two months since the Preliminary Articles of Peace had been signed at Versailles.[295] The naval movements of the Continental vessels during the Revolution ended with the arrivals of these two vessels. While Morris had the direction of the fleet, only one vessel was captured by the enemy, and this before he became Agent of Marine. In July, 1781, he ordered the “Trumbull,” 28, Captain James Nicholson, to proceed to Havana with despatches, letters, and a cargo of flour. The “Trumbull” had scarcely cleared the Capes of the Delaware, on August 8, when she was chased by the frigate “Iris,” 32, Captain George Dawson. Encountering a storm, the “Trumbull” was dismasted, and thus crippled she was overtaken by the “Iris.” The “Trumbull’s” crew were a sorry lot; some of them were British deserters, and others were cowardly and disaffected. It was late in the evening when the fight began. Many of the crew now put out their battle lanterns and flew from their quarters. Captain Nicholson and his officers, with a handful of seamen, bravely defended their ship against impossible odds for an hour before they surrendered. Nicholson lost sixteen men; two of his lieutenants were wounded. It is recalled that the “Iris” was originally the “Hancock,” of the Continental navy, and that she was the first of the thirteen original frigates to surrender to the enemy. The “Iris” was a fast ship, and is said to have made the fortunes of all the British captains that commanded her. It was the irony of fate that the first of the thirteen frigates to be captured should receive the surrender of the last remaining one. A letter from New York, dated August 11, 1781, informs us that “this day arrived the celebrated rebel frigate named the Trumbull.”[296] The attempts of Morris, in 1782, to obtain an increase in the naval force of Congress, form one of the most interesting and characteristic parts of his naval work. The surrender of Cornwallis on October 19, 1781, was not considered by many contemporaneous Americans as an event that must necessarily end the Revolution. Indeed, the final outcome of the war was in doubt for more than a year. The Agent of Marine was too cautious and conservative to count on peace before its actual accomplishment had been sealed by a formal treaty. After the surrender of Cornwallis he not only continued to send the Continental cruisers against the enemy, but whenever an occasion presented, he vigorously urged on Congress the necessity of a naval increase. To the mind of Morris the need of a navy in 1782 was greater than it had been at any previous time during the Revolution. He conceived that up to this time Britain had attempted to conquer the Colonies on land by means of her army; since she had been defeated in this, it was now her purpose to starve the Colonies into submission by means of her navy and superior sea-power. The United States must meet the enemy’s change of tactics by building a navy.