To this position Benham at once objected. He piled up all the laws and decisions in Admiralty bearing on the subject, and proved that an insurgent to whom belligerent rights had not been accorded could not lawfully interfere with the movements of foreign ships within any harbor. It was not intended that the American ships should cross any line of fire, or serve as a bulwark for Government troops. It was stated that they would assume the risk of damage from fire when at the piers if Government troops took refuge behind them, and all risk of damage from stray shot. The contention was for freedom of movement and freedom from search at the hands of an unrecognized insurgent, no matter what their cargoes. To the plain statements of authorities, to the bearings of Admiralty decisions, and to the friendly arguments of the American Admiral the insurgent Admiral remained impervious. It therefore became necessary for Admiral Benham to say plainly that the American merchant-ships should go freely about the harbor as their Captains might wish them to do, and that any interference with such movements would be resisted with force. Because Benham was affable and courteous, as it now appears, Gama did not believe force would be used, and so reiterated the threat to fire on the first American ship that tried to go to the piers. It was on Sunday, Jan. 28, that the issue was joined verbally. Admiral Benham acted decisively and at once. The Captains of the various American naval ships in the harbor were called on board the flagship “San Francisco” and were instructed immediately to prepare their ships for action at daylight the next morning, that being the hour when the American merchant-ships wanted to start for the piers. At 5 o’clock that evening the work of stripping ship began on the white squadron. The transformation thus wrought was remarkable. With their awnings spread, their boats at the davits, and their bunting aloft, they had seemed to tower out of the water, and the English officers had jocosely remarked that more beautiful targets could scarcely be found. And so they seemed as the sun went down. But with the break of day not an awning or a stanchion or a boat davit was in sight to obstruct the view or the sweep of the long black guns, and the wall-sided ships had shrunk down into the semblance of tigers ready to spring.