George R. Roberts

George R. Roberts (1766 – 14 January 1861) was an American privateer in the War of 1812.

Aboard the Sarah Ann

He began his career as a privateer in July 1812, a month after the start of the war, sailing from his native Baltimore on Captain Richard Moon's privateer Sarah Ann. The next month, in the Bahamas, their ship attacked and captured a British ship transiting from Kingston, Jamaica to London, England and brought its cargo of sugar and coffee to Savannah, Georgia. Roberts was among six sailors accused of being British deserters, but Captain Moon asserted him "a native born of the United States [with] every sufficient document, together with free papers." After sinking seventeen ships and declaring a facetious paper blockade of the British Isles, the Chasseur returned, passing Fort McHenry on 8 April 1815, with Roberts and the other crew welcomed as war heroes. At his death on 14 January 1861 he was remembered in the Baltimore Sun: