"The flag and I are twins, born the same hour," said Captain Jones. The Ranger was launched in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and there her captain went to take command. She had no flag, but the captain was a favorite whereever he went, and a group of Portsmouth girls soon held a "quilting party," but made a flag instead of a quilt. Moreover, as silk enough of the proper colors could not be found in the stores of Portsmouth, they made it from breadths of their best silken gowns, red, white, and blue, the story declares. Then Jones sailed away to see how his little Ranger would behave when she met a British man-of-war. He soon found out, for the Ranger and the Drake met in combat, and for the first time a British man-of-war struck her colors to the new flag. This same little silken flag was the first to receive a genuine foreign salute. Early in 1778 the Ranger spoke the French fleet, off Brest Roads. Captain Jones was willing to take chances in a sea fight, but not in the matter of a salute, and he sent a courteous note to the French commander, informing him that the flag worn by the Ranger was the new American standard, which had never yet received a salute from any foreign power. "If I offer a salute, will it be returned gun for gun?" he queried. The reply was that the same salute would be given as to an admiral of Holland, or any other republic; that is, four guns less than the salute given. Captain Jones anchored in the entrance of the bay and sought for further information. He found that the reply of the admiral was correct and according to custom. Therefore, on the following day, he sailed through the French fleet, saluting with thirteen guns, and receiving nine. This was an acknowledgment of American independence, and the first salute ever paid by a foreign naval power to the Stars and Stripes. It is true that a salute had been given to the American brig, the Andrea Doria, before this, by the Governor of one of the West Indian Islands; but a salute which his Government immediately disowned and for which he was called home is rather an individual than a national salute. Then, too, there is no proof that the flag flown by the Andrea Doria was the Stars and Stripes.