the Duc de Lauzan in company.

When not

long out of port three British frigates were encountered. The Yankees started to run for it, and the Lauzan, a slow sailer, was ordered to throw her guns overboard.

However, a French ship of fifty guns hove in sight on the weather bow, and at that Captain Barry waited for the leading English frigate, supposing the Frenchman would join in, of

course.

A fight that brought glory to Barry and credit to the Englishman followed, but at the end of fifty minutes the Englishman had out signals of distress. As the Frenchman held aloof, Captain Barry was compelled to let the Englishman haul off under cover of his

consorts.

The English ship was the Sybille (sometimes written Sibyl), of thirty-eight guns-a heavier ship than the Alliance. She lost thirty-seven killed and fifty wounded, while that of the Alliance was three killed and eleven wounded.

The significant feature of this fight is in the wide margin between the two lists of killed and wounded. The Yankees had at last learned to handle cannon effectively. But now the end of the war had come.

Four months before this last naval fight of the American Revolution Lord North, the British premier, on hearing of the surrender

of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, had strode up and down his room with his arms frantically waving above his head, while he cried:

"Oh, God! it is all over. It is all over. It is all over."

The "most accursed, wicked, barbarous, cruel, unjust, and diabolical" war known to the history of the English-speaking people was over, and during the latter end of March, 1782, "Lord North bowed to the storm and resigned."

On July 4, 1776, when the Congress declared the independence of the colonies, the American navy consisted of twenty-five vessels, all sizes counted, mounting 422 guns. Thereafter other ships were built, and some were purchased and some were captured from the enemy and put into service. But because the enemy at all times had more than five guns afloat and in service on the American coast to every one that the Americans mustered in the naval list, the American ships, one by one, fell into the hands of the enemy, or were destroyed to save them from such a fate, or were lost at sea. When the war ended but three naval ships, bearing eighty-four guns between them, remained. The American navy had almost perished, but, like Arnold's fleet on Lake Champlain, it had given the Englishman an opportunity to see the face of the

Siv

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An Old Naval Order.

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From the original at the Lenox Library.

enemy. Even as in the fight which the Bonhomme Richard waged, it won victory even when it was so shattered as to all but disappear while yet the smoke of battle hung over the water. For without the aid of the sea power the war of the Revolution would have failed. From that glorious day before Boston when the hearts of the Continentals were fired by the long wagon-train, loaded with war material, captured by an American cruiser from the enemy, until the last service of the Alliance in bringing specie from Havana, there was never a time when the sea power did not render helpful and glorious service to the struggling patriots ashore.

In the 800 ships that were captured from the enemy were found the materials that succored the life of the nation. Not one American cruiser was captured by English privateers, while sixteen English cruisers were taken by American privateers, which were manned in many cases for the most part by boys and haymakers, while in many an American victory the odds in weight of metal and number of men were greatly in the favor of the British. By their daring and persistence the Yankee cruisers made Yankee prowess known throughout Europe and even to the yeomanry of England.

CHAPTER XII

BUILDING A NEW NAVY

WHEN ENGLAND, IN HER

EFFORTS TO WREST COMMERCE FROM THE AMERICANS, INCITED THE PIRATES OF AFRICA TO ACTIVITY, SHE COMPELLED THE BUILDING OF THE FLEET THAT WAS, IN THE END, TO BRING HER HUMILITY OF WHICH SHE HAD NEVER DREAMED-DEEDS OF THE BARBARY CORSAIRS-AMERICAN NAVAL POLICY AS LAID DOWN BY JOSHUA HUMPHREYS-THE WONDERFUL NEW FRIGATES-TROUBLES WITH THE FRENCH CRUISERS ON THE AMERICAN COASTS-TRICK OF A YANKEE CAPTAIN TO SAVE A SHIP-A MIDSHIPMAN WHO DIED AT HIS POST-CAPTURE OF THE INSURGENT-A LONG WATCH OVER THE FRENCH PRISONERS-ESCAPE OF A TWICE-BEATEN SHIP-THE VALIANT SENEZ -STORY OF ISAAC HULL AND THE LUCKY ENTERPRISE.

It is with feelings of distress and shame, not unmingled with indignation, that the patriotic American of these days reads such parts of the history of his country as have a bearing upon the navy during the years that followed the Revolutionary war.

No sooner was the war over than all the men that remained in the naval service were paid off and turned adrift on the beach, while every ship that remained—even the Alliance, that had well demonstrated her efficiency-was sold. The people of the new nation were so