udiments, and well he understood
the science. All his predilections were for the sea.

Having deserted the counting room, young Barney, at the age of twelve,
was placed for nautical instruction in a pilot-boat at Baltimore, till
he was apprenticed to his brother-in-law. At the age of fourteen, he
was appointed second mate, with the approbation of the owners, and
before he was sixteen he was called upon to take charge of his ship at
sea, in which the master had died. This was on a voyage to Nice. The
ship was in such a state that it was barely possible to make
Gibraltar, where for necessary repairs he pledged her for L700, to be
repaid by the consignee at Nice, who however declined, and called in
the aid of the Governor to compel Barney to deliver the cargo, which
he had refused to do. He was imprisoned, but set at large on some
intimation that he would do as desired, but when he came on board, he
struck his flag, and removed his crew, choosing to consider his vessel
as captured. He then set out for Milan, to solicit the aid of the
British Ambassador there, in which he succeeded so well that the
authorities of Nice met him on his return to apologize for their
conduct. The assignee paid the bond, and Barney sailed for Alicant,
where his vessel was detained for the use of the great armada, then
fitting out against Algiers, the fate of which was a total and
shameful defeat. On his return home, his employer was so well
satisfied with his conduct, that he became his firm friend ever after.

He soon offered himself as second in command on board the sloop
Hornet, of ten guns, one of two vessels then preparing for a cruise
under Commodore Hopkins, for this was in the early part of the
revolution. The sloop fell in with a British tender, which she might
have captured, but for the timidity of the American captain. The
tender, mistaking her enemy, ran alongside and exposed herself to much
danger.--Barney stood by one of the guns as the enemy came near, and
was about to apply the match, when the bold commander commanded him to
desist. Barney, whose spirit revolted at such a cause, threw his
match-stick at the captain, with such force that the iron point stuck
in the door of the round-house. This, in a youth not seventeen, urged
well for the pugnacity of the man. At the end of this cruise, he
volunteered on board the schooner Wasp, in which he soon had a brush
with the Roebuck and another frigate, and with the aid of some galleys
i