Later a dozen smaller ships were ordered built or purchased, besides galleys, schooners, and brigs. And then came a time when it was absolutely necessary to use them. The Revolution was on in France, and the European powers, with England in the lead, were trying to crush the new republic. In fighting back, the French cruisers had played havoc with American ships carrying legitimate goods to European ports--had captured and condemned many American merchantmen laden with American products not contraband of war, simply because those ships were _en route_ to ports of nations at war with France. So retaliation became absolutely necessary, disagreeable as it might be to fight a former ally. It should be noted here that the United States government did not actually declare war against France, but on July 7, 1798, all treaties in existence between the governments were declared abrogated, and meantime, on May 28, 1798, the American cruisers were authorized “to capture any French vessel found near the coast preying upon American commerce.” It was under the act of May 28, 1798, as strengthened by that of July 7th of the same year, that the American ships went hunting the Frenchmen. But while there was an actual state of war on the ocean, there was never a time when the American State Department was not striving to negotiate a permanent peace with the discordant elements that, in those days of the French Revolution, ruled at Paris. When hostilities began the American navy had in all twenty-two ships, mounting 456 guns and carrying 3,484 men, ready for battle; they were made ready before the end of the year. As originally organized in the war for freedom, the American navy had held but a few puny merchantmen--thin-walled, crank, and slow. But now, though still comparatively few in number, the ships of the nation were “fore and fit,” and, better yet, they were manned by men who had smelled the sulphurous breath of an enemy’s guns. Officers and men from the old cruisers and privateers came forward to volunteer in such numbers that a ship’s complement was filled in some cases in half a day. Meantime some new blood, the sons of the officers and seamen of the other war, and others, too, came, eager to take the chances of war, and some were accepted. Even before the treaties were abrogated two ships were sent to sea--the _Constellation_, under Capt. Thomas Truxton, who had made fame as a privateer, and the _Delaware_, under Stephen Decatur, Sr., father of the Decatur who made fame later on. The French ship _Croyable_, of fourteen guns, was found off the Delaware. She had taken several American ships, so she was sent into Philadelphia, and not long afterward came out again under the American flag, and bearing the appropriate name _Retaliation_. She was commanded by William Bainbridge, an able officer. But luck was not with her.