Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-13

OF golden harps, they would probably be
OF tremendous uplifting of the spirit
sly aureoled in its beginning should not
were at church on Sunday, March 10.
Tn, English got word of the attempt,
and, jumping out of the church win
dows, beat it to their vessel. Once on
board, they lost no time in unmoorinp
and dropping down to a safer anchor
age. MachiaS men got out their rifles
and S~hotguns, also scythes, axes and
croWbars, seized a sloop and gave chase.
The schooner tried to get away, but the
sioop outfooted her and the two vessels
came to a ha~nd-to-hand grapple some
distance of the mouth of the harbor.
The schooner had 4 guns and IA
swtvels. The sloop was without heavy
guns, but the men on board were in
nnltely the better shots. With their
handy rifles they kept the quarterback
OF the Margaretta swept clear of helms
men until the sloop ran alongside, when
a battle began on the schooner deck.
The Machias men proved their fighting
qualities and 500 had the schooner
crew prisoners.
The leader of this fight, the . first
naval encounter of the Revolution, was
a Machiasan named O'Brien-Jeremiah
OBrien. From his name and his deeds
some have surmised that he may have
been of Irish descent.
He showed the kind of stuff he was
made of by transferring the armament
OF the Marguerite to his sloop and
setting out after further captures. When
the British heard of the loss of their
schooner they sent out two war vessels
10 get the valorouS O'Brien. He ma
neuvered his sloop until he had separated
his pursuers, when he returned and
captured them, one after the other. and
took them into Watertown, Mass, where
the Massachusetts, Legislature, being
the In session, voted him high honors
ana a captains commission.
LAMBERT wICKEs.
MINE months before the Declaration
Of independence, and while a re-
public was only dreamed of, the Cont
mental Congress started the beginning
Of the foundation Of the American Navy
by ordering two cruisers to be built, one
OF 10 guns, the other of IA. Two
months later they voted for Is addi-
tional cruisers. Aspiring young seamen,
eager to serve the Revolution, sought
command of these vessels.
One Of them was a Yankee named
Lambert Wickes, then about IS. He
had command of a small S~loop-of-war
called the RepriSaI and took her to
Europe, being the first American war
vessel to appear in European waters.
He did not idle as he went along, but
captured everything he saw afloat and
arrived with a trail of prizes. This
being good business, he Immediately
chased out after more; but not before
the British Ambassador, stung to fury
by the American impudence, had begun
the protests that angered the French
and helped to drive France into the
war.
Wickes secured the English Channel
and captured prize after prize, among
them a richly ladden royal packet run
ming between Falmouth and Lisbon.
When these arrived in French ports,
the British renewed their protest, and
the French, to avoid a breach of peace,
obliged Wickes to sell his prizes outside
of the three-mile limit, which he did
handily and with profit. The money he
reaped in this way was Of invaluable
advantage to the American commits
sionerS then in France, for it not only
enabled them to maintain themselves in
impressive state, but to buy and equip
ships for the new navy, which immedi-
ately became additional thorns in the
British side.
When his last prize had been dis
posed of, Wickes, with two other vessels
flying the American flag, doomed out
from Nantes, and for weeks harried
the British Channel of everything
smaller than a frigate, and spreading
a novel terror in the best commercial
circles. Once he was chased desperate
ly by a British line-of-battle ship, but
| escaped safely into a French port.
His exploits were now ably seconded
by another OF his W stripe
X X X Il
GUSTAVUS CUNNINGHAM.
THIS was a gentleman and a sailor,
n of whom it would seem we
know too little. With the proceeds Of
Wickes' amazing string of prizes the
American commissioners secured, with
many other things, a fast cruiser, to
which they gave the name of Surprise,
though it was not long before she
seemed to have merited rather the
name of the AStonisher.
CUNNINGHAM sailed up and down the
EngllSh ana irish cnannelS, making 50
many prizes that at last he had scarcely
men enough to handle his own ship. In
a few weeks he and Wickes had shaken
the business Of England with an I'M
precedented terror. Merchants no longer
dared to ship their goods under the
English flag, and at one time as many
as 40 French vessels were counted in
the Thames loading with English freight
something never known before. In
surance rose to unprecedented rates.
Even for the passage of ID miles, from
Dover to Calais, almost under the guns
of Dover Castle and in sight Of the
naval station, 10 per cent additional was
charged. Not an English merchant YES
sci would leave port for Ireland with
out armed escort.
Capt. Cunningham seems to have
had his nerve with him.
When the Surprise, after many fights
and adventures, was in need of repairs,
he painted out the name of his ship
painted in another, hoisted the British
flag and ran into a British port, where
he hired British workmen to put his
!, ship in order. Then he ran across tc
|. a port in Ireland, entered boldly, bought
!, supplies, gave in payment orders on ar
) agent in Spain and coolly sailed away
2, As the British navy In these port.
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