Young Teazer
The Young Teazer was an American privateer schooner built in 1813. She preyed on British sea trade off the coast of Halifax until she was blown up on June 27, 1813 at Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia.[1][2] She was built to replace the Teazer, which had been set ablaze just months before. The Young Teazer is famous not only because of her operations in the middle of the War of 1812 but because of the deadly explosion that ended her career and the subsequent ghost stories that followed in her wake.
The hunt for Young Teazer
Early in June 1813, Young Teazer boarded a vessel off La Have, but allowed her and her crew to proceed as she was in ballast, and hardly worth taking. When the vessel reached Halifax they reported the privateer's presence and description.
Shortly thereafter, Young Teazer captured two vessels right off Sambro Island Light, at the very entrance to Halifax Harbour. She then escaped possible capture by running into the harbor and raising British colors. The British discovered the ruse, but only after Young Teazer had left. Still, a number of British warships sailed in search of her.
While Young Teazer was attempting to capture ships near Halifax, the larger Nova Scotian privateer, the brig Sir John Sherbrooke, came upon her and chased her. However, Young Teazer briefly escaped into fog before HMS Manly and another vessel spotted her and commenced their chase. They too lost her.
The next to pick up the hunt, a few days later, was the frigate HMS Orpheus. She chased Young Teazer in to Lunenburg Harbour. However, Orpheus lost her near Mahone Bay due to light winds.
The 74-gun Third Rate HMS Hogue picked up the chase and aided by a light breeze that escaped Young Teazer, cornered her in Mahone Bay. Orpheus soon joined as well.
Final hours
On the evening of June 27, 1813, Hogue prepared a night boarding action. She sent five of her boats towards Young Teazer.
The privateer's First Lieutenant, Frederick Johnson, unwilling to surrender to the British, threw a handful of coals into the privateer's ammunition magazine.[3] The ship exploded, killing about 30 crewmen.[4] The crews of Hogue and Orpheus arrested the eight survivors, most of whom had been on the forecastle.
Johnson had been captured while commanding the old Teazer off New York. The British had released him after he gave his parole. Instead of waiting for an exchange he had joined Young Teazer. As a result, he feared what would happen should the British recapture him. A sailor, who saw Johnson go below to the powder magazine with a lighted coal, shouted a warning and then saved his own life by jumping overboard.
The boats from Hogue returned to her. Next morning, when it was clear that hulk of Young Teazer was still afloat, the British sent boats out again to find any survivors.
The Young Teazer, gutted but still partially afloat, was surrounded by floating bodies and wreckage, including her figurehead and several Quaker guns – fake wooden cannons.[5] Much of the wreckage was salvaged, including some timbers that were used for building construction in Mahone Bay. One of the lanterns is in possession of a citizen of Lunenburg County, while a piece of the keel, formed into a cross, is in the Anglican Church at Chester. A scorched fragment of the keel and a cane made from Teazer fragments is displayed at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.
The Hauntings at Mahone Bay
The Young Teazer inspired one of the best known ghost ships in Atlantic Canada, the so-called "Teazer Light". Supposedly, every year on June 27 on Mahone Bay off the coast of Halifax, there is a ghost ship or some sort of supernatural light that appears late in the evening. [6][unreliable source?]
