red_, a small converted merchantman, the
flagship of Commodore Hopkins. He joined the ship immediately, and in
the latter part of December he had the honor of hoisting with his own
hands the first naval flag of an American squadron. This was the
famous yellow silk banner with a rattlesnake and perhaps a pine tree
emblazoned upon it, and with the significant legend, "Don't tread on
me!"

Hopkins made an abortive expedition to New Providence, in which Jones
had but one opportunity to distinguish himself. At the peril of his
commission, when the regular pilots refused to do so, he volunteered to
take the _Alfred_ through a difficult and dangerous channel. Needless
to say, he succeeded--he always succeeded!

His first independent command was the little schooner _Providence_, of
seventy men and twelve four-pound guns. In the Fall of 1775 he made a
notable cruise in this schooner; he skirmished with, and escaped from,
by seamanship and daring, two heavy frigates, the _Solebay_ and the
_Milford_; in four months he captured sixteen vessels, eight of which
were sent in as prizes, five burned, three returned to certain poor
fishermen; and he destroyed property aggregating a million dollars.

Later, in command of the _Alfred_, with a short crew of one hundred and
fifty, when he should have had three hundred, he made another brilliant
cruise in {284} which he burned several British transports, captured
one store-ship, laden to the gunwales with priceless munitions of war
and supplies, cut out three of the supply fleet from under the guns of
the _Flora_ frigate, and had another smart brush with the _Milford_.

II. Jones First Hoists the Stars and Stripes

Commissioned captain on the 14th of June, 1777, in the same resolution
which established an American flag, he was ordered to the _Ranger_, a
little ship-rigged corvette of three hundred tons. In her, on the 4th
of July of the same year, he hoisted the first stars and stripes that
had ever waved over a ship-of-war. In Quiberon Bay--famous as one of
the battle-grounds of the world--on the evening of the 14th of
February, 1778, in the _Ranger_, he received the first formal
recognition ever given by a foreign fleet to the United States in a
salute to the American flag. As it was after sunset when the salutes
were exchanged, and in order that there should be no mistake about it,
the next morning, the 15th of February, Jones transferred his flag to
the _Independence_, a sm