During 1778 two cruises were made in European waters, one by Captain Tucker, and the other by Captain Jones. On April 1, 1778, the frigate “Boston,” Captain Samuel Tucker, arrived at Bordeaux with John Adams, the new Commissioner who was to succeed Silas Deane, as a passenger. After refitting, Tucker made a short cruise in which he captured four prizes. In August the “Boston,” in company with the frigate “Providence,” and the ship “Ranger,” sailed for America. Some months previous the “Ranger,” when under the command of Captain Jones, had made an important cruise. Jones arrived in this vessel in France on December 2, 1777. He expected to receive command of a frigate or a ship of the line; but in this he was disappointed. On January 18, 1778, the Commissioners wrote to him that they could not procure such a ship as he expected; and that they advised him, “after equipping the ‘Ranger,’ in the best manner for the cruise you propose,” to 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.”[359]
From these orders it may be seen that Jones had in mind a descent on the British coast. On April 10, 1778, he sailed for the Irish sea. After capturing or destroying four vessels, he made an unsuccessful attempt to burn the shipping at Whitehaven in Cumberland. He next tried to take prisoner the Earl of Selkirk from his summer home at St. Mary’s Isle, off the southwest coast of Scotland, but failed to find him. These movements ashore naturally struck terror to the inhabitants of the British Isles. Jones now crossed to Ireland, and in the neighborhood of Belfast attacked the British naval ship “Drake,” 20, Commander George Burdon. After an engagement of seventy-four minutes, during which the “Ranger” was “skillfully handled and well-fought,” the “Drake” struck her colors. Jones arrived in Brest with his prize on May 10.[360] Many plans and suggestions were now made by both the Commissioners and the French government to supply Jones with some large ship from the French navy, or to give him the command of a small fleet, but they all miscarried. The ambitious and energetic American captain, chafing under his enforced idleness, was not to make another cruise until fifteen months had elapsed.
During 1779 and 1780 the Naval office at Paris was chiefly concerned with the movements, conduct, and achievements of two captains in the Continental navy, John Paul Jones and Peter Landais. Never have the fortunes of war thrown into close association two men of more striking contrasts. Jones was ardent, hopeful, and magnetic; Landais sullen, quarrelsome, and repellent. Jones was a master of men; from unpromising materials, swept together by the winds and waves of diverse fortunes, he made most effective crews. Landais was seldom on good terms with his officers or seamen, some of whom were always dissatisfied and mutinous. Called to play their parts on the same theater of war, the Scotchman achieved signal success and distinction, and won the plaudits of the French king, of Congress, and of his countrymen; while to the Frenchman fell the ill-will of his own government, the hatred of Americans, and, in his dismissal from the navy of the United States, dishonor and professional disgrace.
In the spring of 1779 Franklin—now American minister at the Court of France—the French government, and Lafayette planned an expedition against the coast of England, which had in view especially the striking of some of the larger English towns. Lafayette was to command the French troops which were to be lent for the expedition, and Jones, to whom the French government had, in February, given the command of the “Bon Homme Richard,” formerly the “Duras,” an old East Indiaman, was to command the sea forces. The “Alliance,” Captain Landais, which vessel had recently arrived in France from America, was to be a part of Jones’s fleet. This plan miscarried.
It was not until August 13 that Jones finally got to sea with a fleet consisting of five naval vessels and two privateers. The two chief vessels of the little fleet were the “Bon Homme Richard,” 42, Captain Jones, and the “Alliance,” 36, Captain Landais. These two officers had of course permanent commissions in the Continental navy; the three French officers in command of naval vessels were given temporary commissions in the Continental navy. The expense of the cruise was borne by the French government; and the fitting out of the fleet was superintended by Chaumont, the joint agent of the French government and the American minister.[361] The destination of the fleet was determined by the French government; and the orders of Jones, the commodore of the fleet, were prepared by the French Minister of Marine, translated and signed by Franklin, and sent to Jones by Chaumont. The fleet sailed under the American flag. Its principal object was the intercepting of the Baltic fleet of the enemy.
