompanied with rain and hail, and which
continued with a most dreadful violence for upwards of
four hours. As we have never witnessed anything equal to
it, neither do we believe the imagination can picture to
itself a scene more truly awful and distressing, than
that which its consequences present. (Ludlum, 75)
The Louisiana Gazette and New
Orleans Advertiser, published
the next day, said of the storm:
It
would
be a vain expectation in any of our readers to suppose
any pen capable of giving a faithful picture of the
scene exhibited after the tremendous gale of Wednesday
night – Tuesday evening was remarkably warm and sultry –
Wednesday morning the wind was from the north, the
weather very cool for the season, and the horizon
covered with dark heavy clouds which indicated a storm;
– before eleven o’clock it commenced raining, the wind
still at north, and continued with short intervals
during the day; at dark the wind (still from the north)
began to increase, and the rain fell in torrents, the
wind shifting a little to eastward; at half after
eleven, wind at ESE, the storm raged with great fury, –
and from that to one o’clock, the whole of the damage
was sustained. At one o’clock, or soon after, the clouds
began to break, and at three o’clock the storm had
nearly subsided. (Ludlum, 75)
Until recently, however, our knowledge of
the storm was scant because news from the War
of
1812 eclipsed other events. Dr. Cary Mock, an
associate professor at University of South Carolina’s
Department of Geography who has studied this particular
hurricane, said it “was the closest to the city, passing
just to the west. It wasn’t as big as Katrina, but it was
stronger at landfall, probably a mid-three or four category
hurricane in terms of wind.” Cost comparisons of the damages
sustained “would rank [it] among the worst Louisiana
hurricanes . . . if it occurred today.” (Office) Le Moniteur de la Louisiane estimated losses
at “three million piastres."11 (Ludlum, 75)
Dominique Youx, aboard le
Pandoure, noticed “violent winds” and “waves” as he
approached the Mississippi on 19 August. The hurricane
eventually forced the corsair to seek refuge ashore in the
Plaquemines area of Louisiana.
.
. . sur le même Jour à quatre-heures de l’après midi la
violence du vent le força d’atterrir sur l’habitation de
M. Charles Jacob – a environ Quinze ou Seize lieues de
la ville; que le vent ayant alors continue à augmenter
avec la plus grande violence et les Eaux du fleuve et
des lacs voisins s’étant considérablement accrues au
point d’avoir huit à dix pieds d’eau environ au dessus
de rez de chaussée de la maison du dit Sieur Charles
Jacob, Il se refugia avec les Susnommés et la famille du
dit Sieur Jacob Sur le Sommet de la dite maison . . .
. . . on this same day at four
o’clock in the afternoon the violent winds forced him to
land at the residence of Mr. Charles Jacob, situated
about fifteen or sixteen leagues from the city; the wind
having continued to increase with greater force and the
waters of the river and the neighboring lakes were
considerably heightened, to the point of having eight to
ten feet of water above the ground floor of the house of
said Mr. Charles Jacob, He took refuge with the above
named and the family of said Mr. Jacob on the summit of
the said house . . . 12
The estimate of the water being eight to
ten feet on land meant the river actually rose at least “17
or 18 feet” because the water level in August was around “10
or 11 feet below the banks.”(Mock, 1659) The Louisiana
Courier, another city newspaper, reported:
The levee almost entirely destroyed; the beach
covered with fragments of vessels, merchandize, trunks,
and here and there the eye falling on a mangled corpse.
In short, what a few hours before was life and property,
presented to the astonished spectator only death and
ruin. (Ludlum, 76)
Nearly all the buildings in
the city have suffered more or less; several being half
destroyed; a great many made roofless; the market place
near the river bank, between St. Ann and Dumaine
streets, blown down; a wall of Mr. Coquet’s theatre,
carried away; . . . All the vessels in port sustained
serious injury; nearly all the street lamps were broken;
the United States store-houses, the convent of the Nuns,
the barracks, the military hospital, etc. were seriously
damaged. Many lives were lost on the river. The country
in the vicinity . . . was laid bare and desolate. (Mock, 1660)
While
Captain John Shaw, who commanded the naval station at Fort
St. Philip, mentioned the devastation to the city in his 23
August report to Secretary
of
the Navy Paul Hamilton, his primary concern was for
the ships under his command because of the war.
