“That the Marine Committee be authorized to advance to every able Seaman that enters into the Continental Service, any Sum not exceeding Forty Dollars, and to every ordinary Seaman or Landsman any Sum not exceeding Twenty Dollars, to be deducted from their future Prize Money.
“By Order of Congress,
“John Hancock, President.”
It was of this cruise that Yankee seamen the world over were singing in later years the song of “Paul Jones and the Ranger,” which describes her escape from a British battleship and four consorts:
“’Tis of the gallant Yankee ship
That flew the Stripes and Stars,
And the whistling wind from the west nor’west
Blew through her pitch pine spars.
With her starboard tacks aboard, my boys.
She hung upon the gale,
On an autumn night we raised the light