Otway Burns (c. 1775 – August 25, 1850) was an American privateer during the War of 1812 and later, a North Carolina State Senator.

Early life

Burns was born at Queen's Creek, near Swansboro, North Carolina. He became a seaman after learning the trade at the ports in Swansboro and Beaufort, a nearby town situated in Carteret County. After acquiring the skills needed to become a merchant captain, Burns sailed along the East Coast of the United States, all the way north up to Maine. After his voyage, he married his cousin, Joanna Grant, on July 6, 1809. The next year, the couple moved to Swansboro. There, Joanna gave birth to Owen, the couple's only child.

Burns received financial support for his trading activities from Edward Pasteur, a physician and local political leader from New Bern. In the summer of 1812, just a month after the War of 1812 had commenced, Burns and Pasteur purchased a vessel in New York City for eight thousand US dollars, which Burns intended to use for privateering along the coast of The Carolinas. The 147-ton vessel, named Zephyr, had been constructed four years earlier on the West River in Maryland. Zephyr measured from bow to stern, had a beam of and a depth of almost . The vessel was armed with one pivot gun and between five and seven gun carriages. Also on board were a number of small arms: cutlasses, pistols, muskets, boarding pikes, pickaxes and blunderbusses.

Privateering career

Pasteur and Burns, on Snap Dragon, headed to New Bern to recruit men to join the vessel's crew. To their surprise, some of New Bern's political leaders treated privateering like piracy, and they tried to complicate matters for the two privateers. The leaders convinced new recruits to borrow money, upon which, they would be arrested for their debt. Burns twice retaliated against the politicians. In one incident, the crew of Snap Dragon sank a boat with constables who were planning on boarding the ship. Subsequently, a local attorney labeled the vessel as a "licensed robber".

With a 25-man crew, Burns left New Bern for Norfolk, Virginia. On October 14, 1812, Snap Dragon and another vessel, Revenge, sailed south. The vessels separated a week later. Soon after, Burns and Pasteur led the vessel to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. To fool enemy British ships, they disguised Snap Dragon as a merchant ship by putting up old, ragged sails and moving the guns out of view. Snap Dragon ran into five British men of war. One of the ships, the frigate , fired a warning shot and signaled the other ships to chase down Snap Dragon. For over two hours, Burns led Snap Dragon away from danger, toward Ship Rock passage, which unknowingly, was blocked by two British brigs. immediately launched an attack on Snap Dragon. Burns told his crew to lie down on the deck while the vessel was being fired upon. Burns was able to escape from the British ships unscathed. The next morning, Burns and his crew encountered , another British man of war, but again they successfully escaped. The crew of Snap Dragon made their way to St. Croix, where they made "several small captures" of coastal traders.

Three months later, Burns married Jane Hall, a 20-year-old from Beaufort, North Carolina. In April 1815, Burns purchased a property in Beaufort, on which he built a house, that would be his family's residence for the next 20 years. In 1823, he built Warrior in Beaufort, followed by the brig Henry, eight years later.

During much of the 1820s, he managed a store and taproom on his Beaufort property, and also had a partnership in a Taylor's Creek salt distribution company. Among other things, he also co-owned brick kilns used by the federal government to build Fort Macon, in the largest public works project in the history of the area, and enslaved 11 people, whose forced labor was used for his businesses and on his plantation in Carteret County.

Later life

In 1835 President Andrew Jackson appointed him keeper of the Brant Island Shoal Light, a position he held until his death. He is buried in the Old Burying Ground at Beaufort.

Honors

Two destroyers have been named in his honor: and , in service during World War I and II, respectively. In 1834, Burnsville, North Carolina was founded and named in his honor. A statue of him was placed in the town square in 1909. The town of Otway, in Carteret County, North Carolina, is also named for him. He has descendants living today in the areas of Beaufort, Swansboro and Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, and in the immediate area of his birth near Queens Creek, North Carolina.

Captain Burns's life is the basis of a historical novel by Ruth P. Barbour, The Cruise of the Snap Dragon.

Notes

Further reading

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  • Otway Burns at The Political Graveyard
  • Otway Burns Monument at the Historical Marker Database

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