“Yes,” replied the captain; “they were more successful than the land forces.”
“Oh, please tell us some of their doings!” cried several children’s voices.
The captain mused a moment, then began.
“I will tell you some of the doings of Commodore Rodgers in his favorite frigate, the President. After some unsuccessful efforts to intercept vessels trading between the West Indies and Halifax, St. Johns and Quebec, but finding none, he determined to try his fortune in the North Sea in search of British merchantmen. But he did not meet with a single vessel until he made the Shetland Islands, and there he found only Danish ships trading to England. His supplies began to fail and he went to North Bergen, in Norway, to replenish his stock. There he was disappointed, too, for there was a great scarcity of food all over the country and he could procure nothing but water.
“It seems he knew that a fleet of merchantmen were to sail from Archangel in the middle of July. But just as he expected to make some prizes from among them, he fell in with two British ships of war. Knowing that he was not strong enough to battle with both at once, Rodgers with his vessel fled, hotly pursued by the enemy. (At that season in that northern region the sun is several degrees above the horizon at midnight.) That enabled the vessels to keep up the chase more than eighty hours, during which time they were much nearer the President than was at all agreeable to her officers and men.”
“Oh, I hope they didn’t catch her!” exclaimed Elsie.
“No,” said her father, “she escaped from them. Her stock of provisions had been replenished from two vessels that had been taken before the war vessels had appeared, and now she turned westward to intercept vessels coming out of and going into the Irish Channel.
“In the next six or seven days he (Rodgers) captured three vessels; then he thought it best to change his course, as the enemy was in that vicinity with a superior force. He made a complete circuit of Ireland, then steered for the banks of Newfoundland, near which he made two more captures. From these he learned that two British vessels, the Bellerophon and Hyperion frigate, were only a few miles from him. However, he did not fall in with them, and soon stood for the coast of the United States.
“Toward evening on the 23d of September the President fell in with the British armed schooner Highflyer, tender to Admiral Warren’s flagship St. Domingo; she was commanded by Lieutenant Hutchinson; was a fine vessel of her class—a fast sailer. When discovered she was six or seven miles distant, but by a stratagem Commodore Rodgers decoyed her alongside and captured her without firing a gun. She did not even discover that the President was her enemy until the stratagem had succeeded.
“Before starting upon this cruise Rodgers had placed in his possession some of the British signals. He had had some made on board his ship, and now he resolved to try their efficacy. He hoisted an English ensign over the President. The Highflyer answered by displaying another, and at the same time a signal from a mast-head.