The Heroic Captain Barney in the "Hyder Ali" Captures the "General Monk"
YOU must think by this time that we had many bold and brave sailors in the Revolution. So we had. You have not been told all their exploits, but only a few among the most gallant ones. There is one more story that is worth telling, before we leave the Revolutionary times.
If you are familiar with American history you will remember that Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington in October, 1781. That is generally looked on as the end of the war. There was no more fighting on land. But there was one bold affair on the water in April, 1782, six months after the work of the armies was done.
This was in Delaware Bay, where Captain Barry had taken a war vessel with a few rowboats. The hero of this later exploit was Captain Joshua Barney, and he was as brave a man as John Barry.
Captain Barney had seen service through the whole war. Like John Paul Jones, an accident had made him a captain of a ship when he was a mere boy. He was only seventeen, yet he handled his ship with the skill of an old mariner. War broke out soon afterward and he became an officer on the Hornet, though still only a boy. Soon after he had some lively service in the Wasp, and captured a British privateer with the little sloop Sachem.
Then he had some bad fortune, for he was taken prisoner while bringing in a prize vessel, and was put on the terrible prison-ship Jersey. Few of the poor fellows on that vessel lived to tell the story of the frightful way in which they were treated. But young Barney managed to escape, and went to sea again as captain of a merchant vessel. In this he was chased by a British war-vessel, the Rosebud. Shall I tell you the way that Captain Barney plucked the petals of the Rosebud? He fired a crowbar at her out of one of his cannon. This new kind of cannon-ball went whirling through the air and came ripping and tearing through the sails of the British ship. After making rags of her sails, it hit her foremast and cut out a big slice. The Americans now sailed quietly away. They could laugh at John Bull's Rosebud.
On the 8th of April, 1782, Captain Barney took command of the Hyder Ali. This was a merchant ship which had been bought by the State of Pennsylvania. It was not fit for a warship, but the State was in a hurry, so eight gun-ports were cut on each side, and the ship was mounted with sixteen six-pounder cannon. Then she set sail from Philadelphia in charge of a fleet of merchant vessels.
On they went, down the Delaware river and bay, until Cape May was reached. Here Captain Barney saw that there was trouble ahead. Three British vessels came in sight. One of these was the frigate Quebec. The others were a brig, the Fair American, and a sloop-of-war, the General Monk.
Before such a fleet the Hyder Ali was like a sparrow before a hawk. Captain Barney at once signaled his merchant ships to make all haste up the bay. Away they flew like a flock of frightened birds, except one, whose captain thought he would slip round the cape and get to sea. But the British soon swallowed up him and his ship, so he paid well for his smartness.
On up the bay went the other merchantmen, with the Hyder Ali in the rear, and the British squadron hot on their track. The frigate sailed into a side channel, thinking it would find a short-cut and so head them off. Captain Barney watched this movement with keen eyes. The big ship had put herself out of reach for a time. He knew well that she could not get through that way, and laid his plans to have some sport with the small fish while the big fish was away.