CAPTAIN ADAM HYLER


A fine afternoon to you all. My name is Captain Adam Hyler. I was a lifelong resident of New Brunswick, a gentleman, a sailor and owner of a fine fleet. During the American Revolution I served as an American privateer. As my friend William Marriner may have mentioned, we privateers played a large role in the war. We blocked supplies from reaching British troops and rescued American prisoners of war by capturing British citizens and Tories to use in prisoner exchanges. Without us fighting for independence from the seas, you might all be British citizens right now.
Most of my privateering fleet was whaleboats - not the elegant pirate ships most people think of. A whaleboat is an open ship only around 36 feet long and often carries a cannon or a pair of guns. It holds as few as 6 or as many as 2 dozen sailors and can be rowed in complete silence. During my career as a privateer we used the stealth and silence of our whaleboats to surprise many ships at sea and sneak into many British-held ports to take prisoners or rescue Americans. I did something that was unheard of in my day - I trained each and every sailor who enlisted with me as a privateer and I trained them well. Most sailors of that day barely knew their way around the ships they were working on, much less how to attack efficiently. My men were trained, intelligent, brave and skillful. When my crew overtook an enemy ship, its captain and crew usually didn’t know we were there until they felt a cutlass or pistol at their throats. I was and am proud of my men and of my deeds.
We even had the skill and audacity to attack a Tory fort on the coast - not just once but twice. The first raid gained us 6 prisoners. In the second raid we captured the captain of the fort and all of his officers.
The British were so wounded by my attacks that they thought to take me prisoner and rid themselves of my privateers. They sailed into the port of New Brunswick one fine morning and marched off their boat toward my home. They took control of the city in the name of the crown. Ah, but they couldn’t hold it. The citizens of New Brunswick, ever ready to defend their city and their freedom, quickly formed a militia larger than the mass of British troops and counterattacked. No Americans were killed in the ensuing battle but the injuries to the British troops were grave. The British dogs managed to burn some of my whaleboats and two of my larger ships, but most of my armada remained intact and I remained a free man, able to continue the war against the British oppressors.
I am Captain Adam Hyler - sailor, gentleman, privateer and patriot.