CHAPTER II.The Infant Navy.
Rescuing the Brigantine.—Commissioned as Captain.—Escape from the Solway.—Conflict with the Milford.—Adventures at Canso and Madame.—Return with Prizes.—Expedition to Cape Breton.—Wise Counsel of Jones.—Brilliant Naval Campaign.—Saving the Prizes.—Value of the Mellish.—Mission to France.—Disappointment.—Sails with the Ranger.
Captain Jones found all his intelligence, bravery, and nautical skill tested to the utmost, in evading, thwarting, and struggling against the British men-of-war swarming around him. He had several very fierce rencontres with forces superior to his own. One day he saw a foreign vessel (I think it was Spanish), coming from St. Domingo, with a cargo of military stores for the colonies. This brigantine was hotly pursued by the Cerberus, a British man-of-war. The thunders of her bow-guns echoed over the waves, while the balls of solid shot, ricochetting for more than a mile, proclaimed how terrible the bolts which those thunders sent forth.
The courage and nautical skill of Captain Jones rescued the brigantine and her precious cargo. Thevessel was afterward purchased by Congress, and named the Hampden. He was then ordered to Boston, whence he convoyed some merchant vessels to Philadelphia. This was indeed an arduous and perilous mission. The war-ships of the enemy were daily arriving off Sandy Hook, under the guidance of Lord Howe. Captain Jones caught sight of several of these ships, which, with a single broadside, could have sunk him. But he had the address to avoid them. On the 8th of August, 1776, he received from John Hancock, President of Congress, his commission as captain. It contained the following words:
“John Paul Jones, Esq.“We, reposing especial trust and confidence in your patriotism, valor, conduct, and fidelity, do, by these presents, constitute and appoint you to be captain in the navy of the United States, fitted out for the defence of American liberty, and for repelling every hostile invasion thereof. You are therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the duty of captain, by doing and performing all manner of things thereunto belonging. And we do strictly charge and require all officers, marines, and seamen, under your command, to be obedient to your orders as captain.”
“John Paul Jones, Esq.
“We, reposing especial trust and confidence in your patriotism, valor, conduct, and fidelity, do, by these presents, constitute and appoint you to be captain in the navy of the United States, fitted out for the defence of American liberty, and for repelling every hostile invasion thereof. You are therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the duty of captain, by doing and performing all manner of things thereunto belonging. And we do strictly charge and require all officers, marines, and seamen, under your command, to be obedient to your orders as captain.”
He then received orders to set out on a cruise of two or three months against the navy of Great Britain. For this enterprise he was furnished with the sloop Providence, which mounted twelve guns, and was manned by but seventy sailors. He was left entirely to his own discretion, not being confined to any particular station or service. Captain Jones sailed from Philadelphia, on this chivalric expedition, the latter part of August, 1776. Not far from the Island of Bermuda he encountered a British frigate, the Solway.
It was like the fox meeting the hound. The only safety was in flight. A chase took place, with a constant interchange of shot. This running fight continued for six hours. Those who are familiar with nautical affairs, will understand the bold measure by which he escaped. He gradually edged away until he brought his heavy adversary upon his weather quarter. Then, putting his helm suddenly up, he stood dead before the wind. At the same moment he threw out all his light sails, with which his little sloop was abundantly furnished. This manœuvre compelled him to pass within pistol-shot of his pursuer. But he knew that he could sail much faster than the frigate, before the wind.
The captain of the Solway was quite unprepared for such a manœuvre. Before he could change hiscourse to imitate it, the Providence had gained such a start as to be soon beyond the reach of the Solway’s guns. Triumphantly the little sloop swept the waves until the discomfited frigate gave up the chase.
Not long after this, as Captain Jones was lying to, on the banks near the Isle of Sables, to allow his men to fish, another large English frigate hove in sight, which proved to be the Milford. Though he had much confidence in the speed of his light little sloop, which, under her cloud of canvas, could almost like a bubble skim the wave, he prudently tried her speed with that of the gigantic foe approaching. Finding that he could easily outstrip her, he tauntingly allowed the Milford to approach to nearly within gun-shot. He then spread his sails, keeping just out of harm’s way.
