ngster, by his fair fight with and capture of an
English frigate. I always envied Hull that piece of good work." It is to
be suspected that the Admiral always felt that something was lacking to
the fullness of his cup, in that he had only been allowed to fight
forts, and not ships like his own; and it is no small evidence of the
generosity of his character that his enthusiasm was so aroused by the
deeds of others. He spoke of the fight between the Kearsarge and the
Alabama in as glowing terms as were aroused by his recollection of the
Constitution and the Guerriere. "I had sooner have fought that fight,"
he wrote, "than any ever fought upon the ocean."

[Footnote B: The writer remembers to have heard in his early days
in the service a tradition of a ship commanded by Creighton, which
he believes to have been the Washington, and which illustrates the
methods by which this extreme smartness was obtained. In each boat
at the booms was constantly a midshipman in full dress, cocked hat
included, so that no time might be lost in dropping alongside when
called away. The full crew was probably also kept in her.]

The Washington stopped a few days at Gibraltar, where the rest of the
squadron were then at anchor; and then sailed with all of them in
company to Naples. During the remainder of the year 1816 the ship
cruised along the Barbary coast until the winter had fairly set in, when
she with the other vessels repaired to Port Mahon. Although now so close
to the spot where his race originated, Farragut's journal betrays no
interest in the fact. He was still too young for the sentimental
considerations to weigh much in his mind; and it was not till many years
later, in the height of his glory as a naval commander, that he visited
his father's birthplace, Ciudadela, the capital city of Minorca. In the
following spring the squadron resumed its cruising and made quite a
round of the Mediterranean west of Italy; the journal mentioning visits
to Gibraltar, Malaga, Leghorn, Naples, Sicily, and the cities on the
Barbary coast. Farragut made full and intelligent use of the
opportunities thus afforded him for seeing the world; and his assiduous
habit of observation did much to store his mind with information, which
the circumstances of his early life had prevented his gaining in the
ordinary ways of school and reading. He was fortunate also at this time
in having the society of an intelligent and cultivated man, the chaplain