potatoe-battery

Updated: May 22, 2025

Accordingly when they observed the old man stubbing backwards and forwards his quarter deck, and stopping now and then to peak over to our ship to see if we smuggled a bottle of liquor, they gave him a volley of potatoes, which was kept up until the veteran commander hailed our captain and told him that if the Americans did not cease their insult he would order his marines to fire upon them; but his threatenings produced no other effect than that of increasing the shower of potatoes; so that this brave British tar was compelled to seek shelter in his cabin; and then the potatoe-battery ceased its fire.

Benjamin Waterhouse - A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed.: Late A Surgeon On Board An American Privateer, Who Was: Captured At Sea By The British, In May, Eighteen Hundred: And Thirteen, And Was Confined First, At Melville Island,: Halifax, Then At Chatham, In England ... And Last, At: Dartmoor Prison. Interspersed With Observations, Anecdotes: And Remarks, Tending To Illustrate The Moral And Political: Characters Of Three Nations. To Which Is Added, A Correct: Engraving Of Dartmoor Prison, Representing The Massacre: Of American Prisoners, Written By Himself.