Class ^ Book. PRESENTED BV" \ \ t IBB NAVY OF ""^S. HS^OLUTION. Those who enjoy investing tho mmber thirteen with malevolent attri- butes will find apparent confirmation of their predilection in the story of the first fleet cf the rGt^-alar /jneric&n Xavy, which was created by the Congress of the thirteen Colonies by an act passed on December thirteen, and consisted of thirteen frigates. The first effort of the Congress of the Colonies to provide a naval force was the consideration of the instructions given by the Rhode Island Assembly to its dele^jates in Congress, in favor of building and equipping an American fleet, which were presented by those delegates on October 3, 1775e. But the first vessel of the revolutionary'- Colonies vreis the unarmed schooner ••Quero", of Salem, llassachusetts, which, under Captain John Derby, sailed on April 29, 1775, carrying to England the first news of the battle of Lexington, and arriving there two weeks ahead of the dispatches of General Gates^ /t>/^^^**6^^^fe/^^^'^ ^-^^^^^^-^^-^ .a-^iL^A.- a-/(j^^' The first armed vessel of the P.evoliition was the "Trinity" sloop. which was equipped with the three pounder gunt- and swivels taken from the British schooner "irargaretta", captured on Jxme 12, 1775, Although the Colonies prepared and employed nany armed vespel?, and numerous privateers a OHtribu'jQd to defence and aggression during the spring and summer of 1775, the first of which v/ere the two sloops contributed by Rhode Island on June 15th of that year, it was not until December 1?, 1775 that Congress provided for the creation of a regular fleet. On that sinister date, as if Inspired by a spirit of defiant temerity, it authorised the construction of thirteen frigates at a cost of ^"66,660 2/3 each, as follows:- ,'V^V"'::dO''- ■nf-zp.l ..% ,?' ..V... .'.,?• r^ _..,.. j>nflr V ji -jd L3iiqai-:i ':. - .'sir.:'. ivse^iirf^ '1:0 . -2- Raleigh, 32 guns, at Portsraouth, N.H. Hancock, 32 guns, at Salisbury, Llass. Boston 24 cxma, at Hawburyport, l!as8, Warren 32 ffims , at Providence, R. I. Providence 28 guns, at Providence, R.I. Truinb\Vil 28 guns, at Chatham, Conn, llontgonery 28 guns, at Poughkeepsie, 11. Y. Congress 24 guns, at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Randolph 32 giins, at Philadelphia, Pa. Washington 32 guns, at Philadelphia, Pa. Effinghan 28 guns, at Philadelphia, Pa. Delaware 34 guns, at Philadelphia, Pa, Virginia 28 guns, at Baltimore, I'd. These frigates v/ere fron one hundred and thirty two to one hurx^.red er^.d forty feet long; about thirty-five feet bean, and drew approximately foiurteen feet at the bow and nearly sixteen feet at the stern. They v/ere amed with long twelve poiaider guns, of which they usually carried thirty six, and a few swivel guns* On November 5, 1775, Congress appointed Esek Hopkins, Connander in Chief of the fleet with a salrry of $125 per calendar month. Congress also purchased and equipped a nvmber of privately owned vessels, such as the Andrew Doria, Cabot, Alfred and Colunbus, The first tine the Continental colors were hoisted on a vessel was when Lieutenant John Paul Jones ran it upon the "Alfred". The synbolic foatxire of that flag was a rattlesnake erect, with the notto "Dont tread on nel" The first salute to the flag by a foreign power was given by the Dutch to ,-^^A.:^- DL'r:cni\ rtolc lw ''■0 9T3Wi:l9L D rTTOt'^ f*t8^'? r',p. * "'''* l*"' 3-. i v-M. ;»i •^li/io r 'T fcno woe eriJ *B ^oel: :-Ji-i"i;:o T-'irr;"'. ■76thfi: '6 T.c!"^. eel* oi a.t.'j-lBe ■ ''..y V -3- the colors of the "Andrew Doria", on October 17, 1776, at the Island of Saint Eustatiua. The personnel at the command of Congress v/ith V7hich to officer its navy was not such as to encourace a hope for the best results © The nost resourceful and courageous sailors were as a rule engaged in the more exciting and profitable enterprise of profiteering, which is attested by the fact that they captured fron three hundred to four hundred British merchantmen each year. On October 10, 1776 Congress created twenty-four Captaincies, On that list John Paul Jones, notwithstanding the conspicuous merit of his naval achievements, was eighteenth. He expressed his dissatisfaction thereat to Robert Korris, in a letter in v/hich he said "I cannot but lament that so little delicacy hath been observed in the appointment and promotion of officers in the Sea Service, many of whom are not only grossly illiterate but want even the capacity of commanding merchant vessels » I was lately on a court martial where a Captain of Ilarines made his marl?, and where the President of the court martial could not read the oath he attempted to administer." Hov/ fully the results justified the judgment of Jones v/ill later appear in the record of the calamities which overtook the navy -ivhich the Colonial Congress thiis created. On November 20, 1776, Congress provided for an addition to the regular Havy by the construction of the America, of 74 guns, and the frigate^ 0Lf>\^tJ^^'^'~^- ^ Alliance, and the sloops of war General Gates and Saratoga^ -Jw* only the ^ last named three rendered active service. '^'^ ,a^ isotr-a06 ) This disaster was soon followed by the destruction of the frigates Washin^^ton and Effinghan, v/hich v/ere burned in the Delaware River by the British who occupied Philadelphia, fAllftn 1 . , 2loJ Misfortune again displayed its relentless antagonisn to the thirteen colonial frigates. The Raleigh, under coonand of the capable Captain John Barry, was pursued off the coast of l!aine on September 2*^, 1'''76, by the British fifty-gun ship "Experiment", and the twenty- two gun ship "Unicorn", and being hopelessly overmatched tried to escape, but ran aground and was captured by the British. (>iie«-ir<519 ) The next of the thirteen to experience the malevolence of destiny was the frigate V/arren which became involved in the \mfortunate Penobscot River Expedition. It was blockaded up that stream and was destroyed to prevent its capture. (5ii«a Ii7-4&&) . The frigates Boston and Providence v/ere the next to meet disaster and were captured at Charleston, South Carolina, v/hon General Lincoln surrendered that city to the British on Hay 11, 1780. ^ '^1f- ■■'■r^. -noloo ,<»,?-.7 . !.'•<•-,.- tl;j7i~'^jv 'i X 1 C" ''V^iLiia eiiJ- aonei xo6v"'iin^ ac;J^ , iiactGSs :.-id saj oj ■,•;:' -'j ffjirf* ~ U -, 1^ tea \r J./3V., -6- At the end of 1780 the Trumbull v.