The story of the Young Teazer and her destruction on the shores of Nova Scotia has traditionally been most closely associated with the community of Mahone Bay.

 After all, the Young Teazer, having been chased by several British ships, met her fate on the waters of Mahone Bay and, more than 250 years later, the seaside community still celebrates the tale annually with a re-enactment.

 But one small detail dealing with the final resting place of the little marauder has been lost in the development of the modern mythology surrounding the Young Teazer.

 While the chase itself did indeed take the vessel through the vast, sprawling waters of Mahone Bay, the fiery end of the adventure actually occurred some distance from what would become the Town of Mahone Bay, in the waters off Chester.

 As it happened, however, the tale of the Young Teazer and its intimidating, black alligator figurehead carved into the vessel's bow truly began with her seagoing American predecessor, the Teazer.

 When the War of 1812 erupted between Great Britain and the United States of America, the American forces in the northeast found themselves under the thumb of the might of the British navy.

 Not only did the Brits have a standing force of more than 100 vessels, including several men-of-war, stationed in Halifax, but they had also actively begun recruiting local merchant and fishing vessels, outfitting them with arms and dispatching them to harass American shipping.

 With little other recourse, the American side responded with a similar commitment to outfit its own privately owned vessels with armaments and send them off to badger British and British-friendly shipping in the waters off Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

 These privateering vessels proved quite successful for both sides and one of the most famous of the American fleet was the original Teazer.

 Under the command of Lieut. John Frederick, the Teazer captured and pillaged the cargo of six schooners, six brigs and a pair of other ships in a span of just weeks before she was finally captured and reduced to ashes in the closing days of 1812 by H.M.S. San Domingo.

 The crew of the Teazer was brought before British officials and, after agreeing to take an oath declaring they would not take up arms against the British Empire again under the penalty of hanging, they were released and permitted to return home to the United States.

 But in the short time that the Teazer had cruised the coast of Nova Scotia, her reputation had been gilded in the United States and, soon after her crew was released, talk of bringing the spirit of the Teazer back to life on another vessel surfaced.

 And for Lieut. Frederick, who was none too happy with the destruction of his privateering vessel, when an American ship was renamed Young Teazer and outfitted with guns for privateering, he was happy to take up a position on board, despite the certain death penalty that awaited him should the British find him on a privateer for a second time.

 Under the command of Capt. Dobson, the Young Teazer sailed northward bound for Halifax and there she would lie in wait at the mouth of Halifax harbour, in the vicinity of Sambro Light.

 Capt. Dobson's preferred means of attack was to stay out of sight until a British vessel, returning to the friendly confines of the Halifax port, let its guard down, its watchmen confident that they had eluded the grasp of the privateers.

 Then, without warning, Dobson and the Young Teazer would swoop in. The five guns on her hull would appear menacing to any merchant ship - even if three of the weapons were actually little more than wooden dummies - and any captain with sense would surrender his vessel rather than risk destruction.

 And, for some time, the method was flawless.

 Eventually, however, the British got wise to the Young Teazer's tactics and soon men-of-war were dispatched to deal with this new raider.

 On one occasion, with the Sir John Sherbrooke, a British-sponsored privateer, bearing down on her on the waters of St. Margarets Bay, the Young Teazer made an about-face and broke for Halifax harbour. Out-racing her pursuers to the waters off the provincial capital beneath the guns of the fort, Capt. Dobson ordered his crew to drop anchor, take down the privateer's flag from her mast and replace it with an old British Union Jack.

 When the Sir John Sherbrooke roared into the harbour, the privateer it had been chasing was seemingly nowhere to be found.

 Later, under the cover of darkness, the Young Teazer quietly made its way out of the harbour and to safety.

 Eventually, having discovered the deceit that allowed the Young Teazer to slip away, the crew of the Sir John Sherbrooke, and her commander, Capt. Joseph Freeman, resumed the chase for the flippant privateer.

 The Sir John Sherbrooke picked up the trail of Dobson's Teazer once again and was able to close on her quickly in the waters to the southwest of Halifax. This time, however, the Young Teazer slipped in along the coast into a dense fog bank among the plethora of islands to avoid capture.