The
Brig
Enterprize . . . was
driven ashore, high & dry . . . without loss of
lives, and with little or no injury to her hull: The
relaunching of her . . . will . . . be attended with
considerable difficulty and consumption of time. The
Brig Viper . . . was completely
unrigged, and, with the loss of her bowsprit, mainmast,
and guns, completely cut-down fore and aft, to her
waterways . . . Gun Vessel
No. 64, was stranded in Lake Ponchartrain
. . . but as she has been forced, by the violence of the
tempest, over an extensive level shallow mud bottom, we
anticipate much trouble in getting her off again. The
Ship Remittance . . . has received but
little, or no injury. The Ketch Etna . .
. being driven from her position, by several large
Merchant vessels, sunk, and had Two men drowned. . . . I feel much anxiety for the fate of the
Brig Siren . . . at anchor off
Ship-island, as well as for that of the Gun Vessels at,
and in the vicinity of, the Bay of St. Louis, and at the
Balize; from none of which, have we as yet, had time to
receive any intelligence. (Naval)
Many other vessels incurred damage,
including le Pandoure. Her captain,
Dominique Youx, also sustained injuries. An unsigned letter,
written to Mayor McRea and dated 23 August 1812, says:
Dear
Sir,
The French privateer Pandour, which has weathered the past
storm with the loss of her Masts; and whose Capt. has
been nearly killed, is now at port Plaquemine. They have
made an application to me to obtain the permission to
pass the fort and come to town to undergo the necessary
repairs.
I request Sir that you have
the goodness to send me your written permission which
their Doctor is waiting for in my office, to go to the
assistance of his Captain.
(Dominique)
An inventory of Pandoure, filed
a month later, detailed the prizes Youx and his fellow
corsairs had seized during their cruise:
Youx’s
share came to $743.02. The vessels and their cargo, which
were valued at $36,921, sold for $20,721.38.
This inventory also detailed the
privateers’ expenses during this voyage. At Cape Cruz, Cuba,
they purchased two cows, bananas, pigs, and eggs for
sixty-four dollars.13
Among the items secured at Grande Isle à L’Isle à
Breton were medical instruments for fifty-two dollars and
provisions that included peas, rum, cheese, ham, and butter.
At la Pointe au Sable near la Balize they secured four
barrels of tafia or rum.
Sometime
between
his arrival in New Orleans and 15 October, Dominique’s
letter of marque expired. On that date he sold le
Pandoure for $7,500. An inventory, dated 17 September
and signed by “frederic youx” and the French Consul Laporte,
described the schooner as being 126 tons and measuring
seventy-five feet from stem to stern and almost twenty-two
feet at her widest point. She mounted one 16-pound and six
12-pound carronades, two 8 pounders, and a 9 pounder, while
another three 4 pounders were stored in the hold. The arms
found on board included pistols, blunderbusses, and
cutlasses. Other items included eighty or so cannonballs of
various sizes, thirty to forty packages of grapeshot, four
barrels of powder and cartridges.
Thereafter Youx was frequently seen in the
company of Jean
Laffite, Renato
Beluche, and Vincent
Gambi. Vincent Nolte, a merchant, complained about
them.
. .
. time and again, seen walking about, publicly, in the
streets of New Orleans. They had their friends and
acquaintances, their depots of goods, &c., in the
city, and sold, almost openly, the wares they had
obtained by piracy, particularly English manufactured
goods. (Davis, 113)
If Dominique was so recognizable, what did he look like?
Jane Lucas de Grummond included the following description in
her book on the Baratarians:
Dominique
was
short, not quite five feet four inches tall. His
shoulders, twice as broad as the average man’s, made him
seem strong and stubborn as an ox. He was swarthy, with
flashing black eyes and a hawk-like nose. Scars from
powder burns on the left side of his face made him look
ferocious, yet men soon discovered that he was a likable
cuss. (5)
Sometime after the sale of le
Pandoure, Youx became captain of le Tigre,
also a schooner. Not much is known about the vessel, but
accounts of her final voyage exist. At the time she sailed
under the colors of Cartagena, which meant Dominique had
secured another privateer commission from that fledgling
nation’s new government, possibly through Jean Laffite. In
May 1814, Youx and his men sailed near the coast of Mexico.
Colonel
Ellis
P. Bean, an American who fought for Mexican
independence, wrote his memoirs
in 1816. Two years earlier he had been at Nautla, located
about seventy-five miles north of Vera Cruz, when two ships
approached, one of which was le Tigre.
Two days later, Bean learned of the
presence of a schooner six miles up the coast and that “her
deck was covered with men, and she had no masts.” (Bean, 95)
This vessel turned out to be Dominique’s schooner. After
crippling the British brig and getting away from her, “the
crew . . . had got to drinking, and ran her on the shoal
which extends out a great distance from shore.” (Bean, 96)
The privateers returned to Nautla with Bean and with their
assistance, he repaired and made ready a small vessel he had
dubbed “the first vessel the Mexican nation ever owned.”
(Bean, 95)
.
. . in ten days [we] set sail for New Orleans. In
thirteen days more I landed safely on Barataria island. (Bean, 96)
Dominique’s next vessel was a felucca, but
the record so far has revealed little of his activities
again until 14 September 1814. Eleven days earlier, HMS Sophie, under the command of Captain Nicholas
Lockyer, arrived off Barataria.14 He
carried four documents for Jean Laffite. The first was a
proclamation urging the citizens of Louisiana to rise up in
support of the British. The second one promised that if
Laffite and the Baratarians ceased their attacks on British
and Spanish ships and joined the Royal Army, his rank would
be that of captain and the Baratarians would receive land
grants. The third document contained orders for Lockyer
depending on what Laffite’s response was, while the fourth
demanded restitution from the Baratarians for captured
prizes or Lockyer would “destroy, to his utmost every vessel
there, as well as to carry destruction over the whole
place.” (Davis, 169) Laffite duped the British into
believing he needed ten days to convince his men to take
advantage of their offer. In actuality, he sent the
documents to Governor
William C. C. Claiborne in New Orleans. Lockyer sailed
off, promising to return.
Laffite and the Baratarians offered their prize
cargoes for sale through auctions that bypassed customs.
Since the U. S. government did not receive the tariffs from
this merchandise, some residents considered these men to be
pirates and smugglers who should be punished for their
crimes. Claiborne was one of these men, but he understood
the significance of the information Laffite sent him.
Another enemy of the Baratarians was Commodore
Daniel
Todd Patterson, who assumed command of the New Orleans
Naval Station in 1813. Patterson had a thirst for prize
money, which the illicit cargoes and ships represented, and
he also hated pirates. As a midshipman aboard the USS
Philadelphia, he spent three years in
captivity when Tripolitan
corsairs captured her after she grounded in 1803. On
15 November he wrote to Secretary
of the Navy William Jones:
[they]
have
now arrived to such a pitch of insolence and confidence
from their numbers as to set the revenue laws and force
at defence, and should they not be soon destroyed, it
will be extremely hazardous for an unarmed vessel even
American to approach this coast.
Seven days later, he wrote in regards to
Laffite and his men:
The
honest
merchant cannot obtain a livelihood, by his sales while
those robbers robe in riches piratically captured on the
high seas and brought and sold in face of day in this
place. (Davis, 130)
Patterson believed he could destroy the
Baratarians, but not until 8 July 1814, did Secretary Jones
order him to do just that and sent him the USS Carolina
to assist. She arrived in New Orleans in mid-August. When
Governor Claiborne received the British documents from
Laffite, he called a meeting of those men he sought counsel
from on the defense of the city, including Patterson.
Claiborne suggested the commodore postpone his attack on
Barataria, but Patterson refused on grounds that he could
and would not disobey his orders. The majority of men
present agreed with Patterson, so the planned attack was put
into motion.
