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“I congratulate you upon your enterprise. The flag was only adopted in Congress yesterday, and this one is the very first to fly.”[1]

“Such was my hope, sir,” answered Paul Jones, modestly. “I wished the honor of hoisting the flag of freedom the first time it was ever displayed; and this man,” pointing to Bill Green, who stood smiling behind him, “sat up all last night in order to make this ensign for the ship—an ensign which will ever be attended with veneration upon the ocean.”

Bill Green came in for his share of congratulation too; and as if the appearance of the flag had bewitched the wind, it suddenly shifted to fair, the sun came out brilliantly, and within half an hour the squadron of five ships—the Columbus, the Andrew Doria, the Sebastian Cabot, and the Providence, led by the Alfred—had spread all their canvas, and were winging swiftly toward the free and open sea.

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The first enterprise determined upon was an expedition to the island of New Providence, in the West Indies. On the 17th of February the squadron had set sail from the Delaware, and on the morning of the 1st of March it appeared off the harbor of New Providence. There were two forts to protect the town, but at that moment there was not a soldier on the island. When the American squadron was sighted, though, an alarm gun was fired, and the inhabitants manned the forts and turned the guns on the American vessels just outside the bar. The little American squadron carried only two hundred marines, and it was determined to land them under the fire of the ships; but owing to the bar at the mouth of the harbor the Alfred and the Columbus could not pass in; only the smaller vessels could get in with any prospect of coming out at low tide. From the lack of charts, the Americans had to take great risks in finding safe anchorages. But the pilot taken on board the Alfred declared that he knew of an anchorage, under a key three leagues to windward of the harbor, where the larger vessels might safely await the result of the attack on the town. This news was carried to Commodore Hopkins as he restlessly paced the Alfred’s deck, looking at the white-walled town lying before him in the warm March sunshine.