-ag the only one loft of the thirteen original frigates, and v/ith the frigates Alliance, the Confeneracy and Deano, ^*w fc l ]^AETArjTZJ^ 9 FFZT p^AFT AT BOW 724 rON^ MFASUJ^HZNT which was approved November 2C , 1776» ^'^^ provided for the building of nitw &^<'^ ^ other vessels of war^. n e nc of wMoh oppreaoha sL hop in Ji.u (jluulluiiL ^i^t^^'/r/i^^ She was named in honor of the treaty of alliance between the Kingdom of Prance and the United States which was concluded on February 6, 1778, and ratified by Congress during the following May, Alliance was a phenorainally fast sailer and easily handled. Jluch of her good fortune was due to her speed which enabled her to attain the most advantageous positions in a combat or to escape whenever her antagonists overmatched her in fighting strengtho In sailing to Kew London after eluding the British sixty-four gun ship Chatham which chased her near the mouth of the Delaware Bay, she acquired and maintained during that distance a speed of fourteen knots, or more than sixteen miles an hotir. Ho ship that she met could rival her in sailing in any wind abaft the beam, notwithstanding she was chased by several of the largest and speediest vessels of the British Navy, Lieutenant Brown who was an officer on the twenty-gun ship "da Lauzun" which was in company with the Alliance when the latter defeated the British frigate Sybille, expressed enthusiastic admiration for the sailing ability displayed by the Alliance, which, he said, "nothing could surpass." If her tendency to make slight leeway when sailing on the wind, because of her exceptionally light draught for her size, had been minimized by a center- board or fin-keel equipment, she would have had no contemporary rival of any size, nor in any wind. There are legends that some of the larger modern coasting schooners have approxi- mated her speed, and authentic accounts of much swifter progress by some of the clip- per ships of the period between 1850 and 1870; but that does not detract from the merit of the performance of the Alliance. It only demonstrates that size in ships as well as in other individuals which are of the same form and structure, is an approximate measxire of efficiency. The clipper Flying Cloud has the reputation of having covered 17.78 miles an hour in a spurt. The Sovereign of the Seas claimed a record of 17.88 miles an hour. The larger vessel can keep a steadier helm than the smaller one in a seaway that would jolt or yaw the wind out of the sails of the smaller craft, and correspondingly retard its headway. It would also be unfair to judge respecting the comparative speed of the Alliance and the transatlantic clipper ships, by the quickest trips across the Atlantic made by them, for the reason that the voyages of the Alliance to and from France were made during the stormy months, and were interrupted by the making of captures and other retarding circumstances. The Plying Cloud was two hundred and twenty-five feet long and eighteen hundred tons capacity, or one third longer and with two and one half times her displacement. The Sovereign of the Seas was two himdred and sixty feet long with a measurement of -4- about twenty fotir hundred tons, or nearly twice as long, with nearly three times her displacement. But it is probable that the accounts of their- speed, are more or less apocryphal, as flit is doubtful that they could have so far excelled the record in that respect of the more recent sailing yachts which were designed and groomed solely for racing purposes. One annalist ascribes to The Sovereign of the Seas an occasion when she made an hourly average record of over seventeen knots an hour for twenty four hours; and as he proceeds with the account, his enthusiasm increases vintil he expresses the opinion that in order to attain that average she must at times have been going at the rate of over twenty knots, or nearly twenty three miles, an hour I As this phenomenon is reputed to have occurred in the southern Pacific, it is to the credit of the narrator's self control that he stopped at that rate. The shortest transatlantic voyage of the Dreadnaught, which was one of the fastest sailing ships, is instructive in this respect, and throws material doubt upon such extravagant claims. On that trip, Dreadnaught sailed 2760 miles in nine and three quarter days, or at an average hourly rate of a little over eleven and three quarters miles, A maximum of sixteen miles an hour, at those times when wind and other conditions were most favorable, would have enabled her to do that; but that Ib far from the twenty three mile claim for the Sovereign of the Seas, The achievements of the Alliance in speed, in comparison with those vessels, is a remarkable tribute to the genius of her designers, who embodied in her model the most desirable elements of the naval art, A comparison of her maximum speed v/ith that of the fastest sailing record of the modern sailing yacht, is the fairest criterion of her celerity. On October 1.*?, 1893, the sloop yacht Vigilant, measuring one hundred and twenty eight feet over all, covered twenty miles from the outer mark to the stakeboat, before the wind, in a gale of about thirty-five miles an hour, at an average of fifteen and three quarters miles an hotir, which is the record for that class of sailing craft, but is considerably slower than the maximvim accredited to the Alliance, It should be considered also, in this connection, that the Vigilant -5- ' was constructed exclusively for speed; that her underbody was cleaned and polished for that race, and that she was in the lightest possible sailing trim; while the Alliance maoie her maximum speed record with her underbody foul from her long ocean cruising, and was weighted with her armament, ammunition and supplies. The armament of the Alliance consisted of twenty-eight twelve pounders and eight nine pounders. Four of the latter were mounted on the forecastle and the other four at the stern. Her armament has been variously described by different sinnalists. One historian relates that in her action with the Atalanta and Trepassey she was armed with twenty-eight eighteen pounders and twelve nine pounders. This misapprehension apparently arose from the shipment upon her at L'Orient, a seaport on the western coast of France, in April 1780, for transportation elsewhere, of the guns of that caliber which had been cast for the Bon Homme Richard but had been re- ceived too late for emplacement on that ship. A number of other writers on naval history refer to the Alliance as a thirty-two gun frigate; but John Hassler who was the mate on her at the time, states in his distry that she was armed v;ith twenty-eight twelves sind eight nines, and that she had ports or emplacements for forty-four guns. Her first commander was Captain Pierre de Landaie, who was entrusted with that responsibility in June 1778 as a compliment to the French nation. He was a member of one of the most