This was in Delaware Bay, where Captain Barry had taken a war vessel with a few rowboats. The hero of this later exploit was Captain Joshua Barney, and he was as brave a man as John Barry. Captain Barney had seen service through the whole war. Like John Paul Jones, an accident had made him a captain of a ship when he was a mere boy. He was only seventeen, yet he handled his ship with the skill of an old mariner. War broke out soon afterward and he became an officer on the _Hornet_, though still only a boy. Soon after he had some lively service in the _Wasp_, and captured a British privateer with the little sloop _Sachem_. Then he had some bad fortune, for he was taken prisoner while bringing in a prize vessel, and was put on the terrible prison-ship _Jersey_. Few of the poor fellows on that vessel lived to tell the story of the frightful way in which they were treated. But young Barney managed to escape, and went to sea again as captain of a merchant vessel. In this he was chased by a British war-vessel, the _Rosebud_. Shall I tell you the way that Captain Barney plucked the petals of the _Rosebud_? He fired a crowbar at her out of one of his cannon. This new kind of cannon-ball went whirling through the air and came ripping and tearing through the sails of the British ship. After making rags of her sails, it hit her foremast and cut out a big slice. The Americans now sailed quietly away. They could laugh at John Bull's _Rosebud_. On the 8th of April, 1782, Captain Barney took command of the _Hyder Ali_. This was a merchant ship which had been bought by the State of Pennsylvania. It was not fit for a warship, but the State was in a hurry, so eight gun-ports were cut on each side, and the ship was mounted with sixteen six-pounder cannon. Then she set sail from Philadelphia in charge of a fleet of merchant vessels. On they went, down the Delaware river and bay, until Cape May was reached. Here Captain Barney saw that there was trouble ahead. Three British vessels came in sight. One of these was the frigate _Quebec_. The others were a brig, the _Fair American_, and a sloop-of-war, the _General Monk_. Before such a fleet the _Hyder Ali_ was like a sparrow before a hawk. Captain Barney at once signaled his merchant ships to make all haste up the bay. Away they flew like a flock of frightened birds, except one, whose captain thought he would slip round the cape and get to sea. But the British soon swallowed up him and his ship, so he paid well for his smartness. On up the bay went the other merchantmen, with the _Hyder Ali_ in the rear, and the British squadron hot on their track. The frigate sailed into a side channel, thinking it would find a short-cut and so head them off. Captain Barney watched this movement with keen eyes. The big ship had put herself out of reach for a time. He knew well that she could not get through that way, and laid his plans to have some sport with the small fish while the big fish was away.