On the courses which the two vessels had been running we would have crossed each other's track very nearly together, and it was evidently our captain's intention to avoid doing so. That the stranger wished to meet us was evident, as she changed her course to pursue us very soon after our helm was put over. Our captain remarked to the mate that he thought from her rig that the other ship was a man-of-war, probably British, but she displayed no colors, and even had her flag been flying we were too far off to make it out.
I asked Haines why it was that we were steering away from the stranger. "Even if she is a British man-of-war," I said, "why should we wish to avoid her? We are at peace with England, and have been since the Revolution, and she certainly wouldn't harm us now, anyhow."
"Don't be so sure of that, sonny," Haines replied; "she could and probably would harm us a good deal."
The officer walked slowly along in front of them. Page 53.
"I wish you'd explain to me how she could do so, as she certainly would have no right to capture us on the high seas now. We are on a peaceful voyage, and our respective countries are not at war."
"You don't seem to understand sea things very well yet," Haines answered. "You don't know how the British ships-of-war have been treating American merchantmen ever since the Revolution."
"How is that?" I asked.
"Well, they treat us very much as if we had no rights whatever," was the reply. "Great Britain claims that when a man is once a subject of that country he is always a subject, and if the government wants him for any purpose it has a right to take him wherever he can be found."
"Oh, I see," said I; "if there are any Englishmen on board the Washington, and a British man-of-war wants them, her captain has a right to take them."