ts were flying on our coast. Were we able to prevent their going
in and out, or stop them from taking our trade and our storeships even
in sight of our garrisons? Besides, were they not in the English and
Irish Channels, picking up our homeward bound trade, sending their
prizes into French and Spanish ports to the great terror of our
merchants and shipowners?"

The naval forces of the Thirteen Colonies were pitifully feeble in
comparison with the mighty fleets of the enemy whose flaming broadsides
upheld the ancient doctrine that "the Monarchs of Great Britain have a
peculiar and Sovereign authority upon the Ocean... from the Laws of God
and of Nature, besides an uninterrupted Fruition of it for so many Ages
past as that its Beginnings cannot be traced out." *

* "The Seaman's Vade-Mecum." London, 1744.

In 1776 only thirty-one Continental cruisers of all classes were in
commission, and this number was swiftly diminished by capture and
blockade until in 1782 no more than seven ships flew the flag of the
American Navy. On the other hand, at the close of 1777, one hundred and
seventy-four private armed vessels had been commissioned, mounting two
thousand guns and carrying nine thousand men. During this brief period
of the war they took as prizes 733 British merchantmen and inflicted
losses of more than two million pounds sterling. Over ten thousand
seamen were made prisoners at a time when England sorely needed them for
drafting into her navy. To lose them was a far more serious matter than
for General Washington to capture as many Hessian mercenaries who could
be replaced by purchase.

In some respects privateering as waged a century and more ago was a
sordid, unlovely business, the ruling motive being rather a greed of
gain than an ardent love of country. Shares in lucky ships were bought
and sold in the gambling spirit of a stock exchange. Fortunes were won
and lost regardless of the public service. It became almost impossible
to recruit men for the navy because they preferred the chance of booty
in a privateer. For instance, the State of Massachusetts bought a
twenty-gun ship, the Protector, as a contribution to the naval strength,
and one of her crew, Ebenezer Fox, wrote of the effort to enlist
sufficient men: "The recruiting business went on slowly, however, but
at length upwards of three hundred men were carried, dragged, and driven
abroad; of all ages, kinds, and descriptions; in all the various stages