In 1777 the American flag was seen for the first time in European waters, when a little squadron of three ships set sail from Nantes in France, and after cruising on the Bay of Biscay went twice around Ireland and came back to France with fifteen prizes. As France had not then acknowledged our independence, they were ordered to depart. Two did so; but one of them, the _Lexington_, was captured by the British, and the other, the _Reprisal_, was wrecked at sea. %159. Paul Jones.%--Meanwhile our commissioners in France, Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, fitted out a cruiser called the _Surprise_. She sailed from Dunkirk on May 1, 1777, and the next week was back with a British packet as a prize. For this violation of French neutrality she was seized. But another ship, the _Revenge_, was quickly secured, which scoured the British waters, and actually entered two British ports before she sailed for America. The exploits of these and a score of other ships are cast into the shade, however, by the fights of John Paul Jones, the great naval hero of the Revolution. He sailed from Portsmouth, N.H., November 1, 1777, refitted his ship in the harbor of Brest, and in 1778 began one of the most memorable cruises in our naval history. In the short space of twenty-eight days he sailed into the Irish Channel, destroyed four vessels, set fire to the shipping in the port of Whitehaven, fought and captured the British armed schooner _Drake_, sailed around Ireland with his prize, and reached France in safety. For a year he was forced to be idle. But at last, in 1779, he was given command of a squadron of five vessels, and in August sailed from France. Passing along the west coast of Ireland, the fleet went around the north end of Scotland and down the east coast, capturing and destroying vessel after vessel on the way. On the night of September 23, 1779, Jones (in his ship, named _Bonhomme Richard_ in honor of Franklin's famous _Poor Richard's Almanac_) fell in with the _Serapis_, a British frigate. The two ships grappled, and, lashed side by side in the moonlight, fought one of the most desperate battles in naval annals. At the end of three hours the _Serapis_ surrendered, but the _Bonhomme Richard_ was a wreck, and next morning, giving a sudden roll, she filled and plunged bow first to the bottom of the North Sea. Jones sailed away in the _Serapis_. [Illustration: Benjamin Franklin] In the Revolution the British lost 102 vessels of war, while the Americans lost 24--most of their navy.