Meantime there was a fight between brigs that shows at once the wonderful courage and endurance of the Anglo-Saxon seaman, no matter on which side of the Atlantic his home is found, and the further fact that in 1779 the Yankee sailor was becoming somewhat skilled as a man-o’-war’sman. The American brig _Providence_, Capt. Hoysted Hacker, fell in with the English brig _Diligent_, Capt. Thomas Davyson, May 7th. At the end of an hour the _Diligent_ struck her colors, but she had lost twenty-seven in killed and wounded out of her crew of fifty-three before she did so. The _Providence_ lost only four killed and ten wounded. The _Diligent_ was at once taken into the American service, but disaster overtook the squadron in which she sailed. The enemy had established a fort on the Penobscot for convenience as a base for operating against Massachusetts. Accordingly 1,500 militia were sent with a fleet of transports and privateers to capture it. With this fleet went the frigate _Warren_, Capt. Dudley Saltonstall; the brig _Diligent_, and the old brig _Providence_, that had seen service from the first. [Illustration: Signature of Hoysted Hacker. _From a letter at the Lenox Library._] The expedition reached the Penobscot on July 25, 1779, and found not only a fort, but three warships, aggregating forty-nine guns, ready for a fight. An attack was made, but the Americans were repulsed. They then began the slower process of reducing the works by siege, but on August 13th a British fleet of one ship-of-the-line (sixty-four guns), three frigates of thirty-two guns each, three sloops-of-war aggregating forty-eight guns, and a brig of fourteen guns, appeared. At this the privateers scattered, each captain seeking safety as he thought best, regardless of the safety of the others. The American naval fleet, with the transports, retreated up the river, where all were destroyed to prevent the enemy getting them. It was a very heavy blow to the American naval forces. Among the English squadron was the frigate _Virginia_ that had grounded in the Chesapeake while trying to get to sea for the first time in 1778, when her commander, Captain Nicholson, abandoned her to the enemy. [Illustration: _From a very rare engraving at the Lenox Library._]