The mirror., 1922-06-08
Saltwater, Minnesota, Thursday, June 8, 1922.

a flag and signal by which our vessels
may know one another. What do you
think of flag with white ground,
tree in the middle, the motto appeal to
Heaven? This is the flag of our floating
batteries" The floating batteries to which
he referred were the germ of the Ameri-
can Navy.
AS the washington Navy" gradually
gave way to more consistent policy of
fighting the enemy on the sea by regular
naval force, due to the palpable impossi-
biity of administering a feet from the
shore, the Marine Committee in Congress,
charged with the Organization of a regu-
lar navy, looked to seamen for advice re-
garding not only the formation of a fleet,
but also the design of flag which was to
distinguish that force from the enemy.
Some time before the war broke out the
Union Jack of Great Britain was displayed
in the Massachusetts, Colony, in acknowl
edgment of its allegiance to Great Britain;
and as there no disposition on the part of
a majority of the people to sever connec-
ton with the British sovereign, the Union
American flag about to be established for
the use of the Navy. There were coupled
with the Jack thirteen red and white
stripes, which, with the cross of St. George,
had been used for nearly century as the
distinguishing mark for fagships of the
British Fleet. Consequently, in what was
known as the "Grand Union Flag" thus
formed, there were represented the mother
country to which the Colonies still belonged
in 1775, and the "sea-power" of the bud
ding republic.
This alag of America" as John Paul
Jones called it, was first hoisted by him
at the peak of the frigate alfred, of
which he was the first lieutenant and
temporary commander, at Philadelphia on
December 8, ITS, the day on which that
ship went into commission.
One Of the first men of the country to
realize the Importance of navy to the
struggling Colonies in the war for indie
pendence was John Adams, of Massachu-
sets. Brought up in State where mari
time affairs were paramount in its economic
policy, and being a student of history, he
could not fail to realize the truth of what
Gibbon wrote in his "Decine and Fall of
the Roman Empire" as automatic, that "the
country which controls the sea will have
dominion over the land" He was thus
early engaged in the cause of establishing
navy, and may justly be called "the
Founder of the American Navy" To him,
Silas Deane, of Connecticut, and few
ethers, Congress gave the authority to con-
struct or buy the first ships for the service.
The first regular naval feet, organized
for the defense of the Colonies as a ma
tional force, was composed of the men-of-
war, Alfred, Columbia, andrea Doria,
and Cabot, named after noted sailors. To
these were to be added few small vessels
coming from New England ports to the
Delaware with recruits to form the crews
for the feet. Most of these vessels had
assembled at Philadelphia, where the flag
ship Alfred of Admiral Esek Hopkins, of
Rhode Island, the first and only comman-
der-in-chief the Navy ever had, was COM
missioned as before stated. In order to
avoid being frozen into the harbor by the
coming on of winter the ships left Phila-
dephia in the latter part of December,