It is remembered that the “Reprisal” arrived in France with Franklin on board early in December, 1776. She was the first Continental vessel to reach European waters. Not far from the French coast she captured two small British brigantines, and carried them into Nantes. These were the first American prizes to enter French ports. It may be guessed that the captains of the two prizes were not long in communicating with Lord Stormont, the British Ambassador at Paris, and that Lord Stormont was not long in communicating with the French government. On December 17 he held a conference with Vergennes, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, to whom he declared that the prizes were unlawfully captured, since the “Reprisal” had no commission from a sovereign power as a letter of marque; that he expected that the prizes would be immediately restored to their owners; and that the permitting of their sale would be a violation of the treaty of Utrecht between Great Britain and France. Though conciliatory, Vergennes’s reply was not altogether satisfactory to the British Ambassador, who records that the French Minister ended “with expressions which seemed to shew an Intention of taking some Middle Way, and leaving the Point undetermined.”[351]
During 1777 Lord Stormont held many similar conferences with Vergennes in which the naval liberties permitted the Americans in French ports were the subject of discussion. Vergennes set forth the position of his government in a way that was reasonably acceptable to England. He declared that its purpose was to prevent every violation of its treaties and of the law of nations. He gave orders that the prizes captured by the Americans should not be sold in French ports. At different times he commanded the American vessels of war to sail within twenty-four hours from French harbors. When the British wrath flamed out at some overt act of the Americans, Vergennes appeased it by vigorous and decisive acts of repression, aimed at the American captains and agents. A past master in soft and plausible answers, he excused flagrant violations of British rights by explaining that every government had some tempestuous spirits which were hard to control, and that the “avidity of gain” in merchants could not always be restrained.
The British government could not object to the public acts of the French government, or to the reception which it gave to the American Commissioners, whom it received “privately with all civility,” but avoided an open reception, as it was “cautious of giving umbrage to England.” As regards its observance of the treaty of Utrecht, and its inability to grant the freedom of its ports to American vessels and their prizes, its declarations to the Commissioners were in line with those which it made to Lord Stormont. On the other hand, the Commissioners were given to understand, through secret and informal channels, that the Colonies had the sympathy of the French government; that so far as was consistent with French treaties, they might expect favors and indulgences; that the ports of France were open to American ships “as friends;” that ways of disposing of American prizes which would not be offensive to England might be found; and that other irregularities would be permitted unnoticed.[352] The Commissioners pressed their favors as far as they could safely go; indeed, so far, that at one time they endangered the continuance of their friendly relations with the French Court.
The two prizes which the “Reprisal” carried into Nantes in December, 1776, were taken into the offing of that port and privately sold. The “Reprisal” was quietly refitted, and in February, 1777, she made a cruise off the coast of Spain and returned to L’Orient with the Falmouth packet and four other English vessels. Lord Stormont made vigorous remonstrances. The French government at once ordered the “Reprisal” and her prizes to put to sea within twenty-four hours. Nothing of this sort was done. The “Reprisal” remained in port, on the ground that she had sprung a leak; and her prizes were secretly sold for one-seventh of their value to French merchants, who, for the sake of large profits, eagerly overlooked the irregularity of the transaction.[353] Confident of the accuracy of the cues they were receiving, the Commissioners now fitted out, manned, and officered at Dunkirk the “Surprise,” Captain Gustavus Conyngham, and early in May, 1777, sent her cruising. Within a few days after his leaving Dunkirk, Conyngham returned with the Harwich packet, and one other prize. The storm raised by the British at so open and undoubted a violation of their rights could be pacified only by more rigorous measures. The French government therefore imprisoned Captain Conyngham and his crew, and returned his prizes to their owners.[354]
Not at all disconcerted, the Commissioners fitted out a fleet, consisting of the “Reprisal,” “Lexington,” and “Dolphin,” to intercept the Irish linen ships. Captain Wickes was placed at its head as commodore, and was instructed not to return to France unless he found it absolutely necessary. Wickes got to sea during the first of June. Missing the linen ships, he sailed quite around Ireland, and captured or destroyed seventeen or eighteen sail of vessels; he “most effectually alarmed England, prevented the great fair at Chester, occasioned insurance to rise, and even deterred the English merchants from shipping goods in English bottoms at any rate, so that in a few weeks forty sail of French ships were loading in the Thames, on freight, an instance never before known.”[355] The three vessels returned to French ports about July 1.
