had served with him in the late cruise, couched in substance as follows: To the honourable the President of Congress of the United States of America: These certify, that the bearer having served under my command in the capacity of midshipman on board of the Good Man Richard, a ship of war belonging to the United States, until she was lost in the action with the Serapis, an English ship of war of superior force; and since on board of the last mentioned ship and Alliance frigate, his bravery and good conduct on board of the first mentioned ship and while he has been in the service, will, I hope, recommend him to the notice of Congress, and his country, and believing as I do, that he will in a higher station, make a meritorious and deserving sea officer, I subscribe myself to these presents. (Signed) Done on board of the United J. P. JONES. It must be here acknowledged that Captain Jones treated his midshipmen with a good deal of respect in some particulars, and in others with a degree of severity. I will mention instances of both, and leave the reader to judge whether my assertions are correct. It was a constant practise with Captain Jones every day, to invite two midshipmen to dine with him; there were six of us in all, four of whom were rated upon the ship's books, the other two were only active* midshipmen, and these received no pay for their services. When we went to dine with him we were obliged to appear in the great cabin, with our best clothes on, otherwise we were sure not to meet with a favourable reception from him. He almost always conversed with his midshipmen as freely as he did with his lieuten *Acting. ants, sailing master or purser; but he made us do our duty. When at sea, he would always, I mean in the daytime, have one midshipman aloft to look out, either upon the main top gallant yard or main top gallant cross trees, or upon the fore top gallant yard or fore top gallant cross trees. And it sometimes happened that when one sat upon the top gallant yard, and Jones thought he was not as attentive as he ought to be in looking out, he would himself let go the top gallant haulyards, and the poor midshipman would come down by the run until the lifts of the yard brought him up of a sudden, and he would, you may be sure, feel himself happy, if he did not by the shock get severely hurt, I had almost said unmercifully. Another piece of duty which he required of his midshipmen, and that was that whenever all hands were called to reef the topsails, or to shake the reef out of them, one midshipman was obliged to be at each yard arm to pass the earings. And whenever this happened, that all hands were called to reef or let reefs out of the topsails, especially when perhaps it might arrive when the greater number of us were asleep in our berths. It was quite laughable to see at such a time, what a scrambling there would be with the poor midshipmen; some would mount aloft without anything on but their shirt, and perhaps a thin pair of drawers, all with a view of getting upon the weather yard arms. I have myself many a time mounted aloft in this plight. Thus much I presume will suffice for this class of Jones's officers. The Dutch had lying at anchor in the Texel at this time one 64, on board of which was hoisted the Dutch admiral's flag, several 50's and frigates. On the morning of the 17th of December, the Dutch admiral sent his barge on board of us with an officer, who told Captain Jones that the admiral had no orders to countenance the American flag, and I am commanded by him, says he, to tell you that you must immediately get under way and stand off to sea, unless you wish to incur the admiral's highest displeasure. Captain Jones heard this message delivered without appearing to be offended and dismissed the officer after having treated him in a very polite manner, telling him to acquaint the admiral that as soon as the wind was fair, his intentions were to go to sea. At this time the Alliance was the only American ship in the Texel which wore the thirteen stripes. The English squadron were still cruising in the offing, and were in sight of us almost every day. Notwithstanding this Jones did not like to be thus shut up in port; the active and enterprising genius that possessed his breast could not brook this. Besides, the Dutch admiral tormented him with insolent messages. And at length it became customary for him to send his barge every day with a Dutch officer in her to command us to depart; sometimes this order came accompanied with threats, and at other times with fair words. This farce continued for several days, during which time the wind remained contrary. At last Jones became weary of being thus used, and he in a very passionate manner, sent word to the Dutch admiral that he did not like to be imposed upon; and that although he (the admiral) had the honour of commanding a 64 gun ship, yet if he was at sea with the Alliance, the admiral would not dare to insult him there, in such an abusive manner as he had here done. After this the Admiral sent his barge no more on board of us, till the day on which we sailed from the Texel; at which time he sent his boats to assist us in getting under way, and in working out over the bar. This took place on the 28th day of December, about ten in the morning, and at meridian we had got pretty clear of the bar, when we descried two ships in the offing standing directly for us. We soon discovered them to be two ships and they approached us nearly within gun shot, then tacked, of war, hoisted English colours, and stood from us.* At the same time all hands were at quarters on board of our ship and my station was in the maintop as before. It is my opinion, that if these two English ships of war had now engaged us, we should have given them Yankee play; and the night of the 22d of September would have been acted over again. However, it evidently appeared by their manoeuvering that they were afraid of us. We did not alter our course, the wind being fair for the Straits of Dover or English Channel, to which place we shaped our course. The two English ships of war kept in sight of us, and we were called to quarters several times during the night past. They kept on dogging us; sometimes they would shorten sail and drop astern of us, and sometimes they would make sail as though it was their intention to come alongside of us and give us battle. And as soon as they saw we were prepared to receive them, they would sheer off and keep out of gun shot. On the 1st day of January, 1780, we were abreast of Goodwin Sands, and saw several English men of war lying within them. Our thirteen stripes now floated over our stern, and we had a long streaming pendant aloft, and an American Jack set forward. I believe those John Englishmen who now saw us thought we were pretty saucy fellows, and they were perhaps the first American colours some of them had ever seen. At 2 P.M. the two frigates which had dogged us from the Texel bar came very near us, and by their manoeuvering appeared to be making preparations to engage us; however, as soon as they had come within long gun shot (for Captain Jones had directed those who had charge of our great guns not to fire upon the enemy, until they were within pistol shot) they immediately tacked ship and stood from us a great distance. After which they tacked ship and *We learned afterwards that one of these ships was a 28 and the other a 32 gun frigate, sent express from England to relieve the English squadron off the Texel, and to take us. stood for us again for some time. We now sailed very quietly along the English shore, it being upon our starboard hand about two leagues, with a fine leading breeze at about N.E. with American colours waving in the air and nearly all sail set, and appeared, to be sure, to bid defiance to old England and her wooden walls. The Yankees had now spirit and resolution enough to batter some of them to pieces if they would but give us a fair trial. We had by this time got abreast of the east end of the Isle of Wight, and could plainly see the English fleet of men of war lying at anchor at Spithead. The two frigates which had threatened to give us battle so often now appeared to be resolved to have it realized. Accordingly, the largest ship who appeared to be the commodore's, hoisted his broad pendant, by way of giving us a challenge, and made several signals which we could not understand, and both ships hauled up their courses, handed their top gallant sails, and appeared to be slinging their yards: this now looked like coming to the point in good earnest. On board of our ship we were ready and in high spirits, and every officer, man and boy, to his station. We had shortened sail for the enemy to come up to us, as we had done all along when we thought they wished to come alongside of us. The enemy had now got within musket shot of us, and we expected the action would commence in one or two minutes more-no such thing took place. The enemy, as we supposed, frightened at our formidable and warlike appearance, all at once dropped their courses, got on board their fore and main tacks and trimmed their sails by the wind, took to their heels and ran away. We made sail after the cowards, and was fast gaining on them, when we found we were chased in our turn by an English ship of the line which had slipped her cables at Spithead on perceiving that we were an enemy. We could now comprehend what the largest of the two English frigates made those signals for, which I made mention of; it was no |