hiefs to America.
Richard Derby's vessels had eluded or banged away at the privateers
during the French War from 1756 to 1763, mounting from eight to twelve
guns, "with four cannon below decks for close quarters." Of such a
temper was this old sea-dog who led the militia and defiantly halted
General Gage's regulars at the North River bridge in Salem, two full
months before the skirmish at Lexington. Eight of the nineteen cannon
which it was proposed to seize from the patriots had been taken from the
ships of Captain Richard Derby and stored in his warehouse for the use
of the Provincial Congress.

It was Richard's son, Captain John Derby, who carried to England in the
swift schooner Quero the first news of the affair at Lexington, ahead of
the King's messenger. A sensational arrival, if ever there was one! This
Salem shipmaster, cracking on sail like a proper son of his sire, making
the passage in twenty-nine days and handsomely beating the lubberly
Royal Express Packet Sukey which left Boston four days sooner, and
startling the British nation with the tidings which meant the loss of an
American empire! A singular coincidence was that this same Captain John
Derby should have been the first mariner to inform the United States
that peace had come, when he arrived from France in 1783 with the
message that a treaty had been signed.

Elias Hasket Derby was another son of Richard. When his manifold
energies were crippled by the war, he diverted his ability and abundant
resources into privateering. He was interested in at least eighty of the
privateers out of Salem, invariably subscribing for such shares as might
not be taken up by his fellow-townsmen. He soon perceived that many
of these craft were wretchedly unfit for the purpose and were easily
captured or wrecked. It was characteristic of his genius that he
should establish shipyards of his own, turn his attention to naval
architecture, and begin to build a class of vessels vastly superior in
size, model, and speed to any previously launched in the colonies. They
were designed to meet the small cruiser of the British Navy on even
terms and were remarkably successful, both in enriching their owner and
in defying the enemy.

At the end of the war Elias Hasket Derby discovered that these fine
ships were too large and costly to ply up and down the coast. Instead
of bewailing his hard lot, he resolved to send them to the other side of
the globe. At a time when the British an