of the Ranger when Paul Jones steered her across the Atlantic on
that famous cruise which inspired the old forecastle song that
begins

'Tis of the gallant Yankee ship
That flew the Stripes and Stars,
And the whistling wind from the west nor'west
Blew through her pitch pine spars.
With her starboard tacks aboard, my boys,
She hung upon the gale.
On an autumn night we raised the light
Off the Old Head of Kinsale.

Pitiful as was the situation of Nantucket, with its only industry
wiped out and two hundred widows among the eight hundred families
left on the island, the aftermath of war seemed almost as ruinous
along the whole Atlantic coast. More ships could be built and
there were thousands of adventurous sailors to man them, but
where were the markets for the product of the farms and mills and
plantations? The ports of Europe had been so long closed to
American shipping that little demand was left for American goods.
To the Government of England the people of the Republic were no
longer fellow-countrymen but foreigners. As such they were
subject to the Navigation Acts, and no cargoes could be sent to
that kingdom unless in British vessels. The flourishing trade
with the West Indies was made impossible for the same reason, a
special Order in Council aiming at one fell stroke to "put an end
to the building and increase of American vessels" and to finish
the careers of three hundred West Indiamen already afloat. In the
islands themselves the results were appalling. Fifteen thousand