aristocratic families of Normandy, and had been educated for the Navy of France in which he had risen to the rank of Lieutenant. He had circumnavigated the earth with the distinguished French navigator, Bougainville. When one of the pages to the mistress of Count de Vergennes was appointed as a Captain over him, he became so incensed that he sought an appointment in the navy of the United States, which was then at war with Great Britain, and received the command of a French merchantman engaged to carry supplies for the government of the United States from France to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, During this voyage a mutiny occurred on this vessel, which, when considered in connection with later experiences of the same Captain, seems to indicate that his temperament was not conducive to that measure of respect In his subordinates which discipline required, John Adams, who was afterward President of the United States, and who went in the frigate Boston to France, where he had occasion to observe de Landais, said of him, "This gentleman has been disappointed in love or in his ambition. He has not so much activity, dispatch, emd decision as I could wish. He seems not to know how to gain or preserve the affection of his officers, nor yet to keep them in awe," Mr, Adams also said that de Landais was inordinately jealous and lacked tact, but that he thought him honest. ^^ y^ex^ ^^-H -<.'uring this action the Alliance was not struck by a shot from the Serapis, but was hit several times by shot from the Countess of Scarborough, one of which stuck in her side, and another struck her and bounded back into the sea. None of the crew of the Alliance was hit, but her shot killed one man on the Serapis. -11- After this battle the British fleet made great efforts to find the sqiiadron of Jones, but the latter evaded the enemy and arrived safely at the Texel, a port in Holland. Landais was sent to Paris under charges, and the Alliance placed under the immediate command of Jones. While at the Texel, Jones was offered a commission in the French Navy, but refused the compliment. In view of the appre- hension of some of the people of Holland that the presence of the American fleet at the Texel might lead to international conipli cat ions, Jones left Texel on the 27th of December, and showed his coixfidence in the sailing ability Of the Alliance by boldly rimning past and in sight of several British fleets of observation in the North Sea and the British Channel, and then cruised arovtnd Ireland, during which he captured a brig. Thence he sailed for Corunna on the north coast of Spain, where he arrived on January 16, 1780. The Alliance remained at Corunna until the 28th of January, when she sailed for Groix Roads in Prance, v;here she arrived on the loth of February, and was then taxen to L' Orient for a general overhauling which was very much needed. Jones tried to have her sheathed with copper, also, but Ben,iamin Franklin did not feel Jixstified in incurring the expense. The Irresponsibility or incompetence of de Landais was strikingly illustrated by the trim in which John Paul Jones found the Alliance when he took charge of her at the Texel, In referring to her condition at that time, he Baid, "Captain Landais had extended the ballast along the ceiling , from the sternpost to the stem; an idea that I believe he may without vanity call his own." Which not only shows that Jones had a vein of humor as well as valor, in his makeup, but that the im- practicability of de Landais was fundamental. Captain de Landais tried to obtain authority to again command the Alliance, but Benjamin Franklin refused by writing to him, "I think you so iraprodent, so litigious and quarrelsome a man, even with your best friends, that peace and good order, and consequently the quiet and regular subordination so necessary to suc- cess, are, where you preside, impossible. If I had twenty ships at my disposition I should not give one of them to Captain Landais." -11- ' After this battle the British fleet made great efforts to find the sqtiadrcn of Jones, but the latter evaded the enemy and arrived safely at the Texel, a port in Holland, Landais was sent to Paris under charges, and the Alliance placed under the immediate command of Jones. While at the Texel, Jones was offered a commission in the French Navy, but refused the compliment. In view of the appre- hension of some of the people of Holland that the presence of the American fleet at the Texel might lead to international complications, Jones left Texel on the 27th of December, and showed his confidence in the sailing ability Of the Alliance by boldly rimning past and in sight of several British fleets of observation in the North Sea and the British Channel, and then cruised around Ireland, during which he captiired a brig. Thence he sailed for Corunna on the north coast of Spain, where he arrived on January 16, 1780, The Alliance remained at Corunna until the 26th of January, when she sailed for (Jroix Roads in France, v/here she arrived on the loth of February, and was then taken to L' Orient for a general overhaiiling which was very much needed, Jones tried to have her sheathed with copper, also, but Ben,iamin Franklin did not feel justified in incurring the expense. The irresponsibility or incompetence of de Landais was strikingly illustrated by the trim in which John Paul Jones found the Alliance when he took charge of her at the Texel. In referring to her condition at that time, he said, "Captain Landais had extended the ballast along the celling , from the sternpost to the stem; an idea that I believe he may without vanity call his own," Which not only shows that Jones had a vein of humor as well as valor, in his makeup, but that the im- practicability of de Landais was fundamental. Captain de Landais tried to obtain authority to again command the Alliance, but Benjamin Franklin refused by writing to him, "I think you so irar^rudent, so Litigious and quarrelsome a man, even with your best friends, that peace and good Drder, and consequently the quiet and regular subordination so necessary to suc- cess, are, where you preside, impossible. If I had twenty ships at my disposition : should not give one of them to Captain Landais," -12- Nevertheless, while Jones was temporarily absent in the perfomance of another duty to which he had been assigned, in June 1780, de Landais, acting upon the ad- vice of the officious and neurotic Arthur Lee, who was then one of the diplomatic Commissioners from the United States to France, resumed charge of the Alliance, and on the 1st day of July of that year, sailed her for America with llr. Lee as a