Providence. He enlisted in
Washington's army, but left it to become a privateer; and from that
service he stepped to the quarter-deck of a man-of-war. This was not an
uncommon line of development for the early privateersmen; and, indeed, it
was not unusual to find navy officers, temporarily without commands,
taking a cruise or two as privateers, until Congress should provide more
ships for the regular service--a system which did not tend to make a
Congress, which was niggardly at best, hasten to provide public vessels
for work which was being reasonably well done at private expense. As a
result of this system, we find such famous naval names as Decatur, Porter,
Hopkins, Preble, Barry, and Barney also figuring in the lists of
privateersmen. Talbot's first notable exploit was clearing New York harbor
of several British men-of-war by the use of fire-ships. Washington, with
his army, was then encamped at Harlem Heights, and the British ships were
in the Hudson River menacing his flank. Talbot, in a fire-ship, well
loaded with combustibles, dropped down the river and made for the biggest
of the enemy's fleet, the "Asia." Though quickly discovered and made the
target of the enemy's battery, he held his vessel on her course until
fairly alongside of and entangled with the "Asia," when the fuses were
lighted and the volcanic craft burst into roaring flames from stem to
stern. So rapid was the progress of the flames that Talbot and his
companions could scarcely escape with their lives from the conflagration
they had themselves started, and he lay for days, badly burned and unable
to see, in a little log hut on the Jersey shore. The British ships were
not destroyed; but, convinced that the neighborhood was unsafe for them,
they dropped down the bay; so the end sought for was attained. In 1779
Talbot was given command of the sloop "Argo," of 100 tons; "a mere
shallop, like a clumsy Albany sloop," says his biographer. Sixty men from
the army, most of whom had served afloat, were given him for crew, and he
set out to clear Long Island Sound of Tory privateers; for the loyalists
in New York were quite as avid for spoils as the New England
Revolutionists. On his second cruise he took seven prizes, including two
of these privateers. One of these was a 300-ton ship, vastly superior to
the "Argo" in armament and numbers, and the battle was a fierce one.
Nearly every man on the quarter-deck of the "Argo" was killed or wounded;
the speaking