Greater still was the renown of Capt. Daniel Waters. Captain Waters was sent to sea by General Washington in the _Lee_, as already mentioned in this chapter. In 1778, while in command of the privateer _Thorn_, of sixteen guns, he amply justified the confidence the general had manifested in him by his fight with two English sloops-of-war. One was the _Governor Tryon_, of sixteen guns, Captain Stebbins, and the other the _Sir William Erskine_, of eighteen guns, Captain Hamilton. After two hours of such desperate fighting as was shown but rarely, the _Tryon_ struck and the _Erskine_ hauled off. But Captain Waters would not let the _Erskine_ escape. He set more sail, overhauled her, and compelled her to strike. As night came on the _Tryon_ managed to escape, but Captain Waters manned the _Erskine_ and sent her in. He had but sixty men left in the _Thorn_. Nevertheless, when he fell in with the _Sparlin_, of eighteen guns and ninety-seven men, next day, he gave battle and captured her also. If any further proof be wanted of the fact that it is the heart of the commander and not the number of his men or the weight of his metal that wins in a sea-fight, it will be found in the tale of the American privateer _Hyder Ali_ and the British ship _General Monk_. Capt. Joshua Barney commanded the _Hyder Ali_, and he had had a lot of good training before he became the hero of the story now to be told. He had had (through accident) command of a ship when but seventeen years old, and acquitted himself with honor. He had sailed in the _Hornet_ in the first American naval squadron. He had seen exciting service in the _Wasp_ under Captain Alexander. He had captured a British privateer while commanding the little sloop _Sachem_. He was in the _Andrea Doria_ when she fought the _Racehorse_. He had been captured while bringing in a prize, and had survived the frightful ill-treatment the prisoners on the prison ship _Jersey_ received. He escaped thence, and while in command of a cargo ship, had beaten off the _Rosebud_, Captain Duncan, a ship of sixteen guns, by firing a crowbar at her, and so cutting away all her headgear and disabling her foremast. [Illustration: _From an engraving by Gross after a miniature by Isabey._] And so the 8th of April, 1782, arrived. On that day he took command of the _Hyder Ali_, of the Pennsylvania State service, and started to convoy a fleet of merchantmen from Philadelphia out to sea. The _Hyder Ali_ carried sixteen six-pounders and 110 men. At the capes the fleet found the British frigate _Quebec_, the brig _Fair American_, of sixteen guns, and the brig _General Monk_, Captain Rogers, carrying “only (_sic_) sixteen carronades, twelve-pounders, and two long six-pounders” (so says Allen). The _Quebec_ could not get around the shoals, and had no part in the affray. The _Fair American_ went hunting the convoy, and the _General Monk_ came after the _Hyder Ali_.