all conditions was one of the most important
factors in his success. He saved his ship on one occasion, when she was
becalmed and practically surrounded by a powerful British fleet, by
"kedging"--in other words, sending a row-boat out with an anchor, which
was dropped as far ahead as the boat could take it, and the ship pulled
up to it by means of the windlass. As soon as the British saw him doing
this, they tried it too, but Hull managed to get away from them by
almost superhuman exertions. He served in the navy for many years after
his memorable victory over the Guerriere, but never achieved another so
notable.

The second capture of a British frigate in the war of 1812 was made by
Stephen Decatur, who had distinguished himself years before by an
exploit which Lord Nelson called "the most daring act of the age."
Decatur, who possessed in unusual degree the dash and brilliance so
valuable in a naval commander, came naturally by his love of the sea,
for his grandfather had been an officer in the French navy, and his
father was a captain in the navy of the United States.

Entering the service at the age of eighteen, his first cruise was in the
frigate, United States, which he was afterwards to command. He rose
steadily in the service and got his first command six years later, being
given the sixteen-gun brig Argus, and sent with Commodore Preble to
assist in subduing the Barbary corsairs.

It is difficult to-day to realize that there was a time when the United
States paid tribute to anybody, more especially to a power so
insignificant as the Barbary States. Yet such was the fact. Lying along
the north coast of Africa were the half-civilized states of Morocco,
Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers, and most of their income was from piracy.
All merchantmen were their prey; they divided the loot and sold the
crews into slavery. Many nations, to secure immunity from these
outrages, paid a stated sum yearly to these powers, and the United
States was one of them.

Why the nations did not join together and wipe the pirates out of
existence is difficult to understand, but so it was. On one occasion,
Congress actually revoked an order for some new ships for the navy, and
used the appropriation to buy off the Barbary powers. The fund was known
as the "Mediterranean Fund," and was intrusted to the secretary of state
to expend as might be necessary. But after a while, the Barbary powers
became so outrageous in their demands, that it occur