sailer, that the "Alliance" might catch up with the British fleet, and
be knocked to pieces by their guns, before the Frenchman could get
within range. Accordingly he abandoned the chase in disgust, and
renewed his homeward course. Some years later, an American gentleman
travelling in Europe met the British naval officer who commanded the
frigate which Barry had engaged. This officer, then a vice-admiral,
declared that he had never before seen a ship so ably fought as was
the "Alliance," and acknowledged that the presence of his consorts
alone saved him a drubbing.

This engagement was the last fought by the "Alliance" during the
Revolution, and with it we practically complete our narrative of the
work of the regular navy during that war. One slight disaster to the
American cause alone remains to be mentioned. The "Confederacy," a
thirty-two-gun frigate built in 1778, was captured by the enemy in
1781. She was an unlucky ship, having been totally dismasted on her
first cruise, and captured by an overwhelming force on her second.

Though this chapter completes the story of the regular navy during the
Revolution, there remain many important naval events to be described
in an ensuing chapter. The work of the ships fitted out by Congress
was aided greatly by the armed cruisers furnished by individual
States, and privateers. Some of the exploits of these crafts and some
desultory maritime hostilities we shall describe in the next chapter.
And if the story of the United States navy, as told in these few
chapters, seems a record of events trivial as compared with the
gigantic naval struggles of 1812 and 1861, it must be remembered that
not only were naval architecture and ordnance in their infancy in
1776, but that the country was young, and its sailors unused to the
ways of war. But that country, young as it was, produced Paul Jones;
and it is to be questioned whether any naval war since has brought
forth a braver or nobler naval officer, or one more skilled in the
handling of a single ship-of-war.

The result of the war of the Revolution is known to all. A new nation
was created by it. These pages will perhaps convince their readers
that to the navy was due somewhat the creation of that nation. And if
to-day, in its power and might, the United States seems inclined to
throw off the navy and belittle its importance, let the memory of Paul
Jones and his colleagues be conjured up, to awaken the old enthusiasm
over the triump