Finding now that the harbors adjacent to the coal mines were blocked with ice; finding, moreover, that, with the addition of 150 prisoners to the number of men on board, he was short of both food and water, Captain Jones felt obliged to steer for home instead of trying to rescue the Americans in the coal mines. The little fleet kept well together until off the Georges Bank, when, late in the afternoon, the British frigate _Milford_, that had chased the _Providence_ in the last voyage, was discovered. Knowing the speed of the _Milford_, Captain Jones at once laid his plan for escape. His own ship, the _Alfred_, could outsail the frigate, but the prizes could not. The frigate was sure to overtake them, though not until after dark. So the captain of each of the prizes was instructed to hold fast on the course on which they were then sailing all night, regardless of any signals they might see from the flagship, and then, when day should come, to make the best course possible to port. When this order was fully understood Captain Jones waited calmly for the early nightfall of the season. The _Milford_ was steadily gaining, but the _Alfred_, with shortened sail, remained with the prizes as if to protect them. But when night was fully come the _Alfred_, with signals aloft for her prizes to follow, went off on the other tack, and the _Milford_ promptly followed, while the prizes, except the privateer under Lieutenant Saunders, kept on as before. So, when daylight came, all of the prizes but the privateer were out of sight. The privateer was, therefore, retaken. During the afternoon a snowstorm came up. The _Milford_ was still in chase of the _Alfred_, but the Yankee, “amid clouds and darkness and foaming surges, made her escape.” The _Alfred_ arrived safely in Boston on December 15, 1776, but she had water and provisions for only two days left. When there her crew had the satisfaction of learning that all the other prizes had arrived in safety. The importance of the _Mellish_ as a prize was far greater, of course, than her mere money value, because of the uniforms she carried. These were at once forwarded to Washington’s men at Trenton. So great, indeed, had been the value of this transport, that Captain Jones had determined to sink her if at any time he deemed her in great danger of recapture by the enemy, because her loss would “distress the enemy more than can be easily imagined.” The service which John Paul Jones had rendered the colonies during the fall of 1776 was greater than that of any other man who had been afloat.