Obviously there was a limit to the forbearance of the English government, and it made it plain that this limit had been reached. Lord Stormont was instructed to tell the French government that, however desirous the British king might be to maintain peace, he would not submit “to such strong and public instances of support and protection shewn to the Rebels by a Nation that at the same time professes in the strongest terms its Desire to maintain the present Harmony subsisting between the two Crowns. The shelter given to the armed Vessels of the Rebels, the facility they have of disposing of their Prizes by the connivance of Government, and the conveniences allowed them to refit, are such irrefragable proofs of support, that scarcely more could be done if there was an avowed Alliance between France and them, and We were in a state of War with that Kingdom.”[356]
This last cruise of Wickes also threatened to endanger the friendliness of the French Court and the Commissioners. Vergennes wrote to them with some spirit, and insinuated that they had broken their promises. “After such repeated advertisements,” he said, “the motives of which you have been informed of, we had no reason to expect, gentlemen, that the said Sieur Wickes would prosecute his cruising in the European seas, and we could not be otherwise than greatly surprised that, after having associated the privateers the Lexington and the Dolphin to infest the English coast, they should all three of them come for refuge into our ports. You are too well informed, gentlemen, and too penetrating, not to see how this conduct affects the dignity of the king, my master, at the same time it offends the neutrality which his majesty professes.”
In their reply the Commissioners exhibited some knowledge of the pleasing phrases of diplomacy. They said that they were “very sensible of the protection afforded to us and to our commerce since our residence in this kingdom, agreeable to the goodness of the king’s gracious intentions and to the law of nations, and it gives us real and great concern when any vessels of war appertaining to America, either through ignorance or inattention, do anything that may offend his majesty in the smallest degree.” They tried to shift the blame of their captains’ return to French ports to the British men of war that had chased the American vessels into safe retreats. “We had,” they continued, “some days before we were honored by your excellency’s letter, dispatched by an express the most positive orders to them to depart directly to America, which they are accordingly preparing to do.” There can be no doubt about the honesty of these orders, for it was plain to the Commissioners that the French government was not disposed to forgive further infringements of neutral rights. By express orders of the French king the fleet of Wickes was sequestered until it gave security that it should return directly to America.[357]
Meantime the Commissioners had obtained the release of Conyngham and his crew. He was now placed in command of the “Revenge;” and in July, eluding the British, he sailed from Dunkirk, ostensibly for America. He first cruised along the eastern coast of England, into the North Sea and the region of the Baltic, then back through the straits of Dover and into the Irish Channel, and finally into the Bay of Biscay, anchoring at Ferrol, Spain, about the first of October. The terror of his name, which his recklessness and daring greatly increased, spread great alarm among the inhabitants of the British Isles. He did not return again to France with the “Revenge.” This fact made his cruise less annoying to the Commissioners, than the last cruise of Wickes. Hodge, the agent of the Commissioners, who had given bond to the French admiralty that the “Revenge” would not engage in operations against the British, was arrested and thrown into the Bastile; and Vergennes wrote a most severe letter, to be shown to the Commissioners. Presently, when the wrath of the British had abated, Hodge was released on the representation of the Commissioners that he was a person of character, and that they could not “conceive him capable of any willful offence against the laws of this nation.”[358]
About the middle of September the “Reprisal” and the “Lexington” sailed for America; the “Reprisal” foundered on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, losing all on board except the cook; and the “Lexington” was taken by the British off Ushant. With the departure of these vessels the movements of the Continental fleet for 1777 in European waters came to an end; as did also the nice task of the Commissioners of conducting a naval war from a neutral country as a base, without losing the friendship of that country, or involving it in war. Had not hostilities broken out in 1778 between France and England by reason of other causes, a repetition of the naval operations of 1777, if permitted by the French, would very likely have brought them on.