“Sir: I have no authority to hoist any colors on this ship except the American, and whenever the pilot will take it upon himself to conduct the ship to sea he shall have my best assistance.
Paul Jones, “Commanding the American Continental ship Alliance.”
CHAPTER XIII.
The officers and men were as anxious to get away from the inhospitable Texel as was Paul Jones, and the sight, day after day, of the low-lying, monotonous landscape, the frozen dikes, and the pale, wintry sky was dreary enough to them. Dale kept the wardroom in a good humor, though, and Bill Green spent much of his enforced leisure, as usual, in learning songs which he claimed to have composed.
At last, as Christmas approached, it was known on board that they were ready to sail, and that a day or two at most would find them at sea. The officers and men were all on board, and no more shore leave was granted.
The wind was already veering round to the east, and although they would have to wait for the wind, there would be no waiting for weather, for the fouler the weather the fairer the chance of running the gauntlet of the British fleet, which would then be dispersed, each ship looking out for herself. Therefore the Americans prayed for bad weather as ardently as sailors usually pray for good.
On Christmas night there was great jollification aboard. Paul Jones dined in the wardroom by invitation of the officers, and afterward announced to them:
“Gentlemen, in forty-eight hours we shall be at sea, with our best American ensign flying, and then we can take care of ourselves.”
A burst of cheering followed this. The only person present besides the officers of the ship was the celebrated Captain Cunningham, who had suffered horrors in an English prison. Paul Jones had at last succeeded in having Cunningham exchanged, and was taking him to France as a passenger.
The jollity aft was quite equaled by the fun forward, and from the foks’l sounds of cheering, laughing, shouting, and the noisy clatter of feet, as the sailors danced reels and hornpipes, was plainly audible. Danny Dixon, who waited behind Paul Jones’s chair, when asked what the noise meant, whispered artfully:
“Please, sir, Mr. Green he’s got a new song, all about ‘a Yankee ship and a Yankee crew, tally hi ho, you know.’ It’s a beautiful song.”