Give Me a Fast Ship by Tim McGrath

Author:Tim McGrath
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-06-12T07:00:00+00:00

To fight against the British and win our liberty.

We shipped with Captain Whipple who never knew a fear,

The Captain of the Providence, the Yankee privateer.40

On it went for six verses, adding color (in addition to erroneously calling the Providence a privateer) to what was as happy a tale of pluck as any in the war.41

On September 6, the Deane and Boston, accompanied by two of the thirteen prizes they had taken from the British that summer, including the Thorn, a sloop-of-war, sailed past Castle William, the fortress protecting Boston harbor, and docked at John Hancock’s wharf—the designated refitting station for all Continental vessels. But the gaiety and joy over Whipple’s arrival just two weeks earlier in Boston had turned dolorous; even Nicholson’s and Tucker’s great success could not overcome the disastrous news trickling in from Maine, at a place called Penobscot.42

Since the summer of 1778, John Paul Jones had been in France, watching the seasons change while his chances at fame and fortune dimmed. The notoriety he had achieved with the Whitehaven raid and victory over the Drake had lifted his spirits—and inflated his ego. Forgotten were the mishaps at Whitehaven and the near-comical kidnap attempt of the Earl of Selkirk. What the public remembered—as did Jones—was the panic he had put into play. In the weeks after his return to France, he had been congratulated by Benjamin Franklin, feted by Admiral d’Orvilliers, and taken under the wing of Louis Philippe Joseph, le Duc de Chartres, Grand Master of the French Masonic lodges. He even drew up his own coat of arms, ordering it engraved on a silver set he had purchased (perhaps inspired by Selkirk?).

Better yet, he learned from Franklin that l’Indien, the frigate he had been lusting for, was to be his. John Adams and Arthur Lee had been after Jones to turn the Ranger over to Simpson. With French Minister of Marine Antoine de Sartine’s assurances that l’Indien would shortly be in Brest, Jones happily declared his independence from both Simpson and the Ranger on the Fourth of July: “I will with your approbation not only pardon the past, but leave [Simpson] to command the Ranger,” he assured the commissioners, then accompanied them to a gala celebration of the Fourth at the Hôtel de Valentinois.43

While anxiously awaiting his frigate’s arrival, Jones divided his time between learning French, happily flirting with the ladies (which made the straitlaced John Adams jealous), and bombarding Franklin and Sartine with new plans to finish off Whitehaven, destroy the fishery at Cameltown, and take the Irish linen fleet. All he needed was “three very fast Sailing Frigates” and who knows? He might even destroy the coal industry at Newcastle, sending all Britain to shivering in the coming winter. He even sent George Washington a present: a pair of giant epaulets. “Command me without reserve,” he implored the general.44

But he did not get two more frigates; he did not even get l’Indien. The Dutch blamed slow construction, but the real reason was politics: they were not about to turn over such a warship to an American captain.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.