As early as July 25, 1785, the Boston schooner _Maria_, Capt. Isaac Stevens, had been captured by Algerian pirates near Gibraltar, and on the 30th of the same month the ship _Dauphin_, Capt. Richard O’Brien, was also taken. Thus twenty-one American citizens were made slaves to the Arabs. Because of the Portuguese blockade of the strait no other American ship had been captured, but the moment British diplomacy had freed the pirates from that restraint, the Dey sent his corsairs seeking the American flag. There is no doubt in reasonable minds that a special search was made, at the request of the British agent, for the Stars and Stripes. In one cruise of the pirate squadron eleven vessels were captured and 112 American seamen were reduced to slavery. Did the American nation declare war at once? It did not. It could not. There was not a warship afloat bearing the American flag. Having no ships of war, Congress was forced to buy the freedom of these enslaved Americans. The men captured in 1785 were ransomed for $59,496 (coin). For the 112 captured at the instigation of the British agent, a far greater ransom was paid. The Congress had refused to build a navy for the protection of Americans when abroad, but now they were compelled to buy the release of enslaved Americans by building the _Crescent_, “one of the finest specimens of elegant naval architecture which was ever borne on the Piscataqua’s waters.” They had to arm and fit her for sea. They had to freight her with “twenty-six barrels of silver dollars and many valuable presents for the Dey,” and then send her to Algiers, where ship and cargo were given in exchange for the enslaved Americans. “It is worthy of remark, that, as appears by documents published at the time, the peace obtained from the Dey of Algiers cost the Government of the United States near a million of dollars ($992,463.25), a sum quite sufficient to have kept the barbarian’s port hermetically sealed until he should have humbly sued” for peace, had it been expended in building suitable warships. And so would have been saved the noble lives and the property afterwards lost on the African coast. But out of the national humiliation sprang a new navy. The people who had called every legislator that spoke for the honor of the flag a blatant demagogue; the people who had feared naval tyrants, who had feared taxation, and who had argued that a small navy was worse than none--the peace-at-any-price men had been in a great majority. Now the publication of these facts opened the eyes of enough to make a majority the other way. Nevertheless, so little regard had the members of Congress for the honor of the nation that “the resolution of the House of Representatives, that a naval force adequate to the protection of the commerce of the United States ought to be provided, passed by a majority of two votes only.” However, pass it did, and was approved on March 27, 1794.