"
To this Whipple, nothing daunted, replied: "Sir, always catch a
man before you hang him."
Whipple was never caught until 1778, when with his ship the Providence
he tried to relieve Charleston, in South Carolina, which was at
that time besieged by the British. Then he was not hanged, but kept
prisoner until the end of the war.
Lambert Wickes, captain of the Reprisal, was another gallant naval
officer. When Benjamin Franklin was sent as United States ambassador
to France in 1776 he sailed in the Reprisal, which was the first
American warship to visit the shores of Europe.
It might be here interesting to note that besides being minister
to France, Franklin had to look after naval affairs in a general
way. He used his powers with wisdom, and often with great humanity.
Among other things he gave all American naval commanders orders
that they were not to attack the great discoverer, Captain Cook,
no matter in what part of the ocean they might meet him. They were
not merely forbidden to attack him, they were even commanded to
offer him any aid they could. For it would not beseem Americans,
said Franklin, to fight against one who had earned the admiration
of the whole world.
The Reprisal did not return home before it had made its presence
felt. For, having landed Franklin, Wickes cruised about the Bay of
Biscay and the English Channel, capturing many British merchantmen,
and taking them to France, where he sold them.
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