was its best commander, next to
Jones, and the Randolph was its best ship. Luckily the French alliance
placed the French fleet at the disposal of the colonies--or Cornwallis
would never have been captured at Yorktown.

It is one of our polite fictions that the United States has always been
victorious in war; but, as a matter of fact, we were not victorious in
the second war with England, and, when the treaty of peace came to be
signed, abandoned practically all the contentions which war had been
declared to maintain. On land, the war was, for the most part, a series
of costly blunders, beginning with the surrender of Detroit, and closing
with the sack of Washington, and had England had her hands free of
Napoleon, the result for us might have been very serious. The only
considerable and decisive victory won by American arms was that of
Andrew Jackson at New Orleans--a battle fought after the treaty of peace
had been signed.

But on the ocean there was a different story--a series of brilliant
victories which, while they did not seriously cripple the great English
navy, caused Canning to declare in Parliament that "the sacred spell of
the invincibility of the British navy is broken." The heaviest blow was
struck to British commerce, no less than sixteen hundred English
merchantmen falling victims to privateers and ships-of-war.

The group of men who commanded the American vessels was a most
remarkable one, and their fighting qualities were worthy in every way of
John Paul Jones. First blood was drawn by David Porter, illustrious
scion of a family which gave five generations to brilliant service in
the navy. On August 13, 1812, Porter, with the Essex, engaged in a
sharp battle with the British ship Alert, which, after an action of
eight minutes, surrendered in a sinking condition. He had seen hard
service before that, had been twice impressed by British vessels and
twice escaped, had fought French and pirates, and spent some time in a
prison in Tripoli.

After his capture of the Alert, he went on a cruise in the Pacific,
destroying the English whale fisheries there, capturing booty valued at
two and a half million dollars, and taking four hundred prisoners. So
great was the damage he inflicted, that a British squadron was fitted
out and sent to the Pacific to capture him, found him in a partially
disabled condition in the harbor of Valparaiso, and, disregarding the
neutrality of the port, sailed in and attacked him. Th