lgrims and the event
represented in this picture one hundred and fifty-eight years had
elapsed. The hardy pioneers who had ventured across the ocean in
considerable numbers had increased to thirteen colonies, the Declaration
of Independence had been signed, the War of the Revolution was being
fought, a preliminary confederation had been formed among the thirteen
States, the first American Congress had met, and this, on June 14, 1777,
"Resolved that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen
stripes, alternate red and white; and the Union be thirteen white stars
on a blue field," and on the same day had appointed John Paul Jones,
usually known as Paul Jones, to the command of the "Ranger," who soon
thereafter hoisted the new flag on board that vessel at Portsmouth. The
"Ranger" set out to sea about November 1st, her battery consisting of
sixteen six-pounders, throwing only forty-eight pounds of shot from a
broadside, an armament which appears grotesquely lilliputian in
comparison with the thirteen-inch guns, firing projectiles of over half
a ton from our steel-armored battleships of to-day, which cost as much
as five million dollars and are of 16,000 tons burden. With this little
ship he sailed to Europe, capturing two prizes on the way, and, after
touching at Nantes, sailed to Quiberon Bay, east of Quiberon, on the Bay
of Biscay, a small town and peninsula about twenty-two miles south-east
of Lorient, convoying some American vessels, and placing them under the
protection of the French fleet commanded by Admiral La Motte Piquet. The
story represented in this picture he tells in his own language in a
letter to the Naval Committee, dated February 22, 1778: "I am happy to
have it in my power to congratulate on my having seen the American flag
for the first time recognized in the fullest and completest manner by
the flag of France." He then recounts how, after preliminary
communications with the Admiral, the latter thus honored the flag on
February 13th, which he characterized as "an acknowledgment of American
independence."

This, as well as each of the five subsequent paintings, depicts an
important event in the history of our navy, and must be dear to every
American heart in the incident which is thus perpetuated. The American
flag is proudly displayed from the masthead and stern of the "Ranger,"
and the coloring is so adjusted that the flag appears to wave in the
brightest light of the picture. The smoke of the b