The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-06-21
OUR JACK TARS.
Something About the Early Wars
in Which They Fought.

The American navy has a splendid
battle record in the early wars of our
country. From a recent history of the
navy, prepared by Edgar Stanton Mae
lay. a. NJ, 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.. Mae
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 hundred-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 17l3 she employed
four hundred and ninetT-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
taste of naval warfare, and all these
Cd 10 10
for duties afioat when congress, at the
outbreak of the revolution. resolved to
have a navy. The construction of five
ships of thirty-two guns, five of TWEEN
tv-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, 171G, he boarded
her. and then. at a 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 pine tree and
a rattlesnake and the motto: Don't
tread on me-" Capt. Hopkins sailed to
;he Bahamas, where a landing party,
under Capt. Nicholas of the marines
for as early as November 8, 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 ITS 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
bred and seventy-six guns, so that, as
may be imagined, French naval CO.
operation was much priced. But the
noteworthy naval feature of the war
vas the energy of the American priva-
teers These and boat f1otillas 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
ressels, with two thousand six hun
eight hundred vessels of all kinds
were captured from the English by
American cruisers, privateers and by
private enterprise
A Mr.. Woodbridge testified to the
house of lords that up to February g.,
TITS. five hundred and ffty-nine ships
had been captured or destroyed by
American privateers, exclusive of those
retallen 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
kins, the well-known commanders in
cluded Barry, Manly, Mcneil and Hin
man. but the hero whose fame eclipsed
all others was John Paul Jones. His
capture of the Drake. his raids upon
the shipping of Whitehaven, and his
immortal exploit in the Due de Duras
whose name he changed in honor of
DIR. Franklin to Bonhomme Richard
when he destroyed the Scraps, of