The Story of Our Country / Every Child Can Read

by Unknown

WE are justly proud of our great war-ships, with their strong steel sides and their mighty guns, each of which can hurl a cannon-ball miles and miles away. And such balls! Why, one of them is as heavy as a dozen of you tied together, and can bore a hole through a plate of solid steel as thick as your bodies.

Such ships and such guns as these had not been dreamed of in the days of the Revolution. Then there were only small wooden vessels, moved by sails instead of steam, and a cannon-ball that weighed twenty-four pounds was thought very heavy. Six and twelve-pound balls were common. And to hit a ship a mile away! It was not to be thought of. I tell you, in those days ships had to fight nearly side by side and men to fight face to face. To be a mile away was as good as being a hundred miles.

But for all this there was some hard fighting done at sea in the Revolutionary War, in spite of the small ships and little guns. They fought closer together, that was all. Boast as we may about the wonderful work done by our ships at Santiago and Manila in the Spanish War, we have better right to be proud of the deeds of our great naval hero of the Revolutionary War, with his rotten old ship and poor little guns, but with his stout heart behind them all.

This hero was the sturdy John Paul Jones, one of the boldest and bravest men that ever stood on a ship's deck. And his great sea fight has never been surpassed in all the history of naval war. I cannot tell you the story of the Revolution without telling about the great ocean victory of the bold-hearted Paul Jones.

Ships poor enough were those we had to fight with. A little fleet of seven or eight small vessels, whose heaviest guns threw only nine-pound balls, and the most of them only six-pound. You could have thrown these yourself with one hand, though not so far. These were all we had at first to fight more than seventy British ships, with guns that threw eighteen-pound balls, and some still heavier. Do you not think it looked like a one-sided fight?

But the Americans had one great advantage. They had not many merchant ships and not much to lose upon the seas. On the other hand, the ocean swarmed with the merchant ships of England, and with the store ships bringing supplies of guns and powder and food to the armies on shore. Here were splendid prizes for our gallant seamen, and out of every port sailed bold privateers, or war-ships sent out by their owners, and not by the government, sweeping the seas and bringing in many a richly-laden craft.

Some of the best fighting of the war was done by these privateers. While they were hunting for merchant ships they often came across war-ships, and you can be sure they did not always run away. No, indeed; they were usually ready to fight, and during the war no less than sixteen war-vessels were captured by our ocean rovers. On the other hand, the British privateers did not capture a single American war-ship. As for merchant vessels, our privateers brought them in by the dozens. One fleet of sixty vessels set out from Ireland for the West Indies, and out of these thirty-five were gobbled up by our privateers, and their rich stores brought into American ports. During the whole war the privateers took more than seven hundred prizes. I might go on to tell you of some of their hard fights, but I think you would rather read the story of Paul Jones, the boldest and bravest of them all, the terror of the seas to the British fleet.

Paul Jones, you should know, was born in Scotland. But he made America his home. And as he was known to be a good sailor, he was appointed first lieutenant of the "Alfred," the flagship of our small fleet. He had the honor to be the first man to raise a flag on an American man-of-war, and that is something to be proud of. This took place on the "Delaware," at Philadelphia, about Christmas, 1775.

It was an important event for the fleet was just being sent out. At a given signal Lieutenant Jones grasped the halliards, and hauled up to the mizzen topmast a great flag of yellow silk. As it unfurled to the breeze cannon roared and crowds on the shore lustily cheered. In the centre of the flag was seen the figure of a green pine tree, and under this a rattlesnake lay coiled, with the warning motto, "Don't tread on me!"

This was the famous rattlesnake flag. Another flag was raised on which were thirteen stripes, in turns red and white, and in the corner the British union jack. We then had the stripes but not the stars. They were to come after the Declaration of Independence and the union of the states.