passenger. It was not long before the relations of Lee and his Captain became in- harmonious. Yet that may not have been altogether the fault of de Landais, as Jones who was a rather acute observer, wrote to Robert Morris in regard to the part of Lee in the reinstatement of de Landais, "I am convinced that Mr. Lee has acted in this manner merely because I would not become the enemy of the venerable, the wise and good Franklin, whose heart as well as head, does and will always do honor to human nattire." But it remains to be stated that Lee, in defense of his course in this matter, claimed that as de Landais' commission was still in force, he was therefore legally entitled to the charge of the ship. It is to the credit of Jones that he ndbly relieved the situation by relinquishing his claim to the command in order to preclude a quarrel. This voyage had barely begun when trouble arose in a dispute as to which of the hogs on the ship should be used for food. The spirit of insubordination was rurther stimulated, at a later period of the voyage, by the refusal of Captain de Landais to permit the crew to fish while the frigate was off the Banks of Newfound- land. Ultimately the Captain secluded himself in his cabin and petulantly refused to have any communication with his officers or crew. As some control of the vessel had to be taken, the crew assumed charge of her on the lOth of August. She was sailed for the remainder of the trip without orders from the Captain, under the navigation of Lieutenant James Degge, and arrived in Boston on the 16th of that month. The ship remained in Boston dtiring the remainder of 1780, during which de Landais and Degge were court-martialed and dismissed from the service. -13- After his dismissal, de Landaia resided dtirine the remainder of his life in the city of New York. His humiliation seems to have awakened in him a sense of propriety which was dormant during the days of his authority. He became a con- spicuous and familiar figure on the streets, respected for his dignity, gentleness and courtesy. "Sweet are the uses of adversity", when discipline occurs in time for the afflicted to take profit by it; but sad enough are they when the chastise- ment comes .too late, and leaves the chastened nothing but reflection burdened with repentance and regret. He died in thg.1t city in June 1818, and is buried in the churchyard of Saint Patrick's Cathedral there. Some kindly spirit has caused to be inscribed upon the marble slab which covers his remains, "To the memory of Peter Landais, sometime Rear Admiral in the service of the United States, who died June 1816, aged 87 years." The President of the court-martial which tried de Landais and Degge was Captain John Barry who had acquired distinction in the naval service by his valor, skill and determination, and who was destined to increase his glory and establish respect for the infantile American Havy, as Captain of the Alliance to whose command he was assigned on September 5, 1780. Now for the second time that matchless coTirser of the sea, v/hose deck had felt the directing tread of a John Paul Jones, worthily responded to the control of an- other commander who was more than equal to his responsibility. Barry was theoreti- cally and practically a thorough sailor. Although hot tempered, and sometime violent in the enforcement of discipline, he was just and quick to endeavor to placate those whom his anger offended. Upon one occasion he knocked over his boatswain with a small speaking trumpet for persistent bungling in setting a sail in an emergency; but later sought to conciliate his victim by an argument on the aggravating nature of the latter' s offence. He was always on familiar terms with his crews, and not only tolerated, but encotiraged their jokes when not subversive of discipline, even when such pleasantries were indulged at his own expense. /S/^. ^y^^:^^ AJ/^-t'I^^ — ^ rrf TTliih Hxf^i ^Tgaw- .L — -^^ -14- wae a Roman Catholic in religion, and remarkably broadminded in respect to religious observance on his ship. He made it a point of propriety to be present at all re- ligious services on board, and required his officers and crew to do the same, not- withstanding the Chaplain was a hardshell Presbyterian clergyman, Barry was born in Tacumshane, Wexford County, Ireland, in 1745, and died in Philadelphia, September 13, 1803. His first fight as an officer of the American davy was on April 7, 1776, when in command of the fourteen gun boat Lexington he japtured the Edward, which was a tender of the British frigate Liverpool. This iiras the first prize vessel ever capt^lred by a boat of that Kavy Barry was somewhat of a military amphibian. While he was waiting for an assignment to sea duty, he took part in the land-operations of the Colonial Army, ind rendered distinguished servi'^e at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He, about that time, with a detachment carried in small boats, captured a British schooner in the Delaware river near Philadelphia under circumstances con- spicuously to his credit. As commander of the 32-gun ship Raleigh, he made a gallant struggle against bwo British frigates off the coast of Maine, in a running fight, but was obliged to beach his ship, which in his temporary absence, and contrary to his orders, was surrendered by one of his subordinates whom he had left in charge. During the war vith France, in 1799 to 1800, he commanded the frigate United States, and in that japacity captured several armed French vessels, and rendered other services in ceeping with his previous reputation. While in command of the Pennsylvania privateer twelve-gun brig Delaware, he vas sailing up the Delaware River, in December 1779, and v.'as hailed near the town )f Chester, Pennsylvania, by the American frigate Confederacy, whd>se commander, Japtain Barry had been informed, was impressing sailors into her crew from merchant ressels and from war vessels of the state of Pennsylvania, which were too weak to •esist such imposition. The continental naval forces often assxaned authority to Impress seaman of the crews of the vessels sent out by the states, Ab the brig was -15" atuggishly beating up the river past the Confederacy, the latter fired a shot across her bows as a siinimons to stop, and her commander ordered Barry to come to anchor; but Bsu:*ry ignored the hail and kept on his course. A party was then sent from the frigate to the brig v;ith the obvious purpose of impressing such of her crew as they wished, but the resolute attitude of the brig's crew deterred them, and they left without attaining their end. Two more shots were then fired from the Confederacy at the