Hopkins’s squadron was now broken up, though the several ships had remained under his general orders until his dismissal. They cruised chiefly “down East” off New England and Nova Scotia, making a number of prizes, one of which, the _Mellish_, taken by the _Alfred_, now commanded by Jones, carried a cargo of soldiers’ clothing for Burgoyne’s army of 13,000 men now in Canada, intended to proceed by Lake Champlain to New York and thus occupy a line which would separate New England entirely from the rest of the country. A considerable fleet chiefly of gunboats had, as mentioned, been built by the British for service on Lake Champlain. The offset to this, by the building of a flotilla under Arnold, has also already been noted. The building of this little fleet was to change history. The British naval preparations were so delayed that it was not until October, 1776 (on the 11th and 13th), that the two forces came together, with the result, after a most gallant contest, of a defeat to the Americans, who retreated up the lake, destroying all their vessels but one galley, a sloop, and two small schooners, and the galley _Washington_, which last was captured. The gallantry of the American force is all the more to be commended as it was one gathered from raw material, most of which was unaccustomed to work of the kind it was called upon to do; the British, on the other hand, were all men-of-war’s men “detached from his Majesty’s ships and vessels in the river St. Lawrence to serve on Lake Champlain,” to the number of 670.