The most brilliant achievement of this mosquito fleet during 1776 was on June 17th. The Connecticut cruiser _Defence_, Captain Harding, heard a cannonading to the north of Plymouth, and cruising in that direction, met the schooner _Lee_, now under Capt. Daniel Waters, and three other privateers. They had had a running fight with two big transports that had gone into Nantasket Roads. So the Yankees determined to follow them there. At 11 o’clock at night Captain Harding ran in between the two transports and came to anchor. He was but a dozen yards from each of them. Having everything ready, he hailed and ordered both of them to strike. “Aye, aye--I’ll strike,” said a voice from one of them, and then a broadside was fired from it into the _Defence_. The _Defence_ replied, but the enemy held out for an hour. When they surrendered it was found that the two contained 200 regular soldiers of the Seventy-first Regiment. Major Menzies, who had been in command, was the one to answer the hail by saying he would strike, and then firing. He was killed with seventeen others during the battle. The next morning another transport with 100 more men of the same regiment was captured. But if this was counted daring work by the British authorities, there were other deeds to come which were unquestionably shocking to the British merchants, for, following the example set by the _Revenge_ and the _Surprise_ of the regular navy, the privateers went seeking prizes on the coasts and in the very harbors of Great Britain herself. In daring, these privateers quite equalled Connyngham and John Paul Jones. A British account of one of these descents says: “An American privateer of twelve guns came into this road (Guernsey) yesterday morning, tacked about on firing of the guns from the Castle, and just off the Island took a large brig bound for this port which they have since carried into Cherbourg. She had the impudence to send her boat in the dusk of the evening to a little island off here called Jetto and unluckily carried off the lieutenant of Worthley’s Independent Company, here, with the adjutant, who were shooting rabbits for their diversion. The brig they took is valued at seven thousand pounds.” It is unfortunate that the log-books and diaries kept on most of these cruisers have disappeared, for many a stirring tale of adventure has thus been lost. Nevertheless, authentic details of some of the deeds done are by no means wanting. For instance, there was one Thomas Truxton of whom the British heard to their sorrow in after years. He was in command of the privateer _Independence_, of New York, in 1777. Going to the Azores, he captured a number of small prizes, and then had the luck to fall in with the convoy from the Windward Islands. There were frigates to protect the fleet, but Truxton cut out three big ships, of which one was armed and manned better than the _Independence_, save only for the difference in captains.