At 12 o’clock the enemy hauled off for a brief interval, but the other ship having come up, the two renewed the conflict, and then the Raleigh grounded.

The enemy now took positions on the Raleigh’s quarter. Captain Barry kept the four stern chasers working, but lowered his boats forward and went ashore with a lot of his men to fortify the island on which he had grounded, being determined to fire his ship and resist capture in any event. But while he was away a frightened petty officer hauled down the flag.

The Raleigh was eventually put into the British navy, but Captain Barry and his men on the island escaped to the mainland. The ship that made so good a fight against the Raleigh was the Unicorn, of twenty-eight guns. Her consort was the Experiment, of fifty. The Americans lost twenty-five killed and wounded, and the Unicorn ten killed and an unknown number of wounded—probably twenty-five or thirty.

On the whole, the years 1777 and 1778 were disastrous, and the record was, in a sense, to the discredit of the American navy. Two captains were, indeed, dropped from the naval list for failing to support the flag, and where they failed the record was in part only made good by the heroism of the others. Of the thirteen frigates which the Congress decided to build in December, 1775, but four remained. Some were lost at sea, as already described, and the rest fell into the hands of the British through the operations of the land forces.

But if we compare the American forces with those of the English, the wonder is that the Americans were able to keep the flag afloat at all, for the British navy in American waters in 1778 numbered eighty-nine ships mounting 2,576 guns, while the Americans had fourteen ships mounting 332 guns. And what is of more importance, the British ships were at this time manned by crews that were disciplined, while, as already noted, the Yankee ships were to a very great extent manned by landsmen. A time was to come when, in the matter of training, the superiority was to be on the other decks, but in 1778 it was all in favor of the British.

CHAPTER VIII
PRIVATEERS OF THE REVOLUTION

A TALE OF THE AMERICAN PATRIOTS WHO WENT AFLOAT OUTSIDE OF THE REGULAR NAVY—THEIR PART IN DRIVING THE BRITISH FROM BOSTON—REMARKABLE WORK OF THE LEE—TRUXTON AS A PRIVATEER—DARING CAPT. JOHN FOSTER WILLIAMS—WHEN CAPT. DANIEL WATERS, WITH THE THORN OF SIXTEEN GUNS, WHIPPED TWO SHIPS THAT CARRIED THIRTY-FOUR GUNS BETWEEN THEM—GREAT WAS JOSHUA BARNEY—THE STORY OF THE MOST FAMOUS STATE CRUISERS OF THE REVOLUTION—WON AGAINST GREATER ODDS THAN WERE ENCOUNTERED BY ANY SUCCESSFUL SEA CAPTAIN OF THE WAR—BRITISH ACCOUNT OF THE WORK OF AMERICAN PRIVATEERS—THE HORRORS OF THE JERSEY PRISON SHIP.

Great as was the influence of the burning of Falmouth (Portland), Maine, in driving the Continental Congress into providing a continental navy, the whole story of the results of that infamous act has not yet been told. The “indignation against the commissioned pirates and licensed robbers” was not felt in the halls of the Congress alone. “The General Court of Massachusetts passed an act encouraging the fitting out of armed vessels,” and one for “erecting a court to try and condemn all vessels that should be found infesting” the American coast. This act was passed on November 10th, and John Adams declared it one of the most important documents in our history.

Connecticut and Rhode Island immediately followed the example of Massachusetts, and on March 23, 1776, the Congress provided for private armed vessels under the continental flag.

Of the very early deeds of these privateers only meagre details are found recorded, but it appears that Washington, when he found the troops under his command, in the fall of 1775, were well-nigh absolutely destitute of powder, determined to supply them from the transports that were continually bringing munitions of war to the British forces in Boston and to the British ships in the harbor. Accordingly, he caused several small vessels to be armed and sent afloat in Massachusetts Bay and along shore to intercept the transports. He did this without waiting for authority from the Congress, and the vessels sailed as Massachusetts cruisers.