brig, which so incensed Barry that he hailed the frigate and asked who coomanded her. Her commander answered "Lieutenant Gregory", Barry re- plied, "Lieutenant Gregory, I advise you to desist. This is the brig Delaware, belonging to Philadelphia, and my name is John Barry." The frigate fired no morel Bfury had ordered his crew to get the guns ready fcr action, and told them that if a rope yarn on his brig should be injured by the fire of the frigate he would give her a whole broadside. Fortunately for Lieutenant Gregory, and for the reputation of the Kavy, Gregory had sailed with Barry and knew the resolute quality of the man with whom he was dealing. He was equally as alert and decisive in the discharge of what he deemed his civil duties as he was in those that related to his military purview. When the Pennsylvania delegation to the Constitutional Convention, headed by Benjamin Franklin, sought to induce the Pennsylvania Assembly to act upon the adoption of. the Constitution, and that Assembly lacked two members to make a quorum, through the absence of nineteen recalcitrant members, Barry persuaded a number of citizens to act with him in forcibly dragging two of the absentees into the Assembly v;hile that body was in session, they were counted as present, and thus tmv/illingly en- abled their state to be the first to talce steps tov/ard giving to the United States an organic national status. The first voyage of the Alliance under the command of Captain Barry, was begun on the eleventh of February, 1781, when she left Boston for France, carrying as passengers. Colonel John Latirens and suite on a diplomatic mission, accompanied by the gifted and philanthropic Thomas Paine, and others. The reputation of the -16- Uliance as the seat of frequent internal distTirbance, seems to have oade a deep Impression on the mind of her new Captain, who, before he started on this voyage, required his passengers to agree that they would assist him to quell any mutiny that might occur on the ship while they were in it. It is probable, also, that 1 casual review of the members of his crew did not impress him with a feeling of ibsolute confidence in their reliability. That some such precaution was not un- warranted will further appear. The diplomatic mission of Colonel Laurens, which had been conceived by the ijert and fertile mind of Mr, Paine, at the period which Washington termed in a Letter to Franklin the "infinitely critical posture in our affairs", resulted in securing from the French Government a loan of six million livres to the government 3f the United States. Two million and a half of the money so obtained was brought bo America in coin, and the remainder in military stores. With these supplies and funds the Revolutionary army was paid and equipped for the campaign which resulted Ln the crowning victory at Yorktown on October 19 of that year. The government of ''ranee also guaranteed the payment of the loan of ten million livres which had been idvanced by Holland. The negotiations which culminated in this result were essen- tially conducted by Hr. Paine, v/hose services were never adequately rewarded nor recognized. Paine ^nobly sought to requite the help which the government of France :hus rendered, at his solicitation, v/hen Louis XVI was on trial, by appealing for :he life of the King at the certain hazard of his own, for which he was ultimately put in prison and marked for the guillotine, which he miraculously escaped. "Do lot", he plead to the revolutionary convention of which he was a member, "give the Snglish despot the pleasure of seeing you send to the scaffold the man who de- livered your American brethren from his tyranny." The passengers were diverted during this voyage by the capture of the British Privateer Alert, which carried twelve guns. Captain John Kessler, who was then a warrant officer on the Alliance, tells in his admirable memoirs, that Mr. Paine and -17- l French officer named Coimt de'Noaillea, who was Lafayette's brother-in-law, fought a duel on the ship during the voyage, hut does not give the details of the iffair. It would he interesting to know what amount of provocation or what kind 3f disagreement could induce Paine to engage in a duel, in view of his pronounced aversion to the code and his proverbial humanity which induced hira to write one of lis most emphatic essays against the duelling practice. Otherwise the trip was vithout special incident, and the frigate dropped her anchor in the harbor of [,• Orient on the 9th of the following March, On the twenty-ninth of March, the Alliance started on her return voyage in jompany with a French letter-of -marque brig named Marquis de Lafayette. The next lay the chronic trouble of the Alliance was the cause of much anxiety aboard, when It was discovered that a projected mutiny had only been forestalled through the voluntary exposure of the plot by an American Indian, who was a member of the fore- castle crew and who informed the Captain of the names of three of the conspirators, f7ho had tried to induce him to be one of them. The officers and those members of the crew who could be trusted were armed and required to stay vcp all night. The next morning the remainder of the crew were Drdered to the forecastle, the booms and gangway, while the officer^ and those of the crew who were in the Captain's confidence manned and guarded the quarterdeck, the maindeck and the steerage. The three men who had been implicated by the Indian were triced up and flogged jntil they denounced twenty-five others, who were then also flogged until Captain Barry was satisfied that every mutineer had been discovered and that nothing re- nained to be disclosed about the plot. The potential mutineers had planned to take possession of the ship by killing all the officers d-uring the middle night watch, except the second Lieutenant, whom they intended to compel to navigate the vessel under the command of the qur.rter- naster, to some port in Ireland, where they would sell her and divide the purchase -18- ' money anong themselves. The plot had 'been arranged on the outward voyage from the United States during the preceding February, b\it the conspirators found no satisfactory opportunity to put it into effect. They were principally influenced to delay the mutiny by the falling overboard of one of the ringleaders in the project, which their traditional sailorman superstition construed into an unfavor- able omen, and induced them to defer the attack, and to throv; overboard the written agreement they had signed, as parties to the proposed mutiny. Three of the muti- neers were put in irons, and the rest returned to duty upon their promise