Read A Sailor's History of the U.S. Navy for Free Online Page B

risk.
    One of the earliest challenges to the honor of the United States of America came in 1797, barely ten years after the signing of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia. Although France had come to the aid of the Americans during the American Revolution, relations between the two nations soured in the years following. When the United States signed a treaty with England—France’s longtime enemy—the French began to seize American ships on the high seas. The new nation’s Navy was very weak, and the idea of taking on the powerful French navy seemed to be a very bad idea. So President John Adams sent a delegation on a peace mission to France. The French foreign minister refused to meet with the members of the delegation, and, even worse, some go-betweens suggested that the Americans must first pay a bribe before the minister would see them. In dispatches back to the United States, the three primary go-betweens were not mentioned by name but were instead referred to as simply X, Y, and Z.
    When word spread in the United States about the insulting treatment the American delegation received, many were outraged and demanded an appropriate response to this serious insult to our national honor. Much of the American anger was summed up by the legendary slogan, “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.” With no army to speak of, and because much of the trouble had begun with French seizure of U.S. ships, Congress ordered the Navy to take action, authorizing it to “subdue, seize, and take any armed French vessel.” This was a tall order for a tiny fleet facing the second largest in the world. But the Americans had taken on the most powerful army andnavy in the world just a few years before and had won their independence, so they did not shrink from this challenge, despite formidable odds. Because Congress did not go so far as to formally declare war on France, what followed has become known as the “Quasi-War with France.”

    U.S. frigate Constellation , a key player in the so-called Quasi-War with France. U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive
    On 9 February 1799, USS Constellation was cruising in Caribbean waters when a lookout reported an unidentified ship just over the horizon. Captain Thomas Truxtun ordered his ship to come about, then went below to record in his log: “At noon saw a sail standing to westward, gave chase. I take her for a ship of war.”
    The pursuit continued for about an hour, with Constellation gaining on the other vessel. As they drew closer, it became apparent that the other ship was a heavily armed frigate. A lesser captain with a lesser crew might have decided to look for an easier conquest to carry out Congress’s edict to “subdue, seize, and take any armed French vessel” in this “Quasi-War,” but Truxtun was not lacking in courage, and he knew that Constellation ’s crew was well trained and ready for a fight.
    When the two ships were close enough to exchange signals, Truxtun attempted to learn her identity. The other ship ran up an American flag butwould not reply to any of Truxtun’s coded signals. It was looking fairly certain that this was a Frenchman. In fact, the men of Constellation would later learn that she was l’Insurgente, a French frigate that had earlier taken part in the capture of USS Retaliation. This was truly shaping up as a matter of honor.
    A naval ballad of the day titled “Brave Yankee Boys” recorded this incident in a number of verses, the first of which began
    â€™Twas on the 9th of February at Monserat we lay,
    And there we spied the L’Insurgente at the break of day.
    We raised the orange and blue,
    To see if they our signal knew,
    The Constellation and the crew
    Of our brave Yankee boys.
    Truxtun again recorded in his log that he “had no doubts respecting the chase being a French frigate.” On his orders, a young Marine drummer began to beat to quarters and all