in quest of loot and was unlucky enough to fall athwart
Captain Geddes in the Congress.

The privateer was the more formidable ship and faster on the wind,
forcing Captain Sterling of the Savage to accept the challenge. Disabled
aloft very early in the fight, Captain Geddes was unable to choose his
position, for which reason they literally battled hand-to-hand, hulls
grinding against each other, the gunners scorched by the flashes of the
cannon in the ports of the opposing ship, with scarcely room to ply
the rammers, and the sailors throwing missiles from the decks, hand
grenades, cold shot, scraps of iron, belaying-pins.

As the vessels lay interlocked, the Savage was partly dismasted and
Captain Geddes, leaping upon the forecastle head, told the boarders to
follow him. Before they could swing their cutlases and dash over the
hammock-nettings, the British boatswain waved his cap and yelled that
the Savage had surrendered. Captain Sterling was dead, eight others were
killed, and twenty-four wounded. The American loss was about the same.
Captain Geddes, however, was unable to save his prize because a British
frigate swooped down and took them both into Charleston.

When peace came in 1783, it was independence dearly bought by land and
sea, and no small part of the price was the loss of a thousand merchant
ships which would see their home ports no more. Other misfortunes added
to the toll of destruction. The great fishing fleets which had been the
chief occupation of coastwise New England were almost obliterated and
their crews were scattered. Many of the men had changed their allegiance
and were sailing out of Halifax, and others were impressed into British
men-of-war or returned broken in health from long confinement in British
prisons. The ocean was empty of the stanch schooners which had raced
home with lee rails awash to cheer waiting wives and sweethearts.

The fate of Nantucket and its whalers was even more tragic. This colony
on its lonely island amid the shoals was helpless against raids by sea,
and its ships and storehouses were destroyed without mercy. Many vessels
in distant waters were captured before they were even aware that a
state of war existed. Of a fleet numbering a hundred and fifty sail, one
hundred and thirty-four were taken by the enemy and Nantucket whaling
suffered almost total extinction. These seamen, thus robbed of their
livelihood, fought nobly for their country's cause. Theirs was not the