to conduct themselves properly during the remainder of their term of shipment. Three of the crew were tried and sentenced to various punishments. Patrick Sheridan was to re- ceive 354 lashes; John Crawford, 50 lashes; and William KcClehany, to be hanged from the starboard forearm of the Alliance until dead. None of these sentences was carried into effect. These men were put in prison in Rhode Island, awaiting punish- ment, but were apparently forgotten in the excitement of the times, until a Kaval Agent re-discovered them in their confinement in a state of suffering from cold and starvation. The first-named two were shipped on the sloop of war Deane, and McClehany was sold to pay for the cost of his keep in jail. It is an interesting sidelight on Barry's treatment of and influence over his subordinates that, v/hen this crew was about to be paid off and discharged, they tmaniraoiis ly pleaded to be allowed to ship with him again. While in company with the ITarquis de Lafayette, on the second of the succeeding April, the Alliance and that vessel captured the British brig named the Mars, of thirty-aix guns, twenty of v/hich were 12 pounders, two 6 pounders, and fourteen 4 pounder cohorns, and the Minerva of ten guns. The Jiars ran close aboard the Alliance, and without warning of any sort fired a whole broadside into her at that range. Her officers and crew then immediately retreated below, which so incensed Captain Barry that he boarded her and put all the officers and crew indiscriminately in irons, for committing a mxirderous assault without intending to fight. The "de Lafayette" then took possession of the Minerva and parted company v/ith the -19- Alliance, On the second and third days of May the Alliance captured two British merchantmen loaded with sugar from Jamaica, and on the sever.th of that month lost her maintopraast by a stroke of lightning which also severely burned and otherwise injured several of her crew. On the 28th of llay (1781), the Alliance was engaged in the most severe and onstinate battle of her career, in which she captxired the British ships Atalanta, carrying sixteen guns, and the Trepassey, carrying fovirteen guns, both of which she fought at the same tine. When the Atalanta carae within hailing distance. Captain Barry summoned her to surrender, but her Captain, whose name was Edv/ards, responded, "I thank youl Perhaps we may after a trial," Captain Elwards after the fight said that he and the captain of the Trepassey v/ere confident that they would capture the Alliance. All three vessels then began firing. The calm which prevailed prevented raanoeuvering of the Alliance, which lay on the ocean like a log during most of the battle. The Captains of the British vessels took advantage of the helpless condition of the Alliance by using sweeps to row their lighter craft into commanding positions athwart the stern and qviarters of the Alliance and subjecting her to a severe fire, to which she could not effectively respond. At times during the battle the Alliance could not bring any of her guns to bear upon her antagonists except one which was mounted at the stern. The British ships v/ere partly armed with carronades, a short large caliber cannon, // which three projectiles at close range and low velocity, thr^t had a smashing effect and did great damage to the Alliance at the short distance at which they were used in this conflict. Projectiles from these guns were especially destructive from the splintering which they caused on the opposing vessels. The extent of splintering on those old wooden ships was strikingly illustrated in the fight betv/een the Constitution and Guerrierre in 1812, when the first broadside of the former at forty yards, caused a cloud of splinters to fly up from the waist and deck of the latter, part of which was driven as high as the raizzentop, with disastrous effect on the latter' s crew. -2C- In this action Captain Barry was wotmded by a grapeshot which lodged in his shoulder, about two o'clock in the afternoon, and was carried below for stirgical attention, as he was suffering severely from pain. He vraa weak from the loss of blood, consequent upon the operation necessary to remove the ball from his shoulder. The colors of the Alliance were shot away, and the crews of the opposing vessels began cheering luider the impression that the Alliance had struck, but v/ere soon disabused of that delusion by the replacement of the flag. At a critical moment of the fight, when the Alliance was unmanageable for want of wind, and being severely damaged by the fire of her antagonists, one of her officers went down to the cockpit and informed Captain Barrj' of the state of affairs, and inquired v/hether he should strike his flag, Barry indignantly responded, "ITol If the ship cannot be fought without me, I will be carried on deck." It was at this jwicture, about three o'clock in the afternoon, that the wind freshened and enabled the facile Alliance to bring her broadsides to bear, and soon force both of her opponents to strike, but Barry was on his way to the deck when the battle ended. The Atalanta was dismasted by the fire of the Alliance, and lost six killed and eighteen woimded; the Trepassey lost six killed, included her Captain, and eleven wounded. The Alliance lost eleven killed, and twenty-four wounded. When Captain Edwards went aboard the Alliance he entered the cabin of Captain Barry, who was confined to any easy chair by wealoiess due to his wound, and presented his sword to Barry, who immediately gave it back with the generous remark, "I retvirn it to you. Sir. You have merited it, and your King ought to give you a better ship. Here is ray cabin, at your service. Use it as your own." In this fight the Alliance was not only handicapped by lack of v;ind, but by a shortage of men. Her crew had been seriously depleted in numbers by the manning of many prizes which she had taken on that cruise. Immediately after this action the Alliance made all sail for Boston, to obtain treatment for Barry's wound and for repairs to the ship which was badly shattered as well as short of crew, and reached that city on June 6th, 1781, notwithstanding -21- the presence of a British fleet in Ilassachusetts Bay. On Barry'? recominendation the Alliance was treated to a sheathing of copper below her water line, which was a much needed improvement. Barry left her for Philadelphia, where he was obliged to go for the treatment of his wound, which was seriously infected. A new fighting and foraging cruise for the Alliance was projected by the naval authorities, but the greater importance of conveying Lafayette on a mission to France with the object