Captain Jones felt the necessity of the utmost possible expedition. He had learned that there was an English war-brig, of powerful armament, within forty-five miles of him to the southward. This formidable antagonist might, at any hour, loom in sight. As the little fleet was crowding along under full sail making all haste, on the morning of the 27th, two sails were discerned in the distant horizon. There could be no doubt that they were English vessels. Perilous as Captain Jones’s situation was, he could not resist the temptation to give them chase.
He therefore signalled his prizes to rendezvous on the southwest part of the Isle of Sables, and wait for him there three days, should he not sooner appear. He then spread all sail in pursuit of the strangers. They also spread every inch of canvas they could command, and before they could be overtaken ran into the harbor of Louisbourg. There was reason to suppose that there were several British men-of-war there. Captain Jones therefore returned to his prizes at the rendezvous, and again all pressed forward on their homeward voyage.
In this cruise, which lasted but six weeks and five days, Captain Jones captured sixteen prizes, besides the vessels which he destroyed in the harbors of Canso and Madame. Of these prizes, eight he manned and sent into port. The remainder were burned. Captain Jones returned to Newport, Rhode Island, where the commander-in-chief of our little navy had established his headquarters.
The British officers were treating the captives they had taken from the Americans, with the greatest brutality. They had driven one hundred prisoners into the coal mines of Cape Breton, where they were forced to labor like slaves. This procedure greatly outraged Captain Jones’s sense of humanity and justice. He suggested that an expedition should be fitted out for their release; and also, as far as possible, to destroy England’s coal fleet and her fishing fleet. The plan was approved of. For the accomplishment of this important enterprise he was allowed to fit out two vessels, the Alfred and the Providence. The whole burden and responsibility of the preparations rested upon him. He took command of the Alfred, committing the Providence to Captain Hacker. He found but thirty men on board the Alfred, and with great difficulty succeeded in enlisting thirty more. When the Alfred entered the harbor at Newport from Philadelphia, a few weeks before, she had two hundred and thirty-five men on her muster-roll. Captain Jones, in a letter to Hon. Robert Morris, explained the cause of this singular desertion, and proposed a remedy.
“It seems to me,” he writes, “that the privateers entice the men away as fast as they receive their month’s pay. It is to the last degree distressing to contemplate the state and establishment of our navy. The common class of mankind are animated by no nobler principle than that of self-interest. This, and this alone, determines all adventurers in privateers; the owners, as well as those whom they employ.
“And while this is the case, unless the private emolument of individuals in our navy is made superior to that in privateers, it never can become respectable; it never will become formidable. And without a respectable navy, alas, America! In the present critical situation of affairs, human wisdom can suggest no more than one infallible expedient: enlist the seamen during pleasure, and give them all the prizes.
“What is the paltry emolument of two-thirds of prizes to this vast continent.[[A]] If so poor a resource is essential to its independency, we are, in sober sadness, involved in a woful predicament, and our ruin is fast approaching. The situation of America is new in the annals of mankind. Her affairs cry haste; and speed must answer them. Trifles therefore ought to be wholly disregarded, as being, in the old vulgar proverb, ‘penny wise and pound foolish.’
“If our enemies, with the best established and most formidable navy in the universe, have found it expedient to assign all prizes to the captors, how much more is such policy essential to our infant fleet? But I need use no arguments to convince you of the necessity of making our navy equal, if not superior to theirs.”
Our navy was so small and our impoverishment so great that Congress could furnish Captain Jones with but two vessels for his important expedition to Cape Breton. The Alfred and the Providence sailed together from Newport harbor, on the 2d of November, 1776. This was so late in the season, to embark for those high latitudes, that Captain Jones, discouraged by the delays which had been encountered, was not very sanguine as to the success of the expedition.
The first night he cast anchor at Tarpauling Cove, near Nantucket. Here he found a privateer belonging to Rhode Island, inward bound. He was in great want of men. Many sailors, for reasons which we have already given, had deserted the regular service to enlist on board the privateers. Captain Jones sent his boat on board the privateer to search for deserters from the navy. Four men were found, carefully concealed. They were taken on board the Alfred. This led to a law-suit, which subsequently subjected Captain Jones to considerable trouble. Louisbourg, on the eastern coast of the Island of Cape Breton, had a commodious harbor, and was then a seaport of considerable importance. Just off the harbor Captain Jones fortunately encountered an English brig, the Mellish, partially armed, and laden with a large amount of clothing, thick and warm, for the British troops in Canada. The brig made a little resistance, but was speedily captured, with all her precious cargo. Soon after this he captured a large fishing-vessel, which quite replenished his meagre store of provisions.