the war he received special honors from the French monarch, became
Vice-Admiral in the Russian navy, and when he died, the government of
France decreed him a public funeral.

There were other Americans at that time who became naval heroes only a
little less famous than Jones. There was John Manly, the veteran sailor
of Marblehead, whom Washington appointed Captain when he fitted out some
privateers at Boston before a navy was created. While the Congress were
talking about a navy, Manly was cruising off the coast of Massachusetts
in the armed schooner _Lee_, keenly watching for British vessels laden
with military supplies for the army in Boston. He captured three of them
laden with arms and munitions of war, then much needed by the patriots
who were besieging the New England capital.

There was young Nicholas Biddle, who had served with Nelson in the Royal
Navy, and who accompanied Hopkins to the Bahamas. He did gallant service
as commander of the _Randolph_, until she was blown up in battle, when
Biddle and all his men perished.

[Illustration: FRANKLIN ON HIS WAY TO FRANCE.--DRAWN BY HOWARD PYLE.]

There was Captain Wilkes, with the little _Reprisal_, of sixteen guns,
who frightened all England by his daring exploits. After fighting
British armed vessels, and taking several prizes in the West Indies, he
took Dr. Franklin, the representative of the Congress, to France. Then
he cruised in the Bay of Biscay, captured a number of English
merchantmen, and with the _Reprisal_ and two or three other small
vessels, sailed entirely around Ireland, sweeping the Channel its whole
length, destroying a number of merchant vessels, and creating great
alarm in all the British ports. Poor Wilkes perished soon afterward with
all his crew when his ship was wrecked on the rocks of Newfoundland.

New England privateers were very busy and successful, capturing no less
than thirty vessels laden with supplies for the British army in Boston.
Among the most active of these was a little Connecticut cruiser of
fourteen guns, named the _Defense_. She took prize after prize; and on a
starry night in June, 1776, she, with some other small vessels, fought
and conquered two British transports near Boston, laden with two hundred
soldiers and a large quantity of stores. By midsummer (1776), American
cruisers had captured more than five hundred British soldiers.

Captain Whipple, a bold Rhode-Islander, who, when a British naval
commander threatened