The frigate rounded to and discharged her broadside. The shot skipped over the waves and sank at some distance before reaching the sloop. After each broadside, Captain Jones, in token of his contempt, ordered his marine officer to return the fire, by the discharge of a single musket. He kept up this burlesque of a battle, causing the frigate to throw away her ammunition, from ten o’clock in the morning till sunset. He then spread all sail and went unharmed on his way.
The next morning he entered the Gut of Canso, which separates the Island of Cape Breton from the mainland. He found three English schooners in the harbor of Canso. He burned one, and sunk another, after having filled the third, a schooner, the Ebenezer, with what fish had been found in the other two. Here he learned that at the Island of Madame, near by, on the east side of the Bay of Canso, there were nine British vessels, consisting of brigs, ships, and schooners. He sent boats, well armed, to destroy them, while he kept off and on with his sloop, ready to punish severely any attempt to rescue the shipping.
The enterprise was entirely successful, and, as no opposition was made, it was bloodless. These vessels had transferred their cargoes to the shore, and were unrigged. It would take some time to fit them for sea. Despatch was of the utmost importance. Captain Jones humanely, and very wisely, informed the crews of these vessels, that if they would cordially assist him in rigging and fitting out such vessels as he required, he would leave them vessels sufficient to cross the Atlantic to their own homes.
Though the British officers were generally very bitter in their hostility to the colonial cause, it was not so with the masses of the English people. Therewas in their hearts an underlying feeling of sympathy with the brave colonists who were struggling against intolerable oppression. These English sailors, therefore, heartily joined their American brothers, and assisted, with the utmost energy, until the business was accomplished.
On the evening of September 25th, a violent tempest arose, with deluging rain. Captain Jones was compelled to cast anchor at the entrance of the harbor, where, with both his anchors and whole cables ahead, he with difficulty rode out the storm. One of the prize ships, the Alexander, which was just ready for sea, anchored under the shelter of a projecting point of rocks, and thus narrowly escaped destruction. Another of the prizes, a schooner, called the Sea-Flower, with a valuable cargo, was torn from her moorings and driven ashore, a total wreck. As she could not be got off the next day, she was set on fire. The schooner Ebenezer, which he had brought from Canso, laden with fish, was driven on a reef of sunken rocks, and totally lost. With great difficulty the crew saved themselves on a raft.
Toward noon of the 26th this fierce gale began to abate. The British ship Adventure he burned in the harbor. He then put to sea, taking with himthree heavily laden prizes, the ship Alexander, and the brigantines Kingston and Success.
The fishery at Canso and Madame he thus effectually destroyed. He left behind him two small schooners and one brig, to convey the British seamen, about three hundred in number, back to their homes. He said, “Had I not done this, I should have stood chargeable with inhumanity.”
This bold enterprise was indeed bearding the lion in his den. It woke up the British Government to a new sense of the vigor of that worm which it supposed was squirming helplessly beneath its feet. It taught the proud Court of St. James that in war there were blows to be received as well as blows to be given. These acts seem cruel. But “war,” says General Sherman, “is cruelty. You cannot refine it.”
While England was wantonly laying our villages in ashes, and driving women and children in homelessness and starvation into the fields, Captain Jones spared all private property on the land. He only seized or consigned to destruction that private propertyafloat, which the code of war England herself had established, pronounced to be lawful booty. England, proud mistress of the seas, supposed that she, with her invincible navy, could plunder the commerce of all nations, and that she had nothing tofear in the way of retaliation. It must have been to her indeed a surprise to find the shipping in her own harbors plundered and blazing.
Captain Jones felt the necessity of the utmost possible expedition. He had learned that there was an English war-brig, of powerful armament, within forty-five miles of him to the southward. This formidable antagonist might, at any hour, loom in sight. As the little fleet was crowding along under full sail making all haste, on the morning of the 27th, two sails were discerned in the distant horizon. There could be no doubt that they were English vessels. Perilous as Captain Jones’s situation was, he could not resist the temptation to give them chase.