 But the respite was short-lived. Believing the Sherbrooke had given up the chase and moved on, Dobson ordered his ship to emerge from the safety of the coastline. As the fog cleared, it was replaced by the ominous sight of the massive canvas sails of H.M.S. Orpheus.

 Having brought his vessel into open waters, not to mention directly into the path of a powerful British vessel, Dobson realized he had little chance of out-manoeuvring the warship in such an environment, so he beat a hasty retreat toward Lunenburg, where he planned to lose the larger vessel.

 Once he had lured the clumsier Orpheus into shallow waters, Dobson would bring his ship about and make a run for Tancook Island, beyond which he could find shelter.

 The plan almost worked to perfection. Tacking near Lunenburg, the Young Teazer raced out of range of the Orpheus and headed for Tancook along the outer edge of Mahone Bay.

 Unfortunately for Dobson and his crew, as they approached Tancook they quickly took notice of yet another vessel looming on the horizon. This time, they realized, it was the La Hogue, a two-deck man-of-war, equipped with more than 70 guns, coming at them.

 With the La Hogue in front, the Orpheus to the rear and the Sir John Sherbrooke lurking somewhere to her starboard in the open seas, Dobson had little recourse but to turn to his port side and make his way into Mahone Bay.

 It was a wise decision, for Dobson didn't realize that there were, in fact, several other ships in the vicinity of Mahone Bay searching for the Young Teazer, including the Castor and the Manly, a frigate and brig respectively.

 Despite being surrounded, the captain remained hopeful that he may yet lose his pursuers in the shallow waters of Mahone Bay, off Chester. If the British were not brave enough to tackle the shoals, the Young Teazer could pass unmolested among the islands until dark, then, running silent and black, she could use the cover of night to slip through the British dragnet along the coast to safety.

 But the La Hogue was relentless. She pursued the Young Teazer as far into the bay as possible, and when the large vessel could go no further, she dispatched five heavily armed boats to attempt to row down the increasingly swamped privateer.

 As the British boats bore down on the privateer, a sense of desperation must have gripped the crew of the Young Teazer. But it likely affected none more than Lieut. John Frederick who, having sworn not to raid against the British again, would find himself instantly in a noose if captured.

 Guns readied, the British closed, when suddenly a massive explosion ripped orange and red through the dark hull of the Young Teazer, sending debris and bodies flying into the air.

 The chase of the Young Teazer had come to an unexpectedly abrupt end, apparently at the hands of her own crew.

 A total of eight survivors out of the 36-member crew were plucked by the British from the waters near Naas Island on June 27, 1813.

 Some locals, including Josiah Marvin, David Evans and John Pentz, rowed out from Chester to help recover the remains of the Young Teazer crew who had died in the blast. Mr. Pentz, it is said, was so disturbed by the mangled state of the corpses that he fainted on approach.

 After gathering themselves, the retrieval party was able to assemble the remains of two of the men and the bodies were taken back to Chester for burial.

 In the days that followed, a handful ofsurvivors testified that the cause of the explosion on the Young Teazer was Lieut. Frederick, who, determined to avoid capture at all costs, had ignited the gun powder in the hold with a flame taken from the kitchen.

 And so, the question surrounding her destruction solved, the sordid, adventurous story of the Teazer legacy appeared to come to a close.

 However, in the years, decades and, eventually, centuries that followed, the final voyage of the Young Teazer was anything but forgotten thanks largely to the regular appearance of the vessel's ghostly apparition on the waters of the bay.

 It is claimed, even to this day, that for a select few watching the horizon from a waterfront vantage in the Village ofChester, the Young Teazer occasionally comes to life, replaying its own tragic end, the menacing alligator figurehead at her bow aflame like a star shooting across the night sky.

 Sources: "History of the County of Lunenburg," Mather DesBrisay; "Young Teazer: Story of the American Privateer," Roland Sherwood.

Written and researched by Patrick Hirtle.