On 11 September 1814, Patterson
set sail with seventy soldiers aboard the Carolina. Six gun vessels and a tender
accompanied the schooner. When lookouts sighted the flotilla
on the morning of the sixteenth around 8:30, the Baratarians
assumed the British had returned. The privateers and
smugglers prepared for a fight until they realized the ships
flew the Stars and Stripes. With orders not to fire on
American ships and only three cannon to defend the pass
permitting entry into Barataria Bay, Dominique and the
others had few options – flee into the bayou or submit.15
Although the white flag of surrender, as
well as the flags of the United States and Cartagena were
flown from one of the privateers in the bay and Patterson
acknowledged with a white flag in response, he saw two other
privateers torched. Realizing the Baratarians meant to
destroy whatever they could, he ordered his men to attack.
Dominique tried to flee in his felucca, but American
gunboats blocked his escape. One opened fire, forcing the
felucca to run aground. He then tried to escape in a
pirogue, but the soldiers and sailors captured him and
eighty others.
In the ensuing week, the Americans
ransacked Laffite’s warehouse and searched all their captives, including merchants who
happened to be present the day of the attack. They burned
forty houses, the warehouses, and signal towers. Although
Patterson’s men torched some of the twenty-seven vessels
anchored in the bay, he retained the following:
Pirates
and Privateers
. .
. the other vessel, which I found to be a large brig,
came close alongside the schooner, and, hoisting English
colors, the fight began between them. The schooner
spread her sails, and played around the brig, until she
had shot away her mainmast. The brig was then
ungovernable. The schooner made off out of gunshot, and
then lay to again. The brig sent out two large boats to
board the schooner. As they came near, she sunk one of
them, and the other was badly shattered. The brig having
picked up her men from the wreck, the schooner made off
toward New Orleans, and the brig returned a southwest
course.
During
grand jury proceedings in October, testimony was given
against Dominique. It stated he had taken $6,000 worth of
goods, but that he did not take them or the vessel to
Cartagena. Other evidence claimed he never displayed a
letter of marque from that nation or any other country. The
indictment against him was returned on 24 October. But
events unfolding outside the court system and influential
men contrived to prevent the prosecution of the captured
prisoners. Edward
Livingston felt the government was responsible for
their activities because it failed to deal with their
smuggling in a timely manner. He pointed out that they
numbered among their contacts many influential people, which
when coupled with the social and ethnic divisiveness within
the city, might lead to trouble at a time when America could
ill afford it. To quiet this unrest, he suggested to President
James
Madison that he pardon all Baratarians who agreed to
help defend the city against a British attack.
After
Major General Andrew
Jackson’s arrival in New Orleans on 1 December 1814, a
handful of men approached him about the prisoners, but he
refused to intervene. The legislature passed a resolution
requesting the federal court postpone any further trials. It
also asked the general to offer amnesty to any man who
enlisted during the next thirty days and promised to
petition Madison for a full pardon for anyone who served
faithfully. Dominique and the other captives were eventually
released on 18 December, took oaths of allegiance, and
joined the militia. Baratarians who escaped Patterson’s raid
also took up arms in defense of the city and Jean Laffite
turned over 7,500 flints.
The
Americans . . . opened in good earnest and, as soon
became apparent along our line, with startling effect.
For the first half-hour the weight of execution was
undoubtedly in our favor. But the American defences – a
heavy, solid earthwork – soon proved far superior to our
flimsy protection, improvised from hogsheads of sugar or
filled with loose dirt. These were soon knocked to
pieces. Then our gun-carriages and ammunition-chests
began to suffer. Moreover, our calibers were only 12-
and 9-pounders, while the enemy had 18’s, 24’s and 32’s
. . . Either by accident or design or because fate was
against us, the enemy’s gunners bestowed most of their
attention upon our heaviest and best guns. . . . The
battery of theirs that did us by far the most injury was
the third one from their right which brought it about
opposite to the centre of our formation. This battery
mounted 24-pounders, which were fired alternately with
great deliberation and with unvarying effect.
