[Illustration: Representation of a Ship-of-war, dressed with flags, and yards manned. 1. American Ensign. 2. Ottoman-Greek 3. Norden. 4. Stralsund. 5. Greek. 6. Brandenburg. 7. Hanover. 8. Prussia. 9. Saxony. 10. Morocco. 11. Maltese. 12. Arabia. 13. Columbia. 14. Mexican. 15. Brazil. 16. Hayti. 17. Japan. 18. Mogul. 19. Buenos Ayres. 20. Spanish. 21. Tunis. 22. St. Domingo. 23. Old Sardinia. 24. Majorca. 25. Peru. 26. English (blue). 27. Venezuela. 28. Chili. 29. Normandy. 30. English (white). 31. French. 32. Tripoli. 33. Salee. 34. Old Portugal. 35. Algiers. 36. Senegal. 37. Oporto. 38. Central America. 39. English (red). 40. E. Russia. 41. Sandwich Islands. 42. American Jack. o. Commodore’s Broad Pendant. _Note._--Those which have no numbers affixed are the ship’s signals, or, rather, the telegraphic numbers. _From the “Kedge Anchor.”_] [Illustration: 1. Paint-room. 2. General store-room. 3. Bread-room. 4. Coal-locker. 5. Tanks. 6. Casks. 7. Chain-locker. 8. Tier gratings. 9. Shot-locker. 10. Shell-room. 11. Spirit-room. 12. Bread-room. 13. Slop-room. 14. Marine stores. 15. Magazine. 16. Light-room. The Internal Arrangements and Stowage of an American Sloop-of-War. _From the “Kedge Anchor.”_] But if the Administration had done nothing, Captain Rodgers, as commodore of the squadron in New York, had done everything--he had done so well that within one hour from the time that a messenger from Washington arrived on board the _President_ with the declaration of war and instructions to put to sea, the whole squadron except the _Essex_ was under sail, heading down New York Bay toward Sandy Hook. This was on June 21, 1812. Commodore Rodgers was bound out to intercept a big fleet of British merchantmen sailing home from Jamaica, convoyed only by the thirty-six-gun frigate _Thalia_ and the eighteen-gun corvette _Reindeer_. This fleet had left Jamaica, it was said, on the 20th, and it was sure to follow the Gulf Stream under very easy sail. But when Rodgers was a short way out to sea an American brig reported the fleet well down the stream (about due east of Boston and well off shore) on June 17th. The fleet had sailed some days earlier than the Americans had supposed. So the squadron hauled to the northeast in pursuit. At 6 o’clock on the morning of June 23d, when the squadron was thirty-five miles southwest of Nantucket shoals, a sail was seen. It was the thirty-three-gun frigate _Belvidera_, Captain Byron, that was then lying in wait for a French privateer expected from New London, Connecticut. At once the _Belvidera_ headed toward the American squadron to examine them, but when at 6.30 A.M. she discovered their character she wore around and headed away to the northeast with a smacking breeze over the port quarter and studding-sails set.