of obtaining an enlargement of the French naval force in American waters, prevailed, and she accordingly dailed from Boston on December 23, 1781, carrying Lafayette, Count de Roailles and others, as p assengers, for whose comfort and security Captain Barry was especially enjoined by Robert Korris, to "make a safe and quiet passage to some port in Prance", and avoid a conflict with the vessels of the enemy. These instructions were very distasteful to Captain Barry and his crew, who would rather have gone in quest of adventure and prizes, notwithstanding he was authorized to cruise wherever he could promise himself the best chance of success in msucing prizes, after he should have delivered his dis- tinguished passengers at their destination. In disregard of these instructions, Barry's instinct to harry the enemy would not let him resist an impulse to capture a large British merchantman which he met on the way. They safely reached L' Orient on the 18th of the following January. While waiting for dispatches for Congress, Barry sailed from L'Orient on the tenth of February, 1782, in search of prizes, but returned to that port on the 27th of that month without having made a capture. On the 16th of the following March the Alliance left that port for the United States. During this voyage, and while off the Delaware Capes, on the tenth of May she v/as chased by the Chatham, a sixty- four-gun British ship, which she eluded and arrived at Hew London on the 13th of that month, where she remained until the 4th of the following August. When this chase began the wind was blowing fresh from the north, which gave the Chatham the advantage, as both v/ere sailing on the wind, and the Chatham's greater draught enabled her to sail closer to the wind than cotild the light draught Alliance. -22- The latter was therefore obliged to seek the shallower water along the shore of Nev? Jersey in order to keep out of range of the Chatham's guns. The Chatham was accompanied by a tender, v/hich during the chase sailed between that ship and the Alliance, to keg) the coniraander of the former vessel advised as to the soundings 30 that he might avoid running his ship aground in following the Alliance. Finding that he could not safely get close enough to the Alliance to engage her he abandoned the pursuit. The wind soon after shifted to fresh southerly, and the Alliance con- tinued to New London v/ith a quartering gale, v/ithout dread of any pursuer. On the way she ran down the British sloop of war Speedwell, which tried to intercept her. The Alliance sailed from Kew London on the fourth of August, 1782, bound for the Bermudas. On the ninth of that month she captured two schooners from Bermuda, bound for Halifax, loaded with stigar and molasses, and later took a number of other vessels with merchandise. On the nineteenth she arrived off the harbor of St. aeorges, in the Bermudas, and Captain Barrj' sent word to the Governor that, unless the American prisoners of war confined there v/ere ser.t on board of the Alliance, he would blockade the port for three weeks. But he was enticed av;ay by the prospect of making prizes, and left the Bermudas on the twenty-fifth of that month for a cruise in the vicinity, in which he was engaged for the next five days, and then sailed for the Newfoundland Banks, where the Alliance arrived on September tenth. On the 18th she capti^ed and sunk a British brig, and during the next few d^ys captured several other vessels. Meeting with some storm damage, she sailed on the 28th for L' Orient for repairs, and arrived there on the 17th of October with four of her prizes, which sold for six hundred and twenty thousand, six hundred and ten pounds sterling, which was enough to pay for all the ships th: t the navy of the United States lost during the Revolutionary War, and for her ovm construction many times over. Here again the penchant of the Alliance for the development of mutinous demonstrations was manifested, and several of her officers refused to obey ')! -23- tl orders unless they were paid. The offenders v/ere put under arrest and less ex- perienced aembers of the crew were promoted to the vacancies so made. Midshipman Keasler relates that when the Alliance arrived at L'Orient and the prisoners captured during the cruise were sent ashore, the parting "between them and the officers and crew of the Alliance was lilce the separation of old friends. The prisoners left with great reluctance. They had been treated with much consideration and care by their captors, and were not only grateful for the hospitality they re- ceived, but were abashed to reflect upon the difference between their treatment and that which v/as then usually accorded by their nation to American prisoners of war. The lure of the sea again enticed Captain Barry to seek the raging main for adventure and service. He took the Alliance out of the harbor of L'Orient on December 9, 1782, bound for Martinique, where she arrived on the Sth of the follow- ing January, Barry there found orders to go to Hfivana. On the way to Havana, the Alliance showed her fast fading heels to a British fleet, and later to a British seventy-four, v/hich was accompanied by a frigate. The Alliance left Havana on March 7, 1783, with a large amount of specie aboard, which was to be used to found the Bank of Korth ijnerica. She was accompanied by a twenty-gun ship named the Due de Lauzun, after a distinguished General of the French army, which had been purchased for the American navy, and v/as ccnmanded by Captain Green, and also carried a large amount of specie, on the same account. On March loth, thay were chased by the British frigates Alarm and Sybille, and the sloop of war Tobago, The Alliance under shortened sail to keep her between the sluggish de Lauzun and the Sybille, was closely follov/ed by the Sybille, commanded by Captain James Vashon, and received a shot from the latter which lodged in the Captain's cabin. The Lauzun was such a poor sailer tiiat, at Barry's sviggestion, her Captain lightened the ship by throv/ing overboard nearly all of her guns and putting the specie she carried, and Mr. John Brown, the Secretary of the Board of Admiralty, aboard the Alliance for safety, ^he ran off before the v?ind, but so slowly that Barry felt obliged to interpose the Alliance between her and the Sybille to aid her to escape. A fifty-gun French ship soon appeared and layto. r. -24- in the vicinity, while the Alarm and Tobago also kept at a distance; as if all three were willing to leave to the Alliance and Sybille all t?ie hazard and glory the prospective conflict would involve. The Alliance and Sybille had a severe action for about