re seen running down the streets in
the direction of Griffin's Wharf, where the tea-ships were moored, and
thither the people turned their steps.

On reaching the wharf, a scene of wild confusion was witnessed. The
three tea-ships lay side by side at the wharf. Their decks were
crowded with men, many of them wearing the Indian disguise. The
hatches were off the hatchways; and the chests of tea were being
rapidly passed up, broken open, and thrown overboard. There was little
noise, as the workers seemed to be well disciplined, and went about
their work in the bright moonlight with systematic activity. In about
three hours the work was done. Three hundred and forty-two chests of
tea had been thrown overboard, and the rioters dispersed quietly to
their homes.

The incident of the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor was the
last of the petty incidents that led up to the American Revolution.
Following quick upon it came Lexington, Concord, and Bunker
Hill,--then the great conflict was fairly under way, and the Colonies
were fighting for liberty. What part the sailors of the colonies took
in that struggle, it is the purpose of this book to recount.

CHAPTER IV.

THE BEGINNING OF THE NAVY. -- LEXINGTON AND CONCORD. -- A
BLOW STRUCK IN MAINE. -- CAPTURE OF THE "MARGARETTA." --
GEN. WASHINGTON AND THE NAVY. -- WORK OF CAPT. MANLY.

In treating of the history of the navy during the war of the
Revolution, we must always bear in mind the fact, that, during the
greater part of that war, there was no navy. Indeed, the subject
presents much the same aspect as the celebrated chapter on snakes in
Ireland, which consisted of exactly six words, "There are no snakes in
Ireland." So many of the episodes and incidents of the Revolutionary
war that we chronicle as part of the naval history of that struggle
are naval only in that they took place on the water. The participants
in them were often longshoremen, fishermen, or privateersmen, and but
seldom sailors enrolled in the regular navy of the united colonies.
Nevertheless, these irregular forces accomplished some results that
would be creditable to a navy in the highest state of efficiency and
discipline.

The expense of building vessels-of-war, and the difficulty, amounting
even to impossibility, of procuring cannon for their armament,
deterred the Colonies from equipping a naval force. All the energies
of the revolutionists were directed towards organizin