He therefore signalled his prizes to rendezvous on the southwest part of the Isle of Sables, and wait for him there three days, should he not sooner appear. He then spread all sail in pursuit of the strangers. They also spread every inch of canvas they could command, and before they could be overtaken ran into the harbor of Louisbourg. There was reason to suppose that there were several British men-of-war there. Captain Jones therefore returned to his prizes at the rendezvous, and again all pressed forward on their homeward voyage.
In this cruise, which lasted but six weeks andfive days, Captain Jones captured sixteen prizes, besides the vessels which he destroyed in the harbors of Canso and Madame. Of these prizes, eight he manned and sent into port. The remainder were burned. Captain Jones returned to Newport, Rhode Island, where the commander-in-chief of our little navy had established his headquarters.
The British officers were treating the captives they had taken from the Americans, with the greatest brutality. They had driven one hundred prisoners into the coal mines of Cape Breton, where they were forced to labor like slaves. This procedure greatly outraged Captain Jones’s sense of humanity and justice. He suggested that an expedition should be fitted out for their release; and also, as far as possible, to destroy England’s coal fleet and her fishing fleet. The plan was approved of. For the accomplishment of this important enterprise he was allowed to fit out two vessels, the Alfred and the Providence. The whole burden and responsibility of the preparations rested upon him. He took command of the Alfred, committing the Providence to Captain Hacker. He found but thirty men on board the Alfred, and with great difficulty succeeded in enlisting thirty more. When the Alfred entered the harbor at Newport from Philadelphia, a few weeks before, she had two hundred and thirty-fivemen on her muster-roll. Captain Jones, in a letter to Hon. Robert Morris, explained the cause of this singular desertion, and proposed a remedy.
“It seems to me,” he writes, “that the privateers entice the men away as fast as they receive their month’s pay. It is to the last degree distressing to contemplate the state and establishment of our navy. The common class of mankind are animated by no nobler principle than that of self-interest. This, and this alone, determines all adventurers in privateers; the owners, as well as those whom they employ.
“And while this is the case, unless the private emolument of individualsin our navyis made superior to that inprivateers, it never can become respectable; it never will become formidable. And without a respectable navy, alas, America! In the present critical situation of affairs, human wisdom can suggest no more than one infallible expedient: enlist the seamen during pleasure, andgive them all the prizes.
“What is the paltry emolument of two-thirds of prizes to this vast continent.[A]If so poor a resource is essential to its independency, we are, in sober sadness, involved in a woful predicament, and ourruin is fast approaching. The situation of America is new in the annals of mankind. Her affairs cry haste; and speed must answer them. Trifles therefore ought to be wholly disregarded, as being, in the old vulgar proverb, ‘penny wise and pound foolish.’
“If our enemies, with the best established and most formidable navy in the universe, have found it expedient to assign all prizes to the captors, how much more is such policy essential to our infant fleet? But I need use no arguments to convince you of the necessity of making our navy equal, if not superior to theirs.”
Our navy was so small and our impoverishment so great that Congress could furnish Captain Jones with but two vessels for his important expedition to Cape Breton. The Alfred and the Providence sailed together from Newport harbor, on the 2d of November, 1776. This was so late in the season, to embark for those high latitudes, that Captain Jones, discouraged by the delays which had been encountered, was not very sanguine as to the success of the expedition.
The first night he cast anchor at Tarpauling Cove, near Nantucket. Here he found a privateer belonging to Rhode Island, inward bound. He was in great want of men. Many sailors, for reasons which we have already given, had deserted the regularservice to enlist on board the privateers. Captain Jones sent his boat on board the privateer to search for deserters from the navy. Four men were found, carefully concealed. They were taken on board the Alfred. This led to a law-suit, which subsequently subjected Captain Jones to considerable trouble. Louisbourg, on the eastern coast of the Island of Cape Breton, had a commodious harbor, and was then a seaport of considerable importance. Just off the harbor Captain Jones fortunately encountered an English brig, the Mellish, partially armed, and laden with a large amount of clothing, thick and warm, for the British troops in Canada. The brig made a little resistance, but was speedily captured, with all her precious cargo. Soon after this he captured a large fishing-vessel, which quite replenished his meagre store of provisions.