forty-five minutes, v/hen the latter sheered off, very much injvired in her hull, sails and rigging, her guns silenced, and only her musketry fire con- tinuing, with a loss of thirty-eight killed, and fifty wounded. The Alliance had three killed, and eleven wounded. As illustrative of tJie solicitude and diligence of Barry in the performance of duty, one of his officers relates thfit during this action he "went from gun to gun on the maindeck cautioning against too much haste, and against firing until the enemy was right abreast." When the Sybille withdrew, her cftnsorts joined her in her retreat. The French frigate then approached the Alliance, but too late to afford the cooperation v/hich a short time sooner v/ould have enabled Barry to capture all three of the British ships, v/hich they then chased but could not overtake because of the inability of the French vessel and the Lauzun to keep up with the Alliance. This v/as the last naval engagement between British and American ships during the war of the Revolution. When this action occurred the British frigate Triumph v/as bearing to America the preliminary treaty of peace v/hich had been signed at Paris on Koveraber 7^0, 1'782, to be followed by the definitive treaty of Versailles, of September 3, 1783, by which Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. The advantages of modern facilities for transmitting information at long distance? over difficult physical obstacles, woiild in that case, as well as in the case of the battle of Hew Orleans, both of v/hich transpired after peace had been diplomatically established, have saved the hundreds of lives v/hich were lost in those conflicts because of the delay in conveying the notification of the cessa- tion of hostilities. Hews must have travelled alov/ly then, not to have reached Barry while he was at L' Orient, as he did not sail from that port for nine days after the treaty of Paris was signed. Vv f » ; -25- The captain of the French seventy-f otir gave as his reason for not going to the assistance of the Alliance while she was engaged with the Sybille, that he supposed that the Alliance had teen captured by the British vessels, and that the si^Tials from her for him to close in with his ship v/ere a decoy to get him in the power of the British fleet. He also said that he had $l,oro,000 in specie on his ship v;hich he hesitated to subject to the risk of battle. The Alliance and her companions separated off Cape Hatteraa, and the Alliance sailed for Newport where she arrived on the 20th of March. She thence went to Providence, Uhode Island, v/here her crew was discharged and her naval career prac- tically terminated. After the Alliance arrived at Providence, Captain Barry went to Philadelphia by v/ay of New York, While at the latter city he visited the Sybille which was lying there, and was cordially entertained by her commander. She still bore the marks of the damage which she had received in her battle with the Alliance, and her officers told him that she had never been so roughly treated before that action. During the Summer of 1761, Captain Barry was directed by the Agent of Marine to take the Alliance and the frigate Deane on a cruise and use his judgment as to the locality, duration and nature of his venture. The preparation of the Deane for that service was so long delayed that on October 17 the Marine Agent Instructed Barry to make the cruise with the Alliance alone; but the surrender of the British army at Yorktown, about th^t time, resulted in the abandonment of the project and the retention of the ships in port. After the war there was a strong sentiment in Congress in favor of keeping the Alliance in the Navy, One of the committees of that body reported on January 15, 1784, that "the honor of the flag and the protection of the coast required her con- tinuance in the service," But Congress, which v/as then in such pressing need of money that it was unable to pay the arrears due the soldiers of the revolutionary army, decided, after long debate, to subordinate both sentiment and common sense to cash, and directed that she be sold. If she had been retained, the United f' I -zs- > states might then, under such a Coinmander as Barry, have made short v/ork of the interference of the Barbary pirates with American comnerce in the Keditterranean. Nevertheless she was put up at auction at Philadelphia, on June ?rd, 1785, and bought by Benjarain Eyre, a ship carpenter, for two thousand eight hundred and eighty seven poxmds sterling. Eyre sold her to Robert Eorris, who converted her into a merchantman and sent h(jr to Norfolk, Virginia, whence she sailed to Bordeaux with a cargo of tobacco. In 1787 she retxirned to Philadelphia and in June of that year sailed for Canton, China, under Captain Thomas Reed, and returned on September 17, 1788, after having circumnavigated the Earth, and discovered several islands en route. Her last voyage was to Cadiz, Spain, v/ith a cargo of flour, during 1789, from v/hich she returned to Philadelphia the same year. She was in Philadelphia on April 20, 1789, when General George Washington passed through that city on his way to Hew York City to be inaugurated as President of the United States, and was profusely decorated in honor of that occasion. She was sold for old material in the spring of 1790, and beached upon Petty's Island, in the Delaware River near Philadelphia, where she was broken up and her timbers allowed to rot in the mud; a monument of the indifference of republics to the fate of their benefactors. The relics were visible at low tide as recently as 1901, when they were removed in the exectition of some dredging operations for the improvement o^ the river. Such was the inglorious ending of the career of the most efficient ship of the first navy of the United States, which, ovang to its speed and mobility, and the skill v.dth which it was generally commanded, but especially its speed, was the only frigate of that navy which escaped destruction or capture. V/hile the Eurrenuer at Yorktown was the pretext I'or the abanuon- raant of the British claim to autnority ovor the United Colonies, the dom- inant circumstance which constrainau the British ^-overnment to conceue tha inudp.ncience of the Colonies was the inroaa or oijr privateers ana IJavy i.pon Britisn Gommdrc.., ana the inability of the British navy to protect th« mer- chantmen of Great Britain from such aeprauat i ons. It was the vulneraUlity 01' England to such isolation that enter.-u most eiiectunlly into the con- s 1 1 1 ft T-a f i rir\ urh i o h 1 .^,, ^ -^ r^^i , X^' .^- ^< ^ ^ ^ w p,> > \ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS D0DSlD7a45b