Twelve-year-old master of a ship

From the excellent Perilous Fight by Stephen Budiansky, an account of the naval aspects of the War of 1812. Page 271.

“Over the next seven weeks the Essex and the Georgiana took six more letter-of-marque whalers, and by that point Porter had put so many of his officers aboard them as prize captains—he had even pressed the ship’s chaplain and marine lieutenant into this duty—that the only officer left to take charge of an American whaler they had recaptured, the Barclay, was twelve-year-old midshipman David Farragut. The Barclay’s master was an old and violent-tempered American mariner named Gideon Randall whose entire crew, except for the first mate, had jumped at the opportunity to abandon him and had entered as volunteers on the Essex the moment they were recaptured. A draft of men from the American frigate was sent back to work the ship with Farragut in their charge, and the arrangement was that Randall would continue to be in charge of navigating the vessel. But when, on July 9, Porter ordered four of the prizes plus the Barclay to be taken into Valparaíso for sale, Randall furiously came on deck muttering that he would shoot any man who dared to touch a rope without his orders. “I’ll go on my own damn course“, he said, and disappeared below for his pistols.

Farragut recalled, “I considered that my day of trial had arrived … But the time had come for me at least to play the man.” Mustering his courage, he politely told the first mate that he desired to have the main topsail filled. The man responded at once “with a clear ‘Aye, aye, sir!’ in a manner which was not to be misunderstood,” said Farragut, “and my confidence was perfectly restored.” Farragut sent word to the master that he was not to appear on deck with his pistols “unless he wished to go overboard; for I would really have had very little trouble in having such an order obeyed.”