The next day a violent snow-storm darkened the air, with a severe gale blowing from the northwest. Captain Hacker, in command of the Providence, either frightened by the inclement weather or treasonably disposed, took advantage of the darkness of the ensuing night to bear away south, and return to Newport. The Alfred was thus left alone to prosecute the now impossible enterprise.
Captain Jones sent his two prizes, the brig Mellish and the fishing-vessel, to steer for any Americanport which could be reached. The fishing-vessel was recaptured by the English. But the Mellish was successfully carried into the harbor of Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The clothing, with which she was laden, proved to be of incalculable use to the army of Washington. The Continental troops, thinly clad, had been suffering severely from the freezing blasts of winter.
In the midst of smothering snow-storms and fierce gales, Captain Jones again entered the harbor of Canso. A large English transport, laden with provisions, was aground, near the entrance to the harbor. He sent his boats to apply the torch. The whole fabric, with all its contents, soon vanished in flame and smoke. A large oil warehouse, containing a large quantity of material for the whale and cod fishery, was also consigned to consuming fire. He then continued his voyage along the eastern coast of Cape Breton.
In a dense fog, not far from Louisbourg, he fell in with quite a fleet of coal vessels, from the crown mines in Sydney, under convoy of the English frigate Flora. Favored by the fog, and unseen by the frigate, he captured three of the largest of these vessels. Two days after this he encountered a British privateer from Liverpool, which he took, after but a slight conflict. Thick masses of ice filled the harboradjacent to the coal mines. He had one hundred and fifty prisoners on board the Alfred. His water-casks were nearly empty, and his provisions mostly consumed. Five prize vessels were in his train. It was clearly his duty to convoy them, as soon as possible, into some safe port. He therefore commenced his return.
The little fleet kept together, guarded by the Alfred, and the Liverpool privateer, which, being armed for battle, Captain Jones had manned and given into the charge of Lieutenant Saunders. Just on the edge of St. George’s Bank, the British frigate Milford was again encountered. It was late in the afternoon when her topsails first appeared above the horizon. All the vessels of Captain Jones’s fleet were on the starboard tack. It was evident that, as the wind was then, the Milford could not overtake them before night, which was close at hand. He signalled his vessels to crowd with all sail, on the same tack, through the night, without paying any regard to the lights which he might show.
After dark both he and the captured privateer tacked, and thus entered upon a different course from that of the rest of the fleet. To decoy the frigate to follow him, and thus draw it away from the prizes, he carried toplights until themorning.morning.The Milford gave him hot chase. When the morninglight dawned upon the ocean the prizes were nowhere to be seen. The stratagem had thus far proved eminently successful. All that now remained for Captain Jones was to make his own escape with the Alfred, and the privateer under Lieutenant Saunders. The privateer, through mismanagement, was overtaken and captured. A terrible storm, which had been for some time brewing, in the afternoon lashed the ocean, and amid clouds and darkness and foaming surges the Alfred made her escape.
On the 15th of December, 1776, Captain Jones entered the harbor of Boston. He had then, on board the Alfred, provisions and water barely sufficient for two days. To his great gratification he found that his prizes had all safely reached port. The welcome news of the capture of the cargo of clothing, in the Mellish, reached Washington just before he recrossed the Delaware and captured the British garrison at Trenton. Captain Jones, in his letter to the Marine Committee, writes:
“This prize is, I believe, the most valuable which has been taken by the American arms. She made some defence, but it was trifling. The loss will distress the enemy more than can be easily imagined, as the clothing on board of her is the last intended to be sent out for Canada this season, and what haspreceded it is already taken. The situation of Burgoyne’s army must soon become insupportable.”