The details of this memorable cruise are familiar to the reader, and need not be repeated here. The fleet was scarcely at sea before Landais became insubordinate, asserted his independence of Jones, and left and rejoined his commodore when and where he chose. Sailing first along the west coast of Ireland and then around Scotland, Jones reached the east coast of Yorkshire, on September 23. He had by this time taken seventeen ships, and had made an unsuccessful attempt to reach Leith and Edinburgh, and lay them under contribution. Off Flamborough Head Jones’s fleet, which was now reduced to the “Bon Homme Richard,” “Alliance,” and “Pallas,” fell in with the Baltic trade of forty-one sail and convoyed by His Majesty’s ships, “Serapis,” 44, Captain Richard Pearson, and “Countess of Scarborough,” 20, Commander Thomas Piercy. There now ensued an engagement between the “Bon Homme Richard” and the “Serapis,” which lasted more than three hours. It was one of the fiercest fights recorded in the annals of naval warfare. For the greater part of the engagement the two vessels were lashed together, stem to stern, starboard to starboard, and with the muzzles of their guns touching. Both ships were set on fire in various places, and the “scene was dreadful beyond the reach of language,” to use Jones’s phrasing. The “Bon Homme Richard” won the fight only through the brilliant daring, the remarkable naval skill, and the intelligence in action of her commander. She was so badly injured that she sank the second day after the fight; her own crew were transferred to the “Serapis.” The loss to the “Bon Homme Richard” was 116 men; to the “Serapis,” 129. During the fight of the “Bon Homme Richard” and the “Serapis,” the “Pallas,” Captain Cottineau, and the “Countess of Scarborough,” Commander Piercy, engaged each other, with the result that the British ship was compelled to surrender. The “Alliance” took little or no part in the contest, as her commander was sulking throughout the engagement. The two prizes, the “Alliance,” and the “Pallas” arrived at the Texel in Holland on October 3, 1779.[362]
A naval discord now arose, which tried the patience and temper of Franklin. No sooner did Jones and Landais reach the Texel, than each wrote to Franklin making charges against the other. Jones accused Landais of gross insubordination and misbehavior and specifically charged him with intentionally firing into the “Bon Homme Richard” and killing a “number of our men and mortally wounding a good officer.” The French government, which was inclined to attribute the loss of the “Bon Homme Richard” and so many of her crew to the conduct of Landais, took a hand in the dispute, and asked Franklin to call Landais to account at Paris. In cases of this sort the Naval Office had little authority or means to effect discipline in the navy. A sufficient number of commissioned officers could not be assembled in France to hold a court-martial; and if they could, it was doubtful whether the Naval Office had the power to order such a court. Their inability to hold courts-martial had been regretted more than once by the American Commissioners. Landais came to Paris, and Franklin investigated the case before friends of the two disputants; but satisfactory evidence and witnesses could not be obtained to prove or disprove the charges, so Franklin did the only thing possible, by referring the dispute to Congress, and a properly constituted court-martial in America. Franklin thought his inquiry had one good effect, the preventing of a duel in Holland between the two officers.[363]
On the coming of Landais to Paris, Franklin placed Jones in command of the “Alliance.” After cruising through the English Channel to Spain, Jones, in February, 1780, brought his vessel into L’Orient. Acting under Franklin’s orders, Jones now refitted his vessel with the purpose of returning to America with a cargo of supplies. In the spring of 1780 Landais began to beseech Franklin to restore him to the command of the “Alliance,” and he soon raised the question whether the American minister at Paris had the power to remove him from the command of a vessel to which Congress had appointed him. His request was refused by Franklin in bald and vigorous terms. “I think you,” Franklin wrote, “so imprudent, so litigious, and quarrelsome a man, even with your best friends, that peace and good order, and consequently the quiet and regular subordination so necessary to success, are, where you preside, impossible.”[364] Later he charged Landais “not to meddle with the ‘Alliance’ or create any disturbance on board her, as you will answer the contrary at your peril.”[365] About the first of June Jones left his vessel, and came up to Paris to hasten the sale of his prizes. Landais now appeared at L’Orient, raised a mutiny on board the “Alliance,” and, acting on Arthur Lee’s advice, took charge of her. Early in July, without taking the stores which had been assigned to his ship, Landais sailed for America. It was on this passage that he developed a strangeness, a madness, some say, that incapacitated him for his command. He was removed, and the “Alliance” was sailed into Boston in charge of her lieutenant. Landais was now tried by a court-martial and dismissed from the naval service.
Meantime Jones and Franklin had succeeded in obtaining from the French government the loan of the “Ariel.” Having loaded her with supplies, Jones sailed for America on October 7, 1780; but, encountering a storm which dismasted his vessel, he was compelled to return to port. On December 18 he again put to sea; and in February, 1781, he reached Philadelphia.
With the departure of Jones, the European waters, for the first time in four years, were clear of the armed vessels of the Continental fleet. The venerable Franklin, vexed with the discords and details of naval affairs, must have drawn a sigh of relief when the last Continental vessel and captain had withdrawn from France. The most disagreeable of his duties as “Admiral,” to use John Adams’s word in this connection, now came to an end. Concerning his vexations, Franklin wrote to one of his agents in the summer of 1780: “I have been too long in hot water, plagued almost to death with the passions, vagaries, and ill humours, and madnesses of other people. I must have a little repose.”[366] He had now for some time been writing to Congress, asking to be relieved of his naval duties. An example of his requests may be extracted from a letter of March 4, 1780, to the President of Congress: “As vessels of war under my care create me a vast deal of business (of a kind, too, that I am unexperienced in), I must repeat my earnest request that some person of skill in such affairs may be appointed, in the character of consul, to take charge of them. I imagine that much would by that means be saved in the expense of their various refittings and supplies, which to me appears enormous.”[367]