VII.—The Cruise of the Ranger.
When the Ranger sailed out of Boston harbor, the stars and stripes of the American republic waved from the mast head.
Paul Jones was the first naval officer to raise this flag. You remember that two years before, on the Alfred, he had first hoisted the pine tree emblem.
When Jones with his ship entered Quiberon Bay, in France, the French admiral there saluted the American flag. This was the first time that a foreign country had recognized America as an independent nation.
Paul Jones anchored the Ranger at Brest and went to Paris to deliver his letter, and lay his plans before the commissioners. He told them two important things:
First, that our navy was too small to win in open battle with the fleets of the English.
Second, that the way to keep the English vessels from burning, destroying, and carrying away property on the American coasts, was to send vessels to the English coasts to annoy the English in the same way.
The commissioners thought that these plans should be carried out at once; and since a new frigate could not be purchased for some time, they refitted the Ranger for his use.
On April 10, 1778, Paul Jones set out on what proved to be a memorable cruise.
You remember that when he first went to sea, as a boy, he sailed from Whitehaven. This town is on the English coast, just across the Solway Firth from John Paul's old home.
He knew there were large shipping yards there, and he determined to set fire to them. He planned to reach the harbor in the night, and burn the ships while the people were asleep.
Because of the wind and tides, it was nearly midnight when he arrived. He found three hundred vessels of different kinds lying in the harbor. His men were put into two small boats, and each boat was ordered to set fire to half the ships.
It was nearly daylight when they rowed away from the Ranger. Nothing could be heard but the splashing of their oars. Their flickering torches showed to them the old sleeping town, with the many white ships along the shore.
Leaving orders that the fire be speedily kindled, Captain Jones took with him a few men, and scaled the walls of the batteries which protected the harbor. He locked the sleeping sentinels in the guardhouse and spiked the cannon.
Then, sending his men back to the harbor, he went, with one man only, to another fort, which was a quarter of a mile away. Here he also spiked the guns.
After all this had been done he returned to his boats to find that his sailors had done nothing. Not one ship was on fire!
The lieutenant in charge told Paul Jones that their torches had gone out. "Anyway," he said, "nothing can be gained by burning poor people's property."
Determined that they should not leave the harbor until something was destroyed, Paul Jones ran to a neighboring house and got a light. With this he set fire to the largest ship.
By this time the people had been aroused, and hundreds were running to the shore.
There was no time to do more. The sailors hastened back to the Ranger, taking with them three prisoners, whom Paul Jones said he would show as "samples."
The soldiers tried to shoot the sailors from the forts; but they could do nothing with the spiked guns. The sailors amused themselves by firing back pistol shots.
On reaching the ship they found that a man was missing. Paul Jones was afraid that harm had befallen him. He need not have been troubled, however, for the man was a deserter. He spread the alarm for miles along the shore. The people afterward called him the "Savior of Whitehaven."
Paul Jones was greatly disappointed by the failure of his plans. He knew that if he had reached the harbor a few hours earlier he could have burned, not only all the ships, but the entire town.
Although the plan to destroy English property to aid the American cause, was a wise one, from a military point of view, yet we cannot understand why Paul Jones should have selected Whitehaven for this destruction. There he had received kindness and employment when a boy. His mother and sisters lived just across the bay, and had he succeeded in burning Whitehaven, the people, in their anger, might have injured the family of the man who had so cruelly harmed them. We wonder if he thought of these things.
The Earl of Selkirk lived near Whitehaven, on St. Mary's Isle. As the Ranger sailed by this island, Paul Jones thought it would be well to take the earl prisoner.
There were many Americans held as prisoners, by the English, and the earl could be exchanged for some of these.
So, with a few men, Paul Jones rowed to the shore, where some fishermen told him that the earl was away from home. Paul Jones started to go back to his vessel. But his sailors were disappointed and asked his permission to go to the earl's house and take away the silver.
Paul Jones did not like this plan, but at last consented. He did not go with the men, however, but walked up and down the shore until they returned.
The sailors found Lady Selkirk and her family at breakfast. They took all the silver from the table, put it into a bag, and returned to the ship.
MAP OF THE IRISH SEA, SHOWING THE CRUISE OF THE RANGER.
Paul Jones was always troubled about this. He afterwards bought the silver for a large sum of money, and sent it back to Lady Selkirk with a letter of apology.
The people in the neighborhood were frightened when they heard of the earl's silver being taken. They ran here and there, hiding their valuables. Some of them dragged a cannon to the shore, and spent a night firing at what they supposed in the darkness to be Paul Jones' vessel. In the morning they found they had wasted all their powder on a rock!
The next day the alarm was carried to all the towns along the shore: "Beware of Paul Jones, the pirate!"