o, Pellew was brought into direct contact with the American
Revolution; for on board the frigate _Blonde_, Pownoll's ship, General
Burgoyne embarked in 1775 for Canada, there beginning the undertaking
which ended so disastrously for him. It is told that when the
distinguished passenger came on board, the yards being manned to receive
him with the honors due to his rank, he was startled to see on one
yardarm a midshipman standing on his head. Upon expressing alarm, he was
laughingly reassured by the captain, who said that Pellew--for he it was
who put this extra touch upon the general's reception--was quite capable
of dropping from the yard, passing under the ship's bottom, and coming
up on the other side. A few days later the young officer actually did
leap from the yardarm, the ship going fast through the water--not,
however, as bravado, but to aid a seaman who had fallen overboard, and
whom he succeeded in saving.

Throughout his youth the exuberant vitality of the man delighted in
these feats of wanton power. To overturn a boat by press of canvas, as a
frolic, is not unexampled among lads of daring; but it is at least
unusual, when a hat goes overboard, to follow it into the water, if
alone in a boat under sail. This Pellew did, on one occasion, when he
was old enough to know better; being at the moment in the open Channel,
in a small punt, going from Falmouth to Plymouth. The freak nearly cost
him his life; for, though he had lashed the helm down and hove-to the
boat, she fell off and gathered way whenever he approached. When at last
he laid hold of her rail, after an hour of this fooling, barely strength
remained to drag himself on board, where he fell helpless, and waited
long before his powers were restored. It is trite to note in such
exhibitions of recklessness many of the qualities of the ideal seaman,
though not so certainly those of the foreordained commander-in-chief.
Pellew was a born frigate captain.

At the end of 1775 the Americans were still engaged in the enterprise
against Quebec, the disastrous termination of which is familiarly known.
After the fall of General Montgomery in the unsuccessful night assault
of December 31, 1775, the American operations were reduced to a land
blockade of the town, which was cut off from the sea by ice in the
river. A close investment was thus maintained for five months, until
the early part of May, 1776, when the place was relieved by the arrival
of a small naval forc