employed at any one time was twenty-seven in the 1 7 7 5 fall of 1776. I 7 8 3 Behind the Guns The want of efficient armament, naval stores, and pro- The Men visions was serious, but the chief obstacle to the success. of the little continental navy was the lack of sailors. The proportion of seafaring population was far greater than it is now, but patriotism was not universal, the pay was small, and above all else, there were "the seductive allurements of privateering." Vessels that ought to have been manned with full crews of able seamen frequently went to sea with weak crews composed of deserters, foreigners, and a few Americans. The frigate "Alliance," while on her way to France with Lafayette, carried seventy or eighty British sailors who planned to seize and carry her into a British port and, when the "Bon Homme Richard" fought the "Serapis," she was a veritable Babel of tongues. "Commodore" At the end of 1775, a squadron of eight small cruisers The Cruise of was gathered at Philadelphia. Late in December or early in January, Esek Hopkins, the commander-in-chief Hopkins of the navy, went on board his flag-ship, the "Alfred," and, at a signal from Captain Dudley Saltonstall, Lieutenant John Paul Jones hoisted the first flag that ever floated over a regularly commissioned American man-ofwar. Early in March, Hopkins captured Nassau in the Bahamas, took more than a hundred cannons and a large quantity of military stores, and carried off the governor. On his way homeward, he took two small prizes, but, after a severe fight with the twenty-gun ship "Glasgow," allowed her to escape from his fleet. For this failure and other causes, Hopkins fell into disgrace, was suspended from his command, and was ultimately dis- May 1, 1777 missed from the service. For the remainder of the the American navy was without a commander-in-chief. With the exception of New Jersey and Delaware, each State Navies of the thirteen states owned one or more armed vessels. Most of these vessels were small craft suited for defending shallow rivers, bays, and harbors; though none of them performed any great exploit, they rendered impor war, January 2, 1778 I 7 7 7 tant service. Connecticut had a submarine vessel, a tortoise-shaped boat that could be propelled under water and contained enough air to allow the operator to remain submerged about half an hour. In 1777, the submarine was sent against a British war-ship in New York harbor. The "American Turtle" got under the British vessel, but the operator was unable properly to attach his magazine of powder and the attempt failed. Captain Captain The first continental cruiser to appear in European waters was the "Reprisal," sixteen guns, Captain Lambert Wickes. In the fall of 1776, she was sent to carry Franklin to France; on the way, Wickes captured two prizes which he brought into port. The "Reprisal" then cruised in the Bay of Biscay and captured two more prizes, one being the king's packet plying between Falmouth and Lisbon. When these prizes were brought into Nantes, the British agents remonstrated so vehemently that the vessels were taken into the offing and secretly sold to French merchants; France was still under strict treaty obligation to England. In April, 1777, the "Reprisal" was joined by the "Lexington." Then the "Dolphin," a cutter of ten guns, was purchased and fitted out by the American agents. In June, 1777, Wickes cruised with these vessels in the Bay of Biscay and made two circuits of Ireland, capturing or destroying seventeen or eighteen vessels. These operations deterred English merchants from shipping goods in English bottoms; in a few weeks, forty French ships were loading in the Thames, a thing never before known. England protested so vigorously that the French government seized the "Reprisal" and the "Lexington" and held them until security was given that they would leave France which they did in September. The "Lexington" was captured by a British cruiser and the "Reprisal" foundered off Newfoundland. Meanwhile, the American agents had bought a lugger at Dover and brought her over to Dunkirk where she was equipped, named the "Surprise," and put in charge of Captain Gustavus Conyngham. With a nondescript crew, Conyngham sailed from Dunkirk early in May, 1 7 7 6 1777, and soon returned with two prizes. Under pres- 1 7 7 8 sure from the English ambassador, France gave up the prizes and seized the "Surprise" and her crew. "With some address and intrigue" on the part of Deane and his associates, Conyngham and his men were soon released; in July, they sailed in another cutter called the "Revenge." Their "trading voyage" led them directly toward the British coast and, for several months, the Revenge" was a terror to English shipping. When English vessels were no longer safe in the English Channel, Englishmen were almost prepared for the abduction of London Tower. On one occasion, Conyngham in disguise sailed into an English port, secured the supplies he wanted, and escaped in safety. He sailed for America and was captured in the following year. The protests of congress saved his neck and he finally broke prison and escaped. These exploits, comparable to those of the Confeder- French ate cruiser "Alabama" in 1862-64, were rendered possi- Complicity ble by the neglect of France to enforce the neutrality laws. Although that government occasionally remonstrated and made a show of heeding British protests, the American agents suffered little serious opposition. Vessels were bought and armed, crews were enlisted, officers were provided with commissions brought over in blank from America for the purpose, and prizes found a ready market. The remembrance of what she suffered at this time may have led England to excuse herself for her arbitrary conduct in the years preceding the war of 1812. Among the many enterprising Revolutionary sea men, was Abraham Abraham Whippl Autograph of Commodore Whipple Whipple of Rhode Island. In the old French and Indian war he had commanded a privateer and captured Abraham twenty-three French vessels in a single cruise; in 1772, Whipple I 7 7 5 he took and burned the "Gaspee" in Narragansett Bay; I 7 7 8 and, in 1775, he was made commodore of the Rhode John Paul Jones Island navy. In the summer of 1779, in command of the light frigate "Providence," he fell in with a large convoy of merchantmen on their way from Jamaica to England. Whipple concealed the character of his ship, boldly entered the fleet as one of their number, and, in the night of each of ten successive days, boarded and captured one of the convoy. Eight of the prizes thus taken arrived safely at Boston where they were sold for more than a million dollars. In the December following Conyngham's departure for America, John Paul Jones arrived in Nantes with the "Ranger," eighteen guns. The son of a master gardener named John Paul, he was born in 1747 on the estate of Arbigland in south Birthplace of John Paul Jones western Scotland. At the age of twelve, he was apprenticed to a merchant at White haven and made a voyage to Virginia where his elder brother was established as a planter. He subsequently made several voyages to the West Indies and, when his brother died in 1773, took charge of his Virginia estate and, for some reason, added "Jones" to his name. In 1775, as already related, he was appointed senior first lieutenant in the American navy. He accompanied Hopkins on his cruise to the Bahamas and, in May, 1776, was given command of the sloop "Providence" with which he captured sixteen prizes. Later in the same year, with the I 777 1778 IN CONGRES S. The DELEGATES of the UNITED STATES of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, W of the anmeed Captain John Paul Jones, Equin, E, repofing efpecial Trust and Confidence in your Patriotism, Valour, Conduct and Fidelity. cattert the Captai in the S of the United States of North America, fitted out for the Defence of American Liberty, and for repelling every l at This PRESIDENT.. "Providence" and the "Alfred," he took many prizes including the ship "Mellish" laden with stores for Carleton's army. In June, 1777, being then a captain, he was given command of the Ranger" and hoisted over her the first "Stars and Stripes" ever raised over an American warship. After his arrival in France, he obtained from a French admiral the first salute ever given to that flag by the representative of a foreign power; the ink had hardly had The "Stars and Stripes" of the February 14, 1778 |