When the war had come to an end, the artist Copley was in London working on the portrait of an American, Elkanah Watson. In the background of the portrait was a ship supposed to be bearing to America the news of the acknowledgment of Independence. The rising sun was shining upon the place where the flag should have been, but no flag was there. Copley's studio was often visited by the royal family, so he waited. But a day came when the artist heard the speech of the King acknowledging the Independence of America. He went straightway to his studio and painted in the flag floating in the rays of the rising sun. Soon after the close of the war, a wide-awake skipper of Nantucket, who had some whale oil to sell, appeared at London. Nantucket was so helpless for both offense and defense that it had remained neutral, and the captain had received from Admiral Digby a license to go to London. A London magazine of the time said, "This is the first vessel which has displayed the thirteen rebellious stripes of America in any British port." Nobody knew exactly what to do, but apparently the whale oil was soon sold, for the enterprising whaler returned directly to Nantucket. In October, 1783, most of the British troops had sailed away from the United States, but Sir Guy Carleton was delayed in New York waiting for vessels. When the day came for him to leave the city, a strong, determined woman who kept a boarding-house brought out a United States flag and ran it up on a pole in front of her house. Down the street came a British officer with headlong speed. "We do not evacuate this city until noon. Haul down that flag!" he shouted angrily. "That flag went up to stay, and it will not be hauled down!" declared the indignant housekeeper, and went on sweeping in front of her door. "Then I will pull it down myself," thundered the irate officer, and set to work. But the halyards were entangled, and all the officer's swearing and scolding did not help matters. The militant lady of the broom then applied her weapon to the officer. The powder flew from his wig in a cloud, and at last he himself had to fly, leaving the flag to float serenely on the morning breeze. This encounter has been called the last battle of the Revolution. Before leaving Fort George, at the foot of Broadway, in New York, the British soldiers mischievously nailed their flag to the top of the pole, took down the halyards, greased the pole from top to bottom, and knocked off the cleats. They did not know how well the American boys could climb; in a very short time new cleats were nailed on, the English flag was pulled down, and the Stars and Stripes floated from the top of the pole.