It was in the Delaware that in December, 1777, David Bushnell made a second trial of his torpedoes (the first having been in the Hudson). He used kegs of powder fitted with a detonating fuse, which should have succeeded. No damage was done through, as Bushnell claims, bad management. The British fleet was alarmed enough, however, to justify Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of American Independence, in producing the well-known poem of the “Battle of the Kegs,” once a favorite with our fathers. The _Randolph_, _Hancock_, _Raleigh_, and _Boston_ were the only frigates at sea in this year. The _Hancock_, Captain Manley, was captured July 7th, on this her first cruise, by a British forty-four; the _Raleigh_, under Captain John Barry, during an action with two British ships, one of which was of 50 guns, ran on a rocky islet near Penobscot Bay, September 27, 1778. Her crew escaped ashore, but the ship, though an effort had been made to burn her, was hauled off by the British. Both the captured ships were taken into the British service. The _Randolph_, which had been one of the earliest of the new frigates to get to sea, had, in the period of her sea service, been actively cruising in our southern waters under the command of Captain Biddle, and was ordered to France in October, 1777. She remained there but a short time owing to the protests of the British ambassador against our ships remaining in French ports, and returned to Charleston, whence she had sailed. Here a squadron was organized with four other small vessels of the South Carolina navy, which went to sea February 12, 1778, and cruised in the vicinity of the Windward Islands. On March 7th was met the _Yarmouth_, 64. Biddle gallantly engaged the ship twice his force, but the _Randolph_ after an action of about fifteen minutes blew up. Only four men were saved, and these were picked up five days after the explosion, on a piece of wreckage, by the _Yarmouth_, which meanwhile had been actively cruising. The incident is certainly among the most extraordinary of happenings even on the sea, so prolific in adventures. Three hundred and eleven men were lost besides officers. The loss of Captain Biddle, one of the most promising of our sea officers, was specially deplored. CHAPTER V