Captain Jones was so impressed with the importance of this capture that he had resolved, at every hazard, to sink the vessel rather than permit it again to fall into the hands of the enemy. He was delayed some time in Boston in disposing of his prizes and in getting rid of his prisoners, or, as he phrases it, of being delivered of the “honorable office of a jail-keeper.”
He passed the winter in Boston, consecrating all his energies to the creation of a navy worthy of the rising republic. Though his feelings were deeply wounded, and his sense of justice greatly outraged, by being, for political reasons, superseded in command by men who were totally unqualified for naval office, and who had never yet served, he did not allow these considerations, though he remonstrated indignantly against the unjust acts, to abate, in the slightest degree, his patriotic zeal. The suggestions he made the Marine Committee have so commended themselves to the judgment of those in command that nearly all of them have been gradually adopted. A few extracts from these long communications will reflect much light upon the character of this remarkable man.
“None other,” he writes, “than a gentleman, aswell as a seaman in theory and practice, is qualified to support the character of an officer in the navy. Nor is any man fit to command a ship of war, who is not capable of communicating his ideas on paper, in language that becomes his rank.”
Again he writes, in reference to the great injustice which he had experienced, “When I entered into the service I was not actuated by motives of self-interest. I stepped forth as a free citizen of the world, in defence of the violated rights of mankind, and not in search of riches, whereof, I thank God, I inherit a sufficiency. But I should prove my degeneracy were I not, in the highest degree, tenacious of my rank and seniority. As a gentleman I can yield this point only to persons of superior abilities and merit. Under such persons it would be my highest ambition to learn.”
Again he wrote to Hon. Mr. Morris: “As the regulations of the navy are of the utmost consequence, you will not think it presumption if, with the utmost diffidence, I venture to communicate to you such hints as, in my judgment, will promote its honor and good government. I could heartily wish that every commissioned officer was to be previously examined. To my certain knowledge there are persons who have already crept into commission, withoutabilities or fit qualification. I am, myself, far from desiring to be excused.”
After a toilsome winter of many annoyances he repaired, early in April, 1777, to Philadelphia, then the seat of the Colonial Government. Prominent members of Congress, when their attention was called to the subject, admitted that Captain Jones had been wrongfully treated. Mr. Hancock, President of Congress, assured him that the injustice of superseding him was not intentional, but was the result of a multiplicity of business. He said to him:
“The injustice of that regulation shall make but a nominal and temporary difference. In the mean time you may be assured that no navy officer stands higher in the opinion of Congress. The matter of rank shall, as soon as possible, be arranged. In the mean time you shall have a separate command, until better provision can he made for you.”
Captain Jones urged that there should be a parity of rank between the officers of the navy and the army. He proposed that, in accordance with the British establishment, which was certainly the best regulated navy in the world, an admiral should rank with a general, a vice-admiral with a lieutenant-general, a rear-admiral with a major-general, a commodore with a brigadier-general, a captain with a colonel, a master and commander with a lieutenant-colonel,a lieutenant commanding with a major, and a lieutenant in the navy with a captain of horse, foot, or marines.
He also urged strenuously, as an object demanding immediate attention, that commissioners of dock-yards should be established to superintend the building and outfit of all ships of war. They were to be invested with power to appoint deputies, and to provide and keep in constant readiness all naval stores. It speaks well for the intelligence and sound judgment of Captain Jones that, though he was a young officer of but one year’s standing, nearly every suggestion he made was subsequently adopted.
Soon after this he received an appointment from the Marine Committee, to sail from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the French ship Amphitrite, to France, with a letter to the American Commissioners there, ordering them to purchase as fine a ship as could be obtained in Europe, for Captain Jones. He was to take out a crew with him, to man the ship, from Portsmouth. The letter the Marine Committee wrote to the Commissioners was very urgent, calling upon them to strain every nerve to accomplish the end as soon as possible.
“We hope,” they wrote, “you may not delay this business one moment; but purchase, in such port or place in Europe as it can be done with mostconvenience and despatch, a fine fast-sailing frigate or larger ship. You must make it a point not to disappoint Captain Jones’s wishes and expectations on this occasion.”
