The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1894-08-04
OUR JACK TARS.
Something About the Early Wars
in Which They Fought.

in Which They Fought.
The American navy has splendid
battle record in the early wars of our
country. From a recent history OF the
navy, prepared by Edgar Stanton Mac
lay, A. NJ, a book reviewer gains the
following interesting facts:
Our people come honestly by their
aptitude for the sea through English,
Dutch and French ancestry, while even
Spanish and Portuguese strains were
not wanting, particularly, as Mr.. Mac
lay notes, in Maine, great state of
shipbuilders and mariners; and Italian
and Scandinavian admixtures also
came duly. Within twelve years after
the Pilgrims landed hnndred-ton
craft was launched in Massachusetts,
and in the following year one double
that size. BY 1876 Massachusetts, alone
had built seven hundred and thirty
vessels of from SIX tons to two hundred
and fifty. while in 1713 she employed
four hundred and ninety-two vessels
aggregating twenty-five Thousand four
hundred and six tons, and thirty-four
hundred and ninety-three seamen. The
exploits of buccaneers under men like
Kidd and Bellamy caused merchant
crews to be trained in the use of fire.
arms, while the whalers had their ad-
ventures in distant regions. Wars with
France in Canada, including two cap
lures of Port Royal and the reduction
of Louisburg. gave the colonists a
taste of naval warfare, and all these
experiences served to prepare them
for duties afioat when congress, at the
outbreak of the revolution, resolved to
have navy. The construction of five
ships of thirty-two guns, five of TWEEN
ty-eight and three Of twenty-four was
ordered at the close of 1775, and the
same year fourteen merchant vessels.
suitable for cruisers, were purchased.
Our first naval commander was old
Capt. Eek Hopkins, whose flagship,
the Alfred, was one of the eight cruis-
ers collected as a squadron at Philadel-
phia.
Early in January, 1916. he boarded
her. and then, at signal by Capt. Dud-
ley Saltonstall, First Lieut. John Jones
hoisted the first flag ever raised on an
American man-of-war-a yellow silk
flag, embellished with a pine tree and
a rattlesnake and the motto: Don't
tread on me-" Capt. Hopkins sailed to
the Bahamas, where a landing party,
under Capt Nicholas of the marines
for as early as November Q. 1775. con-
gress had ordered the raising of two
battalions of marines-captured fort
at New Providence with nearly eighty
guns. Afterward the squadron fell in
with the twenty-gun ship Glasgow,
which, however. handled the Ameri-
can vessels roughly and made her es-
cape.
1t would be long story to recount
the exploits of our young navy during
this war. In 177S we had fourteen
ships, carrying two hundred and thir-
ty-two guns, but the British had
eighty-nine ships on the North Ameri-
can coast, with two thousand five hun
dred and seventy-six guns, $50 that, as
may be imagined, French naval CO.
operation was much priced. But the
noteworthy naval feature of the war
was the energy of the American priva-
teers These and boat fiotillas from
land captured in all sixteen English
cruisers, mounting two hundred and
twenty-six guns, and while the total
continental loss, including both wrecks
and captures, was twenty-four vessels,
with four hundred and seventy guns,
that of the British. according to Mr..
Maclay, was one hundred and two war
vessels, with two thousand six hnn-
dred and twenty-five guns, and about
EIGHT hundred vessels of all kinds
were captured from the English by
American cruisers. privateers and by
private entarprisr.''
A Mr.. Woodbridge testified to the
house of lortls that up to February @,
ITS, Ave hundred and fifty-nine ships
had been captured or destroyed by
American pniyateers, exclusive of those
retaken and restored, and that their
value was estimated, with their car
goes, etc, at more than nine million
dollars. Mr.. Creighton put the esti-
mate at eleven million dollars, and in
surance rates had been doubled. Mr..
Maclay further includes in the good
work of the navy of the revolution the
supplying of munitions of war and the
capture of probably twelve thousand
prisoners, including about five hundred
English soldiers. Besides Eek Hop
:gins. the well-known commanders in
cludcd Barry, Manly, Mcneil and Hin
man, but the hero whose fame eclipsed
ill others was John Paul Jones. His
capture Of the Drake, his raids upon
:he shipping of Whitehaven, and his
immortal exploit in the Due de Duras
whose mans he changed in honor Of
Dr. Franklin to Bonhomme Richard
whsn Ne destroyed tbe ssrspis, Of