_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. The vessel 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.”
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 his course 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. There was 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
him three 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 property _afloat_, 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 to fear 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 and five 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-five men 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 individuals
_in our navy_ is made superior to that in _privateers_, 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, and _give 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 our ruin 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.’
-----
Footnote A:
Congress appropriated two-thirds of all prizes to the Government,
leaving but one-third to be divided among the captors.
-----
“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 regular service 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 American port 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 harbor adjacent 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 the morning. The Milford gave him hot chase. When the
morning light 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 has preceded 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, as well 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, without abilities 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 most
convenience 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 the first 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 immense amount of 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 small brigs,
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 from 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 of February, 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
States was 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.