The war was, indeed, carried across the stormy Atlantic in the autumn of 1776, though only a small beginning was made that year. To Capt. Lambert Wickes was given the honor of commanding the first American naval ship to cross the Atlantic. Captain Wickes, while in command of the sixteen-gun brig _Reprisal_, had, as already told, made such a good fight when attacked by the British sloop-of-war _Shark_ off Martinique that he beat her off and escaped. For this he was chosen to carry Franklin, who had been appointed American commissioner to France, across to Nantes. Not only did Wickes carry his passenger safely into port; he captured two prizes on the way and sent them into port also. And then, after refitting in Nantes, he went on a cruise in the Bay of Biscay, where he captured two more prizes, of which one was the king’s mail packet plying between Falmouth and Lisbon, it being the custom in those days for the British government to employ swift brigs of the navy on the regular mail routes. [Illustration: The _Phœnix_ and the _Rose_ Engaging the Fireships on the Hudson River. _From a lithograph of the painting by Serres after a sketch by Sir James Wallace._] France and England were at peace at that time, but by carrying the prizes out to sea, after they had been successfully brought to port, they were readily sold to French merchants, and the money was placed in the hands of Franklin and the other American commissioner, Silas Deane. What with the enthusiasm that arose when he saw two prizes taken under his own eyes, and the satisfaction arising from having his scanty means augmented by the price of the prizes, Franklin joined heartily with the other commissioners in urging upon the Congress the advisability of keeping a naval force on the European side of the water, with French ports as a base of action. “We have not the least doubt but that two or three of the Continental frigates sent into the German Ocean, with some less swift-sailing cruisers, might intercept and seize a great part of the Baltic and northern trade.” So wrote Franklin. The Congress had been building some frigates, but instead of sending one of them the brig _Lexington_, armed with sixteen long four-pounders (a brig of which something was told in a former chapter), was sent across, under command of Capt. Henry Johnson. Meantime the American commissioners purchased a ten-gun cutter called the _Dolphin_, which they placed under the command of Lieut. Samuel Nicholson, who afterwards died at the head of the American navy. The _Lexington_ arrived out in April, 1777. In June this fleet of two small brigs and one “single-sticker” sailed out of Nantes, under command of Captain Wickes, to prey upon British commerce. It had been the boast of the British sailor, and it was still his boast, that “Not a sail but by permission spreads.”