On the 14th of June, 1777, Congress established the national flag. It was voted “that the flag of the United States should be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white, in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
The French commander of the Amphitrite, notwithstanding the sympathies of France were then so cordially with the colonies, very reasonably objected to taking a step so decidedly belligerent as to transport a crew to France, to engage in direct hostilities against English commerce. The plan therefore had to be abandoned. England and France were then at peace. Soon, however, war commenced between them.
Congress then appointed Jones to the command of the ship Ranger, which had recently been built in Portsmouth. He was placed in command of this our first frigate, on the same day when Congress designated the Stars and the Stripes as our national flag. Consequently Paul Jones, who first unfurled the banner of the Pine Tree, over the little sloop Providence, now enjoyed the distinguished honor of being thefirst to spread to the breeze that beautiful banner, the Stars and the Stripes, now renowned throughout the world, and around whose folds more than forty millions of freemen are ever ready, with enthusiasm, to rally.
The Ranger was not prepared for sea until the middle of October. The ship mounted but eighteen guns, though originally intended for twenty-six. She sailed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 1st of November, 1777, and, after a month’s voyage, entered the harbor of Nantes on the 2d of December. This noble city, situated on the river Loire, about thirty-four miles from its mouth, and two hundred miles from Paris, was then one of the most important seaports in France. Ships of two hundred tons burden could cast anchor in the broad, clear, deep river. An immenseamountamountof shipping crowded her quays, one of which was a mile and a half in length.
On the voyage, soon after passing the Western Islands, he encountered many vessels, but none which proved to be English, until he was approaching the Channel. He then overtook a fleet of ten British vessels, under a strong convoy. Captain Jones exerted all his nautical skill to detach some of these from the convoy, but was unable to succeed. He, however, soon captured two brigantines, or smallbrigs, laden with fruit from Malaga, bound to London. Both of these prizes he sent into French ports.
Upon his arrival at Nantes, he forwarded the letter which he had received from the Marine Committee of Congress, to the American Commissioners at Paris, Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee. In this letter, Captain Jones writes:
“It is my first and favorite wish to be employed in active and enterprising service, where there is a prospect of rendering acceptable services to America. The singular honor which Congress has done me, by their generous conduct, has inspired sentiments of gratitude which I shall carry with me to the grave. And if a life of services devoted to America, can be made instrumental in securing its independence, I shall regard the continuance of such approbation as an honor far superior to what kings even could bestow.”
He urged that since our navy was so feeble that it could not cope with the powerful armament of England, our only feasible course was to send out small squadrons, and surprise defenceless situations. This was the course adopted. By invitation of the Commissioners, Captain Jones repaired to Paris, where he met with a severe disappointment. This is explained in the following extract from his first despatch fromNantes:Nantes:
“The Commissioners had provided for me one of the finest frigates that was ever built, calculated for thirty guns on one deck, and capable of carrying thirty-six pounders. But they were under the necessity of giving her up, on account of some difficulties they met at court.”
The failure of this plan was owing to the vigilance of the British minister at Amsterdam. He discovered the secret of her ownership and destination, and remonstrated so effectually as to thwart the plan. He then decided to put to sea with the Ranger, as soon as possible. The Commissioners addressed to him the following instructions:
“As it is not in our power to procure you such a ship as you expected, we advise you, after equipping the Ranger in the best manner for the cruise you propose, that you shall proceed with her in the manner you shall judge best for distressing the enemies of the United States, by sea or otherwise, consistent with the laws of war, and the terms of your commission.”
On the 10th ofFebruaryFebruary, 1778, Captain Jones, in the Ranger, sailed down the Loire, and coasted along in a northerly direction to Brest, then the great naval depot of France, enjoying one of the finest harbors in the world. In this month a treaty of alliance between France and the United Stateswas signed at Paris. France was the first nation to recognize the independence of the United States, and to recognize the Congress of the thirteen colonies as a legitimate Government.
France promptly engaged in fitting out a naval expedition to assist the American colonies.