ography of Liberge de
Granchain, chief of staff to the French squadron under Ternay.

[154] Diary of a French officer, 1781; Magazine of American History
for March, 1880. The works at the time of Rodney's visit to New York
were doubtless less complete than in 1781. This authority, a year
later, gives the work on Rose Island twenty 36-pounders.

[155] Sir Thomas Graves, afterward second in command to Nelson in the
attack at Copenhagen in 1801,--an enterprise fully as desperate and
encompassed with greater difficulties of pilotage than the one here
advocated. See biographical memoir, Naval Chronicle, vol. viii.

[156] Rodney's Life, vol. i. p. 402.

CHAPTER XI.

MARITIME WAR IN EUROPE, 1779-1782.

The last chapter closed with the opinions of Washington, expressed in
many ways and at many times, as to the effect of sea power upon the
struggle for American independence. If space allowed, these opinions
could be amply strengthened by similar statements of Sir Henry
Clinton, the English commander-in-chief.[157] In Europe the results
turned yet more entirely upon the same factor. There the allies had
three several objectives, at each of which England stood strictly upon
the defensive. The first of these was England herself, involving, as a
preliminary to an invasion, the destruction of the Channel fleet,--a
project which, if seriously entertained, can scarcely be said to have
been seriously attempted; the second was the reduction of Gibraltar;
the third, the capture of Minorca. The last alone met with success.
Thrice was England threatened by a largely superior fleet, thrice the
threat fell harmless. Thrice was Gibraltar reduced to straits; thrice
was it relieved by the address and fortune of English seamen, despite
overpowering odds.

After Keppel's action off Ushant, no general encounter took place
between fleets in European seas during the year 1778 and the first
half of 1779. Meantime Spain was drawing toward a rupture with England
and an active alliance with France. War was declared by her on the
16th of June, 1779; but as early as April 12, a treaty between the two
Bourbon kingdoms, involving active war upon England, had been signed.
By its terms the invasion of Great Britain or Ireland was to be
undertaken, every effort made to recover for Spain, Minorca,
Pensacola, and Mobile, and the two courts bound themselves to grant
neither peace, nor truce, nor suspension of hostilities, until
Gibraltar shoul