Commodore Rodgers made a memorable cruise of one hundred and forty days on the stormy Atlantic in 1813, sailing from Boston in the frigate President in April. He captured eleven British merchant vessels and the armed schooner Highflyer, a tender of Admiral Warren's flag-ship. Rodgers had been put in possession of some of the British signals. When he saw the Highflyer, he hoisted English colors, and trying his signals, found to his delight that they were answered. He then assumed the character of a British officer. He decoyed the Highflyer alongside the President, which he pretended was the large British ship Sea-Horse, then in American waters. The commander of the Highflyer (Lieutenant Hutchinson) was thoroughly deceived. Rodgers ordered him to send him his signal books. He obeyed, and soon followed them in person. He saw the marines of the President in British uniform, and mistook them for his own countrymen.
"The President," said the unsuspecting Hutchinson, "has spread alarm in British waters, and the main object of the Admiral is to catch her."
"What kind of a man is Rodgers?" asked the Commodore.
"I have never seen him," said Hutchinson, "but have been told that he is an odd fish, and hard to catch."
"Would you like to meet him?"
"Indeed I would, with a vessel of equal size."
"Sir!" said Rodgers, in a tone that startled the Lieutenant, "do you know what ship this is?"
"The Sea-Horse, of course."
"You are mistaken. You are on board the President, and I am Commodore Rodgers."
Then the band struck up "Yankee Doodle," the coats of the marines were suddenly changed from scarlet to blue, and the American flag was displayed over the quarter-deck. Rodgers took his captive and his prize to Newport. He made another less successful cruise, and about the middle of January, 1814, he dashed through the British blockading squadron at New York, and anchored in the harbor.