Action was the watchword of his life.
He was a handsome man, young—that is, he had not reached his fortieth year—straight as an arrow, with firmness imprinted on every feature.
He could not have lived on a slow boat. He would have gone crazy.
Had he been on a man-of-war crawling along at two knots an hour, he would most likely have deserted.
On the Lively Bee he was the most active man.
He owned the vessel, and was proud of it.
When there was a rumor of war, he hurried to Washington and applied for a lettre de marque.
For those of our readers who do not understand the expression, we explain that a letter of marque gave permission to the owner of a private vessel to make war on another nation. Without this letter of authority, such war would be piracy. All nations, at the time of the war of 1812, issued letters of marque, and recognized the privateers as belligerents, often however ignoring the authority in the case of prisoners, and hanging the officers as pirates.
Captain Vernon had two objects to serve in his war on the English. He hated the British, and he wanted to enrich himself by prize money.
The Lively Bee was outside Sandy Hook, and was making nearly five knots an hour.