!
Drink 'er glass ter 'Ole Si,' th' skipper from our kentry.
Give three cheers fer 'Ole Si,' Sky-high, Oh my!
Give three cheers fer 'Ole Si,' th' pride o' Newport's gentry."

[Illustration: From "The Army and Navy of the United States."
AMERICAN PRIVATEER CAPTURING TWO ENGLISH SHIPS.]

CAPTAIN "JOSH" BARNEY

THE IRREPRESSIBLE YANKEE

(1759-1818)

"Never strike your flag until you have to. And if you
have to, why let it come down easy-like, with one, last
gun,--fer luck."--_Maxims of 1812._

CAPTAIN "JOSH" BARNEY

THE IRREPRESSIBLE YANKEE

(1759-1818)

If you would hear of fighting brave,
Of war's alarms and prisons dark,
Then, listen to the tale I tell,
Of Yankee pluck--and cruising barque,
Which, battling on the rolling sea,
There fought and won,--Can such things be?

It was about eight o'clock in the evening. The moon was bright, and as
the privateer _Pomona_ swung along in the fresh breeze, her Captain,
Isaiah Robinson of New York, laid his hand softly upon the shoulder of
his first officer, Joshua Barney, saying,

"A ship off the lee-quarter, Barney, she's an Englishman, or else my
name's not Robinson."

Barney raised his glass.

"A British brig, and after us, too. She's a fast sailer and is
overhauling us. But we'll let her have a broadside from our twelve
guns and I believe that we can stop her."

The _Pomona_ carried thirty-five men. Laden with tobacco for Bordeaux,
France, she was headed for that sunny land,--but all ready for a
fight, if one should come to her. And for this she carried twelve
guns, as her first officer had said.

The British boat came nearer and nearer. Finally she was close enough
for a voice to be heard from her deck, and she ran up her colors. A
cry came from the black body,

"What ship is that?"

There was no reply, but the Stars and Stripes were soon floating from
the mainmast of the American.

"Haul down those colors!" came from the Britisher.

There was no answer, but the _Pomona_ swung around so that her port
guns could bear, and a clashing broadside plunged into the pursuer.
Down came her fore-topsail, the rigging cut and torn in many places,
and, as the American again showed her heels, the British captain cried
out,

"All sail aloft and catch the saucy and insolent privateer!"

Then commenced one of the most interesting running actions of American
naval history.

"The cursed American h