CHAPTER XI. THE NAVY. Hon HILARY A. HERBERT, I.-The Navy of the Revolution. HE first blood of the Revolution was shed on the THE 19th of April, 1775. News travelled slowly at that day, but by the 11th of May, the sound of the cannon fired on Lexington Green had reached Machias, Maine. Immediately four gallant soldiers seized upon a sloop, called for volunteers.. to.. attack an armed English Schooner, the Margaretta, lying hard by, and in a few minutes thirty-five adventurous men had volunteered. They elected one of their number, Mr. O'Brien, to command and, badly armed as they were, they captured the schooner, though it was better armed and better manned, after a bloody struggle. Twenty men on the two sides were killed and wounded. This was the first naval engagement of the Revolution-an impromptu battle, born of the spirit of liberty and the result was an omen of the glorious future that awaited American seamen. Congress soon began to commission privateers, to build ships and organize a marine and, before the close of 1775, had authorized 17 cruisers, commissioned officers to command them and appointed "Esec Hopkins Esquire. Commander-in-chief." Thus the Continental Navy was born. more than six months before the Declaration of Independence. In October, 1776, the new Government had, building and built, 26 vessels, though many of them never got to sea. Several of the colonies had besides vessels of their own and such was the activity of American cruisers that in 1776 their captures amounted it is said, to 324 sail. Many disasters, of course, befell the Americans themselves. It could not be otherwise for they were fighting the greatest naval power in the world, but so successful were they that the supplies and munitions that fell into their hands proved invaluable to the colonies in their struggle for independence. eventful year. an The Randolph, 32 1777 was guns, after a cruise full of brave and successful ventures was blown up with the gallant Capt. Biddle, and all on board, in an engagement with the British Ship Yarmouth. The brig Cabot, the Hancock, 32 guns, and many merchant and other American vessels, were captured or destroyed. The colonies, feeble as they were, could ill afford such losses, but the gallant little marine came out of every struggle with untarnished honor, and their huge antagonist, whose shipping covered the seas, suf Not only fered still more severely than the colonies. did the English lose, as it is estimated, during this year, 467 sail of merchantmen, but their vessels of war, though there were seventy of them on the American coast, were in several instances defeated by their enterprising foes. It was in this year, 1777, that Congress adopted our national colors. The year 1778 opened with cheering prospects for the cause of Independence. Burgoyne had surrendered during the previous year. France, it was seen, was soon to ally herself with America; Congress was addressing itself more earnestly to the work of strengthening the Navy and patriots everywhere took heart. Capt. Rathburne with a sloop of 12 guns and less than thirty men made made a sudden descent upon the British at New Providence, seized the forts and stores and captured six vessels, one of them a privateer with 16 guns and fifty men. Captain John Barry by a brilliant dash with four row boats captured, in the Delaware River, a British Schooner of ten guns and four transports. Capt. John Paul Jones in the Ranger, after a brave struggle, captured the Drake, his superior in tonnage, men and metal. Capt. Waters, in the ship Thorn, 16, fought, at the same time, the Governor Tryon, 16, and the Sir William Erskine, 14. The Tryon surrendered. to the American and the Erskine saved itself by flight. The colonies had their losses too, though we have no space here to record all the victories or reverses of the American sailor during that memorable year. It is sufficient to say that the gallant little navy wrote another bright page in that glorious record upon which this generation looks back, through the vista of a hundred years, with SO much of affectionate admiration. 1779 Till the Close of The Revolution. The reputation achieved by our navy, if such it could be called, during the first four eventful years of the Revolution was fully maintained till the close of the struggle. Without any attempt to follow the current of history, for we have no time to go into particulars, let the fight between the Bon Homme Richard and the British Ship Serapis stand for an illustration of the spirit of the American mariner in the days of the Revolution. Each vessel mounted 42 guns, but the Englishman was a regular man-of-war while the Richard was an old Indiaman converted into a war vessel. The English vessel had 42 heavy guns while the American was armed partly with nine and twelve pounders. Indeed, after the first broadside, the Richard had nothing else to fight with, for the sailors refused to serve the remaining 18 pounders when two of them had bursted. The heavy broadsides of the Serapis were terribly destructive. The gunners on the Richard were mowed down like hay. The living leaped promptly forward but could not always supply the place of the dead. There was a mometary lull in the combat on the side of the Richard and Captain |