When Brownson arrived the _Amy_ began to warp in toward the pier. A musket was fired from the _Guanabara_, presumably toward one of the American ships. The _Detroit_ replied with a shot first across the bow of the offending _Guanabara_, and then with another that struck her. It was a mere matter of form so far; it was notifying the Brazilians that the Americans were thoroughly in earnest. But, seeing a couple of tugs controlled by the rebels getting into position where they might ram the _Detroit_, Brownson took her in between the big warships where he could have raked and sunk them, and sunk the tugs at the same time. That ended the matter. [Illustration: The Stern and Propeller of the _Nipsic_ after the Samoan Hurricane. _From a photograph._] Saldanha de Gama concluded not to fire on the American flag. Before night the British, as well as all other foreign merchantmen, were tumbling over each other, so to speak, in their haste to follow the Yankee ships to the piers. Captain Brownson, when a lieutenant on the _Mohican_ in 1870, was placed in command of a boat’s crew and sent to cut out the steamer _Forward_, a filibusters’ craft operating on the coast of Mexico. She was found in a lagoon near San Blas, and her crew made a fight. She was carried by boarding after a loss of two men killed (including Master J. M. Wainwright) and six wounded. Of great contemporary interest were the polar expeditions since the Civil War, but with the exception of the discoveries on the north coast of Greenland made by Lieutenant Peary, nothing of historical interest was accomplished. And mention must also be made of the great gale at Samoa, when the _Vandalia_ sank and the _Trenton_ and the _Nipsic_ were thrown ashore, for nothing has stirred the hearts of the American people in recent years as the story of the fortitude of the men who, with death staring them in the face, sang and played “The Star Spangled Banner.” But when all has been told and written about the history of the American navy since the Civil War, the one significant fact of all is this: we have from our own resources, mental and material, sent afloat a White Squadron that, though small in number, is fit to keep the sea in spite of foul weather or any other foul force. [Illustration: The _Eber_. The _Trenton_. The Harbor after the Samoan Hurricane. _From a photograph._] INDEX _Abby Bradford_, merchant-ship, capture of, by the _Sumter_, iv. 412; captured by the frigate _Powhatan_, 413. _Abellino_, Yankee privateer, captures prizes in the Mediterranean, iii. 343. _Acasta_, British gun-boat, attacks the _Constitution_, iii. 260. Acquia Creek, Potomac River, capture of Confederate forts at, iv. 66, 81–83. _Active_, British brig, captured by the _Hazard_, i. 206.